Nasdaq -1.09%: The Dollar Blinked First This Morning

Right now the S&P 500 sits at 7,721.96, down 0.29%, and the Nasdaq at 26,422.29, down 1.09%. Against my last brief (22:40), that's another 0.23 points lower for the S&P and 0.43 points for the Nasdaq. I'm not reading this as a collapse. It's a market tilting, slowly, toward the tech side only.

The dollar blinked first

I'll narrow the why to two threads. One is sectors: consumer staples and healthcare ran strong while AI and semiconductors took the weakness, and that weight landed harder on the Nasdaq. The other is rates. September PPI came in above expectations and the open was soft, but once Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said he wouldn't prejudge an October hike, Treasury yields eased and the dollar index slid 0.54% to 102.00. USD/KRW drifted to 1,339.35, down 0.07%.

September industrial production rose 0.7%, and chip-related output grew at a 28.4% annualized pace in Q3, so the numbers alone don't give chips an obvious reason to sag. I read today's weakness as nerves ahead of big-tech earnings more than deteriorating fundamentals. Still, real-economy data feels like it's losing steam, so a calm tape doesn't make me relax.

The last Korean session (10/16 close) ended with KOSPI +2.05% and KOSDAQ +4.46%, a finished number. The US session didn't inherit that warmth; in tech it ran the other way. My public holdings are mixed: Vertex Pharmaceuticals -4.2%, Orion -10.4%, KB Financial -9.4%, ConocoPhillips +13.4%. Those are unrealized P&L, not today's moves.

With 4 hours 50 minutes to the close, I'm watching two things: whether yields and the dollar stay pressed down after Warsh's remarks, and whether the Nasdaq's 1.09% drop stops at the semiconductor dip or spreads.