Tech stocks with biggest weekly loss since 2022 By dpa-AFX

NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Economic concerns and a disappointing outlook from chip company Broadcom (NASDAQ:) weighed heavily on the US stock markets (ETR:) on Friday. Technology stocks, which had already started to plummet on Tuesday, were hit particularly hard.

On the one hand, the situation on the labor market has continued to weaken in trend, which has caused uncertainty. “On the other hand, tech stocks (NYSE:) are currently being critically examined for substance,” wrote Robert Halver, head of capital market analysis at Baader Bank. High valuations, sometimes astronomical sales and profits, and skepticism about the profitability of companies with a business focus on artificial intelligence (AI) are practically inviting profit-taking.

The technology-heavy index lost 2.69 percent to 18,421.31 points. On a weekly basis, this represents a loss of almost six percent. It is the largest weekly loss since November 2022.

The leading industrial index reached 1.01 to 40,345.41 points, after reaching a record high of just over 41,585 points a week ago. This means a weekly and monthly loss of almost three percent for Wall Street’s price barometer. September is considered a bad month for the stock market. The market breadth fell by 1.73 percent to 5408.42 points on Friday. Its weekly loss of more than four percent is the largest since March 2023.

The economy created fewer jobs in August than expected. “Overall, the labor market is in a stable condition, although the momentum is weakening,” said expert Ulrich Wortberg from Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen. In his opinion, the expectation that the Federal Reserve will be able to lower its interest rates in mid-September is dying out. However, there are no arguments for a large step of 0.50 percentage points, which some believe is possible.

After the data was published, US Federal Reserve Director Christopher Waller said he was at least open to a larger rate cut. It is important that the Fed begins cutting interest rates this month. He is “open” to a larger rate cut and would advocate for one if necessary.

Broadcom shares are the last in the Nasdaq 100, falling by more than ten percent. The market said that the traditional chip business outside of AI applications had been somewhat disappointing in the past quarter. Broadcom is one of the investor favorites for artificial intelligence – a trend topic for which a lot of fantasy has been priced in over the past few months. Recently, however, the hype has flattened out, which has also been noticeable in other stocks in this environment in recent months. Shares in AI pioneer Nvidia (NASDAQ:) fell by a good four percent on Friday.

Looking at smaller technology stocks, there were also results from the software companies Docusign and UiPath (NYSE:). The latter fell by six percent in the gloomy environment. This year’s sales target had exceeded expectations. Docusign’s shares rose by four percent. The company’s profitability was praised.

The euro fell slightly overall and was last traded at 1.1088 US dollars. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.1103 (Thursday: 1.1097) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9006 (0.9011) euros. On the US bond market, the futures contract for ten-year government bonds () rose by 0.15 percent to 114.92 points after the jobs data. The yield, in turn, is 3.72 percent.