Hot Stocks: Chip stocks plunge; TSLA sets another 52-week low; AMC drops; ALVO rallies
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Stocks finished sharply lower on Thursday. Ahead of the last day of trading before the Christmas holiday, better-than-expected economic news renewed fears about the future of interest rates. The Nasdaq dropped more than 2%, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.5%.
Sentiment also took a hit from Micron's latest earnings report. This sparked selling among semiconductor stocks, with notable drops in big names like Lam Research (LRCX), Applied Materials (AMAT), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR).
Thursday's slide put continued pressure on Tesla (TSLA) as well. Elon Musk's beaten-down EV maker once again set another 52-week low, sliding to levels not seen in over two years. Elsewhere, AMC Entertainment (AMC) suffered selling after the company announced a capital raise and a series of balance sheet moves.
On the upside, signs of regulatory progress for a generic form of Humira allowed Alvotech (ALVO) to post a double-digit percentage advance.
Sector In Focus
Semiconductor stocks were among the drivers of Thursday's overall retreat on Wall Street. A disappointing forecast and a layoff announcement from Micron raised concerns about demand in the overall industry.
Lam Research (LRCX) was among the sector's standout decliners, dropping by almost 9%. Applied Materials (AMAT) and Nvidia (NVDA) each slumped by more than 7%, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) both posted losses of more than 5%.
Standout Gainer
Alvotech (ALVO) enjoyed a surge of buying interest after it received a regulatory action date for an application related to a generic form of the blockbuster drug Humira. The stock rose 17% on the news.
The company said the product, called AVT02, is meant to serve as a high-concentration interchangeable biosimilar to AbbVie's (ABBV) Humira, a treatment for inflammatory conditions, like rheumatoid arthritis. 
ALVO reported the U.S. Food and Drug Administration completed the review of ALVO's application for AVT02. The firm said approval requires a satisfactory outcome for an upcoming facility reinspection, which ALVO is looking to schedule for Q1 2023.
Longer term, the FDA is now expected to make a decision on the application by April 13, 2023.
ALVO closed Thursday's trading at $9.74, a rally of $1.44 on the day. The advance extended a recent upswing, with the stock now up about 61% in the past month.
Standout Decliner
AMC Entertainment (AMC) dropped 7% after the company announced a series of financial transactions, including raising additional funds and reducing its debt load.
As part of this, the movie theater said it will raise $110M in equity and swap some debt for equity. The company also announced that it will hold a special shareholder meeting to vote on whether to convert its APE units into common stock and reverse split its stock at a 1-10 ratio.
AMC plunged early in the session, reaching an intraday 52-week low of $4.11 before retracing a large portion of its early drop. After slumping more than 20% in initial trading, the stock rebounded to close at $4.91. This represented a decline of 39 cents compared to its previous close.
With the late recovery, AMC avoided a new closing low. The stock finished at $4.89 on Oct. 19. 
Notable New Low
The recent downdraft in Tesla (TSLA) persisted on Thursday, with shares of Elon Musk's EV maker falling another 9%. Once again, this brought the stock to a new 52-week low.
Shares retreated $12.22 to close at $125.35. During the session, the stock reached an intraday 52-week low of $122.26. 
The stock has lost 20% of its value over the past week, falling to levels last seen in September of 2020. TSLA has also ended lower in 12 of the past 14 sessions. 

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