Sawt Falasteen - Stocks slide, oil jumps tracking AI and Iran

Wall Street's main indices fell at the start of trading, with tech stocks taking a hit.

An announcement by financial services firm Block that it would slash its workforce by nearly half and rely heavily on AI to operate more efficiently sparked fresh concerns about the disruptive nature of the technology.

"Block won't be the last company making this type of announcement, which is what has the market spooked this morning about growth prospects," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Stock markets soared to fresh heights last year thanks to investors piling into stocks of tech firms which are piling massive amounts of money into developing and deploying AI.

But the march higher hasn't been steady in recent months as concerns about AI disrupting industries occasionally triggers sudden drops in markets.

Investors have also been occasionally seized by concerns that the share prices of tech giants have risen too high and that AI may not be profitable.

Expectations of stellar performance have also worked against tech giants.

Nvidia's share price slumped 5.5 percent Thursday despite the chip giant announcing that its quarterly profits more than doubled to $43 billion.

It fell more than two percent as trading got under on Friday.

That was partly due to investors already having priced in an increase ahead of the announcement, but "there are also concerns related to stretched valuations and Nvidia's dependence on capital spending by large technology companies investing in AI infrastructure," said City Index analyst Julian Pineda.

Trade Nation analyst David Morrison also pointed to investors shifting money from tech to other sectors.

He pointed out that the S&P 500 is heading towards a 0.4 percent loss for the month of February, while the Dow is set for a 1.2 percent gain.

"This divergence provides further evidence of a clear rotation away from high-growth AI-linked names into more traditional cyclical sectors, even as broader macro risks tied to trade policy and geopolitical tensions linger in the background," he said.

Elsewhere on Friday, oil prices jumped more than three percent as Iran said that in order to reach a deal, the United States will have to drop its "excessive demands", tempering the optimism expressed after talks seen as a last-ditch bid to avert war.

The Oman-mediated talks follow repeated threats from President Donald Trump to strike Iran, and with the United States conducting its biggest military build-up in the region in decades.

Trump on February 19 gave Iran 15 days to reach a deal, and while Iran has insisted the discussions focus solely on its nuclear programme, the US wants Tehran's missile programme, its ballistic missile capabilities, and its support for militant groups curtailed.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump's negotiating team would demand that Iran dismantle its three main nuclear sites and hand over all its remaining enriched uranium to the United States.

"For oil prices, we have seen significant fluctuations as traders weigh up the likeliness of a conflict," said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

- Key figures at around 1430 GMT -

New York - Dow: DOWN 1.0 percent at 49,019.09 points

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.9 percent at 6,848.07

New York - Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.2 percent at 22,597.59

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 10,904.61

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,586.68

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.1 percent at 25,257.49

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.2 percent at 58,850.27 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.0 percent at 26,630.54 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 4,162.88 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1801 from $1.1799 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3464 from $1.3489

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.07 yen from 156.11 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 87.66 pence from 87.47 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 3.5 percent at $73.20 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.6 percent at $67.55 per barrel

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S.Abdullah--SF-PST