The S&P 500 fell for the first time in more than a week as Wall Street pumped the brakes on the autumn AI frenzy.
The market benchmark dropped 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 92 points, or 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7%.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury note was down to 3.57%. The 10-year yield dipped to 4.13%.
The S&P and Nasdaq actually hit their highest intraday levels on record earlier in the morning, but riskier assets and those tied to the AI trade turned south as consumer staples, utilities, financials, and health care stocks gained steam.
AI stocks specifically suffered in the wake of a report from The Information, which cited internal documents at Oracle about the firm’s margins in its cloud business. The report suggested monetizing the AI buildout is still in its early stages.
Oracle rebounded a bit after Fox Business anchor Liz Claman reported, citing sources familiar to the situation, that the report on Oracle “does not reflect the actual financials of that business.”
Whatever the reason, AI stocks have been on a tear in recent weeks amid a flurry of headlines regarding investments and partnerships related to chip makers and generative AI powerhouses. Most recently, OpenAI announced a partnership with AMD that sent the chipmaker surging.
The government shutdown hit its seventh day, but that hasn’t stopped the major indexes from hitting multiple record highs.