US stocks post worst day in 19 months as tech shares slide
The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52 percent and the Volatility Index jumped 61.89 percent, as Brent crude stood near $98 a barrel.
US stock markets suffered their steepest one-day drop in 19 months on Thursday, driven by a sharp retreat in technology shares, Turkey's state-run news agency Anadolu Agency reported.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,834.84 points, or 3.44 percent, to close at 51,521.28.
The S&P 500 fell 4.35 percent, or 334.82 points, to 7,353.80, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.52 percent to close at 24,315.00.
The Volatility Index, which the report describes as the market's "fear index," jumped 61.89 percent to 26.89.
The decline was the steepest single-day drop for major US stock indices since April 2025, when President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff announcements set off global market turmoil.
Selling accelerated as investors reassessed the high valuations of megacap technology companies following a series of corporate updates.
Growing doubts about when heavy corporate spending on artificial intelligence would produce meaningful profits further weakened market sentiment.
Elevated Treasury bond yields also pressured equities by raising borrowing costs and offering attractive risk-free returns.
Profit-taking across industrial and consumer sectors followed a recent run of gains, while uncertainty over the future path of interest rate cuts kept traders cautious into the closing bell.
Energy prices fell significantly late Wednesday and early Thursday after the Democrats' victory in the US midterm elections, though Brent crude stood at $98.40 a barrel as of 2100GMT, having traded above $110 earlier in the week.
Gold rose 0.6 percent to $4,080 an ounce.
The number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims fell by 6,000 to 189,000 last week, below expectations, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.
European stock markets ended mostly lower, with the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index down 0.38 percent to 654.87 points.
Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.43 percent to 10,782.66, Germany's DAX 40 dropped 0.43 percent to 26,325.01 and France's CAC 40 rose 0.34 percent to 8,205.37.
Italy's FTSE MIB slid 1.03 percent to close at 50,505.87, while Spain's IBEX 35 gained 0.59 percent to close at 19,486.00.
Stock markets often react sharply to shifts in expectations about interest rates and corporate earnings, the two factors the report links to Thursday's sell-off.
