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 4:14 PM GMT+2 1 min read ^DJI MRNA ^IXIC AMD MRK 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 ).