Wall Street's three major indexes lost ground on Thursday with the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 leading losses as Meta and Microsoft shares tumbled on worries over surging AI spending, while investors also digested a more hawkish tone from the US Federal Reserve.
Meta shares sank 11.3 per cent for their biggest one-day drop in three years after the social media company forecast "notably larger" capital expenses next year, thanks to investments in artificial intelligence.
Microsoft shares ended down 2.9 per cent after the software company reported a record capital expenditure of nearly $US35 billion ($A53 billion) for its fiscal first quarter and warned that spending would rise this year. In contrast, however, Google-parent Alphabet finished up 2.5 per cent as steady growth in advertising and cloud computing powered better-than-expected results.
