Semiconductors Leading Nasdaq's Bounce-Back: ETFs in Focus

Market Reaction to Tariffs - U.S. stocks experienced significant declines following President Trump's announcement of 10% tariffs on all trading partners, leading to corrections and bear markets for major equity indexes, with the Nasdaq entering bear market territory [1] - On April 9, Trump announced a temporary reduction in tariff rates to 10% for 90 days, resulting in a historic surge across U.S. markets [2] Market Performance - The S&P 500 surged over 9%, marking its third-largest single-day gain since World War II, while the Dow posted its strongest percentage gain since March 2020, and the Nasdaq Composite had its best single-day performance since January 2001 [3] - The Nasdaq-100-based ETF, Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (QQQ), increased by approximately 12% on April 9 [3] Semiconductor Sector Performance - Semiconductor stocks were particularly notable, with six of the top eight performers in the Nasdaq-100 being semiconductor companies, and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) advancing 17.2% on April 9 [4] - Top-performing chip stocks included Microchip Technology Inc (up 27.1%), Arm Holdings PLC (up 24.8%), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (up 23.8%), ON Semiconductor Corp (up 22.7%), Marvell Technology Inc (up 21.9%), and NXP Semiconductors NV (up 21.1%) [5] AI Market Developments - Companies are increasingly showcasing their AI product roadmaps, positively impacting chip stocks, with OpenAI valued at $300 million in a new$40 billion fundraising round led by SoftBank [6] - OpenAI's CEO announced that GPT-5 is set to launch in "a few months," indicating advancements beyond initial expectations [7] - Meta launched the first version of its open-source Llama 4 AI model family, with the most powerful model still under development [8] - Other key players in AI include Google with Gemini 2.5, Anthropic with Claude AI models, Elon Musk's xAI with Grok models, and China's DeepSeek preparing new open-source models [9] Semiconductor Industry Challenges - NVIDIA, a leading semiconductor company, faced a 17% stock drop in 2025, with concerns over margin pressure as it scales production of next-gen Blackwell AI chips [11] - In 2023 and 2024, semiconductor stocks outperformed software companies, but interest in data center infrastructure stocks has cooled in 2025, leading to increased scrutiny of AI stocks [13] - The U.S. is tightening restrictions on semiconductor exports to China, particularly targeting high-performance chips for AI systems and advanced computing [13] Investment Opportunities - Despite challenges, developments in the AI field have kept the semiconductor sector active, with recent valuation corrections seen as beneficial [14] - Investing in semiconductor ETFs such as SMH, iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD), and Invesco Semiconductors ETF (PSI) could be advantageous if market recovery continues [14]