More drops for AI stocks drag Wall Street to its worst day in nearly a
month
[December 18, 2025] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — More drops for AI stocks dragged the U.S. market lower
Wednesday, and Wall Street sank to its fourth straight loss.
The S&P 500 fell 1.2% for its worst day in nearly a month, though it’s
still not far from its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dipped 228 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite
dropped 1.8%.
Slightly more stocks rose within the S&P 500 than fell, but they got
drowned out by the drops for companies in the artificial-intelligence
industry.
Questions continue to dog the former superstars about whether their
yearslong dominance of Wall Street meant their prices shot too high, as
well as whether all the investment in AI will produce enough profit and
productivity to prove worth the cost. Worries are also rising about the
debt that some companies are taking on to pay for it all.
Broadcom dropped 4.5%, Oracle fell 5.4% and CoreWeave sank 7.1%. Nvidia,
the chip company that’s become Wall Street’s most influential stock
because of its tremendous size, fell 3.8% and was the day's heaviest
weight on the S&P 500.
Power companies that jumped earlier in the year on expectations for
stronger demand from electricity-sucking data centers also lost some of
their shine. Constellation Energy fell 6.7%.
Only 17% of respondents in a survey of relatively big businesses by UBS
said they’re in production at scale with their AI projects. That could
be “a reminder for tech investors to remain sober about the likely 2026
revenue growth uplift from AI products,” according to UBS analysts,
though the rate continues to rise.
Also on the losing end of Wall Street was Lennar, which sank 4.5%
following a mixed profit report. The homebuilder delivered a weaker
profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its revenue
topped expectations.
Executive Chairman Stuart Miller said that conditions remain
challenging, with customers feeling less confident while looking for
discounts and more affordable options. As a result, the company gave
limited forecasts for its upcoming financial performance.
Progressive, meanwhile, fell 2% after the insurer based in Mayfield
Village, Ohio, said that its net income for November fell 5% from its
year-ago level.
On the winning side of Wall Street were oil companies, after President
Donald Trump ordered a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into
Venezuela. It’s Trump’s latest escalation against Venezuela, which may
be sitting on more oil than any other country.
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Dilip Patel, right, and Bobby Charmak, left, work on the floor at
the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
 That sent the price of a barrel of
benchmark U.S. crude higher by 1.2% to $55.94. just a day after it
sank to its lowest level since 2021. Brent crude, the international
standard, climbed 1.3% to $59.68 per barrel.
That in turn helped ConocoPhillips rise 4.6% and cut into its loss
for the year so far, which came into the day at 8.5%. Devon Energy
rallied 5.3%, and Exxon Mobil climbed 2.4%.
Oil prices had dropped through most of this year on expectations
that companies are pumping more than enough crude to meet the
world’s demand.
Netflix added 0.2% after Warner Bros. Discovery’s board said it
still recommends shareholders approve a buyout offer from the
streaming giant for its Warner Bros. business, rather than a
competing hostile bid from Paramount Skydance for the entire
company.
Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2.4%, while Paramount Skydance dropped
5.4%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 78.83 points to 6,721.43. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dipped 228.29 to 47,885.97, and the Nasdaq
composite dropped 418.14 to 22,693.32.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady ahead of
a report coming on Thursday that will show how bad inflation has
been for U.S. consumers.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.15%, where it was late
Tuesday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a
stronger finish in Asia.
South Korea’s Kospi leaped 1.4% for one of the world’s bigger gains
and shaved its loss for the week so far down to 2.7%.
___
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
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