A rough week for tech stocks might signal a loss of investor confidence in artificial intelligence.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3% — making this its worst week since President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariff plan in April.
Tech companies that have otherwise performed well this year were among those hardest hit, with Palantir’s stock price falling 11% this week, Oracle declining by 9%, and Nvidia losing 7%. These drops also come after earnings reports in which Meta and Microsoft indicated that they plan to continue spending heavily on AI (both companies were down about 4%).
“Valuations are stretched,” Cresset Capital’s Jack Ablin told the WSJ. “Just the slightest bit of bad news gets exaggerated … and good news is just not enough to move the needle because expectations are already pretty high.”
Economic factors like the ongoing government shutdown, declining consumer sentiment, and widespread layoffs are also likely dragging down the stock market. But the less tech-heavy S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t do quite as badly, with declines of 1.6% and 1.2%, respectively.