Among the biggest factors that negatively affected Micron Technology shares, whose shares fell by 5.5%. The memory chip maker has been one of the biggest winners on Wall Street this year, with its shares nearly quadrupling as AI-driven demand boosts sales.
Wall Street fell on Friday as another sharp sell-off in AI-related stocks offset gains in much of the broader market, putting the S&P 500 on track to post only its second weekly decline in the last 13 weeks.The S&P 500 was down 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 1% as of 9:35 a.m. ET. The Associated Press reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 223 points, or 0.4%.The weakness followed a broad sell-off in Asian markets, with AI-related stocks leading the declines. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell by 4.2%, while South Korea’s main index fell by 5.8%.The recent correction reflects growing investor concerns that earnings growth may have difficulty justifying the massive gains AI stocks have made over the past year.
Given their heavy weight in global indices, the decline in AI stocks had a significant impact on broader markets.The pressure came despite the majority of stocks within the Standard & Poor’s 500 index trading higher.Among the biggest factors that negatively affected Micron Technology shares, whose shares fell by 5.5%. The memory chip maker has been one of the biggest winners on Wall Street this year, with its shares nearly quadrupling as AI-driven demand boosts sales.
However, investors also focused on comments from Apple, which said it had raised prices on many of its products to offset rising memory costs, raising concerns that higher prices could ultimately hurt consumer demand.SpaceX stock fell another 1% to trade below $152, approaching its lowest level since its highly publicized Wall Street debut earlier this month. After listing at $135 per share, the stock briefly rose above $225 before reversing course.
Besides its space business, SpaceX also owns the artificial intelligence company xAI.Meanwhile, oil prices continued to decline after geopolitical tensions eased in West Asia. Brent crude fell 3% to $73.23 a barrel, while standard US crude fell 3.2% to $69.65.In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note fell marginally to 4.39% from 4.40% on Thursday.High bond yields, driven by inflation fears, have increased borrowing costs globally and continue to pressure valuable technology stocks, especially artificial intelligence companies.In Japan, SoftBank Group Corp fell 12.5%, leading losses after a New York Times report said OpenAI may postpone its planned initial public offering until next year instead of the second half of this year.Such an IPO would allow OpenAI to raise additional capital for data center investments while offering early investors like SoftBank an opportunity to monetize a portion of their holdings. However, recent weakness in AI stocks has raised questions about investors’ appetite for the sector.South Korea also saw heavy selling in AI-related companies, with SK Hynix down 8.4% and Samsung Electronics down 5.3%.
