Tech selloff weighs down Wall Street as bond yields climb

Tech selloff weighs down Wall Street as bond yields climb

By Sinéad Carew and Shashwat Chauhan

Tue August 18, 2026  

As markets go, bonds tend to run inversely to equities given the simple fact that equities are where you go for growth when there is good news and bonds are a place of retreat from bad news. Today the bond markets climbed suggesting that the equity markets may be in trouble and that caused a flight from all three indexes to the 30-year Treasuries. And with the war showing no progress towards peace, that shot the oil market up which further increased bond yields which further raised the cost of borrowing.  

Since tech and especially AI depends so heavily on borrowing, when those costs increase, tech gets hurt. Investors flocked into defensive sectors like healthcare and consumer staples. Of course, energy also outperformed. Home Depot edged up a bit after beating Q2 estimates. Still coming is Walmart plus the minutes from the Fed July meeting. The next big test is Nvidia’s Q2 which comes next week, but even Nvidia slumped today. At 14.86 billion, volume remains well below the 16.88 average. 

DJ: 53,459.78  -272.63       NAS: 26,644.91  -84.25         S&P: 7,745.06  -40.70             8/17

DJ: 53,343.40  -116.38       NAS: 26,289.71  -355.20       S&P: 7,691.76  -53.30             8/18

Tue 8-18-26 4:03 pm Tech selloff weighs down Wall Street as bond yields climb | Reuters