Wall Street closes October with its worst day since June as tech sell-off deepens
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAWall Street tumbled Friday, October 30, to close out October with its worst day since June, as a sell-off in technology stocks deepened on growing doubts that the industry's huge spending on artificial intelligence will pay off.
The S&P 500 fell 1.8% to 7,580.07, its worst day since June and the end of a third straight losing week, according to the Associated Press. The Nasdaq composite, which holds more technology companies than the other major indexes, dropped 2.9% to 25,437.00, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 572 points, or 1.1%, to 51,770.31.
Intel led the way down, plunging 28.6% — its worst day since 1974 — after a weak outlook and a shrinking PC market. Chip stocks fell sharply across the board, with Nvidia down 4.2% and the Philadelphia semiconductor index off 7.2%. Amazon slipped 1.4% after reporting a weaker profit for the summer than analysts expected.
The Friday rout followed a brutal Thursday for Google parent Alphabet, whose shares fell more than 12% in their worst day on record after telling investors it burned through more cash during the summer than in the spring. Together, the two sessions crystallized the market's new worry: that AI spending has pushed tech valuations too high, too fast.
For the month, the Nasdaq lost about 5.3% in October, its worst month since March 2025, according to Yahoo Finance data. Even after the sell-off, the broader market remains only about 3.1% below its all-time high, the AP noted — a reminder that the pullback, sharp as it was, has so far dented rather than erased this year's gains.
Other pressures added to Friday's mood: the $6.3 billion Binance hack weighed on crypto-related stocks, and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond stood at about 4.93%. Markets now turn to a packed week ahead — Tuesday's midterm elections, Apple's earnings on Monday, and Friday's October jobs report — for the next signal on where the economy, and the market, go from here.
Sources: Associated Press (Oct. 30, 2026); CBC News (Oct. 30, 2026); Yahoo Finance market data (Oct. 30, 2026 closes).
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