ON Semi, Western Digital, Arm, and Seagate led the tech rout as the S&P 500 fell 2% and the Nasdaq dropped 4.6%. Oil slid 9.5% despite US strikes on Iran. Defensive sectors rallied.
Wall Street ended the week with a split personality. The S&P 500 lost 2%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6%. The divergence came down to one sector: technology, and specifically semiconductors.
ON Semiconductor fell 25%, Western Digital 21%, Arm Holdings nearly 20%, and Seagate Technology 19%. Even Micron Technology, which posted a strong fiscal third-quarter report, saw its stock decline. The selloff was broad and deep, hitting names that had been market darlings. WDC stock page and STX stock page both lost more than a fifth of their value in five sessions.
The money rotated into defensives. Healthcare jumped 7.9%, utilities added 3.9%, and real estate rose 4%. Consumer staples gained 1.5%. Information technology, by contrast, fell 5.4%. The CBOE Volatility Index climbed 9.7% to 18.41, reflecting the unease.
Geopolitics added a layer of confusion. The U.S. conducted retaliatory strikes on Iran after President Trump accused Tehran of a drone attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Yet crude oil fell 9.5% to $69.23 a barrel. Brent dropped 9.46% to $72.97. The move suggested traders saw the strikes as limited and focused on the ongoing negotiations between the two countries, which reportedly agreed to continue talks within a 60-day window.
Economic data came in mixed but not alarming. Core PCE inflation matched consensus in May. Personal income and spending beat expectations. The first-quarter GDP estimate was revised up to 2.1% from 1.6%. The June PMI composite rose above forecasts. Business uncertainty about revenue growth for the year ahead also increased, a detail that may have fed the defensive rotation.
For individual stock watchers, the selloff in Western Digital and Seagate stands out. Western Digital carries an Alpha Score of 72, a moderate reading that suggests the drop may be more about sector sentiment than company-specific deterioration. Seagate scores 64, also moderate. Amazon, up 2.5% on the day, has a mixed Alpha Score of 45. The divergence between tech and defensives will likely persist until the next catalyst, which could be the June jobs report or the next round of Iran negotiations.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.