US stocks surrendered their October gains as a significant tech sell-off triggered Wall Street’s most substantial daily decline in nearly two months. The S&P 500 fell 1.9 per cent whilst the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeted 2.8 per cent during the month’s final trading session.
Leading the downward spiral, Microsoft shares dropped 6.1 per cent, marking their steepest single-day decline in two years following disappointing quarterly earnings guidance. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, also experienced a 4.1 per cent decline after its Wednesday report.
Dec Mullarkey, managing director at SLC Management, noted that tech stocks had hit “the buzz saw of high expectations” following recent strong performances. He emphasised that AI growth would not follow a straightforward path, with setbacks in adoption, production, and shipments being inevitable.
The market downturn preceded earnings announcements from tech giants Apple and Amazon. Apple faced after-hours trading pressure following modest smartphone sales growth reports, whilst Amazon saw gains driven by its cloud computing division’s strength.
October’s decline broke the S&P 500’s impressive five-month winning streak, during which US stocks had achieved record highs. These peaks were fuelled by expectations of Federal Reserve monetary policy easing and encouraging economic data suggesting a “soft landing”.
The market volatility emerges amid heightened investor concerns over the upcoming US presidential election and next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. Treasury yields and the dollar have reached their highest levels in approximately three months, with the dollar recording its most substantial monthly advance since April 2022.
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