U.S. investors rotated toward health care and consumer staples Thursday as artificial intelligence and semiconductor shares sold off, CNBC reported in an 11:45 a.m. EDT update Oct. 22 (15:45 UTC).
Those two groups were the S&P 500’s top performers during the session, CNBC said. Oil prices rose, but bond yields fell; CNBC interpreted the drop in yields as a sign of investors seeking safer assets.
CNBC identified several possible sources of pressure on AI-related shares, without establishing them as causes of the broader market move. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the network that neocloud providers had difficulty raising capital even as demand for computing capacity remained exceptionally strong. The report also pointed to Meta Platforms’ comments about financing its AI expansion and Lam Research’s weaker outlook for the current quarter.
Jeff Marks, portfolio director for CNBC’s Investing Club, said Micron, Intel and Qnity were lower and GE Vernova had fallen almost 10%. CNBC said SpaceX had expressed optimism about AI demand and supply constraints a day earlier, before GE Vernova and other data center shares advanced Wednesday. Marks described the subsequent reversal as a market with “no memory from one day to the next.”
Johnson & Johnson recovered all of its post-earnings losses during Thursday’s session, gaining more than 2%, CNBC reported. CNBC also reported that Meta fell nearly 6%. The previous evening, Meta had reported strong revenue growth and described the opportunity for its Muse AI agent business positively.
Meta’s new nonvoting share class may help finance its AI expansion, CNBC said. Marks suggested the plan could be weighing on the stock, but the report did not establish it as the reason for the decline. EconoTimes previously covered borrowing-cost concerns tied to AI infrastructure and the then-scheduled Meta and Lam Research updates in an earlier market report.
