Yahoo Finance

Key Takeaways

• The S&P 500 dropped 1.8% on Thursday, March 6, 2025, as investors reacted to the back-and-forth surrounding U.S. trade policies and awaited Friday's jobs report.

• AI-related stocks lost ground after a lackluster forecast from chipmaker Marvell Technology contributed to doubts about the AI boom.
  

• Shares of agribusiness firm Archer-Daniels-Midland recovered from a tariff-driven downswing.

U.S. equities indexes plunged Thursday as U.S. trade policy remained the focus of wary investors.

Uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's tariff decisions cast a shadow over the stock markets, despite an announcement that levies on some goods from Mexico will be delayed until April. Heading into the week's final trading day of the week, some attention may shift toward the labor market, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics set to release its February jobs report Friday morning. Indicators in recent days have pointed to a slump in hiring, raising concerns about the strength of the economy.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.8% on Thursday. The Dow sank 1%, while weakness in the tech sector pressured the Nasdaq, which plummeted 2.6%.

Shares of companies with exposure to artificial intelligence technologies moved lower after semiconductor maker Marvell Technology (MRVL) provided an underwhelming outlook for its fiscal first quarter. While sales and profit forecasts were approximately in line with consensus expectations, Bank of America analysts noted that they had expected the outlook to reflect more significant AI-driven growth. Marvell shares tumbled almost 20%.

The muted forecast from Marvell weighed on numerous AI-related stocks. Shares of data analytics software provider Palantir Technologies (PLTR), which rode the wave of AI enthusiasm to become last year's top S&P 500 performer, fell the most of any stock in the benchmark index, losing 10.7%. The decline extended a recent sell-off for the stock as a regulatory filing showed that CEO Alex Karp intends to sell a significant portion of his stake in the company.

Shares of Texas-based electricity generator Vistra (VST), which also enjoyed massive gains in 2024 driven by optimism for opportunities to power AI data centers, dropped 9.8%. Fellow nuclear-focused utility Constellation Energy (CEG), which has benefited from AI enthusiasm, posted a drop of 9.4%.

Netflix (NFLX) shares declined 8.5% after research firm MoffettNathanson predicted a slowdown in subscriber growth for the video streaming giant. According to the analysts, strong subscriber additions for Netflix in recent periods stemmed from the service's crackdown on password sharing, and the streamer is unlikely to continue growing its base of paying customers at the same trajectory.