US stocks chalked up their biggest daily drop in nearly two months as tech stocks tumbled, wiping out the market’s gains for October in the process.
The S&P 500 closed 1.9 per cent lower on Thursday and the Nasdaq Composite sank 2.7 per cent. The small cap-focused Russell 2000 dropped 1.6 per cent.
All the indices notched up their biggest daily drops since the start of September, leaving them lower for October. The S&P 500 ended a five-month winning streak.
Thursday’s worsening sell-off resulted in all of the Magnificent Seven Big Tech stocks closing lower, and ahead of Amazon and Apple reporting quarterly results.
Utilities were the best-performing sector in the S&P 500 as investors favoured relatively defensive stocks, while the energy sector was the only other to advance as the price of oil rose.
Declines for US indices in October
-1.5%
Russell 2000
-1.0%
S&P 500
-0.5%
Nasdaq Composite