Nasdaq Falls More Than 2 Percent as AI Selloff Deepens and Oil Jumps to 109 Dollars

Updated 08:22 UTC

A late markets alert confirmed the final QQQ price for Friday. The Invesco QQQ fund, which tracks the Nasdaq 100, settled at 709.80 dollars, down 2.63 percent from a previous close of 728.95 dollars, after trading as low as 707.23 dollars. Reuters reported the same Wall Street close, with CoreWeave down 12 percent on the day and about 25 percent for the week, Broadcom down 3.6 percent, and the PHLX chip index down for an eighth straight day. Oil rose more than 3 percent on Middle East supply worries, Reuters said. CNN put the Nasdaq Composite down 2.14 percent on Friday and down about 4.5 percent for the week, its worst week since June, and said CoreWeave bond yields rose above 15 percent this week.

Updated 22:21 UTC

The selloff spread into software on Friday, closing off a sector investors had bought earlier in the week as shelter from chip losses. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software fund closed down 4.8 percent, while the iShares Semiconductor fund fell 4.1 percent, MarketWatch reported. Twilio fell 10.6 percent, the biggest loss in the S and P 500 on the day, Oracle closed 5 percent lower, ServiceNow fell 4 percent and Salesforce lost 2 percent. Cybersecurity shares were hit too, with the Amplify Cybersecurity fund down 4 percent and Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike each down more than 7 percent. Barron's reported the selling spread to software as investors cut popular Big Tech positions, and that Meta and Tesla will open Magnificent Seven earnings with AI spending under close scrutiny.

Updated 20:28 UTC

The final closing numbers settled the week. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.1 percent on Friday and fell 4.5 percent for the week, its worst week since June, The Wall Street Journal reported. The S and P 500 finished 1.1 percent lower and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3 percent, though the Dow still rose for the week. MarketWatch confirmed that the Nasdaq and the S and P 500 capped their worst weekly showings since June, and said doubts about the payoff from massive AI investment drove investors back into bonds, sending yields lower for a second straight week. CoreWeave fell 14 percent on Friday, CNN reported. The yield on the 10 year Treasury ended the week at 5.097 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Updated 19:50 UTC

The closing numbers confirmed the scale of the fall. The Invesco QQQ fund, which tracks the Nasdaq 100, fell 2.8 percent to 708.57 dollars, down from 728.95 dollars. Meta Platforms fell 4.55 percent to 703.995 dollars, down from 737.54 dollars. Reuters reported on Friday that technology stocks came under fresh pressure on worries about cracks in the AI trade, with Nvidia backed CoreWeave slipping again on concern about its debt load. Reuters also reported that Meta, one of the hyperscalers spending heavily to build AI data centres, kicks off a week of results that will test investor confidence in that spending. No separate company news explained Meta's fall. It moved with the wider AI selloff, and it fell harder than the index.

Updated 19:16 UTC

Selling deepened heading into the close. The Nasdaq Composite was down 2.4 percent late in the session, which would leave it down 4.7 percent for the week, its sharpest weekly fall since April 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported. The S and P 500 was down more than 1 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6 percent, though the Dow stayed up for the week. CoreWeave tumbled 13 percent, the iShares Semiconductor ETF fell another 3 percent for a ninth straight daily loss, CrowdStrike fell 7 percent and Oracle fell 4.5 percent, Barron's reported. Brent crude finished at 109.86 dollars a barrel, up 3.7 percent to its highest level since May, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Nasdaq Composite fell about 2 percent in afternoon trading on Friday, October 16, 2026, as chip stocks and shares tied to artificial intelligence came under fresh pressure in New York. The S and P 500 was down about 1 percent at 7,667 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by about 0.5 percent, though the Dow was still up for the week.

The afternoon slide put the Nasdaq on course for a weekly loss of more than 4 percent, its sharpest weekly fall since June, The Wall Street Journal reported. The index had already fallen 3.8 percent from Tuesday's close over the past three sessions, Barron's reported, while the S and P 500 had lost nearly 2 percent in the same stretch.

Chips lead the fall

The Philadelphia semiconductor index, known as the SOX, sank about 2 percent on Friday afternoon and was on pace for an eighth straight down day, its longest losing run since October 2018, Investor's Business Daily reported. The index has fallen 14.2 percent since the close on October 6, its last up day. The iShares Semiconductor ETF, known as SOXX, was on track to fall for a ninth straight session, and Barron's said the chip index has fallen into bear market territory.

CoreWeave, the Nvidia backed cloud computing provider at the centre of this week's AI debt worries, sank 10 percent on Friday, Investopedia reported. The stock had dropped more than 15 percent on Wednesday, then closed 6 percent higher on Thursday. Tesla fell more than 2.5 percent a day after it unveiled its new Roadster, and Nvidia was nearly 1 percent lower after a fall of almost 2 percent on Thursday.

Fear gauge and oil jump together

The Cboe volatility index, known as the VIX and often called Wall Street's fear gauge, surged nearly 25 percent on Friday to 20.57, its highest level since mid summer, Barron's reported. At that level the index points to daily swings of about 1.3 percent for the S and P 500 in November.

Oil rose at the same time. Brent crude futures for December delivery jumped about 3.3 percent to about 109.30 dollars a barrel, The Wall Street Journal and Barron's reported, and front month US crude topped 100 dollars a barrel for the first time in a month. Ukraine has renewed its attacks on Russian oil refineries, and US lawmakers moved to block President Donald Trump's plan to import Russian diesel, Barron's reported. Traders also pointed to the risk to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Rate relief did not calm tech

Markets had steadied earlier in the day after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, speaking overnight in Bangkok, gave no signal that the Fed plans to raise rates at its October meeting. Traders cut the chance of an October hike to 13 percent, from 28 percent a day earlier, Investopedia reported, citing CME FedWatch. The yield on the 10 year Treasury was at 5.11 percent in recent trading, up about four basis points from Thursday's close. It had reached 5.33 percent after Wednesday's consumer price data.

Bitcoin traded around 81,500 dollars, down slightly over the past 24 hours, and gold futures rose 0.3 percent to 4,180 dollars an ounce, Investopedia reported.