“The past couple of days, some of the big tech names related to AI have been dragging the market down,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities. “All the money that was spent is basically being questioned, whether or not it will pay off.”
Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon all reported quarterly results this week, and each signaled it would keep pouring money into data centers and chips even as investors grow impatient for returns.
Along with Meta, which reported last week, together the four companies are on track to spend more than US$700 billion on capital investment this year – roughly the size of Argentina’s or Belgium’s entire economy – much of it on AI infrastructure, according to analyst estimates.
Friday’s session on Wall Street also proved difficult for other AI-linked companies, with Nvidia shedding 4.2%, Micron 5.3% and data centre company CoreWeave losing nearly 10%.
The steep losses for tech firms Friday reversed optimism earlier in the week prompted by AI giant Anthropic’s IPO filing.
“Given the importance of tech stocks to global markets, it is not surprising to see stock markets around the world ending the week with heavy losses,” said market analyst Chris Beauchamp at online trading and investing platform IG.
South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi index closed out its week down 3.5% and Tokyo finished with a 2% loss.
Hong Kong, however, closed up 1.5%.
Focus is turning also to the US midterm elections and the impact they could have on the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Oil prices climbed around 2% on Friday on renewed supply fears after Iran said four tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Shares in ExxonMobil rose 2.2% after it reported that its third-quarter profits more than doubled to US$15.4 billion on higher oil prices and refining margins due to the US-Iran war.
Key figures at around 2020 GMT
New York – Dow: DOWN 1.1% at 51,770.31 (close)
New York – S&P: DOWN 1.8% at 7580.07 (close)
New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 2.9% at 25,437.00 (close)
London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1% at 10,729.78 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: FLAT at 7969.42 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.9% at 25,818.21 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.1% at 63,290.11 (close)
Seoul – Kospi: DOWN 3.5% at 5730.74 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.5% at 23,294.42 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.4% at 3599.02 (close)
Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.4% at $117.64 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.1% at $104.12 per barrel
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3396 from $1.3376
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 157.54 yen from 157.71 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.37 pence from 83.57 pence
– AFP