NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Friday even as technology shares steadied somewhat to end a turbulent week for the market-driving AI trade, and investors looked ahead to a busy slate of corporate earnings and a US Federal Reserve interest-rate policy meeting.
The Nasdaq Composite posted a slim loss a day after the tech-heavy index suffered its biggest one-day drop since June, as concerns flared over financing costs to support heavy AI investment spending. The S&P 500 technology sector posted a 0.35% gain on Friday.
Most S&P 500 sectors fell, however, including declines of well over 1% for the consumer staples and consumer discretionary groups as well as the financials sector.
Next week, about one-third of S&P 500 companies report quarterly results, including Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, three AI hyperscalers whose capital spending forecasts will be closely watched on Wall Street.
"There is still fallout from the questioning of the AI trade," said Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group. "There's certainly the potential that we see less invested in an AI data center build-out next year than has been projected. So I certainly think that's giving pause."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 652.82 points, or 1.23%, to 52,215.16; the S&P 500 lost 39.75 points, or 0.52%, to 7,623.68 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 53.52 points, or 0.21%, to 25,955.34.
For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.7%. The blue-chip Dow rose 0.4%, its third straight weekly gain.
Telecommunications stocks fell, weighing on the communication services sector, after a report that SpaceX was seeking thousands of cell sites for a fourth wireless carrier.
Shares of AT&T and T-Mobile both sank nearly 8% while Verizon shed 1.2%. SpaceX shares rose 1.9%. US cell tower operators gained, with Crown Castle up 9% and American Tower up 4%.
The energy sector rose 2.5%, hitting a record high. Brent crude hit its highest level since late April, after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concern over further disruption to energy supplies from the Middle East.
American Express shares fell 3.7%, weighing on the Dow. The company raised its profit forecast as it also announced plans to eliminate 5% of its workforce.
SLB shares rose 7% after the oilfield services provider beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit.
Data from the University of Michigan showed US consumer sentiment edged down near a record low in October, as rising prices because of the Middle East conflict soured households' views of the economy.
Market focus remains on the earnings season, with robust corporate profit growth underpinning gains for major equity indexes this year. companies are on track to have increased earnings by more than 32% in the third quarter, according to LSEG IBES data.
The Fed is expected to keep interest rates steady when it gives its policy statement on Wednesday, but investors will be eager for clues about whether the US central bank will hike rates at its December meeting. Wall Street is also increasingly focused on the November 3 midterm elections, which will decide control of the US Congress.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.72-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange. On the Nasdaq, declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.57-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 74 new highs and 334 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 15.4 billion shares, compared with the 17.2 billion average over the last 20 trading days.