Wall Street's major indexes closed lower on Monday, dragged down by a surge in oil prices and renewed anxiety over artificial intelligence stocks after prominent US tech executives warned of major risks and called for a slower pace of AI development.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 152.09 points, or 0.29%, to close at 52,421.20. The S&P 500 lost 37.00 points, or 0.48%, to 7,619.98, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 146.62 points, or 0.59%, to 26,186.41.
President Donald Trump sought to ease concerns on both fronts on Monday. He dismissed as a hoax the warning that artificial intelligence could destroy humanity, and said the United States already has mechanisms in place to regulate and monitor such systems.
That followed a call on Saturday from Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei urging AI companies to slow the pace at which they develop the capabilities of their models. Elon Musk, head of xAI, and Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, both said they agreed with Amodei.
Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI are among the leading developers of the generative AI systems that power chatbots and other tools now used across consumer and business markets. A frantic race in recent months to build increasingly capable AI models has pushed the world's largest technology companies to invest billions of dollars in the sector, fueling a global rally in tech and semiconductor stocks tied to it.
AI stocks under pressure
The renewed calls to slow AI development sent the sector deep into the red. Nvidia shares fell more than 3%, closing down 3.36%. Amazon.com, part of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" group of top technology companies, slipped 1.3%. Chipmakers took heavier losses, with Intel, AMD and Marvell Technology falling between 4% and 7%.
Dow winners and losers
Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 20 closed higher and 10 lower. Salesforce posted the biggest gain, jumping $11.71, or 4.73%, to close at $259.43. Alphabet rose 3.22% to $349.39, and IBM gained 2.38% to $249.09.
Caterpillar posted the steepest decline, down 4.22%, followed by Goldman Sachs Group, down 3.96%, and Nvidia, down 3.36%.
Oil prices surge
Sentiment was also hit by fears over a rally in oil prices, with Brent crude topping $108 a barrel at its session high, a jump of 5%.
Oil pared much of its gains after Trump said Iran wants to reach a deal with Washington, and that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to strike each other's energy targets.
Fed decision looms
Investors are also bracing for the Federal Reserve's decision, due midweek.
Producer and consumer price data released last week confirmed that inflationary pressures in the US economy show no sign of easing, leading traders to price in a 90% probability of a 25-basis-point Fed rate increase, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
