Wall Street today: Nasdaq slips over 2% after curbs on chip exports to China, Nvidia tanks 7.5%, AMD dips 6.84%

US stock indices slipped on Wednesday, after AI-chip giant Nvidia flagged steep charges from new US curbs on chip exports to China.

Among the chipmakers, Nvidia tumbled 7.42%, AMD declined 6.84%, Micron Technology edged down 1.4%, Broadcom fell 2.80%, and Intel Corp lost 2.95%.

At 12:08 PM EDT, the Dow Jones fell 0.52%, the S&P 500 fell 1.24%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.13%.

At 10:47 AM EDT, the Dow Jones fell 0.41%, the S&P 500 fell 1.05%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.83%.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 189.5 points, or 0.47%, to 40,179.49. The S&P 500 fell 60.9 points, or 1.13%, to 5,335.75, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 323.5 points, or 1.92%, to 16,499.693.

New Export Restrictions

Late Tuesday, the US Commerce Department issued new export licensing norms for Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI308 artificial intelligence chips to China.

Nvidia said it faces $5.5 billion in charges after the restrictions on exports to China.

Advanced Micro Devices said on Wednesday it expects charges of up to $800 million due to the latest curbs on exports of advanced processors to China.

The move is seen as an attempt by the US to keep advanced semiconductors from being sold to China.

US President Donald Trump has also ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on all critical minerals imports, reviews into pharmaceutical and chip imports.

The United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, have been locked in a trade battle and raising tariffs against each other.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.33% from 4.35% late on Tuesday.

Gainers and Losers

United Airlines’ stock gained 2.5% after it reported a stronger profit for the first quarter than Wall Street expected.

Tesla stock lost 1.5% after Reuters reported that tariffs on Chinese auto parts had disrupted the EV electric vehcle maker's production plans.

Among the tech stocks, Apple declined 2.22%, Microsoft Corp. fell 1.93%, Meta Platforms shed 2.35%, and Google was down 1.05%.

Planemaker Boeing’s stock edged lower 0.15%.

Bullion

Gold prices rallied on Wednesday, to breach $3,300 per ounce, on a weaker US dollar and escalating US-China trade war.

Spot gold climbed 2.6% to $3,310.82 an ounce as of 08:51 AM ET (1251 GMT), after hitting a record high of $3,317.90 earlier in the day. US gold futures gained 2.7% to $3,326.40.

Spot silver rose 2.2% to $33.01 an ounce, platinum gained 0.5% to $963.76, and palladium eased 0.4% to $968.04.

Crude oil

Oil prices surged around 1% on Wednesday, on a report that Iraq will cut oil production in April.

Brent crude futures rose 70 cents, or 1.08%, to $65.37 a barrel by 1311 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was also up 70 cents, or 1.14%, at $62.03.