Dow opens 153 points lower amid AI selloff, oil jump

Wall Street opened lower Monday in New York, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 153 points as a selloff in AI and semiconductor stocks coincided with a jump in oil prices.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.74% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.22% at the open. Nvidia, a bellwether for AI-chip demand, dropped about 3.8%. Broadcom, AMD, Intel and Marvell Technology fell between roughly 4% and 8.8%. Amazon shares declined about 1.32%.

The selling followed public calls from senior AI executives for a slower pace of development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged companies “to slow the pace at which they advance the capabilities of their most powerful models.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI founder Elon Musk backed the proposal. Amodei has also flagged potential risks associated with increasingly capable systems.

Investors have poured billions into AI infrastructure and development in recent years, supporting gains across parts of the technology sector. A slower pace of development would reduce the need for compute and chips, creating downside risk for firms that benefited from rapid expansion in AI spending. Some market participants questioned whether any formal slowdown could be implemented and whether the market reaction would persist.

Not all technology shares moved lower. Software companies viewed as more exposed to AI disruption rose: ServiceNow gained 5.6%, Adobe added 3.8% and Workday climbed 4%. Meta advanced more than 1% and Alphabet rose about 1.4%.

Energy markets added pressure on equities. Brent crude futures climbed more than 4% to about $109 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose roughly 3% to $103.98. Prices increased after Saudi Arabia closed a pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. crude had topped $100 a barrel last week amid an escalation of conflict in the Middle East.

The higher oil price backdrop and recent inflation data have focused attention on the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting later this week. Fed funds futures priced an approximately 88% to 89% probability of a rate hike, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Markets were still reacting to last week’s losses: the Dow posted its biggest weekly decline since March, down 1.6%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell about 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. Traders and analysts noted that repriced interest-rate expectations, renewed energy-market volatility and the debate over AI pacing had contributed to a more cautious tone at the start of the trading week.

Investors will look for comments from central bank officials and any further statements from AI industry leaders for signals on policy and industry direction.