Traders attend the IPO of Brookfield-backed data center provider CSquare Inc. at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 16, 2026 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Wall Street continued its weekly decline, with stocks falling again on Friday as traders weighed recent developments in semiconductors along with the latest quarterly reports.
Broad market indexes fell 1%; Nasdaq Composite Tech stocks came under scrutiny, falling 1.4%. of Dow Jones Industrial Average It fell by 374 points (0.7%).
Major stock benchmarks have also fallen from last week to today, with the S&P 500 down more than 1% and the Nasdaq down more than 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 1% for the week.
SMH continues its weekly decline for the third time in the past four weeks, having fallen more than 8% in this period. Semiconductors were particularly hard hit in early trading, but have since recovered some of their losses as Chinese startup Moonshot AI announced new models that close the gap to the top U.S. product.
“Recent developments raise new concerns about the rapid pace of technology spending, with competition from open source models in China reportedly rivaling the performance of leading products from Anthropic and OpenAI,” said Angelo Kourkafas, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones.
“We are seeing signs of fatigue as end-user demand for AI becomes more price-sensitive and the market begins to penalize companies that increase spending too aggressively,” he continued. “We see this volatility as a signal that the AI theme is likely maturing rather than collapsing. This is a healthy part of the way the transformative investment cycle is evolving.”
Along with chips Netflix It lagged significantly on Friday, falling more than 6% as the company’s forecasts failed to allay investor concerns that growth was slowing.
The focus also remains on the further escalation of the war between the US and Iran, which has driven up oil prices. us West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures During the international benchmark, the most recent trade was above $81 per barrel. brent crude oil futures It was over $86.
Kuwait said Friday that Iran had attacked a power plant and a desalination facility, and U.S. Central Command said overnight, completing a sixth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, striking dozens of military targets, including logistics infrastructure and maritime capabilities.
Iranian officials also said Friday they were targeting U.S. forces in Syria and Bahrain, further escalating Tehran’s attacks across the Middle East.
This comes after a fragile ceasefire agreed last month collapsed, again disrupting energy flows through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, which normally handles about 20% of global oil shipments.
David Wagner, head of equities at Aptus Capital Advisors, said recent moves in the oil market “are going to surprise people, but we’re still at the average level.” Wagner added that he is optimistic about the overall market despite rising oil prices. “I’m still bullish, but we could see more volatility going forward,” he said.
