Semiconductor ETF Nabs New High, Outpaces Broader Market

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) is up 2.1% to trade at $487.08 today and earlier hit a record high of $488.08. The exchange-traded fund (ETF) is getting a boost from Texas Instruments (TXN) today, which accounts for roughly 4.5% of SMH's holdings. With Nvidia (NVDA) and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) -- the fund's top two holdings -- climbing the charts, options bears could be left holding the bag.

SMH is up 35% in 2026 and 143% in the last 12 months. This week's rally has taken the ETF out past a channel of higher highs that contained a March pullback. However, note that SMH's 14-Day Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits all the way up at 80, firmly in "overbought" territory. 

Per Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, SMH is one of only four ETFs tracked that is outpacing the broader market SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) across one week, one month, three month, six month, and one year time frames.

SMH puts have been quite popular. Nearly seven times as many puts as calls have been purchased during the past two weeks at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This 10-day put/call volume ratio stands in the 98th percentile of its annual range, indicating that such a skew is rare in the last year. 

The April 405 put was the most active at this time, while spread activity is also occurring at the 405 strike in the May series.