Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Jun 26
Nasdaq 100 Futures Drop 1.2% as AI Rally Doubts Deepen and Apple Hikes Prices 20%
Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Jun 26

Nasdaq 100 Futures Drop 1.2% as AI Rally Doubts Deepen and Apple Hikes Prices 20%

3 articles · Updated · Financial Times · Jun 26

Summary

  • Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.2% on Friday and S&P 500 futures 0.5%, extending a volatile week as investors cut exposure to richly valued US tech stocks.
  • Chip and memory names led the slide: Sandisk dropped 6%, Western Digital 4%, and Micron nearly 5% in pre-market trading despite its 15% post-earnings jump a day earlier.
  • Apple added to the pressure after raising MacBook and iPad prices about 20% because of surging memory costs; its shares fell 6.1% on Thursday, erasing more than $260 billion in market value.
  • OpenAI's possible IPO delay to 2027 further dented sentiment, feeding concerns that AI hardware demand growth may be slowing rather than collapsing.
  • The sell-off spread globally, with Europe's tech index down 0.7%, South Korea's Kospi closing 5.8% lower after a circuit-breaker halt, and Japan's Nikkei 225 down 4.2%.

Insights

Is the AI stock slump a dot-com bubble repeat or a brief pause in a long-term super cycle?
With AI chip demand outstripping supply, can the industry's infrastructure keep pace with its own hype?