Amsterdam, Feb 14, 2026, 12:54 CET — Market closed
- ASML closed Friday up 0.9% at €1,190.40 on Euronext Amsterdam
- A stronger outlook from U.S. chip-gear maker Applied Materials has become the fresh sector read-through
- Next catalysts: ASML’s annual report due Feb 25, then Q1 results on Apr 15
ASML Holding NV shares finished Friday at €1,190.40 on Euronext Amsterdam, up 0.9% on the day. The stock swung between €1,173.80 and €1,210.60 in the session, and investors now have a weekend gap before Europe’s next open on Monday, Feb. 16. (Euronext)
The near-term question is whether chip-equipment names keep finding bids after a new round of U.S. guidance pointed to more spending tied to artificial intelligence. ASML tends to move with that current even when it has no company news of its own.
Europe’s broader tape is not a clean tailwind. The STOXX 600 ended Friday down 0.13% as investors weighed “AI overinvestment, valuations and disruption,” in the words of Kyle Rodda, a senior financial market analyst at Capital.com. (Reuters)
In the U.S., Applied Materials shares jumped 11% after the company forecast second-quarter revenue of about $7.65 billion, plus or minus $500 million, above analysts’ average estimate of $7.01 billion, according to LSEG data. CEO Gary Dickerson said the outlook was “fueled by the acceleration of industry investments in AI computing,” and Morningstar’s William Kerwin said: “We expect a massive wafer fabrication equipment growth cycle over the next three years.” (Reuters)
ASML sits at the hard end of that chain. It is the sole maker of extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography tools — machines that use very short-wavelength light to etch the tiniest features on leading-edge chips — and investors treat its “net bookings” (order intake) as a tell on customers’ capex plans. In January, ASML said it would stop publishing quarterly order figures because they create “unnecessary” swings, and ING analyst Marc Hesselink said the final report was “going out with a bang”; CEO Christophe Fouquet added he did not see ASML as the bottleneck for customers, “certainly not this year.” (Reuters)
The company’s latest quarterly release showed Q4 net bookings of €13.2 billion, including €7.4 billion for EUV systems, and an end-2025 backlog of €38.8 billion. ASML forecast 2026 total net sales of €34 billion to €39 billion, with gross margin of 51% to 53%, and announced a new share buyback program of up to €12 billion through the end of 2028. (ASML)
Friday’s move leaves ASML trading more on cross-currents than headlines: U.S. peer momentum, European risk appetite, and a valuation that can punish even small disappointments. Order intake is lumpy by quarter, and investors have learned the hard way that a single data point does not set the cycle.
But there are clear downside paths. A pause in AI-related datacentre buildouts, slower memory spending, or tighter export rules for China could hit the pace of tool shipments and new orders, even if the long-term backlog looks solid.
The next hard dates are already on the calendar. ASML is scheduled to publish its annual report on Feb. 25, and it is set to report first-quarter 2026 results on Apr. 15. (ASML)
Before then, Monday’s open will be the first test of whether the Applied Materials read-through sticks in Europe. If it fades, ASML’s share price may end up marking time into Feb. 25, when investors can dig into the annual report detail for the next set of clues.
