Selling off Alphabet: What is the market really afraid of?

At the close on June 22, Micron set a new all-time high, while Alphabet erased $256 billion in market value.

Interestingly, the money that crushed Alphabet's cash flow is the very same money that fueled Micron's stock rally.

Even more intriguing is that Alphabet had just delivered its strongest quarterly earnings in two years—revenue up 22%, profit up 30%, and cloud business growth of 63%—which logically should have driven the stock up. As recently as May 18, it was sitting at an all-time high of $408. Yet, in the 72 hours before the sell-off, what happened seemed unrelated to the financial report—but it managed to hit the market's most fragile nerve with precision.