FX.co ★ US Stocks Pull Back on Friday

US equities closed sharply lower on Friday as renewed doubts about the AI trade reignited selling in chipmakers and AI-focused names. The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.7%, and the Dow declined 0.3%. Hyperscale cloud providers within the Magnificent 7 extended the steep losses from the previous session amid persistent concerns that AI-related spending may have overshot, with Nvidia, Tesla, and Oracle each losing more than 1%.

Memory and other semiconductor producers also faced renewed pressure, paring back gains from Thursday’s rally that had been driven by Micron’s earnings, as investors grew more cautious about a possible slowdown in AI infrastructure investment. Micron and Sandisk both dropped 5%. At the same time, a report suggested that OpenAI may postpone its IPO, reinforcing the narrative of more measured spending on compute capacity.

The Dow has recently outperformed the other major indices, benefiting from its heavier weighting in more traditional sectors and relatively smaller exposure to speculative AI names. However, that divergence could narrow as soon as Monday, when Alphabet is set to replace Verizon in the index.