Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled on Friday as AI anxiety hammered technology stocks, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 on track for their steepest monthly drop since March 2025, while hotter-than-expected inflation data also hit sentiment.
Technology shares faced selling pressure this month as concerns over high valuations and the uncertain payoff from Big Tech’s massive AI spending grew.
Tariff ambiguity also stoked volatility after the U.S. Supreme Court last week voided most of the duties U.S. President Donald Trump had imposed in 2025. In response, Trump announced a temporary global tariff of 10% that came into effect on Tuesday.
Nvidia slid 2.8% after plunging more than 5% in the previous session despite strong earnings, a sign that risk sentiment for all things AI remained shaky.
“There are a lot of questions around AI and the impact of AI disruption in different industries… (and) the future of tech and, specifically U.S. tech,” said Anthi Tsouvali, multi-asset strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“There is definitely a rotation to companies that tend to be a little more traditional… they don’t have a high exposure to IT and of course, in more defensive parts of the market.”
The S&P 500 information technology index tumbled 1.3%, while Financials dropped more than 2% on Friday, with both poised for sharp monthly declines.
At 10:13 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 632.36 points, or 1.28%, to 48,866.84, the S&P 500 lost 43.68 points, or 0.63%, to 6,865.18, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 164.86 points, or 0.72%, to 22,713.52.
If losses hold, the Dow is on track to snap a nine-month winning streak.
Risk appetite also took a hit after data showed U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in January, suggesting inflation could pick up in the months ahead.
Earlier in the day, brokerage UBS said it had cut its recommended allocation to U.S. equities to neutral, citing the relatively lower sensitivity of U.S. corporate earnings to global growth and high valuations, among other reasons.
Most megacap and growth stocks fell. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index also dropped and was down 2% after hitting a record high earlier this week.
Zscaler plunged 14% after the cloud security firm reported a wider net loss in the second quarter. The broader software index lost 2%.
Software shares and several industries were rocked earlier this year too, on fears of industry wide AI-driven disruptions.
Netflix added 9% as investors cheered its decision to exit the fight for Warner Bros Discovery, which dropped 2%. Paramount Skydance rose 4.7% after winning the race for some of the world’s most prized TV and film assets.
Jack Dorsey’s Block surged 16% after the payments firm said it would cut over 4,000 jobs, nearly half its workforce, as part of an overhaul to embed AI across operations.
Dell climbed 16.6% after the PC-maker said it expects revenue from its key AI-optimized servers business to double in fiscal year 2027 and promised to return more cash to shareholders.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.05-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by 2.57-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 32 new highs and 61 new lows.
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