Wall Street Sell-Offs On AI Concerns, VIX Jumps 15%: What's Moving Markets Friday?

The final session of the week saw red dominate Wall Street screens, as stocks slid broadly following a renewed tech-led sell-off.

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Shares of Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO), one of the market's most closely watched artificial intelligence plays, plunged more than 11% despite topping Wall Street's quarterly expectations.

Pressure on the AI theme carried over from Thursday, when Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) shares sank 11% after the company outlined elevated data center spending plans that raised concerns over delayed cash flow generation.

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that some Oracle data centers tied to OpenAI would be pushed back from 2027 to 2028, further unsettling investors and sending the stock down another 6%.

Oracle is now down nearly 17% over the past two sessions, marking its worst two-day drop since March 2020.

Losses across chipmakers and AI-linked stocks dragged the Nasdaq 100 down 2%, its weakest session in more than three weeks. The S&P 500 fell 1.3%, failing to extend record highs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Russell 2000 also retreated from recent peaks, despite their more limited exposure to technology stocks.

Market volatility surged. The CBOE Volatility Index, known as the VIX, jumped 15%, eyeing its strongest one-day increase in nearly two months.

Rising Treasury yields added further pressure on equities. The 30-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.86%, its highest level since early September. Several Federal Reserve officials struck a more upbeat tone on the economic outlook, dampening expectations for additional interest rate cuts next year.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told CNBC he was "uncomfortable front-loading too many rate cuts," cautioning against assuming recent progress on inflation will prove transitory. Goolsbee dissented at the Fed's latest meeting, voting to keep rates unchanged.

Risk sentiment also cooled across commodities. Silver, which had surged roughly 120% year-to-date as of Thursday's close, fell more than 3%. Copper slid 2.5%, while gold traded little changed.

Weakness extended into crypto markets. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) fell 2.5% to around $90,000, while Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) dropped 5% to roughly $3,070.

Major Indices	Price	% Change
Dow Jones	48,406.81	-0.6%
S&P 500	6,813.72	-1.3%
Russell 2000	2,547.40	-1.7%
Nasdaq 100	25,223.86	-1.9%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) slid 1.1% to $626.74.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE:DIA) moved 0.5% lower to $485.52.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (NASDAQ:QQQ) fell 1.8% to $614.19.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) traded down 1.3% at $254.50.
• The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLP) outperformed, up 0.3%; the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLK) lagged, down 2.5%.

Russell 1000’s Top 5 Gainers

Stock Name	% Change
Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN)	+16.43%
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ:LULU)	+9.90%
RH (NYSE:RH)	+6.41%
CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CCC)	+6.34%
CAVA Group Inc. (NYSE:CAVA)	+4.96%

Russell 1000’s Top 5 Losers

Stock Name	% Change
Everus Construction Group Inc. (NYSE:ECG)	-16.10%
Astera Labs Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB)	-14.30%
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK)	-11.79%
Broadcom Inc.	-10.58%
Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE)	-9.52%

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Photo: Created by artificial intelligence Midjourney