Nasdaq futures fell amid a global selloff in artificial intelligence stocks in early European trade following calls from industry leaders for a uniform slowdown in AI development.
Equity markets reacted with concern to a weekend essay by Dario Amodei, in which the Anthropic chief executive warned against a race to the bottom in the development of new AI models. OpenAI leader Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Amodei's call to check the pace of AI development.
Nasdaq futures fell by 1.5%, with chip makers bearing the brunt of the selloff. Intel dropped 4.9% in premarket trade, while Micron and Marvell shed 4.4% and 5.5%. Nvidia dropped 2.2% premarket.
In Asian trade, Korea's Kospi index dropped 3.3% as mega-cap chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics lost over 6% and 4%, respectively. Tokyo's Nikkei was dragged by a more than 10% fall for prominent OpenAI-backer SoftBank Group. Those falls preceded a sharp pullback in European AI-linked stocks, with ASML--the continent's most valuable company--dropping over 4%.
Investors are concerned that a pause in the technology's advance would put the brakes on the boom in capital expenditure that has driven equity markets across the globe in recent years.
Oil prices ramped up over the weekend as the advance of Iran-backed Houthi militants put increased pressure on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Moreover, a planned meeting between Iran and other Gulf states Monday to discuss shipping routes was postponed, adding further pressure to prices. Brent crude oil traded close to $108 a barrel.
Treasury yields ticked lower in early European trade, but remained elevated across maturities. Investors are readying for a likely Federal Reserve rate hike Wednesday. Markets currently price an 86.8% likelihood of a quarter-point hike, according to LSEG.
In response to greater rate-hike expectations, the dollar strengthened and gold continued to fall. The yellow metal traded at around $4,360 a troy ounce. Bitcoin moved 1.1% higher to $77,630.
The Bank of England and Bank of Japan will also announce new policy decisions on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The BOE is widely expected to hold rates, while the BOJ is expected to hike. The European Central Bank raised its policy rate last week.