Tech and biotech led the week while energy-linked groups broke sharply lower, leaving the broader tape constructive but increasingly selective.

• Weekly leaders: XLK +4.49%, XLI +3.29%, NASDAQ 100 +3.26%.
• Weekly laggards: Silver -7.52%, XLE -5.86%, Gold -3.74%.
• Broad sector outperformance versus the S&P 500 came from Tech, Industrials, Utilities, and Financials.
• Valuation remains a constraint in the background, with the S&P 500 forward P/E at 22.51.

The past week favored growth and cyclical quality over defensives and commodity exposure. The S&P 500 rose 1.44%, the NASDAQ 100 gained 3.26%, and the Dow added 1.41%, with leadership concentrated in Tech at +4.49% and Industrials at +3.29%.

Under the surface, the move was highly selective. Semiconductors stood out at +8.27%, Disruptive Innovation gained 6.27%, and Biotech rose 6.01%, while Energy fell 5.86%, Oil Services dropped 9.48%, and Space sank 11.65%. Macro conditions stayed broadly supportive rather than stress-heavy, with VIX at 16.78, a positive yield curve at 0.27, and high-yield spreads still tight at 2.63.

• AI infrastructure remained the cleanest upside narrative, with chip and related supply-chain names drawing attention.
• A reported long-term TSM-AMKR partnership highlighted advanced packaging as an important sub-theme inside semiconductors.
• Commodity-linked weakness was broad: XLE -5.86%, OIH -9.48%, gold -3.74%, silver -7.52%.
• Cloud and software did not participate to the same degree, showing that investors favored hardware-linked AI leverage over broader application software.

The main driver of last week’s advance was a renewed appetite for AI and semiconductor exposure. Recent reporting pointed to continued heavy capital-spending plans from large technology buyers and to a meaningful packaging and manufacturing tie-up involving TSM, reinforcing the market’s view that the AI buildout is still feeding through the chip supply chain rather than stalling at the headline GPU layer.

At the same time, the lagging side of the tape reflected a clear unwind in commodity-sensitive exposure. Energy and oil-services weakness lined up with a drop in both gold and silver, suggesting that investors spent the week leaning back into growth duration and away from inflation-hedge and hard-asset trades. The constructive regime from prior reports still fits, but the week’s action argues for selectivity because leadership narrowed into a few high-beta innovation themes while software and cloud lagged.

• Strongest micro-theme: AI semiconductor supply chain, led by packaging and manufacturing adjacency around TSM and AMKR.
• Biotech strength and ARKK outperformance point to improving risk appetite for idiosyncratic growth stories.
• Weakest industry pocket: Oil services, with OIH down 9.48%, amplifying the broader energy selloff.
• Cloud computing and software lagged even as semis rallied, a sign of bifurcation within technology leadership.

The strongest refined theme was clearly semiconductors, where the market appeared to be trading AI infrastructure and packaging leverage rather than the whole tech complex indiscriminately. Reporting tied AMKR’s surge to a 10-year partnership with TSM, which fits the week’s outsized SMH gain and the broader strength in Robotics & AI and disruptive-growth vehicles.

Biotech also reasserted itself with XBI up 6.01%, while ARKK gained 6.27%, signaling a broader rebound in high-beta innovation exposure. On the weak side, Energy and Oil Services were the clearest source of pressure, and the gap between strong semis and weak cloud/software suggests investors favored nearer-term capex beneficiaries over longer-duration software narratives. Space was the sharpest standout decliner, but the broader weekly message is that the market rewarded tangible infrastructure and punished harder-to-underwrite speculative pockets.

• Berkshire’s top five reported holdings were APPLE, AMERICAN EXPRESS, COCA-COLA, BANK OF AMERICA, and CHEVRON.
• New positions versus the prior report included CHEVRON, CHUBB, SIRIUSXM, and DELTA AIR LINES.
• Notable adds included OCCIDENTAL +58% to $17.2B and ALPHABET +179% to $15.6B.
• Notable trims included CONSTELLATION BRANDS -95%, CAPITAL ONE -25%, and NUCOR -37%.

The clearest primary institutional read came from Berkshire Hathaway’s latest 13F-HR, which still shows a mega-cap, cash-generative core but also reveals meaningful cyclical and energy exposure. Top holdings remained concentrated in APPLE, AMERICAN EXPRESS, COCA-COLA, BANK OF AMERICA, and CHEVRON, while the filing also showed a 58% increase in OCCIDENTAL and a 179% increase in ALPHABET.

That mix is notable against this week’s tape. Berkshire’s bigger ALPHABET stake aligns with the market’s renewed preference for large-cap technology and AI-adjacent growth, while its heavy CHEVRON and OCCIDENTAL exposure ran against a week in which energy and oil services materially underperformed. The filing also showed trims to CAPITAL ONE and NUCOR, which suggests some pruning of cyclical financial and industrial exposure even as the broader market stayed constructive.

• SMH gained 8.27% for the week, the strongest refined-sector standout in the report.
• The reported TSM-AMKR relationship sharpened focus on advanced packaging as a tradeable sub-theme.
• Robotics & AI also outperformed at +4.33%, reinforcing the infrastructure-led growth bid.
• A durable next leg would likely require participation beyond chips alone, especially from software and cloud names that lagged this week.

Semiconductors deserve the deepest focus going into the next market open because they were not just another strong sector; they were the week’s most important leadership engine. SMH outperformed the S&P 500 by 6.84 points, and the most concrete fresh narrative in the news flow centered on supply-chain reinforcement through packaging and manufacturing relationships around TSM and AMKR.

What matters next is whether this remains a broad AI-capex wave or narrows into a handful of infrastructure bottlenecks. If the market continues rewarding foundry, packaging, and hardware-enablement names while cloud and software remain soft, that would argue the rally is being driven by spend visibility and supply-chain scarcity rather than a full-spectrum technology expansion.