Artificial-intelligence stocks are falling again, but smaller U.S. stocks and other areas of the market that used to get left behind by Big Tech are picking up the slack. That’s keeping Wall Street indexes near their record heights early Friday. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% in early trading, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 103 points, or 0.2%. Weakness for tech stocks including Broadcom pulled the Nasdaq composite
down 0.4%. Lululemon Athletica led the market after delivering a strong profit report and saying it’s looking for a new CEO.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Trading on Wall Street is mixed early Friday as worries persist about a potential bubble in artificial-intelligence technology, despite another strong earnings report from the sector.
Futures for the S&P 500 slipped less than 0.2%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%. Futures for the Nasdaq, where the biggest technology players are listed, fell 0.5%.
The Dow this week is up more than 1.5%, while the Nasdaq is treading water.
Broadcom shares sank nearly 6% overnight as concerns over its sales projections and margin pressure overshadowed record revenue from the chipmaker and AI heavyweight.
A day earlier, Oracle handily beat profit expectations but its stock tumbled more than 10% because of the company's spending blitz. Capital spending for the quarter was 40% higher than industry analysts had anticipated.
Doubts are weighing on the AI industry broadly, even as many billions of dollars continue to flow in. Tech is the only sector in the red before markets open Friday.
In other trading, Lululemon jumped nearly 10% after it announced CEO Calvin McDonald planned to step down at the end of January. The company, which also posted strong third-quarter sales and profit, said it has begun to search for McDonald's replacement.
At midday in Europe, Germany's DAX ticked up 0.1% and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.5%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was unchanged.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 1.4% to 50,836.55, rebounding from the previous session’s losses.
Investors remain cautious ahead of next week’s policy meeting of the Bank of Japan, where it is expected to raise interest rates, but technology shares helped lead broad gains.
Softbank Group gained 3.9% after an early jump of 6%.
In Chinese markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.8% to 25,976.79, while the Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.4% to 3,889.35.
An annual planning meeting, the Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing on Wednesday to Thursday, set China’s priorities for 2026. According to state media reports, those include working to reverse a decline in investment and to boost consumer spending. However, no major policy shifts were reported.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2% to 8,697.30.
In Seoul, South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.4% to 4,167.16.
Taiwan's Taiex index added 0.6% while India's BSE Sensex rose 0.5%.
U.S. benchmark crude oil gave back 8 cents to $57.52 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 11 cents to $61.17 per barrel.
