Rising Treasury Yields and Expiring US-Iran Truce Hammer Chip Stocks on Tuesday

Semiconductor stocks led a broad market selloff on Tuesday, August 18, as the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed to 5.333 percent, on pace for its highest close since June 2007, and the expiration of a 60-day U.S.-Iran ceasefire without a permanent agreement pushed oil prices higher. Nvidia fell roughly 3 percent in early trading, while Western Digital and SanDisk each shed over 6 percent, and Marvell Technology dropped around 6 percent despite a bullish UBS note on its AI prospects.

Seagate lost more than 5 percent, Intel, SK Hynix, Coherent, Corning, and Nokia also declined, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF fell approximately 4 percent. S&P 500 futures slid 0.5 percent and Nasdaq-100 futures lost 1.2 percent. AMD, Klarna, Robinhood, Norwegian Cruise Line, Nebius, Ciena, and Ondas were among other notable decliners.

Home Depot provided some offset, rising 1 percent after a stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings report, and ServiceNow climbed. The rate-driven pressure was particularly acute for chip names carrying large year-to-date gains heading into the session.