Something snapped on Wall Street this Friday: after 5 sessions of fairly steep declines in tech stocks, investors didn't come to pay for the lows as they usually do since the end of October.

On the contrary, they turned into panic sellers, like Nvidia, which literally plummeted (-10%, red lantern of the S&P500 and Nasdaq-100) with the break of the $830 major support level.

Nvidia largely contributed to the air pocket on the 'SOXX' (-4% to $198), which was already in very bad shape with -9% in 5 sessions (since April 11).
The main barometer of semiconductors is sinking into a downward spiral: -9% weekly and -18% since March 8).

The S&P500 fell by -0.9% (to 4,967), but this was only a minor setback compared with the Nasdaq, which plunged by -2.05%, or -5.6%, its worst week since mid-January 2022.
Nvidia wasn't the only champion of the 1st quarter's rise to fall, as Netflix also plunged -9%, AMD -5.5%, Marvell Techno -4.8%, Micron -4.6% (and -13% over the past week), Broadcom -4.3%, ON.Semiconductor -3.5%, Microchip -3%.

The Dow Jones followed an opposite trajectory with a gain of +0.56%, supported by AMEX +6.2%, JP-Morgan +2.6%, Amgen +2.4%, Coca-Cola +2%.

No one would have been surprised by Wall Street's scores this Friday morning (but the downtrend totally changed its theme during the session), as the markets gave themselves a scare this morning with Israeli drone strikes on Iranian soil (military target in the vicinity of Isfahan): everyone remembered Teheran's threats of massive retaliation last Sunday... but nothing happened, and an apparent serenity returned as the hours went by (US indices broadly stable around 4pm).

As the risk-off dissipated, the initial easing of rates was halted by the end of the morning, and the afternoon ended with renewed tension in the US bond market (which is no longer a safe haven on the eve of the weekend, proof that investors are anticipating a 'calm' weekend on the geopolitical front).
Yields on US Treasuries, which had fallen back this morning (to 4.500% around 4.30 a.m.), are back on the rise, with the 10-year rising to 4.63%, close to 4.65%, its worst level since November, while the 2-year continues to flirt with 5.00% (at 4.9900%).

No 'macro' figures to liven up the session this Friday, but the beginning of next week will be very busy with US 'stats' (production, inflation).

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