U.S. Stocks Under Pressure Amid Tech Sector Pullback

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday, giving back ground following the strength seen in the previous session. The major averages have all moved to the downside, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way.

Currently, the major averages are off their lows of the session but still in negative territory. The Nasdaq is down 375.08 points or 1.4 percent at 25,746.08, the S&P 500 is down 50.87 points or 0.7 percent at 7,486.56 and the Dow is down 213.55 points or 0.4 percent at 52,842.36.

The weakness on Wall Street comes amid a pullback by technology stocks, which had helped lift the markets higher during Monday's session.

Semiconductor stocks are turning in some of the tech sector's worst performances, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plummeting by 6.6 percent.

The sell-off comes following a nearly 7 percent plunge by shares of South Korean memory chipmaker Samsung Electronics.

Samsung reported a 19-fold spike in second quarter profits, but the company's stock tumbled amid concerns about spending and demand.

"Although Samsung's results were stellar, investors are getting nervous about the scale of money ploughing into AI and whether it's a bubble waiting to burst," said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.

A report from Reuters indicating Chinese startup DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip is also weighing on semiconductor stocks.

Substantial weakness is also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 3.8 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Outside of the tech sector, gold stocks are moving sharply lower along with airline and steel stocks.

Meanwhile, natural gas, pharmaceutical, utilities and commercial real estate stocks have shown strong moves to the upside on the day.

On the U.S. economic front, a report released by the Commerce Department showed a substantial increase in the size of the U.S. trade deficit in the month of May.

The Commerce Department said the trade deficit widened to $77.6 billion in May from a revised $54.6 billion in April.

Economists had expected the trade deficit to surge to $78.7 billion from the $55.9 billion originally reported for the previous month.

The sharply wider trade deficit came as the value of imports shot up by 3.3 percent to $395.3 billion, while the value of exports plunged by 3.2 percent to $317.7 billion.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 2.1 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index slumped by 1.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets are turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index is down by 1.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved to the downside after ending the previous session roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 3.4 basis points at 4.513 percent.