finance
Semiconductor ETF Outperforms Software ETF by 8.4 Points in Record One-Day Gap
U.S. semiconductor stocks outperformed software stocks by 8.4 percentage points on Thursday, marking the largest one-day gap on record. Chip indexes and individual companies posted strong gains, while software ETFs and select firms faced declines. The rally highlights ongoing strength in the semiconductor sector amid recent milestones.
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U.S. 4 percentage points on Thursday, the biggest one-day outperformance on record. The ratio of semiconductor stocks relative to software stocks has been tracked since April 2025.
This outperformance followed a week where the software versus semis ratio posted its biggest one-day drop on record. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) slid over 5% on Thursday, its worst day since the April 4 post-”Liberation Day” sell-off. IGV finished slightly positive on the week but is up less than the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) over the past five days.
SOXX rose 11% over the same period. IGV found buyers near $82, its 50-day moving average and the 50% retracement of the move from its April 10 low to Wednesday’s high. ServiceNow (NOW) had its worst day ever on Thursday.
GitLab (GTLB) hit an all-time low this week, while Cognizant (CTSH) and Fair Isaac (FICO) made fresh multimonth lows. The PHLX Semiconductor index (^SOX) is on an 18-day winning streak, with the past 13 sessions marking record highs. The index is up 40% in April 2026, its best month since February 2000.
Nvidia (NVDA) cleared $5 trillion in market cap this past week. Intel (INTC) rose 24% on Friday, its largest gain since October 1987, and cleared its dot-com highs after earnings. Texas Instruments (TXN) jumped the most since 2000 after beating on its earnings on Wednesday.
Arm (ARM) surged over 40% this week, its biggest increase in two years. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained 25% this week. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), Qualcomm (QCOM), and KLA (KLAC) each rose in the high single digits.
