S&P 500 ends down as chip stocks give up gains.

The S&P 500 ended ⁠lower ⁠on Thursday, with Intel and other chip ⁠stocks retreating after a recent rally, while uncertainty around U.S.-Iran peace talks weighed on ​the wider market.

U.S.-listed shares of Arm Holdings tumbled as worries about the company’s ability to secure sufficient supplies for its new AI chip ‌overshadowed a strong earnings forecast.

Intel and Advanced ‌Micro Devices declined, giving back some of their gains from earlier this week.

The PHLX chip index dropped, trimming its gain so ⁠far this ⁠quarter to around 46%.

The United States and Iran were edging toward a temporary agreement ​to halt their war, sources and officials said, with Tehran reviewing a proposal that would stop the fighting but leave the most contentious issues unresolved.

“You can have a string of days like this, and that’s not going to take away from the fact that this has been ​a rip-roaring quarter of recovery, driven by fundamentals,” said Mike Dickson, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments in ⁠Charlotte, ⁠North Carolina.

Oil prices edged lower, trading ⁠around $100 per barrel. [O/R]

Nvidia and ​Microsoft both climbed, underscoring investor confidence in Wall Street’s heavyweight AI companies.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 29.46 ​points, or 0.40%, to end at 7,335.66 ⁠points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 32.75 points, or 0.15%, to 25,801.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 313.34 points, or 0.64%, to 49,597.25.

A relentless rally in technology and AI shares has helped push U.S. stocks to record highs in recent days as investors cheer signs of strong demand for artificial intelligence and a robust earnings season. S&P 500 companies are on track for their strongest profit growth in ⁠more than four years.

The chip boom goes ⁠on, with Asia seeing rolling catchups to this week’s tech surge as markets there return from ​holidays. Wednesday was South Korea’s turn, today was Japan’s.

Led by a near 20% leap in tech-focused SoftBank’s shares, the benchmark Nikkei index jumped almost ‌6% as Japan returned from the Golden Week ‌holiday.

I’ll get into that and more below.

But first, check out my latest column on why a U.S.-Iran peace deal could knock the ⁠dollar further - and ⁠what could put a floor on that.

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The Nikkei’s rise puts year-to-date gains in Tokyo at 25%. That’s a snip of the 75% boom in Seoul this year, but it still dwarfs the S&P 500’s 8% ​gain and even the Nasdaq’s 11% advance, showing that the biggest scramble for chips and tech equipment is overseas.

Wall Street ⁠continued its ⁠climb to new records, however, ⁠with the S&P 500 ​up another 1% on Wednesday as hopes of an Iran peace deal resulted in a nearly 8% retreat in crude ​oil prices.

Oil prices slid further heading into ⁠Thursday, with Brent and WTI crude now trading at around $99 and $93 per barrel, respectively. Bond yields fell as oil prices ebbed.

Europe’s STOXX 600 gained 2% on Wednesday, leaving it some 2% away from pre-Iran war levels, though the index paused in early trading on Thursday.

Iran is currently reviewing the latest U.S. proposal to end the war, which would reportedly kick off 30 days of detailed negotiations to reach a full agreement. ⁠Despite the renewed peace hopes, however, military activity in the Gulf and Lebanon continued sporadically.

Back in the macroeconomic ⁠world, the build-up to Friday’s U.S. payrolls release has shown little damage to hiring so far from the two-month energy shock. ADP’s private sector jobs readout for April came in ahead of expectations.