Technology Stocks and AI Trade

Bitcoin fell as much as 8% to about $69,000 and was recently trading near $71,000 on Thursday, its lowest level since November 2024, while a tech‑led sell‑off hit stock markets in Asia and followed further weakness on Wall Street. South Korea’s Kospi plunged 3.9%, with Samsung Electronics down 5.9% and chipmaker SK Hynix off 6.7%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.9%, as investors questioned lofty valuations in semiconductor and AI‑linked names. In the U.S. on Wednesday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.5% for its fifth modest loss in six sessions and the Nasdaq sank 1.5%, dragged by a 17.3% drop in Advanced Micro Devices despite better‑than‑expected earnings and a revenue forecast that apparently failed to justify a stock that had doubled in a year. Uber fell 5.1% after missing profit expectations and issuing a weak outlook, while AI server seller Super Micro Computer jumped 13.8% on strong results and Walmart’s market value topped $1 trillion for the first time. Oil prices also slid more than $1 a barrel and silver dropped 7%, extending volatility in assets that had recently surged as havens from tariffs, a weaker dollar and heavy government debt, underscoring how jittery global markets are around richly priced tech and speculative trades. Traders and strategists online are increasingly highlighting signs of froth in AI and crypto as even strong earnings no longer guarantee rallies and modest disappointments trigger outsized declines.