Wall Street ended Friday in the red across the board, closing out a week in which semiconductor shares — the engine of the 2026 rally — broke down while war-driven crude prices climbed toward levels not seen in a month.

The S&P 500 lost 1.01% to finish at 7,457.69. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.4% to 25,520.24. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 406.55 points, or 0.77%, to close at 52,146.42. The Nasdaq 100 gave up 1.2%.

The weekly scorecard was worse. The S&P 500 finished the five sessions down 1.6%, the Nasdaq fell 2.9%, and the Dow lost 0.9%.

What Broke

Chips. The PHLX Semiconductor Index dropped 1.63% and entered bear market territory, with the industry gauge down 20% from its record and on pace for its worst stretch since the April 2025 tariff meltdown. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF fell almost 9% on the week, its third weekly loss in four.

Two forces did the damage. A breakthrough from Chinese AI startup Moonshot undercut the case for U.S. chip spending, and money rotated out of expensive tech names into economically sensitive shares. The selling was global before the U.S. bell: Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 4% and Taiwan’s market dropped 6.5%, while ASML fell as much as 4.9% amid a broad European semiconductor decline.

Chip names did close off their session lows as buyers stepped in.

Market Movers

• Netflix (NFLX) — Sank after the company forecast a second straight quarter of slowing sales growth, feeding investor anxiety about the streaming business.
• Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) — Fell 10% despite beating on both lines, earning an adjusted $2.80 per share on $2.89 billion in revenue against LSEG estimates of $2.50 and $2.82 billion. The company held its full-year da Vinci procedure growth outlook near 14%.
• Alcoa (AA) — Dipped 2% even after posting $2.12 per share ex-items on $3.97 billion in revenue, ahead of the $2.06 and $3.94 billion consensus. The producer trimmed its 2026 alumina production outlook. Adjusted EBITDA missed.
• SpaceX (SPCX) — Slid after the company aborted Thursday’s Starship mission when engines failed to fire, and said it would try again within days. Musk said two Raptor engines will be pulled and replaced, with liftoff most likely early next week. The stock had already slipped below its $135 IPO price a month after debut, on concerns over cash burn, an insider lockup expiration, and Chinese reusable-rocket competition.
• Uber (UBER) — Announced a $14.8 billion acquisition of Germany’s Delivery Hero, a deal that would create the largest food-delivery group outside China and combine Uber Eats with foodpanda, PedidosYa, and talabat across 99 countries. The combined operation moved $236 billion in gross order value in 2025. Shares were off 0.59% at $73.60 before the open.

Commodities

Crude was the week’s real story. WTI climbed 4.05% to $82.15, its highest in a month, after Kuwait reported an Iranian strike on a power and desalination plant and reports emerged of Iranian attacks on U.S. targets in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Syria. Central Command said it had finished a sixth consecutive night of strikes on Iranian military sites.

Brent rose 2.04% to $85.95 and was tracking a weekly gain of more than 10%, with the U.S. reportedly hitting an oil tanker near Iran’s main export terminal for the first time since the port blockade resumed. Tehran has reportedly told the Houthis to be ready to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if Iranian power infrastructure is hit. Hormuz traffic has thinned sharply, though vessels are still moving.

Gold held under $4,000, up 0.19% at $3,983.86 but on track for a weekly loss of more than 3% — squeezed as higher energy costs revived rate worries. Silver traded near $55.08, off 0.57%.

Rates and the Fed

The 10-year Treasury yield sat near 4.53% and the 2-year near 4.12%, with the dollar index little changed around 100.80. June CPI fell 0.4% and final-demand PPI fell 0.3%, but retail sales rose 0.2%, jobless claims dropped to 208,000, and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index jumped to 41.4. Fed funds futures put roughly a 90% probability on no change at the July 29 meeting. September remains a coin flip, with traders pricing about a 51% chance of a hike.

The Read

Two weeks ago the market’s problem was oil. This week it’s oil and the AI trade at the same time — and that combination is what turned a chip correction into a bear market. Cheap Chinese models raise the question of whether U.S. hyperscaler capex has a ceiling; $85 Brent raises the question of whether the Fed gets to cut at all. Neither question gets answered before Monday’s open.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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