Friday was one of the toughest sessions of the year for US equities, led by a ferocious sell-off in the semiconductor space. The S&P 500 lost 2.58% to close at $737.55 — below the $740 threshold for the first time in two weeks. The Nasdaq-100 plunged 4.8%, with chip stocks wiping out between 7% and 17% of their value in a single day.

Key broken levels

The S&P 500 had been coiling in a tight $738–$760 range for weeks. Friday's breakdown was sharp and conclusive — SPY opened at $752.3, tagged an intraday low of $735.5, and settled at the bottom of the band. Losing the $750 level, which had served as a critical psychological support, is a technically concerning signal.

The QQQ fared even worse: down 4.8% to $705.06, with every intraday bounce meeting sellers. The small-cap Russell 2000 (IWM) didn't escape either, falling 3.55% to $281.65.

The VIX — Wall Street's fear gauge — spiked from 15.40 to 21.51, a nearly 40% one-day surge. Crossing above 20 marks elevated anxiety in equity markets.

Semiconductor massacre

Chips were ground zero. Marvell Technology (MRVL) cratered 16.74% — a particularly brutal drop given that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had just called it "the next trillion-dollar company" at COMPUTEX 2026 days earlier.

Micron (MU) sank 13.25%, Intel (INTC) dropped 11.28%, and AMD fell 10.86%. Qualcomm (QCOM) closed down 10.98%. Broadcom (AVGO) lost 7.92%, and Nvidia itself (NVDA) gave up 6.2%.

Oracle (ORCL) slid 9.59%, Tesla (TSLA) shed 6.56%, Meta (META) dropped 5.51%, and Palantir (PLTR) fell 4.35%. The more defensive mega-caps held up relatively better — Apple (-1.25%), Alphabet (-0.98%), and Amazon (-3.06%) — but couldn't offset the broader carnage.

Yield picture and macro context

The 10-year Treasury yield ticked up to 4.54%, a modest increase from last week. Not a large enough move to explain a rout of this magnitude on its own, but it certainly contributed to pressure on growth and technology names, which are most sensitive to rate changes.

Technical outlook

From a chart perspective, SPY lost two meaningful layers: the $750 support and the entire May trading range ($738–$760). The next significant support is the $730 area — the April low. Below that, the March low near $707 is the last line of defense before the 52-week floor at $629.

For QQQ, nearby support sits at $700 (a round number and psychological level). Below that, $678 (April low) and $650 (March low). The sharp drop leaves the index vulnerable to further breakdown unless strong positive momentum appears at the start of next week.

The bottom line

Friday was not an ordinary pullback — it was a painful technical breakdown that reset the board. The loss of the month-to-date VWAP, the VIX jump above 20, and the elevated volume (93.7 million shares in SPY alone) all point to a massive rotation of hands. The key question is whether this was a one-session washout or the start of a deeper correction. Traders will watch next week's PMI data and the Monday open — those will decide the near-term direction.