US Markets Today: Apple-Nvidia Crown Swap, Semiconductor Bear Market, and Why Wall Street Fell This Week

Apple Took Over Nvidia

Apple overtook Nvidia intraday on Friday after hitting an all-time high in early trading, with Nvidia briefly trading near 20 times forward earnings, its cheapest valuation in about seven years, even below Hershey's 21x multiple.

The trigger was a broad chip selloff, not Apple-specific strength: the switchover had more to do with Nvidia dropping than Apple rallying, as Apple's shares barely moved while Nvidia dropped more than 3%.

Apple last held the top spot in April 2025, so this ends nearly a year of Nvidia dominance.

Earlier in the day, Nvidia's stock sank as much as 4.6% in the opening 30 minutes of trading, at one point pushing its valuation below $4.8 trillion, while Apple touched an all-time high of $333.74 per share. The swing had more to do with Nvidia's decline than any dramatic rally in Apple shares, which barely moved through the morning session

Broader Market Close: Indexes Post Weekly Losses

US benchmark indexes closed lower on Friday and finished the week in the red, led by the semiconductor-driven tech slide. Dow Jones Industrial Average: fell 406.55 points, or 0.77%, to close at 52,146.42. S&P 500 dropped 1.01% to end at 7,457.69. Nasdaq Composite: declined 1.4% to close at 25,520.24.

For the week, the S&P 500 lost about 1.6%, the Nasdaq slid 2.9%, and the Dow was down roughly 0.9%, one of the weaker weeks for US equities since the April 2025 tariff-driven selloff.

Sector performance was uneven. Energy was the sole gaining sector on the day, lifted by a spike in crude oil prices tied to escalating US-Iran tensions.

Elsewhere in markets, gold prices rose 0.57% to $4,010.55 as investors sought safety, while the 10-year Treasury yield edged up slightly to 4.55%.

Friday's session capped a turbulent stretch for US markets. Thursday saw the Dow slip 0.2% to 52,553.32, the Nasdaq fall 1.5% to 25,881.95, and the S&P 500 dip 0.5% to 7,533.77, weighed down by technology shares even as the second-quarter earnings season got underway.

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, markets had rallied on cooler-than-expected June inflation data, with the S&P 500 up 0.38% and the Nasdaq gaining 0.9%, boosted at the time by a rebound in semiconductor stocks