Inflation Anxiety Drags on AI Stocks   10/15 07:25

   Tech stocks appeared to be headed for another sell-off before the bell with 
inflation anxiety hammering that high-growth sector ahead of the U.S. earnings 
season.

   (AP) -- Tech stocks appeared to be headed for another sell-off before the 
bell with inflation anxiety hammering that high-growth sector ahead of the U.S. 
earnings season.

   Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.2% before the opening bell, while futures for 
the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%. Nasdaq futures tumbled 1%.

   Artificial intelligence stocks were down again after taking a beating a day 
earlier.

   CoreWeave, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, fell 
another 3.8% early after tumbling 15.5% a day earlier, its worst day since 
February. GE Vernova, which is hoping to electrify power-hungry data centers, 
dropped 3.2% after a 6.2% decline on Wednesday and Oracle sank 1.6%, adding to 
its nearly 9% loss in the previous session.

   Chipmaker and AI darling Nvidia fell 1.6% in early trading, as did Broadcom, 
while Advanced Micro Devices retreated 3.1%.

   The yield on 10-year bonds eased to 5.09% from 5.32%, but remains elevated. 
Higher bond yields that have made borrowing more expensive could make it more 
difficult for companies to raise cash to build data centers and fill them with 
AI chips.

   The latest inflation figures showed Wednesday that prices remain well above 
the Federal Reserve's 2% target, putting in play another potential interest 
rate hike before the end of the year, which also puts pressure on the equities 
market.

   The government's latest report on wholesale prices, the producer price 
index, arrives Thursday along with another trove of corporate earnings reports.

   In Asia, South Korea's benchmark Kospi index lost 7.6% to 5,554.22. It 
plummeted more than 16% over the past month and was well below the 9,000 mark 
that it crossed in June at its all-time high driven by optimism over the global 
artificial intelligence frenzy.

   Samsung Electronics slid 9.5% and South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix 
plunged 11.1%.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 4.9% to 64,425.95. OpenAI investor SoftBank Group 
lost 9.3%. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron dropped 7.8%, and memory 
chipmaker Kioxia Holdings lost 12.3%.

   Taiwan's Taiex, which also benefited from the AI boom, fell 3.4%. Its 
leading chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, dropped 2% 
ahead of its earnings report. TSMC reported on Thursday another record profit 
for the latest quarter, which was better than what analysts had expected, and 
the company said AI demand remains very strong.

   "The problem for heavily technology-weighted markets such as Korea and 
Taiwan, to a lesser extent Japan, is that any risk to perceived AI spending 
growth may lead to slower demand growth for chips and equipment," said Lorraine 
Tan, director of equity research for Asia at Morningstar.

   "The key issue is a possible mismatch between the market's growth 
expectations for the tech sector and what may eventuate," she said.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1% to 24,062.72. The Shanghai Composite index 
slipped 1.6% to 3,707.48.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.1% to 8,719.70.

   At midday in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.7%, France's CAC 40 gave back 
0.3% and Germany's DAX was down 0.4%.

   Oil prices fell as tensions and uncertainties surrounding global oil supply 
and the situation in the Middle East dragged on. Brent crude, the international 
standard, declined more than 1% to $104.91 per barrel. That's still elevated 
compared with the approximately $72 per barrel level before the start of the 
Iran war in late February.

   U.S. crude was up 23 cents a barrel to $95.32.