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Semiconductors fall 5.9% as one technology fund holds Nvidia's drop and a cyber rally

Monday, September 14, 2026: the communication services fund XLC rose 2.18% on Meta and Alphabet; the PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 5.9% and the technology fund VGT lost 1.61%, holding Nvidia's 3.36% drop and a 13% cybersecurity rally.

A detailed macro photograph showing the intricate grid of golden pins on the underside of a microprocessor.
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· 3 min read · ETF.net Research

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Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei published an essay on his own site on Saturday, September 12, titled "We Must Pace the Frontier," arguing that AI labs should slow the pace of model development. OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk said they agreed. Charles Schwab's Joe Mazzola wrote Monday that the fear is slower spending on data centers, chips, and computer equipment. Eight of eleven sector funds fell.

Total return, Monday, September 14, 2026

Eight of eleven sector funds finished lower

  • Communication Services+2.2%
  • Health Care+1.4%
  • Consumer Staples+1.2%
  • Consumer Discretionary−0.1%
  • Financials−0.3%
  • US Real Estate−0.5%
  • Materials−0.9%
  • Energy−0.9%
  • Utilities−1.3%
  • Industrials−1.4%
  • Technology−1.6%

Communication services, health care, and staples were the only gainers.

The S&P 500 fund SPY lost 0.43%.

Nvidia, GE Vernova, Equinix

The technology fund VGT fell 1.61%. Nvidia, 17.2% of the fund, dropped 3.36% and subtracted 0.58 percentage points. Broadcom, Micron, and Advanced Micro Devices fell with it. The PHLX Semiconductor Index dropped 5.9%. The semiconductor fund SMH lost 4.75% and closed 19% below its 52-week high.

That selling did not stop at chips. In the industrials fund XLI, down 1.40%, GE Vernova fell 8.62%, Eaton 7.57%, Vertiv 7.65%, and Caterpillar 4.22%. Those four names accounted for 1.08 percentage points of the decline, about three-quarters of it, and they wiped out Friday's 1.07% bounce. The fund is down 8.5% over one month.

The utilities fund XLU fell 1.33%. Constellation Energy dropped 7.09% and Vistra 5.16%, against 0.83% for NextEra Energy, the fund's largest holding. In the U.S. real estate fund VNQ, Equinix and Digital Realty subtracted 0.43 percentage points of a 0.52% decline.

Meta, Alphabet, Palo Alto Networks

Meta is 18.8% of XLC and rose 2.71%. Alphabet's two share classes are another 18.3% and rose 3.22% and 3.06%. Netflix added 3.77%. Together those positions contributed 1.26 percentage points of the fund's 2.18% gain. Comcast and Charter fell and did not matter.

Inside the same technology fund that fell, Palo Alto Networks jumped 13.1% and CrowdStrike 13.9%, which traded as high as its 52-week peak. Microsoft rose 1.97%. A holder of VGT owned Nvidia's drawdown and a cybersecurity spike in one line.

Eli Lilly, 14.8% of the health care fund XLV, rose 1.98% and led a 1.44% gain. Walmart and Costco did the equivalent job in the consumer staples fund XLP, up 1.23%.

SLB, Baker Hughes, Exxon

The energy fund XLE fell 0.92% on 1.8 times its average volume. The damage was in the service names: SLB dropped 4.89% and Baker Hughes 3.86%. Exxon Mobil and Chevron, 35% of the fund together, fell 0.55% and 0.88%. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $101.94 a barrel, up 1.9%, as of 4:32 p.m. Eastern, with Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline still shut after last week's attacks.

Bank of America's fee warning

Bank of America fell 5.14% after chief executive Brian Moynihan said third-quarter investment-banking fees would drop at least 10% and that sales and trading revenue would be flat. The stock is 5.1% of the financials fund XLF. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley also fell. Visa, Mastercard, and Berkshire Hathaway rose, so the fund lost only 0.33%.

The equal-weight S&P 500 fund RSP gained 0.07%. The day belonged to a handful of names. GE Vernova had booked more than $5 billion of data-center orders in the first half, more than double its 2025 total. That is the spending a slower buildout would have to dent, and Monday's prices ran through the companies that take those orders.

Frequently asked

Why did chip and power stocks fall on the same day?

An essay by Anthropic's chief executive arguing AI labs should slow model development raised the fear of slower spending on data centers, chips, and computer equipment, and traders sold the companies that take those orders.

How did the technology fund fall while some of its holdings soared?

Nvidia, 17.2% of the fund, dropped 3.36% and subtracted 0.58 percentage points, outweighing double-digit gains in Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.

Why did communication services rise?

Meta, Alphabet's two share classes, and Netflix all gained, contributing 1.26 percentage points of the fund's 2.18% advance.

What happened to Bank of America?

It fell 5.14% after its chief executive said third-quarter investment-banking fees would drop at least 10% and that sales and trading revenue would be flat.