On September 28, AXT Inc fell 8.09% in regular trading, trading at $72.69/share, with turnover of $182 million. The decline comes as a sharp pullback after the stock posted cumulative gains exceeding 9% over the prior two trading sessions, driven by indium phosphide (InP) substrate pricing catalysts.

The broader Semiconductor Equipment sector traded weak on the session. Among sector peers, ASML Holding NV rose 0.63%, while Lam Research fell 1.73%, Applied Materials fell 1.68%, KLA Corporation fell 2.08%, and Teradyne fell 1.92%. AXT Inc's pullback magnitude significantly exceeded the sector average decline.

On the fundamental side, AXT recently announced plans to raise InP substrate prices by another 10% in Q4, marking a historic single-quarter increase and a fourth consecutive price hike. Industry data indicates the InP substrate supply-demand gap has reached millions of units, with orders booked through 2028. NVIDIA has projected InP demand to surge approximately 20-fold by 2030, while expansion cycles of 18 to 36 months constrain near-term supply relief. Despite these strong underlying fundamentals, institutional options activity in August showed large-scale bearish positioning via far out-of-the-money call selling at the $100 strike, signaling caution on further upside.

(The above content is based on publicly available market information, generated by a program or algorithm, and is intended solely as a stock movement alert. It does not constitute investment advice or a basis for trading decisions.)