Dow Drops 650 Points as Defensive Stocks Drag US Equities Lower to Close a Volatile Week

US stocks ended Friday sharply lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 650 points as defensive sectors led the selloff and broad market sentiment soured into the close. The S&P 500 also finished down, with market-on-close imbalances showing a sell-side skew of roughly 1.26 billion dollars on the S&P 500 and 796 million dollars on the Nasdaq 100, pointing to institutional selling pressure in the final minutes of trading.

The Nasdaq gave up earlier gains after selective buying in chip stocks briefly kept it in positive territory. Memory chip names provided a pocket of resilience, with Micron gaining more than 3%, SK Hynix rising over 4%, and SanDisk advancing 1.4%, all rebounding from a technology-led selloff in the prior session. Still, that support was not enough to offset broader weakness as the session wore on.

Options markets reflected elevated activity across a wide range of names. NVIDIA saw 1.7 million contracts trade, representing roughly 171 million underlying shares. Broadcom traded 235,613 contracts and Marathon Digital 212,478 contracts. Unusual put activity was flagged in names including Roblox, TSMC, Schwab, the SMH semiconductor ETF, NVIDIA, Uber, and Dick's Sporting Goods, suggesting hedging or bearish positioning heading into the following week.