Share indexes tumbled around the world on Friday, as heavyweight chip stocks plunged for a third consecutive day as investors reduced bets on artificial intelligence (AI), with China’s Moonshot releasing a large AI system.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose as the United States and Iran expanded their attacks to hit key infrastructure. The United States struck bridges and an airport in Iran, and Tehran responded by hitting a power and desalination plant in Kuwait.
Dublin
The Dublin market dipped on Friday, losing almost 2 per cent by the closing bell to notch up a weekly loss for the index.
The market was hampered by declines in banking shares and other heavyweight stocks. Bank of Ireland and AIB both ended up in the red on Friday, leading to weekly losses of 2.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.
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Kerry Group saw its stock fall 2 per cent on Friday, erasing some of the gains it had made over the week. Glanbia also lost value on Friday, falling almost 2 per cent to a weekly loss of 5.2 per cent.
Insulation specialist Kingspan also declined, losing 1.5 per cent over the session, while Ryanair was down 2.5 per cent.
London
London’s FTSE 100 ended higher on Friday as utilities shares rose and energy giants gained, tracking higher crude oil prices amid escalating Middle East tensions, while the focus was on politics as Andy Burnham became the British Labour Party leader.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index gained 0.3 per cent at 10,600.4 points, while the midcap FTSE 250 dipped 0.5 per cent to snap a six-day winning streak. Both indexes, however, clocked weekly gains.
Energy stocks gained 2.1 per cent as oil prices rose on concerns over supply disruptions.
Personal goods fell 5 per cent after Burberry warned that the conflict in the Middle East was hurting tourist spending in Europe, sending shares in the British luxury brand down 6.4 per cent.
GSK fell 2 per cent after the drugmaker said it would halt development of its experimental treatment for refractory chronic cough after the therapy failed a late-stage trial and missed key efficacy goals across multiple dosages.
Europe
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.34 per cent to 641.53 points. It was largely unchanged for the week.
Saab rose 9.73 per cent after the Swedish defence and aerospace group reported a bigger-than-expected increase in second-quarter operating profit.
Volvo Group dipped 0.64 per cent even after the Swedish truckmaker reported a 35 per cent jump in second-quarter profit.
New York
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit multi-week lows on Friday as investors reassessed this year’s AI-fuelled rally, triggering volatility in chip stocks, while a new AI model from China further soured sentiment.
Some of the chip stocks extended the previous session’s losses, with heavyweight Nvidia down 1.3 per cent.
The decline, combined with an early gain in Apple, pushed the iPhone-maker ahead of Nvidia to briefly become the world’s most valuable company.
Losses in other mega-cap stocks also weighed on markets. Meta Platforms fell 5.2 per cent.
Shares of Netflix tumbled 9 per cent, after the streaming giant forecast third-quarter numbers below Street estimates on Thursday, weighing heavily on the communication services sector that slid 2.4 per cent.
Buy midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 127.51 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 52,425.46, the S&P 500 lost 56.07 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 7,477.70 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 335.74 points, or 1.30 per cent, to 25,546.21. – Additional reporting: Reuters
