London (AFP) – Technology firms retreated further Friday after more poorly received earnings from US titans fanned deepening concerns about the AI investment boom. Bitcoin meanwhile tumbled after Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was hit by what analysts warned could be the biggest hacking of its kind in the world.
“The end of the week is dominated by a continuation of the recent AI sell-off on disappointing earnings, and concerns about the safety of crypto,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading group. AI-linked tech firms suffered steep losses after earnings reports from Amazon and Intel stoked further fears about the eye-watering amounts companies are pumping into artificial intelligence.
Shares in Amazon dropped 5.5 percent at the start of trading in New York after it missed analyst expectations for profits and revenue. Intel plunged more than 27 percent after it acknowledged the AI boom was slowing its key market for personal computers by driving up the price of memory chips. Shares in AI semiconductor firms also fell, with Nvidia shedding 3.2 percent, Micron down 5.7 percent and AMD tumbling 10.3 percent. Shares in Google’s parent company Alphabet fell a further 1.5 percent after heavy selling Thursday that wiped billions of euros off its value. Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell 2.3 percent at the open of trading.
“It is unlikely that the AI trade will recover on Friday, and instead the focus is shifting to the non-tech sectors of the market and safe havens,” Brooks said. London’s tech-light FTSE 100 stock index edged higher in afternoon trading, as strong earnings from drugs giant AstraZeneca and oil major BP lifted sentiment. However, shares in British bank NatWest slumped more than eight percent after its third-quarter net profit fell, underperforming rival banks.
Eurozone stock markets diverged amid mixed growth data for the economic bloc. The steep losses for tech firms Friday reversed optimism earlier in the week prompted by AI giant Anthropic’s IPO filing. South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi index closed out its week down 3.5 percent and Tokyo finished with a 2.0-percent loss. Hong Kong, however, closed up 1.5 percent. Focus is turning also to Tuesday’s US midterm elections and the impact they could have on the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Oil prices climbed around two percent Friday on renewed supply fears after Iran said four tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Shares in ExxonMobil rose 1.8 percent after it reported that its third-quarter profits more than doubled to $15.4 billion on higher oil prices and refining margins due to the US-Iran war.
Elsewhere, bitcoin fell 3.7 percent to $77,170 after Binance said it had fallen victim to a major hacking attack that had impacted around $6.3 billion in funds. That is four times the amount impacted in the previous biggest-ever cyberattack of its kind, which saw $1.5 billion taken in February 2025 from the Bybit platform.
– Key figures at around 1330 GMT –
New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 52,194.51 points
New York – S&P: DOWN 1.2 percent at 7,630.88
New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 2.3 percent at 25,592.49
London – FTSE 100: UP less than 0.1 percent at 10,728.10
Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 7,980.10
Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.7 percent at 25,867.19
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.1 percent at 63,290.11 (close)
Seoul – Kospi: DOWN 3.5 percent at 5,730.74 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.5 percent at 23,294.42 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.4 percent at 3,599.02 (close)
Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.0 percent at $117.18 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.8 percent at $103.83 per barrel
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1166 from $1.1164 on Thursday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3396 from $1.3365
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 157.31 yen from 157.92 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.35 pence from 83.54 pence
© 2024 AFP
