Nasdaq 100 Drops, Intel Crashes 7% On Rate-Hike Fears – State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (ARCA:

U.S. equities pulled back from record highs Friday as higher oil prices and a bond-market rout reignited fears of interest-rate hikes, sending Treasury yields sharply higher and igniting a broad-based de-risking that hit AI hyperscalers and small caps the hardest.

No concrete agreements emerged from this week’s summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, leaving a U.S.–China diplomatic stalemate as an added drag on risk sentiment.

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Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed with no imminent breakthrough on a U.S.–Iran deal, keeping a war-risk premium firmly embedded in energy markets.

Brent crude jumped 3.6% to $109.51, while the WTI benchmark soared to 4.4% to $105.60 a barrel. The 10-year Treasury yield surged roughly 10 basis points to 4.58%, its highest level in a year, while the 2-year climbed six basis points to 4.09%.

The 30-year yield jumped eight basis points to 5.12%. Traders are now fully priced out of a Federal Reserve rate cut for the remainder of 2026 and have begun discounting more than a 50% probability of an outright rate hike before year-end, with one full hike now fully priced into the curve by March 2027.

Across U.S. equity markets by midday Friday, losses were broad-based and concentrated in the high-momentum stocks.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.6% to 29,115, and the small-cap Russell 2000 was the day’s biggest loser, sliding 2.4%.

The Cboe Volatility Index — also known as the market’s fear gauge — climbed about 6.6% to 18.4

Precious metals were the day’s other casualty as a firming dollar and rising real yields triggered a violent unwind. Gold tumbled 2.6% to $4,532 an ounce, while silver collapsed 8.8% to $76, its largest single-day decline in months.