"Emotions are running high": Tech stocks had their worst day since June
The sell-off began after the quarterly earnings reports from the largest tech companies: investors were disappointed by the results from Alphabet and Amazon, two heavyweights at the forefront of artificial intelligence investments / Photo: Shutterstock.com
The Nasdaq Composite Index, which consists primarily of technology companies, fell 2.8% at the close of trading on October 30, marking its biggest decline since June.
The Nasdaq 100 Index, which comprises the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq, closed trading at about 9% below its recent high. During the trading session, it briefly entered a technical correction zone, falling 10% from its peak.
Shares of chipmaker Intel plummeted more than 28%, marking their sharpest decline in more than 40 years, following the company’s disappointing revenue forecast. Amazon’s stock fell 1.4% after the company reported higher-than-expected capital expenditures the previous day, along with a slowdown in e-commerce revenue growth.
Falling tech stocks dragged down the entire market—the S&P 500 index fell 1.8%. Even the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a “blue-chip” index that is largely focused on cyclical sectors of the economy, fell by more than 1%.
The Cboe VIX volatility index—also known as Wall Street’s “fear index”—jumped 18% and surpassed the psychologically significant 20-point mark, signaling high market volatility.
What They're Saying on Wall Street
The VIX is rising at an “alarming rate,” noted Cathie Stockton, founder of Fairlead Strategies. “It’s not yet at an extreme level, but the index is already approaching levels where you start to feel that the situation is changing,” Stokton told MarketWatch. According to her, “emotions are currently running high,” although the sell-off is still relatively “localized” and is affecting primarily the tech sector and stocks of AI-related companies. Stokton noted that some sectors of the stock market continued to rise during the second half of Friday’s trading session.
“The market is concerned about the monetization of AI,” Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist at LPL Financial, told MarketWatch. He noted that concerns about investments in AI affect not only technology companies but also the industrial sector, whose representatives are involved in the construction of data centers for artificial intelligence.
What Triggered the Flight from Risk
The sell-off began after weak quarterly reports from major tech companies: investors were disappointed by the results from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and Amazon—two heavyweights at the forefront of artificial intelligence investment. Reports from Intel and ServiceNow also triggered a sharp drop in stock prices.
We provided updates on how the market situation was unfolding on our website.
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This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
