Concerns over a slowdown in AI development, coupled with rising oil prices, led to a broad decline in US stocks, with the semiconductor index dropping nearly 6%.

BlockBeats news, September 15 — Growing concerns in the AI industry over the risks of frontier model development, combined with worsening Middle East tensions driving energy prices higher, sent US stocks broadly lower on Monday, according to BIT (bit.com) market data. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged nearly 6%, the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8%, and eight S&P 500 sectors declined, with the tech sector dropping 1.7%. Optical communication concept stocks led the losses, with Corning (GLW) down 13.74% and Nokia (NOK) down 13.25%. Among notable stocks, SK Hynix fell 7.6%, Nvidia dropped 3.4%, and CoreWeave declined nearly 7%.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued a statement of over 3,800 words calling for a slowdown in frontier AI model development, gaining support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Musk. Market concerns that AI commercialization progress and capital expenditure could be affected weighed broadly on chip, computing power, and optical communication sectors; the cybersecurity sector bucked the trend, with CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks rising 14% and 13%, respectively.

Saudi Arabia's east-west oil pipeline was attacked and suspended operations. According to Bitget data, oil prices surged as much as 5% intraday, with WTI crude briefly approaching $105 per barrel. After Trump said Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop striking each other's energy targets, oil prices gave back most gains, with WTI ultimately closing up about 1.7% at $101.75 per barrel. Rising energy prices intensified inflation concerns, and markets now price in over a 90% probability that the Federal Reserve will raise rates by 25 basis points this week.

The 10-year US Treasury yield broke above 5% intraday for the first time since October 2023, rising for a sixth consecutive trading day before closing near 4.99%. The dollar index rose to a near one-month high, spot gold fell 1.4% to $4,286 per ounce; Bitcoin bucked the trend, rising 2.2% to approximately $79,034.