US stock markets fell sharply on Friday as disappointing results from several leading technology companies triggered a broad sell-off. The Nasdaq composite dropped more than 3 percent, while the S&P 500 lost more than 1 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also declined.
Heavy weekly losses
The Nasdaq lost nearly $1tn in value over the course of the week and has shed about $2tn over the past month. The Nasdaq 100 is on track to lose more than $2tn in market value this month alone, and is down more than 5.8 percent so far in October. The S&P 500 had set an all-time high earlier in the month but was now on track to erase its entire October gain.
Intel shares fell nearly 30 percent on Friday. The company posted a stronger profit for its latest quarter than analysts had expected, but its forecast for fourth-quarter profit fell far short of expectations. Amazon shares slipped 1.8 percent after the company reported weaker summer-quarter profit than forecast and disclosed spending for the year that ran higher than anticipated.
AI spending under scrutiny
Alphabet shares had already dropped more than 12 percent the day before, wiping out about $500 billion in market capitalization, after the company told investors it burned through more cash during the summer than in the spring because of heavy AI investment. Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Amazon, all major cloud and AI infrastructure operators, had each raised their spending forecasts for AI infrastructure this year.
Nvidia shares fell 3.1 percent on Friday, a company that not long ago carried a market value of about $5tn. Concerns that high interest rates could slow further construction of data centers have weighed on chipmaker stocks more broadly.
By our market data, the Nasdaq Composite closed at 26,184.72 points on 29 October 2026, down 1.38 percent from the previous close and near its 31-day low, as of 18:39 GMT on 30 October 2026. The S&P 500 closed at 7,720.39 points on 29 October, down 0.30 percent from the prior session.
Data: S&P Dow Jones Indices · Nasdaq
