Tech bleeds, small caps hold, and VIX screams 27% louder

It was a week where the index story split cleanly along size lines: mega-cap tech absorbed the punishment while small caps quietly posted a gain. QQQ shed nearly 2% as AMZN cratered more than 4% and NVDA slid 3.6%, yet IWM finished the week up nearly 1% — a divergence that tells you this wasn't broad-market panic, it was a precision strike on crowded large-cap growth.

The volatility read said it all louder than any price chart. VIX surged 27.18% week-over-week, the kind of vol expansion that turns covered-call sellers into emergency buyers and forces dealer hedging into a feedback loop. Meanwhile TSLA bucked every trend, ripping 6.74% against a sea of red. If you were short vol into earnings season, this week reminded you why that trade has a brutal left tail.