US Stocks at Open: Dow Hits Record High, Chip Stocks Under Pressure as Philadelphia Semiconductor Index Drops Over 5%
Miles Bennett
US indices split sharply at the open: the Dow rose 1.52% to a fresh all-time high, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 5.32%, dragging the Nasdaq lower as capital rotated out of chips and into traditional blue chips.
The Dow hit a record — where did the money go?
The Dow gained 1.52% to 51,456.45, extending its all-time high; only 4 of 30 components fell.
Financials and consumer blue chips led: UnitedHealth rose nearly 6%, American Express gained 3.6%, Visa added 3.2%.
This means → money didn't leave equities — it moved from high-valuation tech into traditional blue chips. The Dow up, Nasdaq down pattern is that rotation made visible.
Why did chip stocks fall across the board?
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 5.32%, the session's biggest drag. Broadcom fell 15.49%, Micron lost 8.68%, AMD slid 7.18%.
The damage was broad: Marvell fell 5.11%, Qualcomm dropped 4.84%, Intel lost 3.61% — design, manufacturing, and memory all declined together.
In plain terms = this wasn't one company's problem. The market is repricing the entire chip sector, pulling capital out systematically.
Did memory and foundry leaders escape the sell-off?
Memory stocks fell in tandem: Western Digital dropped 2.68%, SanDisk lost 2.93%.
Foundry leader TSMC (台積電) slipped 1.18%; Nvidia edged down 1.02% — milder losses, but the same direction.
This reflects selling pressure across every link of the semiconductor supply chain, not just the design stocks that rallied hardest earlier.
Which big tech names bucked the trend?
Non-chip mega-caps actually rose: Meta gained 2.39%, Alphabet added 2.01%, Amazon climbed 1.90%, Microsoft rose 1.15%, Apple edged up 0.64%.
The lone decliner was Tesla, down 0.56%.
This means → the market isn't broadly bearish on tech — it is selling semiconductors and buying platform tech with surgical precision. The style rotation is unmistakable.
How did Chinese ADRs perform?
The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rose 0.34%, modestly positive overall. Bilibili led with a 2.46% gain, PDD added 1.39%, Baidu and NIO each rose 0.69%.
A handful of names bucked the trend: XPeng fell 2.98%, Kingsoft Cloud lost 1.65%, Alibaba dipped 0.20%.
In plain terms = Chinese ADRs weren't dragged down by the chip sell-off — market sentiment toward the group as a whole remained positive.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.