---
title: "A 5.01% 10-year yield hits utilities and materials as four chipmakers lift technology"
url: "https://etf.net/news/a-5-01-10-year-yield-hits-utilities-and-materials-as-four-chipmakers-lift-technology-2026-09-18"
published_at: "2026-09-18T20:52:45.479Z"
updated_at: "2026-09-18T20:52:45.479Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# 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%.

By ETF.net Research. Published Sep 18, 2026.

[Nine of eleven sector funds closed higher Thursday](https://etf.net/news/nvidia-micron-apple-and-amd-delivered-half-of-technology-s-2-2-as-t-mobile-cancelled-meta-2026-09-17). Friday kept only two of them, technology and industrials.

Chart: **Eight** sectors fell; technology rose 0.7%

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](https://etf.net/news/us-factory-output-falls-0-3-two-days-after-the-fed-s-first-hike-since-2023-2026-09-18), 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.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/a-5-01-10-year-yield-hits-utilities-and-materials-as-four-chipmakers-lift-technology-2026-09-18. Please cite the page URL.