A brief morning pop in technology stocks evaporated Tuesday, leaving chip names and leveraged ETFs deep in the red as sellers reasserted control and snuffed out any hope of a sustained recovery.
The intraday pattern was unmistakable — an early bounce, a rejection at resistance and a hard fade that accelerated into midday.
- AMD stock is sinking. See the chart and price action here.
Some experts pointed to a rotation out of tech stocks as investors gather capital ahead of SpaceX's market debut on Friday.
"I think everybody's a little nervous ahead" of the SpaceX IPO, Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, told CNBC. "I think we're going to be choppy until we get that behind us."
Chip Rally Fades
The Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF (AMEX:SOXL) was the session’s most visible casualty, plunging $34.73 or 16.43% to $176.71 after tagging a session high of $231.01 at the open. The sheer range — nearly $55 from high to current price — captures exactly how quickly optimism collapsed.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) followed, off 6.83% to $456.86, having briefly touched $505 before the bottom fell out, while Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) fell 5% to $376.76.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) held up better but still couldn’t escape the pressure, slipping $5.82 or 2.79% to $202.82 after touching $211.40 earlier in the session, per Benzinga Pro data.
The modest decline relative to peers suggests the AI bellwether still has underlying support, but 16.43% swings in SOXL don’t come on good days.
The leveraged ETF complex told the full story. ProShares UltraPro QQQ (NASDAQ:TQQQ) slid $6.04 or 7.92% to $70.23, having opened with a run toward $79.34.
With the ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ (NASDAQ:SQQQ) surging $3.26 or 7.9% to $44.52 — already above its average daily volume — active short positioning is driving the selloff.
Tech Stocks Fizzle
The weakness spread well beyond semis.
- Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) was among the hardest hit in large-cap tech, dropping $19.58 or 8.99% to $198.19.
- ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE:NOW) shares dropped 8.65% to $104.30.
- Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) shed 6.78% to $884.92 — a brutal reversal from its intraday high of $989.15 that could signal waning confidence in the AI memory demand narrative.
- Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) shed 6.37% to $103.25.
- Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) lost 3.57% to $290.77.
- Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped $17.18 or 4.2% to $391.77.
- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) gave back 2.31% to $402.21.
- Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) slid 0.72% to $360.68 and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) dipped 0.8% to $243.26 — both holding up better than peers.
- Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was the lone bright spot, edging up 0.20% to $586.55, though the gain is thin comfort in an otherwise broad-based retreat.
The session’s price action shows the relief rally had no follow-through. Until buyers can defend intraday lows and close near session highs, the path of least resistance for tech remains lower.
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