Finance

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.88%, marking its worst daily performance since July. High borrowing costs heavily penalized major gainers of the artificial intelligence boom, with Oracle dropping 8.8% and AI cloud provider CoreWeave plummeting 15.5%. Rising Treasury yields further depressed valuation multiples across the broader sector.

The chipmaking sector extended its multi-day slump as a gauge of major semiconductor firms dropped 4.3%. Pressures on memory makers like Micron intensified following a significant design breakthrough from Chinese competitor ChangXin Memory Technologies. The competitive threat sparked broad-based liquidations across previously resilient hardware names.

Bank of America shares slid 4.8% after reporting summer profit and revenue figures that missed Wall Street targets. The financial institution was heavily weighed down by a $1.2 billion penalty announced by the U.S. Treasury Department regarding compliance violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The penalty dragged down the firm's broader third-quarter financial performance.