Technology

By Johnny-Come-Lately

Staff writer

A tech sell-off shook global markets on Tuesday as attention turned away from developments in the US war with Iran and toward the future of AI companies and chipmakers that have driven stock markets to record highs.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index opened 2% lower on Tuesday. The Dow and S&P 500 were also down at opening.

All three major US indices have hit record highs this year, riding off a rush of funding to support AI technology and infrastructure. Nasdaq is up 10% for the year, while the Dow jumped 6% so far this year, breaching past 51,000 points, and the S&P 500 is up 7.3%.

But some economists have warned that the influx of AI spending is a bubble reminiscent of the dot-com bubble that burst in the early 2000s. Seven tech companies make up 30% of the S&P 500’s value.

The heavy reliance on a single industry and a few key companies has some investors wondering if it’s a matter of when, not if, there will be a burst. Those concerns have been heightened by signals from the Federal Reserve last week that it may increase interest rates, and therefore the cost of borrowing, in order to tackle rising inflation.

I do so love it when the media catches on to red lights visible from space for a couple of years. But the insistence that this is at all similar in nature and scope to the dot-com crash is still head-in-sand.

Next up: "Why were none of our sources being honest with us? We're victims just as much as you are! We thought contributing to an obvious hype cycle was a good thing!"