Wall Street suffered a sharp S&P 500 selloff on Thursday, May 15, with the benchmark index dropping 1.24% to close at 7,408.50 -- just one day after posting its first-ever close above the 7,500 level. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.54% to 26,225.14, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 537 points, or 1.07%, to settle at 49,526.17. The broad-based decline wiped out billions in market capitalization and marked the worst single-day drop for U.S. equities in over two weeks.
The selloff was driven by a confluence of headwinds: surging Treasury yields hit multi-month highs, oil prices spiked above $109 per barrel on a U.S.-Iran deal, and a summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ended without any major policy breakthroughs. Tech and semiconductor stocks bore the brunt of selling pressure, with Nvidia dropping 4.4% and Intel retreating more than 6%.
What happened
The session started under pressure after the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.59%, its highest level since February 2025. The 2-year note ended at 4.09%, also a multi-month high. Rising yields increase borrowing costs and make risk assets less attractive relative to fixed income, a dynamic that hit growth and technology stocks hardest. WTI crude oil surged past $109 per barrel following developments in U.S.-Iran negotiations, stoking fresh inflation fears among investors who had been pricing in continued disinflation.
The Trump-Xi summit in Beijing, which markets had watched closely for signs of trade de-escalation, concluded without substantive agreements on tariffs, technology transfer, or market access. Traders who had positioned for a positive outcome unwound those bets aggressively. The semiconductor sector was hit particularly hard: Advanced Micro Devices dropped 5.7%, Micron Technology fell 6.6%, and Cerebras Systems -- which had surged 68% the prior day after its Nasdaq debut -- gave back 10%. Even Apple, which had been buoyed by Intel foundry deal reports, closed lower.
The broader market saw 380 S&P 500 constituents close in the red. All 11 sectors finished lower, with information technology and energy leading the decline. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) spiked as options traders scrambled for downside protection. Precious metals also sold off, with spot gold falling 1.43% to $4,583.02 per ounce and silver dropping more than 5% to $79.07 per ounce, suggesting a broad risk-off move rather than a rotation into safe havens.