Tech stock selloff worsens and drowns out strength elsewhere on Wall Street

A sell-off for tech stocks is forcing the U.S. market down again, with Amazon and Intel helping lead the way this time.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2 per cent Friday and was on track to erase its gain for October, even though it set its all-time high during the month.

The weakness for technology stocks dragged the Nasdaq composite down 2.2 per cent, but the rest of the market was holding up better. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a modest 162 points, or 0.3 per cent. Treasury yields sank as investors searched for safer things to own, even though oil prices rose.

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Bitcoin dropped about 3 per cent to $77,695 after a major $6.36 billion hack at Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange. Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals and deposits.

Alphabet’s Class A shares slid more than 12 per cent on Thursday after the company behind Google and YouTube reported weaker growth for the summer than analysts expected.

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That was their worst day since they began trading more than 20 years ago. The tech giant had been under pressure to at least meet analysts’ expectations for growth amid concerns about how much it’s spending to invest in artificial intelligence.

Its shares were down slightly before the market open on Friday.

AI-related stocks have been volatile. Shares of chipmakers and other companies have risen on enthusiasm for the technology, then fallen on concerns about issues such as supply constraints.

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Meanwhile, shares of Amazon slid nearly seven per cent in premarket trading as the company offered a cautious sales forecast for the current fourth quarter that encompasses the critical holiday shopping period after delivering fiscal third-quarter results that came in below Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

Intel’s stock slumped more than 25 per cent before the market open as the chip company provided a softer-than-anticipated fourth-quarter outlook on continued weakness in the personal computer market.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.1 per cent to $104.13 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 2.5 per cent to $113.51 a barrel. Brent remains near the high end of its range since the war with Iran began. The highest price for the most actively traded contract in the market for Brent crude since then is nearly $120, reached in March.

The British military said Friday that a tanker caught fire after a small boat attached two explosives to its hull while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, temporarily disabling the vessel.

The explosion comes as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Thursday that three oil tankers had struck mines while attempting to leave the strait through an unauthorized route. Earlier this month, UKMTO said in a report that October is already the busiest month for reported attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz since March, in the opening months of the Iran war.

In Europe, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.1 per cent to 7,981.42, while the German DAX fell 0.6 per cent to 25,895.24. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.3 per cent to 10,725.66. Asian markets were mostly lower.