U.S. and Canadian stocks ended sharply lower on Thursday, with the Nasdaq dragged to its lowest since November by losses in Microsoft, Amazon and other tech heavyweights after Alphabet said it could double capital spending on AI in the race to dominate the emerging technology. A selloff in precious metals also weighed on the TSX.
Shares of Alphabet fell 0.55% after the Google parent said it plans as much as US$185 billion in capex in 2026. Together, it and its Big Tech rivals are expected to collectively shell out more than US$500 billion on AI this year.
Adding to recent losses, Microsoft dropped 5%, Palantir lost 6.8% and Oracle fell 7%.
Amazon lost 4.4% during regular trading and then tumbled another 10% after the closing bell, joining its Big Tech peers in projecting massive capital expenditures in 2026. It was the latest sign that tech companies will not hit the brakes anytime soon on hefty AI investments.
Shares of chipmaker Nvidia, which stands to benefit from increased industry spending on AI, declined 1.4%.
Investors in recent months have grown more wary of heavy spending on AI, awaiting stronger signs those investments are actually boosting revenue and profits.
“This is the first time we’ve seen the large-cap tech companies -- the Microsofts and the Alphabets and the Amazons -- go through a really large capex cycle ... and we’re seeing this volatility about whether this investment will translate, ultimately, into results,” said Tom Hainlin, an investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.
Investors this week have also worried that rapidly improving AI tools could eat into demand for traditional software, squeezing profit margins across the sector. Software and data services stocks added to recent losses, with ServiceNow down 7.6% and Salesforce losing almost 5%.
The S&P 500 software and services index fell 4.6%, down for a seventh straight session.
“The AI trade which was the accelerant last year is perhaps the extinguisher this year with people realizing that AI is going to help certain kinds of companies but it is also going to hurt, particularly software, for example,” said Melissa Brown, SimCorp’s managing director of investment decision research.
Qualcomm slid 8.5% after forecasting second-quarter revenue and profit below estimates.
The CBOE volatility index, Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” briefly hit the highest in over two months.
As traders dialed back exposure to pricey AI stocks, the market’s rotation into relatively cheaper stocks gained steam in recent days. The S&P 500 value index dipped 0.9%, but remained in positive territory for the week. The S&P 500 growth index was down more than 4% for the week.
The S&P 500 declined 1.23% to end the session at 6,798.40 points. The Nasdaq declined 1.59% to 22,540.59 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.20% to 48,908.72 points.
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by materials, down 2.75%, followed by a 2.59% loss in consumer discretionary.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 576.95 points, or 1.8%, at 31,994.60, after gains in the previous three sessions.
The materials index, which includes metal mining shares, dropped 6.5% as gold and silver tanked. The latter was down nearly 17% as a stronger U.S. dollar and the broad market rout prompted investors to liquidate precious metal holdings.
Shares of Barrick Mining lost 8.5% after the company said it would move forward with preparations for an initial public offering of its North American gold assets and named interim head Mark Hill as its chief executive and president. The price of oil settled 2.8% lower on easing Iranian supply concerns, which led to a decline of 1.2% for the energy sector.
Canada Goose Holdings missed analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit, hurt by an increase in marketing and promotional spending, sending the luxury apparel maker’s shares tumbling by nearly 20%.
Thomson Reuters reported higher fourth-quarter revenue, boosted by its legal, tax and accounting and corporates businesses, as investors assess the impact of artificial intelligence companies moving into its key markets. Still, its shares ended 5.4% lower, adding to recent sharp declines.
Just two of the 10 major sectors on the TSX ended higher, including technology. It added 0.7%, with shares of electronic equipment company Celestica up 6.5%.
Among U.S. stocks, Snap topped fourth-quarter revenue estimates, but its shares declined more than 13%.
Estee Lauder shares fell 19% as the Clinique owner forecast annual results below estimates. Fashion company Tapestry rose 10% after raising its annual profit forecast, while Hershey climbed 9% on a better-than-expected annual profit forecast. The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment increased more than expected for the week ended January 31, while job openings dropped to the lowest level in more than five years in December.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.8-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 44 new highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 113 new highs and 425 new lows.
Reuters, Globe staff