AI-computing funds led the losses as CoreWeave sank

CoreWeave, which rents computing power for artificial intelligence (AI), fell 15.46% to $65.78 on Wednesday, and the funds that hold that business fell with it.

CNBC reported that yields on CoreWeave's bonds were near 15%, on concern about the cost of borrowing to build that computing. Nebius Group, an AI cloud company, fell 10.08%. IREN, which sells AI cloud capacity from its data centers, fell 12.18%.

Roundhill Neocloud ETF, —NCLD, fell 11.84%. The fund, about $81 million, holds companies that rent graphics-chip capacity and run the data centers behind AI, the business Roundhill calls a neocloud.

CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF, CWGMI, fell 10.67%. Bitcoin was down 1.88% as of 4:46 p.m. Eastern time.

The fund's largest holdings fell much harder than the coin. Cipher Digital, formerly Cipher Mining, mines bitcoin and hosts high-performance computing, and it fell 12.35%. Nebius and CoreWeave, both AI cloud companies, and Hut 8 are the next three holdings, and each of the four fell at least 10%.

State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF, ASPY, fell 1.07%. Invesco AQQQ Trust, Series 1, AQQQ, fell 1.97%, and iShares Russell 2000 ETF, AIWM, fell 1.93%. State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust, ADIA, slipped 0.10%, as gains in healthcare holdings, including UnitedHealth, offset declines in Caterpillar and Goldman Sachs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said consumer prices rose 0.6% in September, after 0.4% in August, and 3.7% from a year earlier, above FactSet forecasts of 0.5% and 3.6%. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, rose 0.3% on the month, the same pace as August, and 2.6% on the year, above FactSet forecasts of 0.2% and 2.4%. Gasoline rose 9.1% and accounted for more than half of the monthly increase.

The Wall Street Journal reported that stocks slid as the reading bolstered the case for another Federal Reserve rate increase this year. The Federal Reserve raised its target range by a quarter of a percentage point on September 16, to 3.75% to 4%. CNBC reported that it was the first increase in more than three years.

Long-term Treasury funds finished higher. iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF, BTLT, rose 0.66%, and iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF, BIEF, rose 0.19%.

Chips fell for a third day

VanEck Semiconductor ETF, ASMH, fell 3.98%, its third straight daily decline, and is down 6.4% since Friday's close. Nvidia, 19.8% of the fund, fell 3.07%.

Barclays cut the server makers

Dell Technologies fell 11.39% after Barclays downgraded Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NetApp, citing lagging enterprise adoption of AI, CNBC reported. HPE fell 8.20%, and NetApp fell 7.03%. State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF, AXLK, fell 2.98%.

Healthcare and staples rose

State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF, AXLV, rose 2.51%. Eli Lilly, its largest holding at 15.1%, rose 3.85%, and UnitedHealth, 5.4% of the fund, rose 4.73%.

VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF, APPH, rose 2.65%. State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF, AXLP, rose 2.22%.

Bank of America fell after a settlement charge

Bank of America fell 4.76% after reporting third-quarter earnings of $0.91 a share. CNBC reported that LSEG had expected $1.10 a share, and that the 91-cent result may not compare with that estimate. The company said the result included a $1.2 billion settlement charge, equal to 17 cents a share, after the Treasury announced anti-money-laundering penalties on Tuesday.