Nasdaq 100 Records Worst Week In 18 Months As Investors Steer Clear Of Chipmakers — AAPL, MSTR, UBER, SOXX In Focus

• The S&P 500 ended Friday 1.1% lower, the Nasdaq 100 fell 2.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%.
• CoreWeave recorded its worst week since November last year.
• Tesla introduced the Roadster sports car, a prototype designed in collaboration with SpaceX.   

U.S. stock indices dropped on Friday, with the Nasdaq 100 recording its worst week in over a year and a half, pulled down by weakness in chip stocks.

The S&P 500 ended Friday 1.1% lower, the Nasdaq 100 fell 2.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%. The Russell 2000, which tracks small-cap stocks, ended 1.7% lower.

S&P 500 futures slipped 0.2%, while Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 0.7%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose just 22 points.  

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) dropped 1.2%, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) eased 0.5%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) fell 2.5% on Friday.  

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and the iShares Semiconductor ETF fell between 3% and 4% amid weakness in Micron Tech (MU), Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), and most other silicon makers. The broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) dropped 3%.

The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) fell about 6% on Friday, with most memory chip stocks in the red. 

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for QQQ, SPY, and DIA was ‘bearish’ with ‘high’ message volumes.

US Market Drivers

Anxiety rose among market participants over excessive spending and debt tech firms are taking on to finance AI expansion. Neocloud provider CoreWeave saw its stock tumble almost 12%, extending weekly losses to 25% as its overall debt load ballooned past $51 billion.

Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles, told CNBC that while mounting debt warrants close monitoring, current levels remain far from systemic danger. “Obviously, increased debt issuance is something to observe and continue to watch and be concerned about if it continues to get to levels of excessiveness. But we’re not remotely close to that right now.” 

Alternatively, Nvidia’s chief Jensen Huang has been publicly advocating for the AI industry by saying the benefits of the technology will soon outweigh the concerns of investors. 

“All of this is going to pass, and the reason for that is very simple,” Huang told Bloomberg during an event in Berlin. “It’s going to be transformative. It’s going to impact in a very positive way every single industry and every single country. There’s no question it will continue, and we’re at the beginning of that.” 

Key Trending Stocks

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is preparing to fight U.K. antitrust regulators over proposed rule changes designed to break the tech giant’s grip on its iPhone tap-to-pay technology. 

Shares of Michael Saylor-backed Strategy (MSTR) fell on Friday, reversing Thursday’s gains, after MSCI announced it would adopt a new approach to screening companies for its global benchmark indexes that could put the Bitcoin (BTC) treasury firm’s index membership at risk. 

Uber (UBER) shares were in focus after Guggenheim reiterated its ‘Buy’ rating and $125 price target, calling it a “compelling investment opportunity.” 

Tesla’s (TSLA) unveiling of its next-generation Roadster on Thursday turned heads as the car drove off a roller-coaster-like ramp, somersaulting over other Tesla vehicles before using cold-gas thrusters to land, but analysts saw it as a precursor to its merger with SpaceX (SPCX). 

Shares of ExxonMobil (XOM) advanced modestly on Friday after the company said that higher refining margins could add about $4.5 billion to third-quarter results compared with the prior quarter. 

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