North American stocks sink, Wall Street suffers worst day since June amid tech sell-off

The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed about 3 per cent by mid afternoon. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index was down about 2.3 per cent. Worries are rising about whether the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in AI will produce enough profit and productivity to make the investment worth it.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index was down about 2.3%

The Associated Press

· Posted: Oct 30, 2026 3:06 PM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago

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A sell-off for tech stocks is getting worse Friday on worries that Wall Street's frenzy around AI sent prices too high.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.9 per cent and was on track to erase its gain for October, even though it set its all-time high during the month. The Nasdaq composite was likewise heading toward its worst day since June, as the weakness for technology stocks dragged it down 3.1 per cent, as of 1:20 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down one per cent.

Canada's main index, the S&P/TSX composite, dropped about 2.3 per cent mid afternoon.

Intel's stock led the way lower and is flirting with its worst day since 1974 after tumbling 30 per cent. The chipmaker gave a forecast for profit in the final three months of this year that fell short of analysts' expectations, as CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the personal-computer industry continues to feel pressure. The drop came even though Intel reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Amazon sank 2.1 per cent after reporting a weaker profit for the summer than analysts expected. Potentially more concerning for investors was Amazon's reporting that it burned through $42.4 billion US of cash over the prior 12 months, according to a measure called free cash flow. It spent $94.8 billion US on property and equipment, primarily through investments in artificial-intelligence technology.

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A day earlier, Alphabet's stock dropped more than 12 per cent to its worst day on record and almost single-handedly dragged the S&P 500 lower after telling investors it burned through more cash during the summer than the spring. The company behind Google and YouTube cited similar, mammoth investments in AI.

Worries are rising about whether all those hundreds of billions of dollars will produce enough profit and productivity to make the investment worth it. At the same time, stocks of computer chip companies and other winners from the frenzy to build AI data centres have come under pressure on concerns that high interest rates may slow the further build out of data centres.

"We're moving out of the hopes and dreams phase of the AI trade and into the 'show me' phase," said Joe Tigay, portfolio manager at Equity Armor Investments, in a note to investors.

A drop of 4.8 per cent for the stock price of Nvidia, whose chips have made it the poster child of the AI frenzy, was the heaviest force pulling the S&P 500 downward, even more than Intel.

In the cryptocurrency industry, meanwhile, stocks tumbled following a hack on the world's biggest crypto exchange. The price of bitcoin fell toward $77,000 US from more than $86,000 US earlier this month, and a U.S.-based blockchain intelligence firm said a North Korean unit was likely behind the attack that impacted more than $6 billion US worth of crypto at Binance.

Outside of tech, stocks were more resilient as many rallied after reporting stronger profits for the summer than analysts expected. Nearly as many stocks rose in the S&P 500 index as fell.

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ExxonMobil climbed two per cent, and Chevron added 1.7 per cent after the oil giants both reported stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected.

Mondelez International rose 3.9 per cent due to better than expected growth and Colgate-Palmolive climbed 3.6 per cent after higher prices for its products helped it deliver better revenue and profit than analysts expected.

Expectations are high for U.S. companies' ability to make bigger profits, even though people around the world are feeling discouraged about high inflation and high fuel prices. Such expectations are what drove the S&P 500 to its record earlier this month.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased in a signal that investors were buying U.S. government bonds in search of a safer option. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.94 per cent from 4.98 per cent late Thursday and from more than 5.30 per cent earlier this month.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mostly lower in Europe following sharper swings in Asia. South Korea's Kospi dropped due to AI worries, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed slightly.