Sawt Falasteen - Tech jitters send stocks lower, oil prices fall

Oil prices meanwhile sank more than two percent as fears eased after an attack on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

The cargo ship, reported by US media to have been hit by Iran, resumed its transit through the strait with the crew, vessel and cargo "unharmed", according to Taiwanese shipping operator Evergreen Marine.

"The attack has rattled the fragile confidence of shipowners and crews, though ships continued to transit through the narrow corridor on Friday," said DNB Carnegie analysts.

Tech stocks came under renewed pressure after Apple announced price hikes on laptops, tablets and other products, citing spiralling memory and storage costs sparked by the rise of AI.

That was followed by Microsoft announcing price hikes for its popular Xbox gaming consoles, also citing an AI-fuelled surge in component costs.

The announcements dampened sentiment that had been boosted the previous day by forecast-busting results from US chip giant Micron.

Wall Street opened lower, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index falling more than one percent.

European stocks were lower, with Frankfurt shedding 1.5 percent in afternoon deals, following sharp losses across Asian markets.

South Korea's Kospi closed down almost six percent, a rout that sparked a 20-minute trading halt, after a volatile week for chip giant and market heavyweight SK hynix, whose share price shed more than eight percent Friday.

Tokyo, also heavy with tech firms, fell more than four percent, with tech investment giant SoftBank plunging over 12 percent as The New York Times reported that ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is considering holding off on an initial public share offering.

"News that OpenAI would delay its IPO until next year, over fears it would not attract enough interest to give it a $1 trillion listing, has also weighed on the market mood on Friday," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading group.

The tech sector -- in particular the so-called Magnificent Seven companies that includes AI chip designer NVIDIA, Apple, and Google's parent company Alphabet -- has been the main driver of a surge to record highs across several markets globally amid an eye-watering boom in all things AI.

However, that euphoria appears to be waning on worries that company valuations look stretched, amid questions about when firms will see a return on the trillions of dollars that has been invested.

Market analyst Stephen Innes said buying the Magnificent Seven stocks as a trading strategy may have run its course as investors become more discriminating about the impact of AI spending.

"The same AI boom that turned them into the market’s crown jewels is now forcing investors to separate the firms writing the cheques from the firms cashing them," he said.

Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada said that while some degree of profit-taking was probably inevitable after the tech stock rally, "the latest moves also raise broader questions about whether expectations for the sector have simply run too far ahead of commercial reality."

- Key figures around 1330 GMT -

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 51,698.15 points

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.7 percent at 7,307.39

New York - Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.1 percent at 25,080.35

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.0 percent at 10,429.72

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.9 percent at 8,356.49

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 1.5 percent at 24,612.17

Seoul - Kospi: DOWN 5.8 percent at 8,411.21 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.2 percent at 69,360.88 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.8 percent at 22,671.86 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 2.3 percent at 4,027.26 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1425 from $1.1374 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3219 from $1.3199

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 161.66 yen from 161.81 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 86.44 pence from 86.18 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.6 percent at $70.05 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.8 percent at $73.38 a barrel

I.Matar--SF-PST