Tech Weekly: Hawkish Fed Sparks Mid-week Tech Selloff

This week's tech sector performance

Wall Street surged on Monday (June 15) on news of a potential US - Iran peace agreement and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices sharply lower and lifting investor sentiment.

The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) and Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) both closed higher, with the tech-heavy index leading the rally.

Markets were mixed on Tuesday (June 16), with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) hitting a second consecutive record close as technology stocks put pressure on the Nasdaq while the Federal Reserve met for its first meeting under new Chairman Kevin Warsh.

Rates held, as expected, but hawkishness triggered a sell-off on Wednesday (June 17). Markets are now pricing in a hike by October.

After Wednesday’s sell-off, tech stocks led a sharp rebound on Thursday (June 18), finishing the holiday-shortened week in positive territory after President Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a Memorandum of Understanding just before dinner at the Palace of Versailles in France during the G7 Summit, effectively extending the ceasefire for 60 days and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

However, optimism about a quick end to the Middle East war collapsed after a planned meeting between Iranian negotiators and US Vice President J.D. Vance in Switzerland on Friday (June 19) was postponed amidst Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

In Canada, trading activity was muted on Friday while US indices were closed for Juneteenth.

3 tech stocks moving markets this week

This week's top tech stock movers, according to TradingView data, were:

1. Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)

Western Digital saw its share price rise 49.91 percent this week.

2. Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM)

Arm Holdings saw a 39.77 percent improvement.

3. Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK)

Sandisk saw a gain of 30.65 percent.

Top tech news of the week

• Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) is reportedly in talks to buy AI chip startup Tenstorrent for between US$8 billion and US$10 billion.

• SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPXC) announced a US$60 billion all-stock deal on Tuesday to officially purchase vibe-coding startup Cursor. Following an extended rise in its share price early in the week, the company saw a modest pullback from Wednesday onward, ending the shortened week at US$185.

• NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) raised US$25 billion in new debt on Monday, the company’s first corporate bond sale since 2021.

• Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) rallied on Monday after TD Cowen analyst Krish Sankar called memory’s role in AI buildout “structural, not cyclical,” raised the company’s price target from US$660 to US$1,500 while maintaining a Buy rating and delivered a bullish outlook for the company.

• Kazakhstan signed a package of agreements with Firebird and NVIDIA this week for computing projects involving NVIDIA GPUs that could bring up to US$10 billion in multi-phase investment, including plans for a major AI data center called "Data Center Valley" in Ekibastuz with 125 megawatts initially, deploying roughly 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs, and potentially scaling to 1 gigawatt with US$3 billion in annual export revenue.

• Webull (NASDAQ:BULL) Canada introduced 24/5 overnight trading, using Blue Ocean ATS and Bruce Markets to give Canadian investors access to more than 12,000 US ETFs and stocks, provide real-time reactions to news and earnings and complimentary level-one market data. “Speed matters in investing. When a company reports earnings after hours or a macro event breaks overnight, investors who can only trade during regular sessions are left reacting the following morning, often after significant price movement has already occurred. With 24/5 trading, our users can respond to those announcements and developments in real time, manage their exposure, and make decisions on their own timeline rather than waiting for the market to open,” Michael Constantino, CEO of Webull Canada, said in a statement shared with INN.

• Tech journalist and Ed Zitron obtained and shared leaked audited financial statements from OpenAI for 2024 and 2025, which revealed OpenAI's revenue grew from US$3.7 billion to US$13.07 billion while losses grew from US$5.09 billion to US$38.53 billion.

• General Motors (NYSE:GM) announced a collaboration with Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT)to manufacture munitions domestically.

• Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) saw its stock price surge on Thursday after President Trump said the company would collaborate with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to design and manufacture semiconductors domestically.

• Canadian space technology firm MDA Space (NYSE:MDA) agreed to buy US- based Blue Canyon Technologies from RTX's (NYSE:RTX) Raytheon business for US$620 million in cash.

Tech ETF performance

Tech ETFs track baskets of major tech stocks, meaning their performance helps investors gauge the overall performance of the niches they cover.

This week, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) advanced by 9.53 percent, while the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXQ) gained 9.33 percent.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) gained 8.79 percent.

Tech news to watch next week

Tech investors will be focused on Micron Technology earnings reports, with the chip maker due to report its Q3 earnings on Wednesday (June 24) after the close. Investors will be watching for signs of sustained AI-driven memory demand and HBM capacity through 2026.

Additionally, BlackBerry will report its earnings on Thursday (June 25) at 8:00 a.m. EST. Thursday will also see the final Q1 GDP and Core PCE inflation data, which could reset Fed rate expectations for 2026 and tech sector valuations.

Uncertainty around the temporary peace framework remains, and any renewed Strait of Hormuz disruption could push oil up, triggering risk-off sentiment and pressuring tech valuations.