The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that U.S. and Canadian stocks ended sharply lower on Thursday, with Nasdaq dragged to its lowest since November by losses in Microsoft, Amazon and other tech heavyweights after Alphabet said it could double capital spending on AI in the race to dominate the emerging technology. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says a sell-off in precious metals also weighed on the Toronto market. Investors in recent months have grown more wary of heavy spending on AI, awaiting stronger signs those investments are actually boosting revenue and profits. Investors this week have also worried that rapidly improving AI tools could eat into demand for traditional software, squeezing profit margins across the sector. The S&P 500 software and services index fell 4.6 per cent, down for a seventh straight session. The CBOE volatility index, Wall Street's "fear gauge," briefly hit the highest in more than two months. The S&P/TSX composite ended down 576.95 points at 31,994.60. The materials index dropped 6.5 per cent as gold and silver tanked. The latter was down nearly 17 per cent as a stronger U.S. dollar and the broad market rout prompted investors to liquidate precious metal holdings.