Wall Street's flip from AI to less-loved stocks accelerates, while oil prices keep easing

NEW YORK (AP) — Most of Wall Street is rising Tuesday, even as stocks of computer chipmakers continue to tumble worldwide. Oil prices, meanwhile, eased further from the two-month high they hit last week.The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in late trading, but the modest move masked big swings underneath the surface. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 595 points, or 1.1%, with an hour remaining in trading, while the Nasdaq composite was down 0.1% after briefly dropping 9.3% below its record set last month.The majority of the U.S.

market rose after more companies delivered stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected. Coca-Cola climbed 4.6% after its revenue rose 7% despite what CEO Henrique Braun called “a dynamic consumer landscape.”Sherwin-Williams rallied 8.4%, and Illinois Tool Works rose 4.1% after both likewise reported stronger earnings for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Stock prices generally follow the trend of corporate profits over the long term, and expectations are high for this most recent round with the U.S.

stock market still near its all-time high.Such expectations are weighing particularly heavily on stocks of chipmakers and other companies that have been huge winners from the boom in artificial-intelligence technology.Micron Technology’s stock came into the day having more than tripled for the year following gangbuster growth, for example. During the quarter through May 28, its revenue more than quadrupled from a year earlier.But worries are rising about whether such growth is sustainable. Big spenders on computer memory could pull back on their investments if AI does not produce as much profit or productivity as promised.

Lower-cost AI models from China could also mean less demand for memory and computing power than earlier expected.Micron dropped 8.4% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Others also helping to keep the market in check were Advanced Micro Devices, down 7.4%, and Applied Materials, down 7.5%.The losses for AI chip stocks were even sharper earlier in the day in other markets worldwide.Sharp drops for SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics dragged South Korea’s Kospi index down 10.8%. The market’s losses were so big that trading was temporarily halted at times in Seoul.“We believe the market was likely spooked by the progress of China’s chipmaking equipment capabilities, and was worried that this progress would…