US equity markets retreated as concerns about valuations for artificial intelligence (AI) stocks continued to weigh on sentiment and with investors eyeing Nvidia Corp’s (-2.81%) third quarter result after the closing bell of tonight’ AEST session   - Dow rose -499-points or -1.07%, having been down almost -700-points at its worst levels of the session. E-commerce and cloud giant Amazon.com Inc lost -4.43%, while International Business Machines (IBM) Corp (-2.43%), Honeywell International (-2.36%) and UnitedHealth Group Inc (-2.17%) were among seven Dow components that fell over >2%.


The broader S&P500 extended declines into a fourth consecutive session, falling -0.83% and paring an earlier drop of as much as -1.5%. Consumer Discretionary (down -2.50%) and Information Technology (-1.68%) led five of the eleven primary sectors lower. Energy (up +0.61%) and Health Care (+0.54%) sat atop the primary sector leaderboard. The index now sits over >3% from its October peak.  James Hardie Industries Plc +6.83% after the building materials supplier released its fiscal second quarter result after the close of the previous session and said the performance of the recently acquired AZEK business has exceeded its expectations and it has topped a target for cost savings from the deal in the current fiscal year. Eli Lilly and Co rose +0.82% and hit a record intra-day high (US$1,040.72) dating back to 1952 when the pharmaceutical company offered its first public shares of stock.