Wall Street closed out October with a sharp broad-based selloff on Friday, with the Nasdaq suffering the worst of it — plunging 3.47% to 25,064.79 as mega-cap technology names were aggressively unwound heading into the weekend. It was a painful final session to cap what has been a volatile month for growth stocks.
The S&P 500 fell 1.77% to settle at 7,564.76, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average held up relatively better, declining 1.07% to 51,387.21. Small-caps were not spared either, with the Russell 2000 dropping 1.65% to 2,782.13 — signaling that the risk-off sentiment was broad rather than isolated to any single sector.
Gold continued to assert itself as the safe-haven of choice, with the metal quoted at $3,885.12 — a level that underscores how persistently investors have sought shelter outside of equities in this environment. The elevated gold price tells a story of lingering macro anxiety that Friday's equity action only reinforced.
Nvidia's 4.22% drop to $204.64 was emblematic of the day's theme: high-multiple, high-expectation tech names getting hit hardest. Visa's modest 0.74% gain to $413.59 was a rare bright spot, suggesting some rotation toward more defensive corners of the market as traders closed the books on October.