Wall Street follows global markets lower as traders sell to lock in profits after recent AI rallies

Wall Street futures fell Friday as traders locked in profits from AI stock rallies, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures down 0.6% and 1.4% respectively. Asian markets also plunged, led by Japan's Nikkei 225 losing 4.2% and South Korea's Kospi dropping 5.8%, amid concerns over rising inflation and potential interest rate hikes that could slow economic growth.

Wall Street pointed toward losses before the opening bell Friday as volatility continued for chipmakers and other companies heavily invested in artificial intelligence. Futures for the S&P 500 lost 0.6% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.2% lower. Nasdaq futures tumbled another 1.4% and are on track for a more than 5% loss this week, the second such wipeout this month. AI stocks broadly have been under intermittent pressure recently https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-us-iran-war-oil-spacex-03c6efaefd208a4b68679cdccde51cf9 because of worries that their profits can't possibly keep pace with the tremendous rallies for their stock prices https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-iran-nvidia-energy-oil-ba4257d9938ef6aea558db3010b4a53f . In premarket trading Friday, Micron fell 5%, Intel was down 3.6% and Broadcom and Qualcomm both retreated close to 2%. The growing likelihood of interest rate hikes https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-kevin-warsh-interest-rates-103325df845d2d6bde63dfa4b8093d35 later this year because of rising inflation https://apnews.com/article/inflation-federal-reserve-spending-d9348cc01b41c8de31051acf1b39268f has helped deflate the massive run-up in AI-related stocks in recent days as traders worry that the higher rates could hamper economic growth. It was a similar story in Asia, where technology stocks also have seen wild swings recently. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index shed 4.2% to 69,360.88 and the Kospi in Seoul plunged 5.8% to 8,411.21. Both recovered some ground lost earlier in the day. The wide swings in Tokyo and Seoul are typical of recent volatility in markets as investors react to the deluge of dollars heading into AI data centers https://apnews.com/article/economy-gdp-consumer-spending-trump-iran-war-a3ecd4459a091458fd9b61772d79b7da and other investments. Shares in Japan and South Korea hit records this week and logged strong gains on Thursday after chipmakers Qualcomm and Micron Technology reported better than expected earnings. In South Korea, market trends have been dominated by movements in stock in Samsung Electronics, the country's biggest company, and chipmaker SK Hynix, which like Samsung is collaborating with Nvidia on artificial intelligence. Given that concentration, "a strong Micron print can produce a powerful upside chase one day; a new concern around memory costs, capex, or the durability of AI demand can reverse it violently the next," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. Samsung's shares lost 5.3% on Friday, while those of SK Hynix fell 8.4%. In Tokyo trading, technology giant SoftBank Group Corp. lost 12.5% and computer chip testing equipment maker Advantest sank 3.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.8% to 22,667.13, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 2.3% to 4,027.26. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was an outlier, gaining 0.2% to 8,764.20. Taiwan's Taiex gave up 3.6%. While the AI boom regularly roils tech shares, other sectors have held relatively steady, noted Thomas Mathews of Capital Economics.