Wall Street sinks as tech rout deepens on AI angst

Wall Street sinks as tech rout deepens on AI angst

By Sinéad Carew and Twesha Dikshit

Thu February 12, 2026 5:47 AM  

AI jitters returned to very high gear today with another huge rout that was triggered by a less than stellar Q4 update from Cisco Systems. This dent in the AI halo quickly infected the entire market and continued to aggravate nerves about the enormous AI spending going on, reported to be a whopping $650 billion by Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft alone. The huge selloff was also attributed to a continuation of yesterday’s trigger of how these huge capital expenses can possibly be recouped into profits. Tomorrow’s CPI will give a clearer picture on inflation. But the bottom line according to today’s expert, “We see this as a ‘prove it' year for AI. We need to start seeing some return on investments.” At 22.45 billion, volume was very brisk and well above the 4-week average of 20.78 billion. 

DJ: 50,121.40  -66.74         NAS: 23,066.47  -36.01         S&P: 6,941.47  -0.34               2/11

DJ: 49,451.98  -669.42       NAS: 22,597.15  -469.32       S&P: 6,832.76  -108.71           2/12

Thu 2-12-26 5:01 pm Wall Street sinks as tech rout deepens on AI angst | Reuters

Wall Street ends muted after strong jobs data nibbles at Fed rate cut bets

Wall Street ends muted after strong jobs data nibbles at Fed rate cut bets

By Sinéad Carew and Twesha Dikshit

Wed February 11, 2026  

Today’s payrolls report came in stellar, much higher than expected, establishing that the labor market is in fine shape and is good news for the economy. You would think that everyone would be buying given the nerves over the past few days of this report disappointing. Instead, it was another case of good news taken as bad news since new rate cuts may not be needed after all. Plus the new concerns regarding AI hurting software developers continues as the chip index rose 2.3% but the corresponding software index fell 2.6%. For every dollar that went into AI, a dollar was taken away from the developers.  

S&P 500, Nasdaq dip with economic data, earnings in focus

S&P 500, Nasdaq dip with economic data, earnings in focus

By Sinéad Carew and Twesha Dikshit

Tue February 10, 2026 6:12 AM  

All three indexes started the day up, the Dow way up almost 400 points, before all started declining again with tech once again seeing the heaviest losses as overinvestment concerns with AI crop up again. The Dow lost most of its ground due to a flat retail sales report vs an expected 0.4% increase, indicating that consumer spending has stalled. But what’s really going on is everyone sitting on the fence awaiting Wednesday’s jobs report and keeping a hedge in case it’s disappointing.  

Wall Street advances as tech bounces further off of recent losses

Wall Street advances as tech bounces further off of recent losses

By Sinéad Carew and Twesha Dikshit

Mon February 9, 2026 5:28 AM  

After a very short-lived early morning sell off on all three indexes, all three quickly went into the black and, though the Dow remained mostly flat all day, tech took off as recent worries about over-valuations and AI vulnerabilities seem to have gone now to the back burner as bargain hunting continues for the second day. The Dow had a modest gain but still a second consecutive closing record and the S&P closed just shy of its record. The Nasdaq remains about 3% below its record.  

Dow closes above 50,000, Nvidia soars as traders focus on AI spending

Dow closes above 50,000, Nvidia soars as traders focus on AI spending

By Noel Randewich

Fri February 6, 2026 6:33 AM  

Well, isn’t this cute? After three days of severe panic selling over anxiety over the future profitability of AI, suddenly it’s a market favorite again with all three indexes shooting way straight up right out the gate and staying there all day, the Dow with a whopping 4-digit lead and even the S&P with a 3-digit, the Nasdaq of course with a big 3-digits. As today’s expert put it, “When there’s this kind of a selloff, I think there’s a floor where there’s going to be a certain set of investors that steps in and starts buying these names.” Is this just bargain hunting that sent the Dow to a new record, breaking the formidable 50,000 and the S&P within a stone’s throw of another record? What makes no sense at all is the conditions that triggered the massive selloff are still very much in evidence.  

Wall Street ends sharply down as AI worries weigh

Wall Street ends sharply down as AI worries weigh

By Noel Randewich

Thu February 5, 2026 5:59 AM  

For the third day, serious worries about the unprecedented huge investments in AI creating doubts about whether it will translate to profits shot all three indexes way down. It was a similar pattern to the last two days with the markets tumbling drastically until 11 a.m., then recovering in the early afternoon.  Only today, instead of continuing the recovery, everything sank again with major 3-digit losses in both tech and industrials. It seems that every major tech company, after announcing even greater planned expenditures for AI, just caused a rush to the exits with the stock prices taking big hits.  

Wall Street ends down as AI worries slam tech stocks

Wall Street ends down as AI worries slam tech stocks

By Noel Randewich and Pranav Kashyap

Wed February 4, 2026 6:21 AM  

It was a second day of panic selling with mounting fears that the AI rally has not only peaked but is hurting software developers. And, like yesterday, the pattern was for a straight downward spiral on both the S&P and Nasdaq which was much worse during the day than at close. Like yesterday, they both had huge losses until about 1 pm, the Nasdaq down nearly 600, the S&P down about 80. The Dow had a much better time starting way up over 400 only to crash to zero by 1 pm. And like yesterday, after the crashes, they all recovered a large portion of their losses, tech still closing quite solidly in the red but the Dow having a nice 3-digit gain.