Nasdaq Falls 2.9 Percent in Tech Selloff as Intel Drops About 29 Percent, Its Worst Day Since 1974

Wall Street closed sharply lower on Friday, October 30, 2026, as a technology selloff widened amid concern over the cost and returns of artificial intelligence spending. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.86 percent at 25,437.00, according to The Edge price feed, a fall the Associated Press put at 2.9 percent, its biggest decline since June. The Nasdaq 100 closed down 3.46 percent at 28,384.85. The S&P 500 closed down 1.82 percent at 7,580.07, its worst daily performance since June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.09 percent at 51,770.31.

Intel's worst day since 1974

Intel fell about 29 percent, its worst day since 1974, after the company forecast fourth quarter earnings below analyst expectations despite quarterly earnings that beat estimates, AP reported. The Edge put Intel's close at 65.76 dollars, down 28.58 percent, after Intel guided fourth quarter revenue below expectations on continuing PC market softness, and said CNBC called it the stock's worst day since the 1970s. Reuters reported Intel and Reddit each fell 29 percent and SanDisk dropped 13 percent, and that Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Alphabet shares dropped 1 to 2 percent on Friday after significant declines earlier in the week.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.5 percent and is on the brink of a correction, a 10 percent decline from its recent high, Reuters reported. The Nasdaq Composite is down 7.8 percent from its closing high, and October was its worst month since March 2025.

AI spending is the question

Chip stocks fell hard. Nvidia fell 5.3 percent and AMD fell 12.1 percent, with the semiconductor index down 8.7 percent, in figures AP cited from Reuters. Amazon fell 1.9 percent after reporting weaker than expected summer earnings, and disclosed 94.8 billion dollars spent on property and equipment, most of it on AI investment, according to AP.

John Higgins, markets economist at Capital Economics, told Reuters: "Now that the combined capital spending boom at the hyperscalers is becoming partly dependent on external financing, investors are becoming more nervous about the sums they are collectively investing and how they are doing it." Reuters reported that Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet have been collectively responsible for more than a third of all capital spending by the current S&P 500 constituents over the past 12 months, according to Capital Economics. Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management, told Reuters: "Investors are voting all of a sudden and all together on who will monetize the investment and who won't."

Sectors, bonds and the wider market

The technology sector lost 4.24 percent, the deepest fall of the eleven S&P 500 sectors, while energy rose 1.91 percent and consumer staples rose 1.38 percent, and six of the eleven sectors gained, according to The Edge. Gold fell 3.5 percent, putting it down 10 percent for 2026, silver dropped 6 percent, oil prices rose 2 percent, Goldman Sachs fell 4 percent, Jefferies fell 6 percent and Bitcoin fell 3 percent after hackers took more than 6 billion dollars from Binance, according to Reuters.

The yield on the 10 year US Treasury was 4.94 percent, down 4 basis points, according to The Edge, citing the US Treasury daily par yield curve. Through October 30, 299 S&P 500 companies had reported third quarter results and 82 percent beat consensus estimates, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.