Qualcomm slides 9% after earnings, leading postelection chip stock sell-off

Qualcomm stock slid 9% on Thursday, leading chip stocks lower after the company issued a light forecast. The chipmaker, which reported Q4 financial results after the bell Wednesday, slightly beat Q4 estimates for earnings, but its current-quarter guidance came in weak. Qualcomm projected first-quarter adjusted earnings between $2.15 and $2.35 per share, below analysts' estimates of $2.27 per share. The company expects Q1 revenue to range from $10.4 billion to $11.2 billion, versus Wall Street estimates of $10.48 billion. Semiconductor peers, including AMD, Micron, Arm and Intel, also declined Thursday, continuing a post-election selloff on fears of a data center slowdown, as Democrats indicated plans for artificial intelligence regulation. The memory crunch has also weighed on the broader chip industry. Qualcomm's biggest slice of sales is from chips for smartphones, but rising memory costs have forced price hikes for the devices and hit demand. The company's handset chip sales fell 26% to $5.14 billion during the quarter, coming in short of the $5.21 billion StreetAccount estimate, even as the company raised prices in September. "We don't have a demand issue; it's a supply issue," CEO Cristiano Amon said. "If I had more supply, I would probably be doing better." — CNBC's Kif Leswing contributed to this report.