Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, with steep losses in Nvidia and other AI heavyweights, as investors scaled back expectations of interest rate cuts due to inflation worries and divisions among central bankers about the U.S. economy's health.
All three major U.S. stock indexes posted their steepest daily percentage declines in over a month.
Market Snapshot
The S&P 500 declined 1.66% to end the session at 6,737.49 points. The Nasdaq fell 2.29% to 22,870.36 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.65% to 47,457.22 points. Palantir Technologies Inc. fell 7%; NVIDIA, Advanced Micro Devices, Oracle fell 4%; Alibaba up 1%; Berkshire Hathaway up 2%;
Market Movers
Walt Disney shares tumbled 7.8% after the entertainment giant posted fiscal fourth-quarter results. Revenue was roughly flat year over year, while operating income declined 5% to $3.48 billion. Disney reiterated fiscal 2026 guidance for double-digit adjusted earnings growth and doubled its share repurchases target to $7 billion.
Tesla fell 6.6%. The stock has fallen three times and risen just once since the company's annual meeting on Nov. 6, where CEO Elon Musk learned that shareholders voted in favor of his trillion-dollar 2025 pay award by a margin of roughly three-to-one.
Cisco rose 4.6%. The networking company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue in its fiscal first quarter. Cisco also provided a strong financial forecast. For the current quarter, it expects earnings of between $1.01 and $1.03 a share, above analysts' estimates.
U.S.-listed shares of JD.com pared earlier gains to fall 1.7%. The Chinese e-commerce giant posted third-quarter revenue and net income that topped analysts' expectations. Revenue for JD's retail unit climbed 11% from a year ago to 250.6 billion yuan ($35.2 billion).
Dollar Tree slipped 2.9% to $103.15. Goldman Sachs double-downgraded shares of the discount retailer to Sell from Buy and lowered its price target to $103 from $133.
Nike rose 2.9% to $66.03. Wells Fargo upgraded the sportswear maker's shares to Overweight from Equalweight and hiked its price target on the stock to $75 from $60, suggesting it could rise 17% from Wednesday's closing price of $64.20.
Memory-chip stocks fell. Micron Technology declined 3.3%, Sandisk sank 14%, Western Digital was down 5.4%, and Seagate Technology PLC fell 7.3%. The selloff came after Japanese peer Kioxia reported disheartening results for the six months ended Sept. 30. Operating profit sank 55% and revenue decreased 16% from a year ago.
Newmont Mining fell 3.6% after rising in the premarket session. Shares ended Wednesday's session up 3.5%, boosted by a rally in precious metals. Coming into Thursday, the stock has risen 150% this year.
Sealed Air stock jumped 17%. Buyout firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice is in talks to take the packaging company private, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. While the report is unconfirmed, investors have been pushing the company to "take drastic action" regarding its product portfolio, Mizuho analyst Edlain Rodriguez said.
CoreWeave slid 8.3%, following a broader slump in shares of companies focused on building and renting out cloud-computing facilities. CoreWeave fell 3.4% on Wednesday and slumped 16% on Tuesday.
Circle declined 4.1% to $82.34. J.P. Morgan analyst Kenneth Worthington double-upgraded shares of the stablecoin issuer to Overweight from Underweight on Thursday with a $100 price target, up from $94. Worthington's updated target suggests shares could rise by nearly 20%.
Starbucks fell 0.9% to $86.44. More than 1,000 workers began striking on Thursday during the coffee chain's Red Cup Day promotional event. A Barron's technical analysis indicates the stock could break out as it moves above a bearish descending triangle pivot near $86.
Market News
David Tepper's Appaloosa Takes New AMD Stake, Exits Intel, Among Top Q3 Trades
Appaloosa started new stakes in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), with 950K shares, Fiserv (FISV), with 925K shares, Truist Financial (TFC), with 1.39M shares and KeyCorp (KEY), with 2.02M shares, during Q3 2025, the hedge fund founded by billionaire investor David Tepper disclosed on Thursday.
Meanwhile, its holdings were dumped in Intel (INTC), Oracle (ORCL) and KE Holdings (BEKE).
The firm boosted its positions in Whirlpool (WHR), to 5.50M shares from 266K in Q2, and Nvidia (NVDA), to 1.90M from 1.75M.
Reduced stakes include UnitedHealth Group (UNH), to 203.5K shares from 550K in Q2, and Amazon (AMZN), to 2.50M from 2.70M, the 13F filing showed.
xAI Raises $15B in Latest Funding Round to Support GPU Purchases, but Musk Denies It: Reports
Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI (X.AI), has reportedly raised $15B in its latest funding round, according to CNBC.
The funding round had garnered $10B by September, which propelled xAI to a valuation of $200B. It has since raised another $5B, elevating the current round to $15B. The report said much of the funds raised will be directed for the purchase of graphics processing units, or GPUs.
However, Musk said xAI is not raising capital and referred to the report as "Legacy Media Lies," according to Reuters.