Stocks are under pressure to close out the week, with tech names leading the way lower. Crude oil prices are higher, while gold and silver are weaker and Treasuries are climbing.
It’s chaos in the chip sector…again! Semiconductor stocks sold off in Asia overnight, and that is spilling over into US markets this morning. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) has now lost 7.6% in five days, while SK Hynix Inc.’s (SKHY) newly minted US American Depository Receipts (ADRs) have shed 11%. Some highflyers like Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) have performed even worse, down 22.2%.
SOXX, SKHY, SNDK (5-Day % Change)
Source: TradingView
I covered why this sector is so important in my Chart of the Day column. Suffice it to say that chips are key to the tech sector, which is a big driver of overall market performance. Globally, chip stocks have shed about $3.3 trillion in market value since late June.
Meanwhile, bonds sold by big-spending hyperscalers are performing poorly. Companies like Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) have sold more than $300 billion in debt since the start of 2025. That includes US dollar-denominated bonds plus bonds sold in currencies like the euro and Japanese yen. Many of those have declined in price, with yield “spreads” to underlying Treasuries increasing – signs of growing concerns about credit quality.
Lastly, newly public SpaceX (SPCX) was forced to scrub a Starship test flight yesterday after an engine start failure. The company has tested the world's largest and most powerful rocket 12 previous times, but this is the first planned test since its Initial Public Offering (IPO) last month. SpaceX stock dipped on the news, after losing 21.6% since the start of July.
