Mystery NASDAQ selloff adds tension into a make-or-break week for the AI trade |
Mystery NASDAQ selloff adds tension into a make-or-break week for the AI trade
Another sell-off for high-flying artificial-intelligence stocks is dragging Wall Street sharply lower on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.7% after careening between an early gain of 1% and a loss of 2.3%, sinking further from its all-time high set a week ago. The Nasdaq composite was 2.9% lower, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 408 points, or 0.8%, as of 1 p.m. Eastern time.
Indexes swung lower as companies selling computer chips, memory and other building blocks of the AI boom broke from early gains to losses. Micron Technology went from a jump of 4.2% to a drop of 7.6%, for example. That’s a day after it soared 9.9% and two days after it plunged 13.3%.
The computer memory company’s stock has already tripled so far this year, raising criticism that it’s gone too far, too fast. Following last week’s industrywide sell-off, the question is whether AI stocks broadly are heading for a long downturn or just needed a shake-out to get rid of excessive optimism.
Marvell Technology dropped 13.3%, and Advanced Micro Devices sank 8.7% after both AI winners also erased early-morning gains. Nvidia’s fall of 3.1% was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 because the........