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Live: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) Falls From Nvidia, Trade Pressure

Rich Duprey

Published: April 16, 2025 11:15 am

Last Updated: April 16, 2025 2:54 pm

Shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) are down 1% in morning trading Wednesday after Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) announced it would take a massive $5.5 billion writedown in the first quarter.

The artificial intelligence chipmaker said in a late-afternoon SEC filing yesterday the U.S. government was imposing new trade restrictions on its H20 AI chips that would require it to get a license to export them because they could be used in or diverted to a Chinese supercomputer. Due to the inventory of H20 chips it had on hand, as well as previously agreed to purchase commitments and related reserves, it would be taking the massive writedown.

Erecting new barriers

Nvidia had designed the H20 specifically to get around export restrictions of its previous chip, the H800. That was the one the Chinese AI firm DeepSeek used to build its R1 large language model that caused a tumult in the market when it launched earlier this year. The chips are cheaper and less powerful than Nvidia’s latest generation Blackwell chips that sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Pricing isn’t so straightforward though as the chips won’t be sold as a standalone product.

It hits especially hard because earlier this month, Nvidia stock jumped on reports that Chinese tech companies, including Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEHY), and TikTok owner ByteDance, had ordered $16 billion worth of the H20 accelerators over the first three months of the year.

Nvidia said the write off would be necessary because of the inventory of H20 chips it had on hand, purchase commitments, and related reserves. Nvidia will be reporting its fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings results on May 26.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 200 points, or 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was off almost 2%.

Collateral damage

The indices are also under pressure because Bloomberg reported little progress has been made between the European Union and the U.S. to resolve their trade differences. While the EU has proposed eliminating all tariffs in both directions, U.S. officials have so far rejected that because of other non-tariff restrictions U.S. goods face, including digital and AI regulations, along with various food standards.

Other chipmakers on the S&P 500 are falling as well, including Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) as it says it will take an $800 million hit due to tariffs. Its shares are down 6% because the new trade restrictions will affect its MI308 chips. Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) is down 2.2% and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) is off 1.7%.

The impact of tech stocks on SPY is offsetting the positive news that retail sales rose 1.4% in March, in line with expectations and well ahead of the 0.2% gain seen in February. It was the best reading in more than two years.

However, it is likely sales were pulled forward into the month due to consumers buying more ahead of tariffs going into effect. That suggests retail sales in future months won’t be as strong and feeds the fear the U.S. economy is growing slower than analysts had previously predicted.