S&P 500 ends lower, chips tumble and Moderna rallies

NEW YORK: The S&P 500 ended marginally lower on Friday, with a steep drop in AI-related chip stocks and sharp gains in Moderna and other healthcare stocks.

The PHLX chip index tumbled 5.3%, underscoring recent volatility among AI-related chipmakers that have fuelled much of Wall Street’s gains in recent years. While some investors remain optimistic about the potential for AI to fuel higher profits, others worry that massive spending to build AI data centres may take too long to pay off.

“It’s too early to conclude that there’s a major correction brewing in tech, but what I would say is that the questions around profitability and the capex story are certainly not going away,” said David Stubbs, chief investment strategist at AlphaCore Wealth Advisory.

Stubbs also warned that Wall Street could be vulnerable to signs that US companies may not be able to deliver on investors’ high earnings expectations.

Apple rallied 3.1% and partly rebounded from a selloff on Thursday, when it raised iPad and MacBook prices, blaming soaring memory and storage chip costs.

Moderna surged almost 13% to its highest level since 2024 after the drug developer hosted an investor event and showcased its pipeline.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by industrials, down 3.41%, followed by a 2.45% loss in materials.

US inflation rose above 4% in May, data showed on Thursday, as the Iran war drove up energy prices, keeping alive the possibility of a Fed rate hike.

While oil prices have retreated sharply as the Middle East tensions eased, Apple’s newly announced price hikes suggest inflation remains a concern, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

“We saw a similar dynamic during the pandemic, when supply chain disruptions limited access to semiconductors. Now, we’re witnessing a comparable supply shock, this time driven by memory, which is creating renewed inflationary pressure,” Hogan said.

The S&P 500 declined 0.05% to end the session at 7,353.95 points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.24% to 25,297.62 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.09% to 51,876.11 points.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 2.05% and the Nasdaq lost 4.7%.

The chip index lost 7.9% for the week, its worst week since early April.

A report that OpenAI was considering delaying its public debut until next year also weighed on risk sentiment related to AI stocks.

Shares of SpaceX edged up 0.15%. Passively managed index funds need to buy billions of dollars’ worth of the stock ahead of its inclusion in Russell indexes.

Meanwhile, interest rate concerns persisted, with traders pricing in one 25 basis-point rate hike and a near 27% chance of another by year-end, according to LSEG-compiled data.

A survey showed US consumer sentiment rebounded from record lows in June, though households remained worried about the high cost of living.

ON Semiconductor dropped almost 24% after agreeing to acquire Synaptics in an all-stock deal valued at about US$7 billion. Synaptics dipped 3.7%.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.8-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 35 new highs and 5 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 263 new highs and 169 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was relatively heavy, with 30.1 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 23.1 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.