Financial Markets                      11/18 09:42

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market is falling sharply again on Tuesday, 
joining a global-sell off stretching from Asia to Europe, as Nvidia, bitcoin 
and other Wall Street stars keep falling on worries that their prices shot too 
high.

   The S&P 500 dropped 1% and pulled further from its all-time high set late 
last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 484 points, or 1%, as of 
10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% lower.

   Nvidia was again the heaviest weight on the market, and its drop of 3.2% 
brought its loss for the month so far to 10.8%. That's a steep enough fall that 
Wall Street has a name for it: a correction.

   What Nvidia does matters disproportionately to investors because it's the 
most influential stock on Wall Street. It can almost single-handedly steer the 
direction of the S&P 500 on some days because of its immense size, after 
fervent demand for its AI chips helped it briefly top $5 trillion in total 
value. And the S&P 500 sits at the heart of many investors' 401(k) accounts.

   Nvidia's and the U.S. stock market's struggles are a sharp turnaround from 
months of relentless rallying since April, when Wall Street sold off after 
President Donald Trump shocked the world with stiff tariffs.

   That rally, though, was so strong that critics said it may have carried 
stock prices too high, too fast and left the market at risk of a sharp drop. 
They pointed in particular to stocks swept up in the mania around 
artificial-intelligence technology, which have been surging at spectacular 
speeds.

   Many big investors still seem to be expecting stock prices to rise further, 
according to the latest monthly survey of global fund managers by Bank of 
America Global Research. But when asked what the No. 1 risk for the market is, 
one with a lower probability of happening but a high chance of damage, 45% 
pointed to an AI bubble. That beat out trouble in the bond market, inflation 
and trade wars.

   The highest net percentage of investors in 20 years is also saying companies 
are "overinvesting," according to the survey. The worry is that all the 
investment pouring into AI chips and data centers worldwide may not produce the 
kind of revolution that proponents have been predicting, or at least not as 
profitable a one.

   Other high-flying areas of the market with their own evangelists have also 
been struggling lately. Bitcoin's price briefly fell below $90,000 during the 
morning, down from nearly $125,000 last month.

   Home Depot helped drag the market lower after falling 3.1%. It reported a 
weaker profit for the summer than analysts expected and cited a variety of 
reasons. Chief among them was a lack of storms, which would have driven 
customers to buy more home-improvement supplies. But CEO Ted Decker also 
pointed to "consumer uncertainty and continued pressure in housing" for 
preventing an expected increase in demand from happening.

   Reporting stronger profits is one of the ways a company can make its stock 
price look less expensive, because stock prices tend to track with earnings 
over the long term.

   Elsewhere on Wall Street, Cloudflare fell 3.1% after an issue at the 
internet infrastructure provider caused global outages for ChatGPT and other 
services.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields eased. The yield on the 10-year Treasury 
sank to 4.09% from 4.13% late Monday.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes tumbled across Europe and Asia.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 3.2% after feeling extra pressure from a jump in 
Japanese government bond yields, reflecting rising risks as Prime Minister 
Sanae Takaichi prepares to boost government spending and push back the 
timetable for bringing down Japan's huge national debt.

   South Korea's Kospi sank 3.3%, and France's CAC 40 fell 1.6% for two of the 
larger drops worldwide.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

   ---------

   itemid:31160bebd7ab48cdb8e26aa0ad9a3dc8