Dow Plunges Over 800 Points as Investors Flee Tech
*By Kavitha Shastry*
U.S. stocks accelerated their losses Wednesday, with the Dow tumbling more than 800 points for its biggest point drop since February.
Shares of Amazon ($AMZN) and Microsoft ($MSFT) were down more than 4 percent late in the trading day, while Jack Dorsey's Twitter ($TWTR) and Square ($SQ) were both down more than 7 percent.
"Valuation is just coming to a bit more realistic levels in the tech sector," said John Petrides, Managing Director at Point View Wealth Management. "How many times have we spoken about tech being the driving sector for the market returns.
"Twenty-six percent of the S&P 500, the FAANG stocks equalling 45 percent of the Nasdaq ー you're having profit-taking there."
The sell-off adds to October's market losses ー the S&P 500 is now down five days in a row, its longest losing streak since before the 2016 election ー with investors worried about the impact of ongoing trade tensions and borrowing costs at seven-year highs.
While tech stocks were among Wednesday's biggest losers, high-end retailers also took a hit. France's LVMH warned it was seeing slower demand from Chinese consumers, an indication that tariffs from the U.S. were eating into discretionary budgets. Shares of Tiffany ($TIF), Michael Kors ($KORS), and Ralph Lauren ($RL) were all down.
The Nasdaq led losses among the broad market indexes, falling more than 3 percent. For the month, it's already down nearly 8 percent, its biggest monthly decline since January 2016.
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A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
