# SOX-to-S&P 500 Ratio Falls to Lowest Level Since Late April

By Enna Lee

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/35176
Published: 2026-10-20T01:20:19.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-20T01:20:19.000Z
Section: Investing

> The semiconductor index rebounded to 11,316.34 on Oct. 19 after eight straight declines, while the S&P 500 closed at 7,690.73.

U.S. chip stocks trailed the S&P 500 through Oct. 16, sending their index ratio to its lowest since late April while investors scrutinized financing for artificial-intelligence infrastructure.

The PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index (SOX) closed at 11,137.29 on Oct. 16, its eighth straight declining session. The S&P 500 ended the day at 7,659.44. Dividing the SOX close by the S&P 500 close gives a ratio of about 1.45.

The ratio compares the closing levels of two price indexes. Its decline shows that semiconductor shares lost ground relative to the broader market; it does not represent a dollar loss.

SOX tracks 30 large U.S.-listed semiconductor companies. Across the period from the June 22 close to Oct. 16, it fell about 23.9%, while the S&P 500 rose about 2.5%. Those endpoint figures do not mean the gap widened throughout the period.

The chip index rose to 11,316.34 on Oct. 19, ending the losing streak that began Oct. 7. The S&P 500 closed at 7,690.73 that day.

Scrutiny of AI infrastructure financing coincided with the chip selloff. CoreWeave, a cloud infrastructure company, had $35.551 billion in debt obligations as of June 30. Its second-quarter net interest expense reached $640 million, versus $267 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Those figures describe CoreWeave's finances months before the October decline. They do not establish why semiconductor shares fell.

On Oct. 15, Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers, said, “What people are now questioning is the speed, the efficacy and the profitability of the rapid build-out in AI.”

U.S. consumer prices rose 3.7% in September from a year earlier, following a 3.4% annual increase in August. Prices increased 0.6% from August to September. The September figures were released Oct. 14.

CoreWeave also had about $104 billion in revenue backlog as of June 30. That amount excluded more than $25 billion in net new customer commitments added early in the third quarter. The backlog depends on the company delivering services and making capacity available.

The stock decline reflects a change in how investors priced chipmakers. On its own, it does not show that demand for AI computing has fallen.