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Happy Friday. Stock futures were falling and oil prices were rising following a sharp tech sell-off in the previous session.
Markets closed mixed on Thursday, as a tech and AI-related selloff dragged down the S&P 500 and Nasdaq while the Dow finished essentially flat.
“Tech stocks got slammed amid fresh concerns about the outlook for artificial intelligence,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst with Capital.com. “While fears about AI are nothing new, the flavor of this sell-off was starkly different. The concern pertains to capital expenditure. But rather than the risk that AI hyperscalers are spending too much, the proverbial script has flipped.”
Rodda said the perceived risk now is that they are spending too little, “or more precisely, that future capex could be lower than previously thought and the rate of growth in investment could be slowing down.”
“The volatility was stoked by yesterday’s first batch of Magnificent Seven results,” he continued. “Meta Platforms left unchanged its CAPEX guidance and provided very little color about future plans, and Tesla reduced its full-year CAPEX guidance by 20%.”
“The news stoked fears, long held by market participants, that the AI investment boom may have peaked, with the pessimism leading to a broad-based sell-off across the AI ecosystem.”
Rodda added that crude prices continue to hover around recent highs, as the several untenable conflicts in the Middle East risk global energy supply at a time the global energy supply chain is developing deeper cracks.
Shares of luxury goods holding company Kering, which owns such brands as Gucci and Saint Laurent, tumbled 12.4% in premarket trading after posting disappointing third-quarter earnings.