US stocks are drifting on Friday after oil prices fell again and as Wall Street waits for the highly anticipated debut of SpaceX coming later in the day.

It is the first of three gargantuan companies in the artificial-intelligence industry expected to start selling their shares on the US market, and it could show how hungry investors still are for AI stocks following vicious swings and big doubts for them over the last week.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 270 points, or 0.5 percent, as of 9.35 am Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 percent lower.

Stocks got a lift from a 2.2 percent drop for the price of Brent crude oil to US$88.36 per barrel, deepening its loss for the week. Oil prices have come down since US President Donald Trump on Thursday called off his threat to launch strikes on Iran and said a potential deal with Iran may be imminent.

The bigger factor for Wall Street over the last week has actually been AI stocks, and how they have gone from roaring to records to suddenly turning lower.

Several headed back down the roller coaster on Friday following Thursday’s climb. Micron Technology fell two percent, and Broadcom slipped 0.8 percent.

Some of the pressure on AI stocks may be coming from investors pulling their money out in hopes of moving it to SpaceX and other big AI-related initial public offerings.

SpaceX’s stock is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq later in the day for the first time. Elon Musk’s rocket company also has big investments in AI, part of the reason it has built up US$29.1 billion in debt, as of the end of March. It is unknown exactly what time SpaceX’s stock will begin trading.

If SpaceX shares hold at their offering price, the company’s market value would be US$1.77 trillion. That would put it close to Broadcom and Meta Platforms, the sixth and seventh most valuable companies on Wall Street. (Reuters)


Edited by Aaron Tam