AI hype over ??

Shares in firms such as Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Apple and Alphabet (which owns Google) have soared over the last year amid hopes that their massive investments in artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to better sales and profits. The chipmaker Nvidia briefly became the most valuable company in the world because of the rally.

However, last week several of these tech giants published disappointing financial results, raising fears that the excitement may just be hype.

And as Big Tech giants are the largest companies listed on the US stock market, if they fall the wider S&P500 and Nasdaq indexes also get dragged down.

The correction in these stocks has been stark. In the last month alone shares in Amazon and Nvidia have fallen by 20%, Facebook-owner Meta by 13%, and Apple by 8%, wiping billions off their market value.