US stocks fell sharply on Thursday, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.9%, the Nasdaq falling 1.5%, and the Dow Jones sliding nearly 400 points, weighed down by declines in consumer discretionary and tech shares.
Renewed concerns over stretched AI-related stock valuations resurfaced amid mixed earnings reports.
At the same time, worries about a sharper cooling in the labor market intensified after the Challenger report showed that US companies announced the highest number of job cuts for any October in 22 years, largely linked to AI adoption and cost-cutting measures.
Qualcomm tumbled 4.8% after its intellectual property licensing revenue came in slightly below expectations, while Tesla sank 5% ahead of its annual shareholder meeting later in the day.
Other notable decliners included Oracle (-4.2%), Palantir Technologies (-5%), and AMD (-7.4%).
Major megacaps were also mostly lower, with Nvidia (-2.6%), Microsoft (-1.8%), Amazon (-2.7%), Meta (-2.3%), and Alphabet (-0.2%) all in the red
