Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the US equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
US technology stocks sank sharply on Wednesday after lacklustre overnight results from index heavyweights Tesla and Alphabet, deepening the recent sell-off in a sector that has driven the bulk of market gains this year.
The Nasdaq Composite was down 2.8 per cent by early afternoon in New York, with Google parent Alphabet 5.1 per cent lower despite narrowly beating analysts’ revenue forecasts. Advertising revenue from YouTube missed consensus estimates.
Tesla sank 10 per cent after profits fell well short of expectations, leaving the electric-vehicle maker on course for its biggest one-day decline since late January.
The sell-off deepens a recent slump for the high-flying tech sector, as investors have fled stocks boosted by the promise of AI for unloved corners of the market such as smaller companies.
The Nasdaq is down more than 5 per cent from its high on July 11, when lower than forecast US inflation triggered the dramatic market rotation.
Alphabet and Tesla’s results will “feed concerns” that the broader market has become too reliant on the Magnificent Seven of big tech stocks, said Charlie McElligott, an analyst at Nomura.
“Risk sentiment remains fragile,” he added.
UBS on Wednesday reiterated its “sell” rating on Tesla’s stock, warning that the “timeframe and probability of success” of plans to roll out self-driving “robotaxis” remains unclear.
On Tuesday, Tesla’s billionaire chief executive Elon Musk officially pushed back the unveiling of the vehicles from August to October. However he claimed that the project could still take the company’s valuation as high as $5tn — about six times its current market value.
Google’s spend and outlook was being used as an indicator for the wider trend of backing companies with links to generative AI, said analysts.
All of the so-called Magnificent Seven were lower on Wednesday. Chipmaker Nvidia, which has more than doubled this year, was down by almost 4 per cent. Facebook parent Meta also slid 4 per cent while Apple and Microsoft fell almost 3 per cent.
“We’ve got some of the Magnificent Seven digging their heels in, in terms of spending on AI,” said Kevin Gordon, a senior investment strategist at Charles Schwab, “and if they’re not wildly exceeding [earnings] expectations, that’s when you get some profit-taking.”
Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 fell 1.7 per cent. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies, which has recently rallied strongly on hopes of interest cuts as soon as September, fell just 0.2 per cent.
Wednesday’s sell-off comes as “the macro picture appears to be cracking”, said JPMorgan analysts in a note to clients, who highlighted weakening regional activity data and a housing market that continued “to crumble”.
US Treasuries rallied as investors sought safe assets and ramped up bets on Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. Two-year yields, which are highly sensitive to rate expectations, fell 0.05 percentage points to 4.39 per cent, the lowest level since February.
Big Tech companies including Meta, Amazon and Apple will report earnings next week.
