Nasdaq Futures Fall 1.7% as AI Spending Concerns Return, Tech Stocks Slide Broadly

Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.72% in premarket trading on October 22, with S&P 500 futures down 1.04% and Dow futures off 0.69%, as fresh earnings and funding moves from Tesla (TSLA) and Meta (META) revived doubts over the cost and payback timeline of massive AI investments. Rising Middle East tensions and higher oil prices further dampened risk appetite. Tesla fell 3.6% premarket after cutting its full-year capital expenditure forecast, raising concerns about the pace of its AI, robotics and robotaxi businesses. AJ Bell's Russ Mould noted heavy spending on Optimus, AI and autonomy has sharply reduced profit and cash flow, while a potential SpaceX merger faces regulatory and shareholder scrutiny. Meta slipped 2% after issuing new non-voting shares to fund AI expansion, refocusing attention on Big Tech capex levels. Amazon (AMZN) and NVIDIA (NVDA) each fell about 1.9%, Intel (INTC) lost 4.4%, and chip peers AMD, Qualcomm, Broadcom and Micron dropped 3% to 4.7%. SpaceX and Super Micro, which led the prior session's rally, fell 1.9% and 3.1%. Brent crude rose over 2.8% to $111.92 a barrel near five-month highs after Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to about 5.06% and Bitcoin fell 3.2%.