{"id":61839,"date":"2026-05-12T06:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/tech-sector-under-pressure-as-energy-prices-surge-market-outlook-for-may-12-2026\/61839\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:07:23","slug":"tech-sector-under-pressure-as-energy-prices-surge-market-outlook-for-may-12-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/tech-sector-under-pressure-as-energy-prices-surge-market-outlook-for-may-12-2026\/61839\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech Sector Under Pressure as Energy Prices Surge: Market Outlook for May 12, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Market Overview: Tech Drifts Lower in Premarket Action<\/h2>\n<p>On Tuesday, May 12, 2026, U.S. equity markets are showing a cautious and bifurcated tone in <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/movers\/premarket\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Premarket Movers\">premarket<\/a> trading. Investors are navigating a complex landscape defined by a sharp rise in energy costs and a corresponding pullback in high-growth technology shares. As the opening bell approaches, futures suggest a negative start for the major averages, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the decline.<\/p>\n<p>The Invesco QQQ Trust (<a href=\"\/stock\/QQQ\">QQQ<\/a>), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, is down 0.69% in early action, reflecting broader weakness in the semiconductor and software sectors. The State Street SPDR <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/indices\/sp500\/today\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"snp500 today\">S&amp;P 500<\/a> ETF Trust (<a href=\"\/stock\/SPY\">SPY<\/a>) is also trading in the red, down 0.34%, while the State Street SPDR <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/indices\/dowjones\/today\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Dow Jones Today\">Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average ETF Trust (<a href=\"\/stock\/DIA\">DIA<\/a>) is showing more resilience with a modest decline of 0.1%. Small-cap stocks are also under pressure, with the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (<a href=\"\/stock\/IWM\">IWM<\/a>) slipping 0.3%.<\/p>\n<h2>Energy and Commodities: Oil Prices Spike<\/h2>\n<p>The primary outlier in today\u2019s market is the energy sector. The United States Oil Fund, LP (<a href=\"\/stock\/USO\">USO<\/a>) has surged 2.84%, driven by geopolitical tensions and supply-side constraints. This move has provided a lift to the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (<a href=\"\/stock\/XLE\">XLE<\/a>), which is up 0.92%, and the State Street SPDR S&amp;P Oil &amp; Gas Exploration &amp; Production ETF (<a href=\"\/stock\/XOP\">XOP<\/a>), which gained 1.0%.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, precious metals are facing headwinds as the dollar remains firm. The SPDR <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/metal\/gold\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"gold price today\">Gold<\/a> Trust (<a href=\"\/stock\/GLD\">GLD<\/a>) is down 0.65%, while the iShares <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/metal\/silver\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"silver price today\">Silver<\/a> Trust (<a href=\"\/stock\/SLV\">SLV<\/a>) has tumbled 2.32%. The rise in oil prices is reigniting concerns about &quot;sticky&quot; inflation, which is reflected in the bond market; the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (<a href=\"\/stock\/TLT\">TLT<\/a>) is down 0.25%, indicating a slight move higher in long-term yields.<\/p>\n<h2>Corporate News and Premarket Movers<\/h2>\n<p>In the individual stock arena, BuzzFeed, Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/BZFD\">BZFD<\/a>) is the standout performer of the morning, skyrocketing 91.1% on massive volume following a strategic corporate announcement. Other notable gainers include Dreamland Limited (<a href=\"\/stock\/TDIC\">TDIC<\/a>), up 47.2%, and High-Trend International Group (<a href=\"\/stock\/HTCO\">HTCO<\/a>), which rose 37.8%.<\/p>\n<p>However, the semiconductor space is acting as a significant drag on the broader market. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (<a href=\"\/stock\/SMH\">SMH<\/a>) is down 1.42%. Heavyweights such as Micron Technology, Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/MU\">MU<\/a>) and Intel Corp (<a href=\"\/stock\/INTC\">INTC<\/a>) are seeing active selling, with Micron down 2.2% and Intel falling 3.1% in <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/movers\/premarket\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Premarket Movers\">premarket<\/a> trading. Investors are also monitoring ZoomInfo Technologies Inc (<a href=\"\/stock\/GTM\">GTM<\/a>), which has plunged 33.4% following a disappointing update.<\/p>\n<h2>Earnings Season and Economic Outlook<\/h2>\n<p>The Q1 2026 earnings season continues to be a major catalyst for price discovery. This morning, Sea Limited (<a href=\"\/stock\/SE\">SE<\/a>) and JD.com, Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/JD\">JD<\/a>) reported results, with investors closely watching for signs of consumer strength in Asian markets. On Holding AG (<a href=\"\/stock\/ONON\">ONON<\/a>) and Zebra Technologies Corporation (<a href=\"\/stock\/ZBRA\">ZBRA<\/a>) also released their quarterly figures before the open.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to the afternoon, the market will brace for results from Franco-Nevada Corporation (<a href=\"\/stock\/FNV\">FNV<\/a>) and Nextpower Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/NXT\">NXT<\/a>). Furthermore, the artificial intelligence and nuclear energy play Oklo Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/OKLO\">OKLO<\/a>) is scheduled to report after the close.<\/p>\n<p>As the week progresses, the focus will shift toward critical economic data, including tomorrow&#39;s highly anticipated inflation readings. Market participants remain sensitive to any data that might influence the Federal Reserve&#39;s interest rate trajectory. For today, the theme remains a rotation out of expensive growth names and into the &quot;inflation hedge&quot; provided by the energy complex. While Apple (<a href=\"\/stock\/AAPL\">AAPL<\/a>), Microsoft (<a href=\"\/stock\/MSFT\">MSFT<\/a>), and Nvidia (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVDA\">NVDA<\/a>) remain the long-term anchors of the market, they are facing a challenging macro environment this Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Market Overview: Tech Drifts Lower in Premarket Action On Tuesday, May 12, 2026, U.S. equity markets are showing a cautious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6824,94],"tags":[18789,95,3710,3806,3807,4012,4223,4380,5001,5716],"class_list":["post-61839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-market-update","tag-bzfd","tag-nasdaq","tag-federal-reserve","tag-spy","tag-qqq","tag-se","tag-inflation","tag-stock-market","tag-earnings-season","tag-energy-sector"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}