Key Highlights

● Cisco closed at $104.89 on October 22 amid a retreat in networking stocks.

● Cisco sells switches, routers and security systems for data centers and corporate networks.

● Arista Networks fell sharply, and Corning and Amphenol also slid.

● Arista Networks reports on November 3.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) fell on Thursday, October 22, 2026, closing at $104.89 and adding to the losses among technology names on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The move came without company-specific news. The networking-equipment maker moved with a broad selloff in technology, and in particular in the hardware companies that supply the data centers behind the artificial-intelligence boom.

Networking caught in the downdraft

Cisco sells the switches, routers and security systems that connect data centers and corporate networks, and it has been pitching its products as part of the AI infrastructure build-out. That made it vulnerable on a day when investors questioned how that build-out will be paid for.

Peers fared worse. Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET), a rival in high-speed data-center switching, fell sharply, according to market data. Optical and connectivity names also sold off, with Corning (NYSE:GLW) and Amphenol (NYSE:APH) both sliding, with weakness across optical stocks broadly. Nokia (NYSE:NOK) fell despite beating profit forecasts and reporting strong growth in AI and cloud sales.

Why investors pulled back

The concerns began with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META). Its quarterly report late Wednesday narrowed its 2026 capital-spending range to $135 billion to $145 billion and showed negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion, its first cash outflow in more than a decade, according to market data. Meta also disclosed about $825 billion in future spending commitments, up from about $700 billion in July, according to market data.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) added to the worries with an outlook that cited supply constraints. And Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)'s chief executive said that "the demand of the capital is much greater than the availability of the capital."

For suppliers of AI hardware, the message was unsettling: if customers struggle to finance their spending, orders for chips, servers and networking gear could slow. That worry, rather than any change in Cisco's own business, appeared to drive Thursday's move.

A split market

The Nasdaq Composite fell 694.00 points, its steepest drop since June 5, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had its biggest one-day decline since June 23. The S&P 500 lost 93.74 points to 7,663.43, its worst day since July. The S&P 500 technology sector was among the worst-performing groups.

But the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 11.89 points at 52,867.98, essentially flat and at a one-month high, according to market data. Defensive stocks such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) offset losses in Nvidia, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Cisco.

About two of every three S&P 500 stocks rose, according to market reports, and Treasury yields fell sharply, with the 10-year yield closing back below a closely watched threshold for the first time since September 22.

Not all of tech was weak. Software stocks such as Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) rallied, and cybersecurity names including CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD), Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) and Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) gained. Cisco, however, traded with the hardware names on the day.

Cisco Awaits Arista's Read on Networking Demand

Arista Networks reports on November 3, which should offer a fresh read on data-center networking demand. Before that, Microsoft and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) report on October 28 and Amazon on October 29; their spending plans will directly affect demand for networking gear. The Federal Reserve's decision on October 28 will also matter for a market increasingly focused on the cost of capital behind the AI build-out.