AI and tech stocks slide as summer rally peters out

New York
 — 

Tech stocks were under pressure this week as Wall Street’s AI enthusiasm slowed and investors adjusted portfolios after a strong summer rally.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.67% on Wednesday after sliding 1.46% on Tuesday. The tech-heavy index was on track to snap back-to-back weeks of gains.

Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 fell 0.24% and posted its fourth day of losses in a row. The Dow hovered around the flatline.

Tech stocks had steadily rallied in recent months, lifting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to a streak of record highs. Now Wall Street is taking a breather while optimism about the AI boom is facing some friction.

Palantir (PLTR), a star of the AI trade, fell 1.1% on Wednesday after falling 9.35% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Nvidia (NVDA) edged lower by 0.14% on Wednesday after sliding 3.5% on Tuesday.

“Investors rotated out of high-momentum tech stocks, reflecting renewed jitters over the sustainability of the AI trade,” Ulrike Hoffmann-Buchardi, head of global equities at UBS, said in a note.

Investors are also in wait-and-see mode ahead of a critical day for markets on Friday when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to deliver remarks at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

“It’s just a pause that may refresh as investors retrench and rethink how they want to position their tech dollars,” Rob Haworth, senior investment strategy director at US Bank Asset Management Group, told CNN.

Powell’s closely watched speech on Friday could provide signals about the Fed’s potential rate-cutting path and comes at a key inflection points for markets after past months’ ascent to record highs.

Excitement about AI propelled markets higher in recent months, boosted by robust corporate earnings and enormous spending by companies like Meta and Microsoft.

But Wall Street’s eagerness was tested this week after Sam Altman, chief executive at OpenAI, said he thinks the market might be in a bubble.

“Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes,” Altman told reporters last week, according to The Verge.

The OpenAI chief also said he thinks AI will provide value for the economy. “Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes,” he said.

Also, researchers at MIT on Monday published a report detailing how the majority of companies testing new generative AI tools are seeing zero returns.

While there was not an explicit catalyst for the decline of tech and AI stocks decline this week, investors said Altman’s comments and the MIT report could be contributing to negative momentum.

AI chip and semiconductor companies Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Marvell Technology (MRVL) were each down almost 7% this week.

“Altman’s comments spooked some people when he talked about the AI bubble,” Dan Ives, head of global technology research at Wedbush Securities, told CNN.

“Tech stocks have had a massive run, so I think it’s just typical that investors are starting to take some chips off the table going into Labor Day,” Ives said. “But I believe it’s going to be short lived.”

Each of the Magnificent Seven tech stocks — Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) — fell on both Tuesday and Wednesday, dragging down the broader market.

As of Tuesday, they made up 33.5% of the S&P 500’s total market value, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, reflecting their outsized influence on the index’s performance.

“Stocks have been on an absolute tear. Valuations have sprinted up,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird. “The fundamentals are good but not keeping pace with the price action.”

“I think along the way we’ll see pockets of profit taking, even if it doesn’t mark the end of the bull market in general,” Mayfield said.

While tech dragged on the market, about 70% of stocks in the S&P 500 had closed higher on Tuesday, UBS’ Hoffmann-Buchardi said. Sectors that outperformed included consumer staples, utilities and real estate.

It’s a sign that investors are shifting out of Big Tech and AI-related trades and toward more defensive stocks as they reassess the markets. Nvidia as of Monday had surged 93% since a low point in early April.

“We’ve been expecting this type of a pullback,” said Jay Hatfield, chief executive at Infrastructure Capital Advisors, who said he has taken down his exposure to tech in recent months.

It’s also the start of a historically weak season for stocks, Hatfield said. “We’re neutral on the market right now, but still really bullish for year end.”

Palantir is still up 106% this year. But shares in Palantir are down six days in a row and had dropped as much as 9.8% on Wednesday before paring losses, reflecting the volatility in AI stocks.

“Now we’re getting the downward momentum,” Hatfield said. “Palantir is like the poster child for excessive valuation, and those investors are learning that the momentum works in both directions.”