The seven largest American technology companies lost more than a trillion dollars of combined market value on Thursday, in a session driven by investor fears of a slowdown in the build-out of artificial intelligence.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5 per cent and the S&P 500 about 4.4 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped roughly 1,833 points, or 3.4 per cent. The Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 entered correction territory. The declines erased Wednesday's rally "and then some", CNBC reported.
Nvidia led the losses, shedding more than 440 billion dollars of market value. The stock fell more than 9 per cent and turned negative for the year, with a year-to-date decline of 2.6 per cent.
Breadth was uniform. On the New York Stock Exchange, 2,344 stocks declined against 416 that advanced, almost six to one. On the Nasdaq Composite it was 4,166 against 855, almost five to one. All eleven S&P 500 sectors fell.
Information technology fell 7.30 per cent, its worst day since 16 March 2020, when it dropped 13.92 per cent. Industrials fell 4.12 per cent, their worst day since 4 April 2025, when they fell 6.29 per cent.
The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund fell 8.04 per cent, also its worst day since 16 March 2020, on volume of more than 33 million shares against a 30-day average of 9.2 million.
The Cboe Volatility Index reached its highest level since 31 March and gained 11.57 points, its largest point gain since 4 April 2025, when it rose 15.29 points.
Beneath the headline moves, a large part of the market has already fallen a long way. In the S&P 500, 174 stocks, or 34.6 per cent, sit 20 per cent or more below their 52-week highs, and 310, or 61.6 per cent, are at least 10 per cent below. In the Nasdaq-100 the figures are 59 stocks, or 58.4 per cent, more than 20 per cent off, and 72, or 71.3 per cent, more than 10 per cent off.
The figures were compiled by Sean Conlon, Gina Francolla, Christopher Hayes and Nick Wells of CNBC. The report quoted no named market participants.
The most consistent number in Thursday's session was not a price. It was a date. The Nasdaq's worst day since 4 April 2025. The S&P 500's worst day since 4 April 2025. The Dow's worst day since 4 April 2025. The volatility index's biggest point gain since 4 April 2025.
A superlative of this kind is a statement about an interval. It records how long it has been since something comparable, and says nothing whatever about the size of the thing being recorded. Thursday was therefore not reported as large. It was reported as overdue.
The arithmetic has an agreeable self-referential property. Every "worst since" is measured against the previous "worst since", which was in its turn measured against the one before that. A single reference day is carried forward until a worse one arrives, at which point the old reference retires and the new day becomes the thing everything is compared with.
On Thursday the reference held. The Nasdaq fell 5.5 per cent against 5.82. The S&P 500 fell about 4.4 against 5.97. The Dow fell about 1,833 points against more than 2,200. The comparison was made four times and lost four times, and 4 April 2025 keeps its post.
Our analysts note what follows. Because the session was not quite bad enough to replace the benchmark, every record set on Thursday is a record of insufficiency: the worst day that was still better than the day it was being measured against. A trillion dollars was not enough to retire a date.
The Department of Unnecessary Research has filed the session accordingly. One trillion dollars left the seven largest technology companies, eleven sectors out of eleven declined, the volatility index posted its biggest point gain in nineteen months, and the only thing on the board that did not move was 4 April 2025.