Chips and software off 3.5-7.2% as 10-year Treasury holds at 5.10%

The 10-year Treasury yield at 5.10% took a week of semiconductor and software gains with it on Friday: nine large-cap names fell 3.5-7.2%, the broader software sector lost an estimated $260 billion in market value, and VIX settled at 16.5. Defense held.

The semiconductor complex

$AMD fell 6.0%. The Federal Reserve's sustained high-rate stance raises the cost of financing fabrication infrastructure, and a Delaware jury's ruling that Arm breached its Qualcomm license agreement layered additional IP-ecosystem uncertainty onto an already stressed sector. $QCOM dropped 3.5% even though the verdict nominally favored its position — traders read the litigation as systemic risk to the chip licensing model, not a win. $INTC lost 5.8%, with its costly in-house fab structure cited as a specific liability when capital is expensive. $AMAT fell 4.8% after hotter-than-expected inflation data compounded fears that AI-linked capital expenditure will slow. $AVGO dropped 4.5% after CEO Hock Tan warned publicly that funding shortages — not chip supply — are the binding constraint on AI spending.

Software and platforms

$PLTR led the session at -7.2%. The stock had reached a record high earlier in the week; by Friday the broader software sell-off had erased that gain. At roughly 170 times earnings, Palantir carries little cushion against a rate-driven discount-rate reset. $ORCL fell 4.6%, weighed by reports that Project Jupiter — its AI data center expansion — faces delays and rising funding costs, a concern against a $664 billion cloud backlog that has not yet converted to revenue. $META dropped 3.7% with no new company-specific catalyst; Q3 earnings arrive Wednesday. $COIN slid 5.8%, tracking risk-off pressure on crypto-adjacent equities; a new Marqeta stablecoin-card partnership announced during the session did not offset macro headwinds.

The outlier and the earnings shelf

$RTX gained 3.7%, the session's clearest counterpoint. The company enters its Q3 report with four consecutive earnings beats on record and sustained global defense demand as a structural tailwind; sectors that depend less on debt financing held up while rate-sensitive names sold. $XOM shared its third-quarter earnings outlook today; the full quarterly figures warrant a dedicated review as they become available.

Filings desk. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon sold 8,232 shares at $178.40 each ($1.47 million) on October 15, simultaneously receiving 19,053 shares and 19,053 RSUs as compensation — routine portfolio management, per the Form 4. Walmart CEO John Furner sold 13,125 shares ($1.58 million) under a Rule 10b5-1 plan disclosed in the August 2026 quarterly filing. Neither transaction reflects a change in either company's operational trajectory.

What we set aside. Four proxy and governance filings were reviewed and held — board mechanics without market-moving content. Three filings were current in date but described events older than 36 hours. $DLR and $WELL produced no substantive news in the review window.

The desk is watching whether the 10-year yield sustains above 5.10% into next week, with $RTX's Q3 report and $META's Wednesday earnings the next hard dates on the calendar.