(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 14 set - US shares were trading lower at midday as AI slowdown fears and climbing oil prices weighed on sentiment.

Chip stocks were lower after the heads of three of the largest AI companies this weekend called for a slowdown in the development of the technology over safety concerns.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in an essay that AI innovation should be slowed for safety reasons, noting the problem was what would happen if China did not do the same, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said an IPO of the company this year would be 'ill-advised'.

Shares in Nvidia were 3.29% lower, Intel was down 5.86% while Marvell Technology shed 7.13%.

Oil prices continued to rise after Saudi Arabia shut a key pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz and conflict in the Middle East escalated. Brent was up 4% at nearly 109 dollars per barrel.

The main focus this week is the Federal Reserve's monetary meeting with nearly 89% of investors expecting an interest rate hike to contain inflation, triggered by higher energy prices.

On the stocks front, shares in Oracle were down 3.99% after the company said its co-founder Larry Ellison had pulled plans to sell as much as 7.5 billion dollars of stock.

At 1524 GMT, the Dow Jones was down 264.77 points, or 0.50%, at 52,308.52 points.

The S&P 500 was 50.33 points, or 0.66%, lower at 7,606.65 points.

The Nasdaq was losing 203.69 points, or 0.77%, at 26,129.35.

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(RADIOCOR) 14-09-26 17:33:06 (0440) 5 NNNN