What Happened?

A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after tech stocks pulled back as reports surfaced that Chinese customs authorities blocked Nvidia's H200 AI chips, effectively halting their entry despite recent U.S. export approvals. 

This semiconductor sell-off, led by Broadcom and Micron, reflected deepening fears that the "AI trade" was colliding with a protectionist "new normal." Investors were concerned about the prospect of a fragmented global order where tech giants are caught between Washington's industrial strategy and Beijing's push for semiconductor sovereignty. 

Broadening the risk, markets were also agitated about the Justice Department's investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, sparking concerns over central bank independence. This domestic political friction, paired with rising oil prices from Iranian civil unrest, likely forced a pivot from growth to defense.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

• Project Management Software company Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) fell 3.9%. Is now the time to buy Atlassian? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• E-commerce Software company Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) fell 3.9%. Is now the time to buy Wix? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Automation Software company Pegasystems (NASDAQ: PEGA) fell 3.6%. Is now the time to buy Pegasystems? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Project Management Software company Asana (NYSE: ASAN) fell 4.1%. Is now the time to buy Asana? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Data Infrastructure company Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) fell 3.2%. Is now the time to buy Elastic? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.

Zooming In On Asana (ASAN)

Asana’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 31 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was about 24 hours ago when the stock dropped 7.5% as a wave of competitive anxiety hit the enterprise software sector sparked by a high-profile downgrade of Adobe, triggering a broader sell-off in high-valuation cloud stocks. 

A major analyst at Oppenheimer downgraded the stock, warning that Adobe's AI tools aren't boosting sales as quickly as everyone hoped. Also, Snowflake took a direct hit after Barclays downgraded it to "Hold," citing intense pressure from heavyweights like Amazon and Oracle, who aggressively bundled their own AI data tools. Simultaneously, DocuSign and Asana struggled against the narrative that their core markets were becoming commoditized.

Asana is down 12.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $11.38 per share, it is trading 53.1% below its 52-week high of $24.28 from February 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Asana’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $306.52.

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