The technology sector was dragging markets on Wall Street and around the world mostly lower Thursday and oil prices fell despite a flurry of military strikes between the U.S. and Iran.
Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.2%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%. Futures for the Nasdaq, which is dominated by technology stocks, were down 0.8%.
Chip and memory companies were getting hit the hardest, with Western Digital and SanDisk leading
the way down with losses of more than 7%. Micron fell 4.5% and Intel was down 2.4%. It was the second straight day of significant losses for those companies, most of which have seen their stock double and triple in value since the beginning of 2026.
Despite the heavy investment in artificial intelligence, investors remain concerned that stock prices have shot too high and that the demand may not be sustainable if AI doesn’t deliver as much profit and productivity as expected.
Oil prices meandered between small gains and losses, remaining at elevated levels as the U.S. intensified its strikes against Iran, while Iran targeted missile and drone fire on Kuwait and Bahrain.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 42 cents to $84.53 a barrel. It was trading near $72 per barrel in late February before the war began.
Benchmark U.S. crude, which was around $67 a barrel in February, slipped 22 cents to $79.38 a barrel.
Later Thursday morning, the U.S. government releases its data on retail sales for June.
Elsewhere, at midday in Europe France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7%, as did Germany’s DAX. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3%.
Selling of AI-related shares also weighed on benchmarks in South Korea and Japan.
In South Korea, Seoul's Kospi index sank 6.4% to 6,820.60. An interest rate hike by the Bank of Korea also contributed its tumble. It was the first rate hike by the BOK since 2023 and was aimed at helping curb inflationary pressures due to the Iran war.
Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 11.5%, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.8%.
Taiwan's Taiex ended nearly unchanged. Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC gained 1.2% ahead of its earnings report. After the market closed, TSMC, often seen as a barometer for the global industry and for the boom in artificial intelligence, announced an additional $100 billion in investments in U.S. computer chipmaking capacity, along with record earnings in the last quarter and higher revenue growth forecasts.
In Amsterdam, Dutch chip machine maker ASML’s shares rose 0.9% early Thursday following TSMC’s stronger-than-expected results.
In other Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.8% to 66,835.54. Shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia skidded 15%. Chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron dropped 4.5%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 5.9%.
SoftBank Group shed 6.3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.3% to 25,008.60. Technology giant Alibaba’s Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 3.1%, after China’s cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence.
The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.9% to 3,882.41.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed flat at 8,840.70, while India’s Sensex picked up 0.2%.
