These big, well-known stocks are forming the dreaded death cross chart pattern

Published Fri, May 3 202412:51 PM EDT

A handful of stocks are entering or about to enter the worrisome so-called death cross. A death cross is a price chart pattern that forms when a stock's 50-day moving average slips below its 200-day moving average, lending a signal that investors are bearish on a stock or that the stock's momentum is weakening and could dip even further. A death cross can also be indicative of a forthcoming bear market pattern. Three names, including fast-food chain McDonald's and semiconductor company Intel , are either drawing a death cross or have already formed one, according to a CNBC Pro screen. Among these names, Intel's share price has already fallen the most. The chipmaker, which is still the biggest maker of processors that power PCs and laptops, is down 38.5% year-to-date, making it the worst-performing tech stock in the S & P 500 this year. Intel Intel disappointed Wall Street's first-quarter expectations last week, when it posted a beat in earnings per share but came up light in revenue. The company also gave a weak forecast for the current quarter. After the print, Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari maintained his sell rating. He noted that Intel has been falling behind as traditional server demand has been pushed out due to "continued prioritization of AI infrastructure spending by cloud and enterprise customers," and worried that it will continue to lose market share within the data center compute market to peers such as Nvidia and Arm . McDonald's McDonald's has also drawn a death cross. The stock is down 8.8% this year this year as the burger chain has struggled amid a consumer spending pullback and boycotts over the conflict in Gaza. The company missed first-quarter earnings estimates as its same-store sales failed to meet expectations. CVS Health Unlike the other two names, CVS Health is nearing a death cross. Shares have fallen nearly 30% year-to-date and plummeted roughly 17% this week alone, after CVS missed revenue and adjusted earnings expectations on Wednesday. The company also lowered its full-year profit outlook due to higher medical costs likely to persist throughout the year. UBS analyst Kevin Caliendo downgraded CVS shares to neutral from buy on the weak report. "Our lack of conviction is not due to a lack of confidence in mgt.'s process," Caliendo said in a Wednesday note. "Our issue is that there were more parts of the business that required a reset, and a fix is not as simple as 'cut benefits and reprice' and margins will improve."