S&P 500 extends losses to four sessions; Nasdaq drops 1.8% on Oracle-led selloff

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as investors continued to rotate away from major artificial intelligence plays, following reports that a key investor in Oracle had withdrawn from financing one of its data center projects.

The S&P 500 slid 1.16% to close at 6,721.43, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.81% to 22,693.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 228.29 points, or 0.47%, ending the session at 47,885.97.

Oracle shares sank 5.4% after the Financial Times reported that Blue Owl Capital had scrapped plans to finance the cloud company’s $10 billion data center in Michigan, citing concerns over Oracle’s debt and capital spending. Oracle later pushed back against the report, saying the project remains on track.

Investor unease around aggressive financing tied to large-scale data center expansion has weighed on sentiment in recent weeks. Oracle’s selloff follows the company’s denial last week of a Bloomberg report claiming it had delayed some OpenAI-related projects until 2028.

The weakness spread across AI-linked stocks. Broadcom fell more than 4%, Nvidia slid nearly 4%, Advanced Micro Devices dropped over 5%, and Alphabet declined more than 3%.

December has been particularly tough for AI names as investors shift toward value-oriented sectors such as financials. Month to date, Oracle and Broadcom are down more than 11% and roughly 19%, respectively, while the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) has fallen 2.6%.

Wednesday marked the fourth consecutive session of losses for both the S&P 500 and the Dow.

The declines follow Tuesday’s selloff, which was triggered by the release of delayed U.S. employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report offered fresh insight into the economy after a backlog caused by the federal government shutdown earlier this fall.