Stocks experienced their first weekly losses in three weeks on Friday, as investors pulled back amid concerns over the soaring valuations of artificial intelligence companies. The Nasdaq Composite, which closely follows the largest technology firms, fell 3% this week—its steepest decline since the global market sell-off in April, triggered by the rollout of President Donald Trump’s "Liberation Day" tariff policies. The S&P 500 declined by 1. 6% over the week, ending its three-week winning streak. Stocks rallied sharply off their intraday lows after Senate Democrats proposed a new plan to end the government shutdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P closed marginally higher for the day, while the Nasdaq ended lower. For the year, both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 continue to maintain substantial double-digit gains. Market declines were mainly driven by companies tied to the artificial intelligence surge. This week, shares of Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD, Palantir, Oracle, and Meta Platforms (owner of Instagram) collectively lost more than $820 billion in market value. Nvidia shares fell 7%, while Oracle—provider of cloud computing services for AI developers—dropped 8. 8%, the same percentage lost by chipmaker AMD. Meta and Microsoft each fell about 4% during the week. Super Micro Computer, a supplier of servers and equipment used by cloud providers for AI applications, plunged 23%, making it the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 for the five-day period. The S&P 500 technology sector was the weakest performer overall this week, shedding 4. 2%. However, not all tech stocks suffered equally. Apple, the world’s second-largest company after Nvidia, and Alphabet both ended the week down just 0. 7%, while Amazon managed a slight gain. The sell-off began Tuesday following earnings from government contractor and AI developer Palantir. Concerns about its elevated valuation caused the stock to plummet in subsequent days, dragging down its industry peers. Two leading Wall Street CEOs issued warnings about a potential market pullback on the horizon. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang intensified concerns about the U. S.

tech sector when he told the Financial Times on Thursday that China would likely “win the AI race. ” He later clarified, stating “China is nanoseconds behind America in AI. ” When asked on Friday if he was worried about an "AI bubble, " Trump replied, "No, I love AI. We're leading China, we're leading the world. " Other factors may also be contributing to market losses. On Friday, consumer sentiment fell to near-record lows according to the University of Michigan’s widely followed consumer survey. “With the federal government shutdown dragging on for over a month, consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative consequences for the economy, ” said survey director Joanne Hsu. The government shutdown has resulted in a lack of official economic data for markets to assess. The jobs report scheduled for release Friday, as well as last month’s report, were not published. Other critical economic indicators have also been delayed due to the 37-day shutdown. As a result, investors have become more dependent on corporate earnings reports and alternative data sources.