If history loves a rerun, then today’s AI market is playing the role of the dot-com bubble’s younger, cockier sibling (even with the same baggy pants).

Back in 2000, investors were convinced the internet would transform every business overnight. CMGI Inc. was the poster child of the mania, ballooning to a $41 billion valuation even though it was losing $3.8 million per day in 1999. It didn’t matter… people threw money at it anyway, convinced the future belonged to internet startups, didn’t matter what they did, if .com was in the name you better believe it was a screaming BUY (without people even looking into what the company does).

Then reality smacked everyone in the face. CMGI tanked 99%, and its portfolio of flashy but profitless startups (like AltaVista and AdForce) crumbled under their own hype. Fast forward two decades, and here we are again, watching a new speculative frenzy unfold. The difference this time? Instead of .com fever, it’s AI mania, and the cracks are already starting to show. Which explains why investors are getting jittery and the market feels like it’s having mini flash crashes every other day.

Take Alphabet, for example. It got absolutely torched, plunging over 7% after reporting disappointing cloud revenue… a reminder that throwing billions at AI doesn’t guarantee instant profits. AMD wasn’t spared either, sliding 7% despite beating revenue expectations (all because its data-center sales forecast looked weak). On the other hand, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang threw investors a bone, with shares jumping 4% and single-handedly keeping Big Tech in the green after those disappointing reports. This helped the Nasdaq claw its way back from early losses, while the S&P 500 barely scraped out a 0.1% gain. The Dow Jones fared slightly better, rising 0.3% again, thanks to Nvidia.

And yet, despite mounting skepticism, the AI spending spree isn’t slowing down. Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet are set to pour $228 billion into capital expenditures in 2025… a 55% jump from 2024’s already massive $150 billion. These tech giants swear these investments will pay off, but history suggests otherwise. Blind faith in an emerging technology doesn’t always end well (just ask anyone who bought CGMI at the top).

But don’t tell that to retail traders. The "Magnificent 7" saw a flood of buy orders after their recent sell-off. According to JPMorgan, retail investors poured a record-breaking $3.2 billion into single stocks yesterday, with Nvidia leading the charge at $1.3 billion in net purchases.

If you read all of this, congrats for having a 10 second attention span (better than me). As always, here’s our heatmap for today.