SPDR® S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) — Technical state

Long reads

• Two and a half months of lower highs, then a second low that held above the first — and on Friday the oscillator turned.Chart Pick · 4 Sept 2026Across the funds, SOXX is up about 3%, SMH and the equal-weight XSD about 2.5%, this fund about 2%.
• Korea, Taiwan, Japan — Three Markets Are Carrying the WorldWeekly Signal · 16 Aug 2026Both still sit far ahead for the year, XSD +69.2% against SMH +63.2%, but the ordering that marked healthy risk appetite inverted in exactly the week the tape went up.
• Software vs Semis — The Tape Split in TwoWeekly Signal · 5 Jul 2026Inside tech: software week, semi wreck The tech ETF shelf split down the middle: ETF Week Software (IGV) +6.1% Cloud (CLOU) +4.9% Fabless (SMHX) −1.9% Small-cap semis (XSD) −2.8% Semis (SMH) −3.2% Semis (SOXX) −4.0% A ten-point weekly gap…
• When You Think the Rally Pauses, Sell Calls — Not Your ETFStrategy · 10 Jun 2026A heat map like Closelook's KW21 tech-thematics screen is invaluable for seeing where the run is — semis blistering (XSD +87.8%, SOXX +78.4%, SMH +60.0% YTD), data-center, AI, and quantum hot (DTCR +44.4%, WTAI +42.8%, QTUM +39.9%), while…
• Much More Than Semis — The Broadening Tech BullWeekly Signal · 4 May 2026Last week delivered a rare breadth signal: eight ETFs in the table below printed new 52-week highs , some of them all-time highs (SMH, XSD, AIQ, DTCR, WTAI, QTUM, GRID — plus LIT at a fresh 52W high but still ~9% below its November 2021…
• Market Structure — Structural Awareness in an Asynchronous MarketReport · 17 Mar 2026XSD Equal-Weight Statistically submerged by noisy small-caps.

101 and glossary

• Where a Fab Dollar Goes101Closelooknet View The complex at the decision zone, July 16, 2026 — SMH, SMHX, XSD and TSMC each sitting on the line that grades the correction.

Dailies

• AI Build-Out — Spotting the 2027 SlowdownDaily Pulse · 7 Oct 2026Nvidia and AMD closed at records on Tuesday, but our Rubin Build-Out index , where 126 hardware companies count equally, is still 11.3% below its 22 June high, and the equal-weight chip fund XSD is 14.1% below its June high.
• Storage — Seagate −9.2%, Western Digital −6.9% on a record day for the S&P 500 and the NasdaqMorning 10 · 7 Oct 2026The equal-weight chip fund XSD gained 1.1%, while SMH (−0.2%) and SOXX (flat) did not move.
• AI Hardware — Not One TradeDaily Pulse · 6 Oct 2026The equal-weight XSD, where every chip maker counts the same, is 15.0% below its June high and pressing on its 546 line.
• Nasdaq — record close at 27,477 while the chip funds sit 5–15% below their June peaksMorning 10 · 6 Oct 2026The chip makers as a group have not followed: the semiconductor index SOX is still 10.0% below its 22 June record, the equal-weight chip fund XSD 15.0% below its June high, Micron 12.3% and Broadcom 24.7% below theirs.
• S&P 500 — record high as Marvell jumps 7.6% on its investor day; chip-machine makers slideMidday 10 · 6 Oct 2026The equal-weight chip fund XSD (+1.5%) does better than the big-name funds, a sign the chip gains are spreading beyond the leaders.
• Brazil — stocks jump 13% after Bolsonaro leads round one; US 10-year hits 5.35%, stocks rise anywayMidday 10 · 5 Oct 2026This morning's Pulse in New York: TSMC's US shares +2.7% to $485.44, but chip funds flat to lower (SOXX −0.16%, XSD −0.53%), KLA −1.08%, Applied −0.57%, ASML −0.31%
• Chips up again, software down again — Friday's split is turning into a trendMidday 10 · 8 Sept 2026On Friday it was the strongest share in the Dow; today the gains sit in Intel, AMD, Arm, the equipment makers and the optical names, and the equal-weight chip fund XSD is up 2.5% against 1.9% for the cap-weighted SMH.
• Chips jump 3% while software falls 2% — the hot jobs report has split the tech trade in twoMidday 10 · 4 Sept 2026The semiconductor ETFs are up hard: SOXX about 3%, SMH and the equal-weight XSD around 2.5%, and the fabless fund SMHX about 2%.