The Nasdaq Composite bore the brunt of the session, dropping 1.40% to close at 25,520.24, while the S&P 500 fell 1.01% to 7,457.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained largely flat, shedding just 16.26 points to finish at 52,536.71.

Sector sentiment turned particularly bearish for chipmakers. The PHLX Semiconductor Index has now erased 20% of its value since June, driven by mounting skepticism regarding the longevity of corporate artificial intelligence budgets. Market nerves were further frayed by the emergence of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3. This new Chinese model, boasting 2.8 trillion parameters, claims to surpass several top-tier U.S. systems. Analysts are already drawing parallels between this development and the market volatility triggered by DeepSeek earlier this year, signaling deep anxiety over the competitive landscape of high-performance computing.