NEW YORK — Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Friday, October 23, even as technology shares steadied somewhat at the end of a turbulent week for the market-driving artificial intelligence trade, Reuters reported. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 652.82 points, or 1.23%, to 52,215.16; the S&P 500 lost 39.75 points, or 0.52%, to 7,623.68; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 53.52 points, or 0.21%, to 25,955.34.
Source: Reuters via BusinessToday
The Nasdaq's slim loss came a day after the tech-heavy index suffered its biggest one-day drop since June, as concerns flared over the financing costs of heavy AI investment spending; the S&P 500 technology sector itself posted a 0.35% gain on Friday. Most other S&P 500 sectors fell, however, including declines of well over 1% for consumer staples, consumer discretionary and financials. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.7%, while the Dow rose 0.4% for its third straight weekly gain.
Source: Reuters via BusinessToday
"There is still fallout from the questioning of the AI trade," said Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group, the Associated Press reported. "There's certainly the potential that we see less invested in an AI data centre build-out next year than has been projected. So I certainly think that's giving pause." Next week, about one-third of S&P 500 companies report quarterly results, including Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, three AI hyperscalers whose capital spending forecasts will be closely watched.
Source: Associated Press
Energy was the day's standout: the sector rose 2.5% to a record high as Brent crude hit its highest level since late April after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concern over further disruption to energy supplies from the Middle East, the AP reported. Telecommunications stocks fell after a report that SpaceX was seeking thousands of cell sites to build a fourth wireless carrier network; AT&T and T-Mobile both sank nearly 8%. American Express shares fell 3.7%, weighing on the Dow, after the company raised its profit forecast while announcing plans to eliminate about 5% of its workforce.
Source: Associated Press
Data from the University of Michigan showed US consumer sentiment edged down near a record low in October, as rising prices linked to the Middle East conflict soured households' views of the economy, the AP reported. Market focus now turns to the Federal Reserve's interest-rate policy meeting, with rates expected to stay steady, and to whether robust corporate profit growth can keep underpinning the major indexes.
Source: Associated Press