AI stocks fall after Samsung Electronics' strong profit forecast fails to impress

NEW YORK (AP) — AI stocks are seesawing lower Tuesday and weighing on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% even though the majority of stocks within the index rose. The drops for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry dragged the Nasdaq down 0.8%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 133 points, or 0.3%.

The weakness began in Asia, where Samsung Electronics tumbled 6.9% in Seoul. The giant maker of computer chips gave a preliminary look at its performance for the second quarter, and the numbers were strong. Samsung Electronics said it expects to say its operating profit surged roughly 1,800% from a year earlier.

Analysts called the numbers surprisingly good, but they still weren’t enough for investors after its stock came into the day having well more than doubled in the year so far.

On Wall Street, AI stocks have been facing similar pressure in recent weeks on worries that they shot too high and that AI may not produce enough productivity and profits to make all the investments in chips and data centers worth it.

Micron Technology fell 7% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Nvidia sank 1.5% and was just behind Micron in influence because it’s the largest stock on Wall Street.

In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi tumbled 4.9% because Samsung Electronics alone makes up more than a quarter of the index.

Other Asian indexes also fell, including a 2.1% drop for Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, while European indexes were mixed.

In the oil market, prices rose after the British military said a tanker traveling in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by a projectile and caught fire.

Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault.

Brent crude, the international standard, added 1.3% to $72.93.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Michael Pistillo, left, and Federico DeMarco work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Michael Pistillo works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

After ringing the opening bell from the White House, United States President Donald Trump is seen on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an attempt by a conservative activist to obtain guardianship records in an effort to find ineligible voters in the presidential battleground state.

The case has been winding its way through the courts for years and stems from attempts by conservatives to overturn President Joe Biden's victory in Wisconsin over President Donald Trump in 2020.

Here’s what to know:

The case tested the line between protecting personal privacy rights and ensuring that ineligible people can’t vote.

Former travel executive Ron Heuer and a group he leads, the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, brought the lawsuit in 2022 alleging that the number of ineligible voters doesn’t match the count on Wisconsin’s voter registration list. The lawsuit doesn't specify how many people could be affected.

Heuer asked the state Supreme Court to rule that counties must release records filed when a judge determines that someone isn’t competent to vote so that those names can be compared to the voter registration list.

Heuer’s attorney, Erick Kaardal, argued that privacy concerns could be balanced with the public’s right to access government records by redacting identifying or sensitive information on the forms.

But the attorney for Walworth County, which was seeking to protect the records, said those seeking the records said they wanted to cross-check ineligible voters against the names of those registered. They can’t do that, attorney Sam Hall said at oral arguments, without releasing the person’s name and address.

Hall and Kaardal did not immediately return emails seeking comment on the court's ruling.

In Wisconsin, a guardianship order is granted by a court giving a person certain legal rights over another who is determined to be unable to make decisions about their life. A court has the power to remove the right to vote from a person under a guardianship order if the person is determined to be unable to understand “the objective of the election process.”

In the 5-2 ruling on Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's liberal majority along with conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn ruled that the records are not public as the conservative activist had claimed.

The court took the case after two lower state appeals courts issued divergent rulings. One appeals court, based in Madison, denied access to the records while another appeals court, based in Waukesha, said in 2023 that the records should be made public.

It ordered Walworth County to release them with birth dates and case numbers redacted.

The Supreme Court overturned the appeals court ruling that the records should be made public.

State law is clear that the records being sought are not public and “the Alliance has no right to the records,” Justice Janet Protasiewicz wrote for the majority.

Conservative justices Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley dissented, saying the court adopted “an overbroad and unworkable definition of what records pertain to a finding of incompetency” to include the forms that indicate a person has been found ineligible to vote.

Those forms are not pertinent to the finding of incompetency and are therefore subject to the open records law, Ziegler and Bradley wrote.

The case was an attempt by those who questioned the outcome of the 2020 presidential race to cast doubt on the integrity of elections in the presidential swing state. Heuer and the WVA filed lawsuits in 13 Wisconsin counties in 2022 seeking guardianship records.

Heuer and the WVA have pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election in a failed attempt to overturn Biden’s win in Wisconsin. Heuer was hired as an investigator in the discredited 2020 election probe led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. The probe found no evidence of fraud or abuse that would have changed the election results.

The WVA also filed two unsuccessful lawsuits that sought to overturn Biden’s win in Wisconsin.

Biden defeated Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin in 2020, a result that has withstood independent and partisan audits and reviews, as well as lawsuits and the recounts Trump requested. Trump won Wisconsin in 2024 by about 29,000 votes.

There are no pending lawsuits challenging the results of the 2024 election or calls to investigate the outcome.

FILE - The entrance to the Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers is seen in the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond, File)