US stock indices were mixed on Monday as chipmakers faced renewed selling pressure ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve decision and key economic data. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5% amid easing concerns over tight financial conditions.
Nvidia declined 4.5% after announcing a $500 billion AI memory chip supply agreement with SK Hynix. The company also committed $250 billion to support OpenAI’s leasing of computing capacity from a major data center project. These moves have revived worries that circular financing and capacity deals in AI infrastructure could amplify systemic risks, potentially triggering contagion and reversing the AI-driven equity rally if capex growth stalls.
Other semiconductor names sold off sharply, with Micron, AMD, Intel, and SanDisk losing between 6% and 10%.
Geopolitical and macro conditions were somewhat more supportive. The US and Iran paused military strikes over the weekend, and fuel prices retreated from recent highs. The resulting decline in Treasury yields indicated investors see almost no chance of a rate hike at this week’s Fed meeting, with expectations for any further tightening effectively pushed back to September.
Large-cap tech outperformed, with Apple, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft advancing ahead of their earnings reports later this week.
