Tech Weekly: Nasdaq Logs Fourth Week of Losses as Middle East Tensions Escalate

This week's tech sector performance

Markets were calm at the start of the week after two liquefied petroleum gas tankers bound for India passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday (March 15), effectively cooling oil prices.

In a Monday (March 16) note, veteran Wall Street analyst Ed Yardeni suggested investors were anticipating that supply losses could be offset by alternative pipeline infrastructure. Yardeni further noted that the usual price spikes associated with supply cuts might be offset by a decline in international demand for oil.

Gains in artificial intelligence (AI) stocks allowed indexes to end sharply higher, with the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) seeing its strongest one day gain in over a month. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) was an outperformer in early trading after a report that it was planning workforce cuts to offset heavy AI spending.

Additionally, NVIDIA's (NASDAQ:NVDA) share price was up after CEO Jensen Huang outlined new AI chip components and a very bullish 2026 data center and AI spending outlook.

Caution returned midweek as hotter inflation data and looming interest rate decisions weighed on sentiment. Global stocks drifted lower on Wednesday (March 18) ahead of the US Federal Reserve's meeting. In moves that were widely expected, both the Bank of Canada and the Fed opted to leave rates unchanged.

Markets reacted negatively, already downtrodden by a hotter‑than‑expected producer price index print in the US, and the Fed’s signal that just one rate cut is still planned for the year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) closed at its lowest level of 2026.

A major escalation in the US and Israel’s war with Iran rattled investors as the week continued, causing a slide in global markets on Thursday (March 19). Positive labor sector data landed as a mild positive, but was overshadowed by geopolitics and the Fed’s risk‑off tone. North American markets closed down.

Escalating tensions on Friday (March 20) sparked renewed fears of rising oil prices, inflation and rate hikes. Markets closed down for the fourth week, with the Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) logging a weekly loss of 3.1 percent.

3 tech stocks moving markets this week

Memory storage providers outperformed the week’s oil rout after CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer urged dip buying amid a broad selloff.

1. Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM)

Arm Holdings was the top performer on the Nasdaq-100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX), finishing the week up by 14.29 percent.

2. Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)

Western Digital advanced by 10.2 percent.

3. Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG)

Diamondback Energy rose by 10.09 percent.

Top tech news of the week

• NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced the firm's hardware and software plans to ⁠a large crowd in San Jose, California, at the company’s annual developer conference. He said that the revenue opportunity for NVIDIA's advanced AI chips totals at least US$1 trillion through 2027. During the company’s most recent earnings call, revenue estimates were around US$500 billion for 2026. Shares of NVIDIA briefly jumped on the news, but only traded up 1.4 percent on the first day of the conference. Huang also announced plans to add technology from Groq to NVIDIA's chip systems to handle specialized AI inference tasks like coding. In addition, he said the company will restart manufacturing for its H200 chips for Chinese customers, unveiled the Vera Rubin full-stack platform, introduced DLSS 5 for gaming AI and previewed the Feynman roadmap with agentic AI focus via NemoClaw and new partnerships.

• Meta shares rallied on Monday, helping lift the Nasdaq higher after reports that the company plans to lay off at least 20 percent of its workforce. This week, the firm also announced a new long-term AI infrastructure supply agreement with Dutch AI cloud company Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS). The contract has a value of up to approximately US$27 billion.

• RBC Capital Markets raised its price target for Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) to US$525 from US$425 ahead of the company's earnings report on Wednesday, which beat estimates and delivered an upbeat outlook. The stock closed at a record high, but declined on Thursday. Despite this week’s performance, shares have more than quadrupled year-on-year.

• Cerebras Systems, a chipmaker targeting a possible April initial public offering, said it will integrate its chips into Amazon Web Services data centers as part of a partnership agreement.

• Foxconn Technology (TPE:2354,OTCPL:FXCOF) released its full‑year and Q4 2025 results, showing record annual revenue of about 8.1 trillion New Taiwan dollars, an increase of 18 percent year‑on‑year, driven in large part by AI‑related hardware and server demand. The company also issued a strong revenue forecast, although profitability was softer than expected. Markets gave a mixed reaction.

• The US Department of War released a list of contracts awarded to companies, including a US$20 billion firm‑fixed‑price 10 year contract with private defense tech company Anduril Industries to consolidate the army’s commercial AI‑enabled solutions.

• Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has acquired MotionVFX, a Polish video-editing company. Motion VFX’s tool will be part of Apple’s Final Cut Pro, part of the company’s new Creator Studio subscription.

• OpenAI is reportedly in discussions with private equity firms to form a joint venture valued at roughly US$10 billion to support the adoption of AI software.

• Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) gave two major updates. First, the firm expanded its partnership with NVIDIA, aiming to debut a global autonomous vehicle fleet powered by NVIDIA's software by 2027. Additionally, Uber revealed plans to invest as much as US$1.25 billion in Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) to launch electric robotaxis in 25 cities, with deployment slated to begin in 2028.

• Boston Dynamics said it will utilize foundation models from FieldAI to enhance its Spot robot dogs, with an initial focus on applications for construction sites.

• Swarmer (NASDAQ:SWMR), a high-profile Ukrainian defense tech company, made its debut on the Nasdaq. It surged 520 percent on its first day of trading.

• Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) acquired robotics startup Rivr. The purchase is intended to support its efforts to automate package deliveries. Additionally, CEO Jeff Bezos is reportedly in talks to raise US$100 billion for a new fund to automate manufacturing companies with AI.

Tech ETF performance

Tech exchange-traded funds (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) declined by 1.95 percent, while the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXQ) lost 1.91 percent.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) also decreased by 2.7 percent.

Tech news to watch next week

High-profile interviews at the CERAWeek gathering in Houston next week, including with US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, could influence markets.

AI's energy demands and potential are slated to be a major topic.

Investors will also be eyeing Xanadu Quantum Technologies’ SPAC merger with Crane Harbor Acquisition (NASDAQ:CHAC), valued at roughly US$3 billion. The deal is set to close on March 26, with trading starting on March 27 on the Nasdaq and TSX under the ticker symbol XNDU.

Additionally, Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) Terafab project, which will make AI chips, will launch next week, according to CEO Elon Musk, who buoyed markets after sharing the news via X on Monday.