The Fear and Greed Index from CNN dropped to 18, signaling extreme fear among investors. This decline follows a 4.5% weekly loss for the Nasdaq index. Meanwhile, traders faced losses of nearly $52 million on leveraged AI and chip stock positions within a 10-minute window on Saturday.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index recorded an 11.4% decline for the week, marking its weakest performance since April 2025. Shares of the cloud provider CoreWeave dropped by approximately 25%, while its bonds reached new lows. Data from S3 Partners indicates that short sellers gained roughly $32 billion from chip stocks over a seven-day period.
Market volatility is influenced by inflation data, which has renewed expectations of potential Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. Information technology currently accounts for about 39% of the S&P 500. While modern market mechanisms include trading halts for significant drops, these safeguards do not apply to perpetual futures on crypto exchanges.
Trading activity on platforms like Liquid shows continued selling pressure across memory, storage, and AI infrastructure sectors. Stocks such as WDC and STX are experiencing declines, with MU and SNDK falling more than 3% compared to Friday's closing prices. Analysts are now monitoring whether this trend represents a broader market correction.
