Finance

U.S. benchmarks finished in negative territory following the Federal Reserve's restrictive policy commentary, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the day's declines by shedding roughly 0.5%. Despite the Friday pullback, Wall Street managed a positive performance over the weekly stretch, as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both advanced about 0.5%. Stronger-than-anticipated corporate earnings reports earlier in the period helped cushion the market's ultimate retraction.

The prospect of elevated borrowing costs sent short-term U.S. government bond yields higher, with the 2-year Treasury yield jumping significantly to hit 4.348%. Concurrently, the U.S. dollar index booked its strongest daily appreciation in two and a half months against major foreign currencies. The sudden rotation into yielding assets and greenback strength sparked a sharp selloff in precious metals, forcing spot gold prices down over 3%.

Marvell Technology shares plunged 10% despite a boosted revenue forecast, reflecting heightened investor anxiety over the execution timeline for its artificial intelligence chip agreement with Google. Although industry bellwether Nvidia notched positive performance for the week following solid earnings, the broader chip sector faced visible pressure. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF slipped more than 3% across the multi-day period, underscoring the exceptionally high performance bar currently set for technology infrastructure companies.