Semiconductor ETF Up 7.5% as Software ETF Soars 14% in Best Week Since 2001
The iShares Semiconductor ETF, which includes AMD, climbed about 7.5% over the week, trailing the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF’s 14% surge—the strongest five-day run for software stocks in 25 years. Despite these rebounds, semiconductor and software leaders remain substantially below their all-time highs, signaling limited recovery.
1. Sector Performance Contrast
Over the past five trading days, the iShares Semiconductor ETF rose approximately 7.5%, while the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF surged about 14%, marking software’s strongest weekly performance since 2001. This shift highlights a rotation within technology, with investors favoring higher-beta growth software names over chipmakers during this rebound.
2. Major Stock Movements
Oracle led the software cohort with a gain exceeding 25%, and other cloud-focused names such as RingCentral, Datadog, Snowflake, Shopify, Atlassian and ServiceNow each climbed at least 15%. Semiconductors also rallied, but none matched the breadth or magnitude seen among top software performers.
3. Recovery Status
Despite recent rallies, many leading software and semiconductor stocks remain well below their record highs. Microsoft sits about 24% off its peak, while Snowflake, ServiceNow, HubSpot and Intuit are still down single digits from their 52-week highs.