WALL STREET SLIPS AS NVIDIA AND OTHER MARKET LEADERS LOSE MOMENTUM

Major U. S. equity indexes fell again this week as some of the market's highest-valued technology and artificial-intelligence names continued to retreat from their recent peaks.

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The pullback, led by Nvidia and several other megacap stocks, shifted market sentiment toward caution after a year of concentrated gains driven by Al infrastructure spending, chip demand and bullish forecasts from large technology firms. With valuations stretched across multiple sectors, investors have begun reassessing expectations against the backdrop of evolving Federal Reserve policy, mixed economic data and tightening financial conditions.

The declines followed a series of sessions in which the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average all moved lower, reflecting broad investor unease rather than isolated profit-taking. Nvidia, which has served as a bellwether for the Al trade and is among the most heavily weighted components of major indexes, extended its multi-day slide. Similar weakness appeared in other high-growth stocks tied to data-center expansion, cloud infrastructure and advanced computing, suggesting that the market's leadership is facing meaningful pressure after months of outperformance.

Although the downturn has not erased the year's gains, it has amplified questions about whether the most influential names in the current rally have become vulnerable to shifts in macroeconomic expectations and concerns about sustainability of earnings growth. Analysts point to a combination of valuation fatigue, uncertainty over interest-rate policy and rising scrutiny of Al-related spending as key elements shaping the recent trading environment.

THE MULTILAYERED DRIVERS BEHIND THE TECH-LED PULLBACK