US markets weighed down by an extended sell-off in tech sector

Stocks closed lower on Wall Street as more drops for big tech companies weighed on the market. The S&P 500 lost 1.1 per cent Friday, and the Nasdaq composite sank 2.1 per cent. Both posted their worst week since June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t do as badly, and fell 0.3 per cent. Chip companies pulled back some more as worries deepened about how long the frenzy over the artificial intelligence (AI) buildout will last. Micron Technology fell 5.6 per cent and Intel lost 5.8 per cent. European and Asian markets closed higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 5.09 per cent. The price of Brent crude rose 3.7 per cent.

Weakness for AI stocks has been a major drag on the tech-heavy index this week. Among other tech companies in the red were Meta, which fell 4.4 per cent, and Google parent Alphabet, which gave up 2.9 per cent.

It’s been a choppy week for chipmakers and other big tech stocks central to the AI industry. Investors are now worried that the companies, which have relied on debt markets to finance an investment spree into their technology, may not be able to keep borrowing and spending as heavily with yields in bond markets worldwide recently climbing to their highest levels in years.