Financial Markets                      11/17 15:26

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market sank Monday as Nvidia and other 
superstars created by the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology 
dimmed some more.

   The S&P 500 fell 0.9% and pulled further from its all-time high set late 
last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 557 points, or 1.2%, and 
the Nasdaq composite sank 0.8%.

   Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the market, as it's often been in its last 
couple of tumultuous weeks. The chip company fell 1.8%, while losses for other 
AI winners included a 6.4% slide for Super Micro Computer.

   Other areas of the market that had been high-momentum winners also sank. 
Bitcoin fell below $92,000, down from nearly $125,000 last month, for example. 
That helped drag down Coinbase Global by 7.1% and Robinhood Markets by 5.3%.

   Critics have been warning that the U.S. stock market could be primed for a 
drop because of how high prices have shot since April, leaving them looking too 
expensive. Critics point in particular to stocks swept up in the AI mania, 
which have been surging at spectacular speeds for years.

   Even with Monday's loss, Nvidia is still up 39% for the year so far after it 
doubled in price in four of the last five years.

   That has Wall Street's spotlight on Wednesday, when Nvidia will report how 
much profit it made during the summer. AI stocks have surged as much as they 
have because of expectations that they'll produce huge growth in profits. If 
they fail to top analysts' expectations, that would undercut one of the big 
assumptions that's driven the U.S. stock market to records.

   Such high expectations extend beyond tech stocks, even if they are toughest 
for AI darlings.

   Aramark fell 5.2% after the company reported a profit for the latest quarter 
that fell short of analysts' expectations. The company, which offers food and 
facilities management for schools, national parks and convention centers, also 
said it expects an underlying measure of profit to grow between 20% and 25% 
this upcoming year. While relatively strong, that was less than what analysts 
had been forecasting.

   That helped offset a rise of 3.1% for Alphabet. It jumped after Berkshire 
Hathaway said it built a $4.34 billion ownership stake in Google's parent 
company. Berkshire Hathaway, run by famed investor Warren Buffett, is notorious 
for trying to buy stocks only when they look like good values while avoiding 
anything that looks too expensive.

   All told, the S&P 500 fell 61.70 points to 6,672.41. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average dropped 557.24 to 46,590.24, and the Nasdaq composite sank 
192.51 to 22,708.07.

   Another source of potential disappointment for Wall Street is what the 
Federal Reserve does with interest rates. The expectation had been that the Fed 
would keep cutting interest rates in hopes of shoring up the slowing job 
market. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can give a boost to the 
economy and to prices for investments.

   But questions are rising about whether a third cut for the year will come 
out of the Fed's next meeting in December, something that traders had earlier 
seen as very likely. The downside of lower interest rates is that they can make 
inflation worse, and inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed's 2% 
target.

   Fed officials have also pointed to the U.S. government's shutdown, which 
delayed the release of updates on the job market and other signals about the 
economy. With less information and less certainty about how things are going, 
some Fed officials have suggested it may be better to wait in December to get 
more clarity.

   Now that the shutdown is over, the government is preparing to release 
September's delayed jobs report on Thursday. That could create further swings 
for the market. Data that's very strong would likely stay the Fed's hand on 
rate cuts, while figures that are very weak would raise worries about the 
economy.

   In 2026, the Fed is likely to cut interest rates only in response to a 
slowing economy instead of trying to cut ahead of it, according to Barry 
Bannister, chief equity strategist at Stifel. That's not as good an environment 
for stock prices, and Bannister said the "Fed's 'free lunch' is over."

   In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.13% 
from 4.14% late Friday.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly across much of Europe and 
Asia.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.1% after the government reported that the 
Japanese economy contracted at a 1.8% annual pace in the July-September quarter.

   South Korea's Kospi was an outlier and jumped 1.9% as tech-related stocks 
there did well.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

   ---------

   itemid:ae23a3aa7ef9ddbc69c7f68881576062