DJI: Dow Jones Drops 170 Points in Second Straight Day of Broad Stock Pullback

No major news, no big events or surprises. Mostly straightforward profit taking and covering the longs in a classic post-rally defensive move.

📉 Stocks Tumble for Second Day in a Row

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average index DJI shed 170 points, or 0.4%, on Wednesday as traders and investors were feeling risk-off vibes after a few hulking record-setting sessions.
• It was the second consecutive day of declines for stocks across the board with the Dow’s two peers also logging losses. The S&P 500 IXIC erased 0.3% on the day.
• No major news was released during regular trading, leaving market participants parsing through charts and weighing various growth (or no growth) forecasts and expectations.

🎯 AI Spending and Investor Headaches

• One key area was a particularly red spot on the heatmap. Artificial intelligence plays were lagging behind other sectors. Once again, valuations concerns haunted risk investors and asset allocators who were uneasy about the huge sums getting sloshed around.
• Spending on AI has been all the talk in equity town this year. Virtually every big tech company, especially the Magnificent Seven, has earmarked tens of billions of dollars for building out AI infrastructure this year.
• Naturally, some impatient money spinners every now and then throw a tantrum triggered by profit worries – how long before the bottom line shows the grand effort is starting to pay off?
• Technology companies bore the brunt of the declines. Apple AAPL and Nvidia NVDA washed out about 0.8% each. Google parent Alphabet GOOGL was the biggest loser of the pack, lower by 1.8%.

👀 Oil, Gold, and Crypto – What’s Making Moves?

• Elsewhere, oil prices jumped after President Donald Trump spoke against European countries purchasing energy products from Russia. US crude oil (USOIL) rose 2.5% to just under $65 a barrel.
• Gold prices XAUUSD lost 0.8% for the session, snapping a three-day winning run. A troy ounce was going for $3,732, a modest pullback from the record high near $3,800. Gold’s been on a tear this year, up more than 40%, beating the S&P 500 and Bitcoin.
• Speaking of Bitcoin BTCUSD, prices of the orange coin found some support near $111,000 and are staring at a 5% weekly loss. Ether ETHUSD was doing a lot worse, nursing a 12% weekly decline with prices hovering under $4,000 a pop.