Thursday was a tale of two markets. The Nasdaq bore the brunt of the session's pain, shedding 1.42% to close at 25,966.84, dragged lower primarily by a brutal sell-off in Alphabet. The S&P 500 slipped a more modest 0.38% to 7,701.29, while the Dow Jones fell 0.37% to 51,943.68 — both indexes cushioned from the worst of the tech carnage by strength in financials and other sectors.
The standout story of the day was Alphabet's 12.64% collapse to $283.82, one of the most significant single-session drops for a mega-cap in recent memory. The sell-off rippled through the broader tech complex, keeping pressure on growth-oriented indexes throughout the session. Visa offered a rare bright spot, climbing 2.48% to $410.54 on upbeat earnings, providing some comfort to investors watching the financial sector.
Notably, the Russell 2000 diverged sharply from its large-cap peers, gaining 0.97% to close at 2,828.74. This rotation into small caps suggests some investors are repositioning away from high-multiple mega-tech names and toward domestically focused, rate-sensitive smaller companies.
Gold continued to shine as a safe-haven asset, closing at $4,024.78 — a reminder that uncertainty around corporate earnings and tech valuations is keeping demand for hard assets elevated heading into the final stretch of the year.