Wall Street Today: DJIA, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Fall on Broadcom, Oracle and Caterpillar Declines

The $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ fell 398.69 points (1.7%) to a 23,195.17 close, while the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ shed 73.59 ticks (1.1%) to 6,827.41 and the $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ gave up 245.96 points (0.5%) to 48,458.05.

Stocks fell in a large part on weakness for $Broadcom (AVGO.US)$, which fell 11.4% despite reporting earnings after the bell Thursday that beat analyst expectations. Some market watchers speculated that AVGO fell anyway on concerns over margin compression.

Meanwhile, $Oracle (ORCL.US)$ sank 4.5% amid a second day of declines following Wednesday evening's quarterly revenue miss, higher-than-expected capital expenditures and poorly received capex guidance. The stock also fell on a Bloomberg report (which ORCL denied) that the company has pushed back delivery of data centers for key client OpenAI to 2028 from a previous 2027 completion date.

Broadcom and Oracle's losses helped drive down other Big Techs, especially those tied to artificial intelligence. Friday's major tech decliners included $SanDisk Corp (SNDK.US)$ (off 14.7%), $Astera Labs (ALAB.US)$ (14.3% weaker), $CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ (down 10.1%), $NEBIUS (NBIS.US)$ (7% lower), $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ (which gave up 6.7%), $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ (4.8% softer), $Intel (INTC.US)$(down 4.3%) and $Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$ (off 4.2%).

Adding to Friday's woes, some non-tech big-cap stocks fell as well. For example, Dow component $Caterpillar (CAT.US)$ sank 4.4% after earlier hitting a $627.50 all-time intraday high.

Meanwhile, $Gold (LIST2110.US)$ rose and $Silver (LIST2093.US)$ briefly hit an all-time intraday high for a second straight day before retreating.

$Silver Futures (MAR6) (SImain.US)$ rose 0.8% to a $65.085-an-ounce intraday record peak, but turned negative later in the day and was trading 3.8% lower at $62.115 at last check. However, $Gold Futures (FEB6) (GCmain.US)$ were up 0.4% at $4,330 an ounce in recent trading.

For example, $Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$ was down 1.4% at $90,254.59 as of shortly before 4:30 p.m. New York time after earlier trading as much as 2.2% lower at $89,506.70. Other cryptos to fall as of shortly before 4:30 p.m. ET included $Ethereum (ETH.CC)$ (down 4.1% at $3.084.60), $Solana (SOL.CC)$ (2.7% weaker at $131.53) and $Ripple (XRP.CC)$ (1% lower at $2).

$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ led the way downward among Mag-7 names with a 3.3% decline, followed by $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ (off 1.8%), $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ (1.3% softer), $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ (1.02% lower) and $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ (1.01% weaker).

Only $Tesla (TSLA.US)$(up 2.7%) and $Apple (AAPL.US)$(0.1% stronger) rose among Mag-7 stocks.

-- Select legal-cannabis stocks, which soared on word that U.S. President Donald Trump could sign an executive order as soon as Monday to reschedule marijuana's federal classification from a dangerous drug like heroin to a less-dangerous substance. The move could pave the way for such things as allowing banks to deal with marijuana retailers in states with legal pot without fear of federal penalties for drug-money laundering. Cannabis firm $Canopy Growth (CGC.US)$ rallied 54% on the news, while rival $Tilray Brands (TLRY.US)$ gained 44.1%.

-- $Rivian Automotive (RIVN.US)$, up 12.1%. The electric-vehicle maker rose on word that the company plans to develop self-driving trucks. Needham also raised its RIVN price target to $23 from a previous $14.

-- $Lululemon Athletica (LULU.US)$, up 9.6%. The athleisurewear maker gained ground on well-received quarterly results.

-- $Fermi (FRMI.US)$, down 33.8%. The AI-focused power-generation company fell on word that its first investment-grade tenant had canceled a $150 million agreement for space at a proposed Texas campus.

-- Certain nuclear-power stocks, which consolidated after several days of mostly rising. The sector also fell on news in an Ars Technica report Wednesday on Elon Musk's SpaceX IPO plans that said the billionaire plans to use some proceeds to build data centers in space. That could reduce demand for the nuclear energy that many expect will fuel Earth-based data sites. Friday's nuclear decliners included $Oklo Inc (OKLO.US)$ (15.1% lower) and $NuScale Power (SMR.US)$ (down 13.6%).

-- Select cryptocurrency-related stocks, which fell on the declines for Bitcoin and other cryptos. Losers included $Applied Digital (APLD.US)$ (off 9.4%), $Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US)$ (9.2% weaker), $IREN Ltd (IREN.US)$ (8.7% lower), $Circle (CRCL.US)$ (down 5.8%), $Strategy (MSTR.US)$ (3.7% softer) and $Robinhood (HOOD.US)$ (which eased 3.1%).