Expiry day selloff: NVDA -4.4%, metals crushed, small-caps pinned at put wall

Friday's session looked tame on the headline — SPY closed down just -0.26% — but the range told a different story. The index opened at 771.76, briefly tagged 775.28, then spent the afternoon grinding toward the put wall, settling at 769.13. Under the surface, NVDA cratered -4.43%, gold shed -3.28%, and IWM closed -1.35% with its low at 295.69, just six cents above the put wall.

The real action was in the options market. Three coordinated SPX put sweeps at the open — $194M, $188M, and $142M in premium across the 7750, 7740, and 7760 strikes — flagged institutional bearish conviction before 9:05 ET. With SPX net GEX at -$86.72B and weekly expiration structurally live, the tape stayed heavy into the close. Fed Chair Warsh's Jackson Hole remarks on inflation added macro uncertainty. Monday's setup starts with small-caps sitting on the put wall and the mega-cap divergence — AAPL +1.63%, MSFT +1.60% vs NVDA -4.43% — as the dominant unresolved tension.