A 5.01% 10-year yield hits utilities and materials as four chipmakers lift technology
The 10-year Treasury yielded 5.01% on Friday, September 18, 2026; the technology fund VGT rose 0.70%, and the materials fund XLB fell 1.45%.
Nine of eleven sector funds closed higher Thursday. Friday kept only two of them, technology and industrials.
Eight sectors fell; technology rose 0.7%
- +0.7%
- +0.4%
- +0.01%
- −0.2%
- −0.2%
- −0.3%
- −0.8%
- −0.9%
- −1.3%
- −1.4%
- −1.4%
Two days after the Federal Reserve's first rate increase since 2023, the yield-sensitive utility and real-estate funds fell. The utilities fund XLU printed a 52-week low. PepsiCo dropped 3.0% to a 52-week low of its own inside the staples fund XLP. The equal-weight S&P 500 fund RSP fell 0.48%; the S&P 500 fund SPY slipped 0.15%. Cap weight had chips. The average stock did not.
Four chipmakers, not the whole technology book
Nvidia, 17.7% of the technology fund VGT, rose 1.3%. Micron rose 3.9%, Broadcom 3.0%, and Lam Research 7.0%. Those four names added 0.64 percentage points. Apple and Microsoft, 27% of the same fund, both declined. Palo Alto Networks fell 3.1% after Bernstein cut the shares to Market Perform. The semiconductor fund SMH rose 2.2%, a second session of bounce after Monday's 4.8% drop, and a much larger gain than the broad technology fund posted.
The industrials fund XLI rose 0.43%, the same trade in a different wrapper. Eaton rose 3.7%, Vertiv 3.3%, GE Vernova 1.7%, and Caterpillar 1.3%, together adding 0.34 percentage points, enough to lift the fund even as railroads declined. Manufacturing output fell 0.3% in August, the first decline after seven monthly gains, and did not ratify a cyclical upswing; electrical-equipment stocks did. The industrials fund is still down 6.7% over one month.
The financials fund XLF finished unchanged only because two small weights paid the rest of the book. Coinbase, 0.5% of the fund, rose 11.7%. Robinhood, 1.1%, rose 9.1%. Both moved a day after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a five-year Innovation Exemption for trading tokenized listed stocks. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Visa all declined.
Nucor's guide and Netflix's downgrade
Nucor, after Thursday's close, put third-quarter earnings at $5.55 to $5.65 a share, below estimates on cost pressures rather than weaker demand. The stock fell 6.3%. Steel Dynamics, which guided $5.34 to $5.38, fell 4.1%. The two subtracted 0.47 percentage points from the materials fund XLB. CF Industries fell 4.6% beside them. Friday was the first session those steel guides could trade.
Wells Fargo cut Netflix to Underweight from Equal Weight and lowered its price target to $57 from $80, citing weakening engagement and a lack of breakout original series. Netflix fell 4.7%. Meta Platforms, 20% of the communication services fund XLC, fell 2.4% and took 0.48 percentage points with it. Disney and Charter Communications fell too. Alphabet rose 0.6%. The communications fund dropped 1.34%.
Constellation Energy, NextEra Energy, and Southern Co. accounted for 0.44 percentage points of the utilities decline. Welltower, a 10% weight in VNQ, fell 1.5%. Utilities and real estate have been sliding for a month without a company-specific surprise, and Friday extended that. PepsiCo was the exception in staples.
The Nasdaq-100 fund QQQ gained 0.63%. The small-cap fund IWM fell 0.47%. Four chipmakers cushioned a cap-weighted holder and left an equal-weight or small-cap holder exposed. Roughly $7 trillion of options notional expired Friday, the second-largest such session on record, and SPY traded at 1.44 times its average volume. An expiration of that size is a reason not to read one day's sector ranking as a rotation.
Frequently asked
Why did utilities and real estate fall?
The 10-year Treasury yielded 5.01% two days after the Fed's first rate increase since 2023, and both yield-sensitive groups have been sliding for a month without any company-specific surprise.
What lifted technology when most sectors fell?
Nvidia, Micron, Broadcom and Lam Research added 0.64 percentage points to the technology fund, while Apple and Microsoft, 27% of it, both declined.
Why did materials drop the most?
Nucor and Steel Dynamics both guided third-quarter earnings below estimates on cost pressures rather than weaker demand, and the two subtracted 0.47 percentage points from the sector fund.
Why were Coinbase and Robinhood up so much?
Both rose a day after the SEC issued a five-year Innovation Exemption for trading tokenized listed stocks, and their gains offset declines across the rest of the financials book.