US equity markets finished lower on Thursday, weighed down by a broad sell-off in technology shares. The S&P 500 declined 1.2%, the Nasdaq slid 2.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended little changed. Tech stocks came under pressure as recent earnings reports underwhelmed, reigniting doubts about the durability of the AI-driven rally and extending the ongoing rotation out of semiconductor names.
Meta dropped 7% despite posting higher earnings and revenue, as its credit risk rose to a record high. The company’s plans to significantly increase capital expenditures revived concerns that large tech firms will take on additional debt to fund AI-related infrastructure. Other major cloud and AI players also retreated ahead of their results next week, with Alphabet down 3.2%, Microsoft off 2.2%, and Amazon falling 4.6%.
Tesla slid 3.1% after paring back its spending plans, with last quarter’s capital expenditures coming in below market expectations. Lam Research sank 11.8% following a weaker-than-expected outlook. Among semiconductor stocks, Nvidia fell 4.4%, Micron declined 6.3%, AMD plunged 8.1%, and Intel lost 8%.
