The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply lower on Wednesday, once again undermined by a sharp decline in tech stocks, against a backdrop of renewed tensions between the United States and Iran.
The Nasdaq index – with a strong technological coloring – lost 1.98%, the broader S&P 500 index fell by 1.62%, and the Dow Jones fell by 1.87%.
“We are once again seeing profit taking in the technology sector after a very strong rally which lasted two months.”explains to AFP Angelo Kourkafas, analyst at Edward Jones.
Stocks linked to artificial intelligence (AI), which have been driving the New York Stock Exchange for months, have been particularly affected since last Friday.
On Wednesday, chip giant Nvidia, for example, lost 3.73% to $200.42.
In one week, the title of the world’s largest capitalization lost nearly 7%, or around $350 billion in market valuation gone up in smoke.
In its wake, other big names in the semiconductor sector finished in the red on Wednesday, such as Qualcomm (-6.92%), Broadcom (-5.12%), AMD (-4.86%) and Intel (-0.82%).
This wave of sales also extends to digital giants, such as Microsoft (-1.50%), Alphabet – Google’s parent company – (-2.16%) or Meta (-2.33%).
For Angelo Kourkafas, it is a “Ralentissement naturel” who does not question “Perspectives on AI”.
Jose Torres, of Interactive Brokers, is not of the same opinion: for him, concerns linked to the colossal costs of the sector and the still uncertain returns on investment contribute to the downward movement.
“At the same time, we are faced with geopolitical concerns.” with “A surge in tensions between the United States and Iran”note M. Kourkafas.
The American president estimated Wednesday that the Iranians had “Took too long to negotiate a deal that would have been excellent for them.”adding that they would “Having to pay the price”.
Tehran, for its part, announced that it had targeted American bases in the Gulf in retaliation for Washington’s strikes against Iranian targets.
These developments have pushed up oil prices and fueled inflationary fears.
According to data published on Wednesday, inflation jumped to 4.2% year-on-year in May, the highest in three years.
On the bond market, the ten-year yield on American government bonds rose to 4.55% around 8:30 p.m. GMT, compared to 4.52% the day before at close.
On the business side, investors are preparing for the highly anticipated IPO of aerospace giant SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk, scheduled for Friday.
The operation promises to be historic: the group is aiming to raise around $75 billion, for a valuation of around $1,750 billion.
In the meantime, they congratulated the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain (+22.56% to $44.49) for having done much better than expected during the past quarter. The company notably achieved a net profit per share of 29 cents where analysts were expecting a loss of 48 cents.
Building on these performances, Cracker Barrel has revised its annual forecasts upwards.
