US technology stocks had their worst session since June on Thursday. The Nasdaq 100 fell 2.90 percent to 28,959, the tech sector fell 3.29 percent and semiconductors fell 6.79 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended flat, a split that marks the move as a sector earnings verdict rather than a broad market break.
Meta was the trigger. Shares fell 6.98 percent to 648.85 dollars after the company reported third quarter revenue of 64.6 billion dollars that beat expectations but free cash flow of negative 2.12 billion dollars, its first negative print since listing, alongside future spending commitments that reporting put at 825 billion dollars, up from 700 billion dollars in July. Meta lost more than 100 billion dollars of market value in the session, and a measure of its credit risk rose to a record high as its bonds weakened. The full Meta results were covered on this site on October 21 and updated on October 22.
The selling spread by association. Nvidia fell 4.40 percent to 212.21 dollars, Amazon fell 4.57 percent, Broadcom fell 4.31 percent, Alphabet fell 3.15 percent, Microsoft fell 2.23 percent and Tesla fell 3.08 percent after its own third quarter, in which profit fell 43 percent, disappointed on revenue. Apple was the exception among the megacaps, rising 1.23 percent to 348.22 dollars. Reporting put the combined market value lost by Meta, Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet at nearly 800 billion dollars.
Semiconductors took the deepest cut, and Lam Research, down 11.8 percent after reporting record revenue but supply constrained guidance, was the sector’s own earnings story, covered separately today. Memory names fell between 6 and 8 percent. The day’s lesson is narrow and specific: the market is no longer paying for AI spending or AI demand in the abstract. It is asking each company whether the spending converts to cash, and whether the demand converts to shipments, and repricing the ones whose answers slipped this week.