What Wall Street Is Saying About This Nervous Market

A slide in tech stocks intensified Wednesday, spreading from software into semiconductor shares and other companies linked to the infrastructure build-out for artificial intelligence. The Nasdaq composite posted consecutive 1% declines for the first time since April’s tariff chaos. Here’s what Wall Street pros made of the latest investor jitters:

“With valuations where they are, market reactions are going to be pretty harsh,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment strategist at Cresset Capital. “Expectations right now are very, very high.”

AI adoption is still at an early stage for many companies, but software companies are particularly exposed. “We are now in an environment where the sector isn’t just guilty until proven innocent but is now being sentenced before trial,” JPMorgan Chase analyst Toby Ogg wrote.

Michael Antonelli, a market strategist for Baird Private Wealth Management, said traders were shifting positions more than rethinking their broader market outlook. “People are selling some of their winners to fund some of their software carnage,” he said.

Given how richly valued many tech shares are, “when rotations occur, they occur faster than they have in the past,” said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners. “If you’re trading this market you got to get in quick and get out quick.”