The sell-off on Wall Street spilt beyond tech names on Thursday as every other asset class got swept under a massive bear grip amidst concerns surrounding software stocks and some weak macro data added to the pressure.
The Dow Jones fell 600 points on Thursday, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.2%, briefly breaking below the 100-Day Moving Average (DMA) level at 6,748. The Nasdaq fell another 1.6%, marking its worst three-day rout since April last year during Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariff drama. The Nasdaq sell-off has resulted in big tech losing over $1 trillion in market cap this week.
US Dollar index continues to strengthen, now near the mark of 98, while precious metals, led by Silver, sold off sharply yet again. Silver prices fell 20% overnight, while Bitcoin, the most popular digital currency, tanked below the mark of $63,000, taking its decline from the October 2025 peak to nearly 50%. The two-year treasury yield is now at the lowest level this year.
Almost every big tech company and software giant saw its share price tank on Thursday. Amazon fell 4.5% in regular trading before falling another 10% in afterhours as it missed earnings expectations but announced a $200 billion spending plan. Microsoft fell nearly 5%, Nvidia dropped 1.5%, while others also added to those losses.
What did not help make sentiment any better was the weak macro data reported last evening. US job openings fell unexpectedly to the lowest since 2020 in December, while companies announced the largest number of job cuts for any January going all the way back to the great recession in 2009. Jobless claims also rose more than expected last week.
Anthropic has now announced that it is releasing a new version of its most power AI model designed to carry out financial research, days after a push into legal services triggered the latest round of selling. The Cboe VIX jumped to over 22%, while the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF sank 5%.
“Whenever a wave of extreme selling hits the market, investors with a value or contrarian bent will start wading through the carnage to look for longs,” the Bespoke Group said in a note. “Of course, selloffs happen for a reason, so sometimes those longs are stopped out long before any rebound,” they added.
The focus today will be on the US-Iran talks in Oman, leading up to which, oil prices have declined. The jobs report, which was scheduled to be released later today, will now be released on February 11, after the partial shutdown came to an end.