New York, June 8, 2026, 10:06 EDT
- SOXL jumped almost 15% Monday morning as chip stocks rebounded. The inverse SOXS fund slid about 16%.
- SOXL bounced back after tumbling 30.51% at Friday’s close, while SOXS jumped 31.54%, according to Direxion data.
- Direxion and regulators are warning that these funds reset every day, so they’re designed for trading, not long-term semiconductor plays.
Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares climbed in early U.S. trading Monday, bouncing after last week’s sharp drop. Investors went back into chip names following a snap in the AI trade. The inverse fund, Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares, fell.
SOXL traded at $209.62, up $27.08 from Friday. SOXS dropped to $5.75. Among unlevered semiconductor ETFs, iShares Semiconductor ETF rose roughly 5.2% and VanEck Semiconductor ETF added around 4.6%. That’s less than SOXL, reflecting the effect of leverage on daily moves.
SOXL’s reversal is in focus now since the ETF had been one of the most direct—and volatile—ways for retail traders to bet on the AI-chip surge. Direxion’s performance data showed the fund up 433.76% for the year and 1,291.60% over 12 months as of May 31, but after Friday’s drop, traders had to rethink their leverage.
The talk was already shifting to timing and trading discipline. DM Martins Research said in a June 1 Seeking Alpha piece that SOXL works as a tactical trade after a one-year gain of 1,150%. But the article stressed that these kinds of trades need rules, not just hope.
Chip stocks got hit hard Friday. U.S.-listed chipmakers lost around $1.3 trillion in value, according to Reuters. The PHLX Semiconductor Index tumbled 10.3%, the steepest one-day decline since March 2020. Nvidia dropped nearly 6%, Micron sank 13%, Marvell gave up 17%, and AMD was down almost 11%.
“The semiconductor sector was way overbought,” Ohsung Kwon, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo, told Reuters. But Kwon also said he didn’t think the sector’s bull run was done. Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Triple D Trading, said the usual tactic of buying every dip did not work that day. Reuters
Broadcom’s outlook let down investors betting on bigger gains from its custom AI-chip unit. At the same time, stronger U.S. jobs numbers had traders lifting odds on a Fed rate hike this year.
Marvell Technology shares jumped over 9% Monday. S&P Dow Jones Indices said the chipmaker will join the S&P 500 before the open on June 22. That move can mean index funds must buy Marvell’s stock. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is still up more than 72% this year even after Friday’s drop, Reuters reported.
SOXL is different from SOXX and SMH. Direxion says on its site that SOXL aims for 300% of the NYSE Semiconductor Index’s daily move. SOXS goes the other way, targeting 300% of the inverse move each day. Both funds are single-day products, not built to give three times or minus three times the benchmark’s total return over time.
The risk isn’t buried in fine print. If chip stocks drop or move sideways over several days, daily resets and volatility can drag on returns and catch buy-and-hold investors off guard. Leveraged and inverse ETFs often stray a lot from their daily targets over time, the SEC warns. FINRA also says these funds usually aren’t right for intermediate or longer-term plays.
SOXL is still acting as a quick barometer for a small group of chip stocks linked to AI demand. The top names in the fund’s benchmark include Nvidia, Broadcom, Micron, AMD and Applied Materials, according to Direxion. That focus helps drive SOXL’s sharp swings when the market reacts to any shifts in the outlook for AI-chip spending.
Lars Skovgaard, senior investment strategist at Danske Bank, told Reuters the market “had gone a long way without a correction.” Monday’s rebound could calm things for now, but the big question is whether chip stocks will keep those gains as traders look ahead to U.S. inflation numbers and central-bank meetings coming up this week. Reuters
