Wall Street Suffers Broad Sell-Off Amid Chip Stock Rout and Fed Caution

Nvidia and ASML lead semiconductor slump; Fed's Powell urges patience; retail sales rise but traders focus on tariffs and policy uncertainty.

The Nasdaq plunged 516.01 points (3.1%) to 16,307.16, the S&P 500 tumbled 120.93 points (2.2%) to 5,275.70 and the Dow slumped 699.57 points (1.7%) to 39,669.39.

Nvidia shares plunged 6.9% after the company revealed it expects up to $5.5 billion in charges related to its H20 chips. The drop followed new U.S. export restrictions requiring licenses to sell its GPUs to China and other nations.

ASML shares dropped 7.1% after the chipmaker warned of growing uncertainty in its 20252026 outlook due to U.S. tariffs. Markets fell further after Fed Chair Jerome Powell echoed earlier remarks, stressing caution amid tariff-related uncertainty.

Traders mostly ignored a batch of U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing retail sales jumped 1.4% in March, following a 0.2% rise in February. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.5% after a 0.7% gain the prior month. Meanwhile, industrial production slipped 0.3% in March, driven by a sharp decline in utilities output.

Semiconductor stocks sank sharply, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunging 4.1% amid steep losses in Nvidia and ASML. Software and brokerage stocks also tumbled, dragging the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index down 3.1% and the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index down 2.3%. Transportation, networking, and retail stocks were weak as well, while gold stocks defied the trend, rallying on record-high gold prices.

Asia-Pacific stocks moved mostly lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slumped by 1.0%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled by 1.9%. the major European markets turned mixed performance while the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1%, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.3%.

In the bond market, treasuries moved to the upside as the day progressed after initially showing a lack of direction. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 4.4 bps to 4.27%.

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