U.S. stocks fell sharply Thursday as global oil prices topped $100 a barrel for the first time in two months. Earnings from Alphabet and Tesla rekindled fears that big technology companies are spending far more on artificial intelligence than investors are comfortable with.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 506.93 points, or 0.97%, to 51711.65. The S&P 500 fell 90.66 points, or 1.21%, to 7408.30, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 553.21 points, or 2.15%, to 25137.69. According to preliminary data, there were 759 advancing issues and 1995 declining issues on the NYSE.
Alphabet fell 6.9%, its largest one-day market cap loss on record, after the Google parent raised its capital spending forecast for the year to as much as $205 billion. Tesla tumbled 14% after reporting negative free cash flow for the first time in two years, as the electric-vehicle maker poured money into its autonomous-vehicle and robotics ambitions, including a chip-manufacturing facility called Terafab being developed in partnership with SpaceX and Intel. The key concern across both companies was the same: free cash flow, the cash left over after expenses and big-ticket investments, turned negative even as revenue at both companies soared, which offers a blunt picture of the cost of the AI buildout.
Write to Anvee Bhutani at anvee.bhutani@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 23, 2026 16:10 ET (20:10 GMT)
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