Global markets rebound as investors regroup after tech sell-off

Global markets tried to regain their footing on Tuesday after a bruising sell-off in technology shares, but the recovery looked more like a stress test of investor confidence than a clean turnaround. U.S. stock futures were broadly higher, with Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.7%, while European tech stocks clawed back some losses and South Korea’s KOSPI jumped more than 8% after the prior day’s rout.

The swing in Seoul underscored how quickly sentiment had turned. Reuters reported that the KOSPI plunged more than 8% on Monday, June 8, triggering circuit breakers after strong U.S. jobs data lifted bets that the Federal Reserve could raise rates. That rebound followed a violent week for chipmakers, when U.S.-traded semiconductor stocks lost more than $1 trillion in market value on Friday, June 5, dragging down AI favorites including Nvidia, Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices.

The sell-off had begun with Broadcom’s fiscal second-quarter results on Wednesday, June 3. The company missed revenue estimates, kept its AI chip sales outlook unchanged and did not raise its full-year target of $100 billion in AI chip sales. Reuters reported that Broadcom shares fell more than 13% in extended trading after the report, a sharp warning that the AI trade had moved far ahead of any easy earnings narrative. By the end of the week, the pullback had spread across the United States, Asia and Europe, leaving investors to question whether the enthusiasm that pushed markets higher in May had become too one-sided.

Policy uncertainty is now doing as much to shape trading as company fundamentals. Reuters polling in early June showed a majority of economists still expected the Fed to hold its key rate for the rest of 2026, but prediction markets and interest-rate futures had started pricing in at least one rate hike by year-end after the May jobs report. That shift matters because higher-for-longer rates threaten the valuation support behind expensive growth stocks, especially in artificial intelligence.

Energy markets are adding another layer of risk. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said on June 9 that global oil markets remained highly volatile because the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz had now lasted more than three months. With inflation fears still alive, traders are watching whether the recent bounce is a real stabilization or just a brief pause before another bout of volatility. That question sits in sharp relief against the backdrop of the S&P 500’s record close above 7,600 on June 2, only days before the tech sell-off turned confidence into caution.