Wall Street mostly closed lower as chip stocks sold off ahead of Nvidia's earnings — bad news for anyone holding semiconductor shares.

• Nvidia dropped again, its seventh losing day in a row and the longest such streak since 2022.
• Investors are cutting risk before Nvidia reports results on the 26th, dragging down Micron, Broadcom and AMD too.
• Taiwan chipmaker TSMC's US-listed shares fell 2.11%, while smaller rival UMC bucked the trend and rose.
• Washington announced new economic pressure on Iran to force an end to the Middle East war, and US-Canada trade friction added to the sour mood.
• The big tech names held up: Meta, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon all rose, and the Dow was the only major index to finish higher.

Outlook: Nvidia's earnings report will likely decide whether the chip selloff deepens or reverses.