Shares in Dutch technology giant ASML reportedly fell nearly 3% in a single trading session, wiping billions off its stock market value. The company makes the highly advanced machines needed to produce the world's most powerful computer chips, giving it an extraordinary position in the global technology industry. With a reported market value of around $600 billion, ASML remains one of Europe's most valuable companies. Yet investors reacted negatively as expectations for its future performance shifted.
Welcome to the stock market, where making billions is apparently a disappointment unless you make even more billions than someone predicted last Tuesday. ASML produces technology so complicated that much of the world depends on it, but financial analysts still manage to look personally offended when a number moves slightly downward. Apparently, dominating an industry isn't enough anymore. You must dominate it faster, harder, and preferably forever.
A company can be enormously profitable, technologically essential and globally successful, yet still be punished for failing to outperform someone's spreadsheet. The machines keep working, the chips keep coming, and Wall Street continues its brave struggle against the terrifying possibility of enough.