On August 18, AXT Inc fell 6.22% in pre-market trading, trading at approximately $90.07 per share, with turnover of $4.81 million. The decline comes after the stock surged over 17% in the prior trading session, triggering profit-taking pressure amid substantial short-term cumulative gains.

At the sector level, semiconductor equipment stocks broadly weakened, with Applied Materials down 3.23%, ASML down 3.16%, Lam Research down 2.72%, KLA Corporation down 2.58%, and Teradyne down 2.53%, reflecting industry-wide selling pressure that dragged on individual names.

Additionally, geopolitical risk pricing related to China's indium phosphide export controls continues to weigh on sentiment. AXT's core production capacity is housed at its Chinese subsidiary Beijing Tongmei, and uncertainty surrounding export license approvals remains an overhang on valuation. Global InP substrate supply-demand gaps exceed 70%, and while Q2 results showed a business inflection with record InP revenue of $30.7 million and adjusted gross margins leaping to 45.0% from 8.2% year-over-year, near-term gains appear to have priced in much of the fundamental improvement.

(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.)