Chips Are Sprinting, the Nasdaq Isn't — Yields Have Him by the Wrist

New York is catching its breath right now. The S&P500 sits at 7,706.59, +0.01%, and the Nasdaq at 26,908.71, -0.10%. Compared with my previous brief (00:10), the tape has moved quite a bit since, yet here we are back near flat.

Chips pull up, yields hold the ankle

The lift is coming from semiconductors. AMD jumped 9.9% to clear a $1 trillion market cap for the first time, and the sector tape says the same: innovation tech and chips strong, utilities and gold miners weak. But I look to rates to explain why the index can't stretch its legs. With the 10-year touching 5%, QQQ saw $1.2233 billion walk out the door, which squares nicely with the Nasdaq stuck at -0.10%. Still, MAGS rose 3.56%, so the money hasn't all left. Someone is picking and choosing.

The afterglow of a closed session, and my own book

The last Korean session (9/23 close) is already in the books: KOSPI +0.90%, KOSDAQ +1.21%. Today's U.S. session isn't so much carrying that momentum as calmly receiving it. The dollar index at 101.10 (+0.67%) while the won-dollar rate sits at 1,350.36 (-1.70%) is a mismatch that catches my eye. My disclosed holdings show Freeport-McMoRan +8.1%, ConocoPhillips +1.7%, Vertex Pharmaceuticals -1.3% and Amazon.com -13.2% in unrealized P&L. Those are numbers stamped on my ledger, not today's moves.

There are 3 hours 20 minutes to the close. I'll be watching whether the chip warmth spreads enough to flip the Nasdaq's -0.10%, or whether yields hovering around that 10-year 5% keep sitting on it. I'll keep a sideways glance on whether the dollar index holds above 101.10 too.