US Stocks closed sharply lower on the last trading day of October as disappointing results from Amazon and Intel deepened the AI-spending sell-off: the Nasdaq fell 2.8% for its worst day since June 5, the S&P 500 lost 1.8% and the Dow dropped 1.1%. Intel's roughly 29% plunge was its worst day on record, and Amazon missed on EPS and posted a record cash burn from its AI build-out. That left the Nasdaq down about 5% for October, its worst month since March 2025, while the Dow finished the month higher. Asia sold off earlier, with Tokyo and Seoul falling hard, after the Bank of Japan held rates 8–1 with a hawkish dissent.
- On preliminary data the S&P 500 fell 139.30 points (1.80%) to 7,580.21, the Nasdaq Composite lost 747.73 (2.84%) to 25,440.68 and the Dow dropped 571.98 (1.09%) to 51,770.58. For the week, the S&P 500 is down about 0.6%, the Nasdaq about 2.0% and the Dow about 0.9%. For October, the Dow gained about 1.5% while the S&P 500 lost about 1.2% and the Nasdaq about 5.2%, and the Nasdaq-100 shed more than $2 trillion in market value over the month. Defensives held up, with consumer staples up 1.9% and health care up 1.7%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ended the month lower.
- Intel (INTC) plunged about 29% on Friday, its worst day in its history, after its quarterly results and a cash-burn warning, with a weaker outlook that pointed to a slowdown in PCs as price increases dampen device demand. Sandisk fell sharply too, and Intel and Amazon together wiped out roughly $200 billion of market value. Amazon (AMZN) fell about 4% after Q3 EPS of $1.89 missed the $1.96 estimate (sales of $201.9 billion) and its AI build-out pushed trailing free cash flow to a record outflow, against less than $8 billion three months earlier.
- The damage spread beyond the megacaps. Twilio, Reddit, Roblox, Illumina and Coinbase all fell after their own reports, and the Nasdaq-100 hit its lowest level since August. Alphabet, which plunged about 13% on Thursday and erased roughly $500 billion in market value, stayed in focus as the sector's worry shifted from AI demand to AI returns. According to LSEG data, markets now expect the Fed to raise rates by more than 50 basis points by mid-2027.
- Crypto slid after a $6.3 billion hack of the Binance exchange, reported as the largest crypto heist ever, with bitcoin tumbling. Oil prices rose in Asian trade, and the dollar eased to about 157.5 yen after the Bank of Japan's decision.
- In Japan, the Nikkei 225 closed 2.33% lower at 63,154 after reversing Thursday's gain, with Fujitsu down 16.2%, Murata Manufacturing down 11.4% and Lasertec down 10.9%, while the Topix fell about 1%. The Bank of Japan held at 1.25% in an 8–1 vote, with board member Takata dissenting in favor of a hike to 1.5%. It also said it will accelerate sales of its ETF holdings to about ¥860 billion a year from January 2027, up from about ¥330 billion, and its outlook flagged upside risks to inflation, and the yen strengthened modestly.
- South Korea's KOSPI fell as much as 5.4% in the morning and closed down nearly 5%, with SK Hynix down about 7%, Samsung Electronics down about 4% and Kioxia, Advantest and SoftBank down 9%, 8% and 5% respectively. Taiwan's Taiex dropped 2.5%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose about 1.5% to 23,294 even as the Shanghai Composite fell 1.4% to 3,599, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained about 0.2%, as it was largely insulated from the chip rout.
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