Wall Street ended down on Monday, weighed down by losses in Nvidia and other chipmakers after top executives in US artificial intelligence companies raised safety concerns and called for a slowdown in the development of AI.

Investors were also jittery after the benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield briefly surpassed 5 percent for the first time since 2023 ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The US central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates.

AI-linked stocks plunged worldwide after the leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI warned of risks from rapid development, the starkest threat yet to the billions of dollars being poured into the industry that have driven markets to record highs.

Shares of Nvidia declined 3.4 percent, while Micron Technology dropped over 5 percent. Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices each fell over 4 percent.

Brent crude futures settled 1 percent higher at US$105.68 per barrel as worries about energy supplies mounted following new strikes on Saudi Arabian energy infrastructure and attacks on ships in the Middle East.

High inflation, heavy corporate and government borrowing and concerns about the long-term US fiscal trajectory have sent US Treasury yields higher in the past month.

The 5 percent mark that the 10-year yield hit on Monday is a threshold that analysts warned could ripple through the US economy and threaten the bull market in stocks by denting the relative appeal of US equities.

Traders are pricing in a 90 percent chance that the Fed will raise interest rates by 25 basis points at its policy meeting on Wednesday to fight inflation related to high oil prices, according to CME's FedWatch.

"The 10-year going above 5 percent is huge and speaks volumes, and it may pressure the Fed to do more than just one rate hike," said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management.

The S&P 500 declined 0.5 percent to end the session at 7,619 points. The Nasdaq declined 0.6 percent to 26,186 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.3 percent to 52,421 points.

Volume on US exchanges was relatively heavy, with 15.3 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 14.8 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. (Reuters)



Edited by Cecil Wong