U.S. equities closed lower Tuesday as a fresh leg up in long-dated Treasury yields and a semiconductor-led selloff overwhelmed early support from a strong Home Depot earnings report. Oil prices climbed to their highest level in over two weeks after President Trump said he intends to inflict more economic pain on Iran and threatened to "bomb" Oman if it interferes with the US's plans for the Strait of Hormuz. The 30-year Treasury bond yield scored a fresh 19-year high Tuesday, and a pullback in memory and storage semiconductors deepened losses into the close, leaving the Nasdaq as the session's clear laggard. The Dow's decline was cushioned by strength in select blue chips even as the broader tape reflected growing unease over the durability of the AI-hardware rally against a backdrop of rising real yields.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.22%
The S&P 500 Index fell 0.69%
The Nasdaq Composite declined 1.33%
Stock & Sector Performance
Semiconductors were the session's defining story, and this time the pain was concentrated squarely in memory and storage. Western Digital fell 7%, weighing on the Nasdaq. Sandisk dropped 9%. Marvell Technology and Seagate Technology were also down by 9% and 8%, respectively. This year's best-performing corner on Wall Street got pummeled, driving a closely watched gauge of semiconductor firms down by 5.5%, while the Nasdaq 100 declined 1.7%. Within the Dow, losses were led by Caterpillar, down 2.86%, Nvidia, down 1.90%, and Home Depot, down 1.24%, while top gainers were J&J, up 2.29%, IBM, up 1.43%, and Chevron, up 1.41%.
Magnificent Seven performance was comparatively contained next to the memory-sector rout. Nvidia finished among the session's softer mega-cap names, down roughly 1.9% alongside the broader chip-sector pullback. Tesla was lower by about 1.2%, with a Treasury-yield-driven risk-off tone overshadowing a reported truck-order announcement. Reliable closing figures for Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta were not available in today's reporting at publication time; broader coverage characterized the group's moves as more measured than the sharp declines concentrated in memory and storage names.
Elsewhere, Paylocity Holding rose 3.1% as investors continued to respond positively to the HR software maker's early August fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 earnings beat. On the downside, Bio-Rad Laboratories tumbled 32.4% amid institutional selling, broader macroeconomic headwinds and a technical correction following a sharp short-term run-up, while Fabrinet sank 11.3% despite posting stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results, as investors focused on weaker margins, negative free cash flow and a softer near-term profit outlook. Wolfspeed shares sank 7.6% amid investor concerns about persistent negative margins ahead of the semiconductor company's Wednesday earnings report.
Major Company Story of the Day
Home Depot was the session's most notable earnings-driven mover among large caps, posting fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of $4.92 per share versus a $4.73 consensus estimate, on revenue of $47.86 billion versus $47.27 billion expected, while reaffirming full-year guidance. The beat provided an early tailwind for the Dow, though the stock ultimately faded from its premarket gain to close modestly lower alongside the broader retreat in cyclical and consumer-facing names as bond yields climbed through the session.
Explore more exclusive insights at nextfin.ai.
