A broad semiconductor selloff sparked by Broadcom earnings is hitting the total market ETF hard
VTI investors are feeling the pain of a broad chip sector meltdown — and the damage runs deep.
The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF dropped 1.5% on Friday, June 5, pulled lower by a sweeping selloff across the semiconductor sector. The fund, which tracks the entire domestic stock market, is particularly vulnerable when tech giants move in the same direction — and today, nearly all of them did.
What triggered the VTI slide
The immediate catalyst was AMD, which fell 7.1% on the day and served as the single largest drag on VTI’s performance. But AMD was not alone. The broader semiconductor sector faced a sharp downturn following Broadcom’s second-quarter earnings announcement, which disappointed investors regarding its AI chip business outlook.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell as chip stocks sold off sharply following the disappointing earnings from Broadcom, with the semiconductor sector decline pulling the broader market lower even as a stronger-than-expected jobs report pushed Treasury yields higher.
That combination — weak chip guidance and rising yields — created a double headwind for growth-heavy funds like VTI.
The biggest contributors to today’s losses
The selloff was broad-based, with nearly every major tech holding inside VTI moving lower. Here is a breakdown of the key contributors and their respective weights in the fund
- NVDA (6.6% of VTI holdings) fell 4.3%
- MSFT (4.4%) fell 1.7%
- AVGO (2.9%) fell 5.6%
- META (1.9%) fell 2.4%
- TSLA (1.5%) fell 4.1%
- AMD (0.8%) fell 7.1%
- MU (0.8%) fell 6.7%
- INTC (0.5%) fell 7.3%
- LRCX (0.5%) fell 5.4%
- ORCL (0.4%) fell 7.7%
When holdings representing a combined double-digit percentage of a fund all decline simultaneously, the result is a swift and meaningful drag on the ETF’s overall price.
AMD insider activity raises eyebrows
Beyond the daily price movement, AMD’s insider trading data adds another layer of context for investors watching the stock. Over the past six months, AMD insiders have conducted 83 open-market trades — all of them sales, with zero purchases recorded.
CEO Lisa T. Su led the activity, selling 460,000 shares for an estimated $126.2 million. Chief Technology Officer Mark D. Papermaster sold approximately 70,756 shares for an estimated $21.3 million, while EVP Forrest Eugene Norrod offloaded roughly 38,937 shares for an estimated $12.6 million. CFO Jean X. Hu sold approximately 19,956 shares for an estimated $4 million during the same period. EVP and Chief Sales Officer Paul Darren Grasby sold 7,500 shares for an estimated $1.5 million, and SVP and General Counsel Ava Hahn sold approximately 2,728 shares for an estimated $629,000.
Insider selling at this volume does not always signal trouble — executives regularly sell shares for personal financial planning. But the complete absence of purchases over a six-month window is a pattern worth watching, particularly on a day when AMD is already down more than 7%.
Wall Street still bullish on AMD
Despite the selling pressure, analyst sentiment on AMD remains largely positive. Three firms have issued buy-equivalent ratings in recent months, with zero sell ratings on record. Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley set the most aggressive price target at $665, while Mizuho’s Vijay Rakesh pegged the stock at $615 and TD Cowen’s Joshua Buchalter set a target of $600 — all issued as recently as June 1. Evercore ISI Group’s Mark Lipacis set a target of $579, and Citigroup’s Atif Malik followed with a $460 target in May.
The median price target across 29 analysts sits at $450, suggesting that even at current depressed levels, Wall Street sees meaningful long-term upside in AMD despite the near-term volatility driven by the Broadcom-triggered chip selloff.
For VTI holders, today’s decline is a sharp reminder of how concentrated semiconductor exposure inside a total-market fund can amplify losses when the chip sector stumbles. When the names driving that exposure all move lower in a single session, the damage to a broad ETF like VTI adds up faster than most investors expect.
Source: Quiver Quantitative