How did the major indexes perform the week of July 13-17?
The S&P 500 fell 1.6% for the week to close at 7,457.69 on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.9% to 25,520.24, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.9% to 52,146.42. All three benchmarks fell on Friday alone, with the S&P down 1.01%, the Nasdaq down 1.4%, and the Dow down 406.55 points, as a semiconductor selloff and fresh Middle East tension weighed into the weekend.
Friday capped a rough five sessions. Chip stocks led the market lower for most of the week, and Netflix added to the pressure Friday morning with a post-earnings drop of more than 10%.
What triggered the semiconductor selloff?
The PHLX Semiconductor Index is down roughly 20% from its late-June peak. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF posted its third weekly decline in four weeks, down almost 9%, a sharp reversal from the 71% gain that made the second quarter its best on record. TSMC's capital spending guidance and Oracle's AI infrastructure comments started the slide earlier in the week.
Friday brought a new pressure point. China's Moonshot AI said its Kimi K3 model narrows the performance gap with leading US labs while using a fraction of the compute those labs require. If that claim holds up, it challenges the assumption that AI performance gains require ever-larger capital spending, the same assumption behind most of this year's chip rally.
Did Apple really overtake Nvidia this week?
Yes. Apple closed Friday with a market capitalization of roughly $4.88 trillion against Nvidia's approximately $4.86 trillion, reclaiming the title of world's most valuable company for the first time since May 2025. Nvidia shares fell about 3.5% on the session.
The flip tracks the same theme driving the chip selloff. Investors are rotating away from the companies most exposed to AI infrastructure capital spending and toward Apple, which was seen as a laggard in the AI race for most of the past two years precisely because it wasn't spending heavily to build models.
How did earnings season go for banks and tech?
Big banks opened the reporting season strong. Goldman Sachs posted record quarterly revenue of $20.34 billion against a $16.13 billion estimate. Citigroup beat on both revenue and earnings but fell 4% to 5.7% on guidance pointing to higher job cuts and technology spending. IBM had its worst single trading day on record after missing on both revenue and earnings per share.
Netflix beat earnings per share by a penny but guided third-quarter revenue to $12.86 billion against a $13 billion consensus, and also cut its subscriber engagement reporting from twice a year to once. The stock fell more than 10% on Friday.
What happened with yields, the Fed, and the dollar?
The Federal Reserve held its target rate at 3.50% to 3.75% at its June meeting. The next meeting runs July 28-29, with the rate decision due at 2:00 PM ET. The 10-year Treasury yield closed Friday at 4.55%.
EUR/USD ended the week at 1.1435 and USD/JPY at 162.37, both little changed from Thursday even as equity volatility picked up. The VIX closed Friday at 18.03, up roughly 20% for the week from where it started.
How did crypto and commodities trade this week?
Bitcoin closed Friday near $63,944 and Ethereum near $1,867, both pulling back from highs above $65,000 and $1,900 earlier in the week. A sixth consecutive night of US strikes on Iran dulled risk appetite into the weekend, though both assets remained above where they started the week.
Oil rose roughly 2% Friday to above $80 a barrel on the same Iran tension. Gold fell about 3% for the week, its worst weekly showing since early June, as elevated real yields offset the usual safe-haven bid that geopolitical stress normally provides.
What should traders watch next week?
Hyperscaler earnings begin with Alphabet, the first real test of whether AI capital spending guidance can steady the chip sector after this week's reset. The July 28-29 FOMC meeting is now less than two weeks out, and incoming data will shape whether the Fed's current hold extends into the fall.
Semiconductor names remain the most reactive corner of the market heading into that stretch. A capex guidance beat from Alphabet would likely help chips stabilize, while a cautious tone would extend the correction into a broader repricing of the AI infrastructure trade.
Track live equities, options flow, and macro data at opticalpha.net/terminal. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.