Tech sell-off resumes, counterbalancing bond yield relief: AlphaCheck

Tech sell-off resumes, counterbalancing bond yield relief: AlphaCheck

Grace O'Donnell · Editor, Special Projects

Wed, August 19, 2026 at 5:14 PM GMT+3 1 min read

Good morning. Stocks turned higher at the open, but tech stocks resumed their sell-off from yesterday. While the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell in early trading, the Dow (^DJI) and S&P 500 (^GSPC) were buoyed by falling bond yields after the US Treasury Department stepped in to support buybacks of long-dated securities.

Here's a check of the markets in the first few minutes of trading, based on a heat map powered by Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data.

The tech sector (XLK) faced renewed selling pressure as semiconductor stocks continued to slide, led by declines in shares of Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD), and Broadcom (AVGO).

On the other end of the spectrum, Healthcare (XLV) saw tremendous strength, driven by a 124% gain in Moderna (MRNA) following positive Phase 3 trial results for its melanoma vaccine developed with Merck (MRK).

Basic Materials (XLB) also led the morning, as a surge in gold futures (GC=F) and gold miner stocks broadly rose.

Here are some notable stocks that Yahoo Finance readers are viewing this morning: Micron (MU), Sandisk (SNDK), Marvell (MRVL), SK Hynix (SKHY), Broadcom (AVGO), Merck (MRK), and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL)