S&P 500, Nasdaq Log 5-Day Losing Streaks as AI Chip Selloff Deepens
Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Jun 26
S&P 500, Nasdaq Log 5-Day Losing Streaks as AI Chip Selloff Deepens
3 articles · Updated · Financial Times · Jun 26
Summary
The S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq fell 0.2% on Friday, sealing five straight daily losses; for the week, the indexes dropped 2% and 4.6%, respectively.
Chipmakers drove the retreat as Sandisk sank 10.5%, Western Digital 13.2% and Micron 6.7%, with investors increasingly questioning whether the AI rally and tech spending boom have run too far.
Apple's roughly 20% price increases for MacBooks and iPads added to the pressure by highlighting rising memory costs and margin strain, even after the stock rebounded 2.2% Friday from Thursday's 6.1% slide.
Bank of America said clients were net sellers of US equities for the first time since March, unloading more than $8 billion this week, while falling H100 chip prices and a report that OpenAI may delay its IPO until 2027 further dented AI sentiment.
The selloff spread globally: Europe's Stoxx 600 fell 0.7%, South Korea's Kospi closed down 5.8% after a trading halt, and Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 4.2%.
As firms spend trillions on AI, is employee resistance, not technology, the real barrier to profitability?
Is the AI gold rush a dot-com bubble repeat, or do record profits signal a truly different economic era?
June 2026 AI Tech Stock Crash: Debt, Valuations, and the Global Market Fallout
Overview
In late June 2026, global markets experienced a sharp downturn as technology stocks sold off rapidly. This was triggered by growing doubts about the sustainability of soaring tech valuations, which were further shaken by fears of rising inflation linked to the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. These inflationary pressures raised concerns about higher interest rates, making it more expensive to borrow for large-scale AI infrastructure projects. As a result, volatility spread across tech stocks worldwide, highlighting how economic shocks, geopolitical tensions, and questions about AI investment sustainability combined to drive the market selloff.