Illustrative photo: Rafael Minguet Delgado / Pexels
Wall Street’s Thursday selloff left investors with few places to shelter inside the stock market: every S&P 500 sector finished lower, every Dow component fell and the Nasdaq 100 suffered its worst day since the Covid crash in March 2020.
The Nasdaq 100 lost more than 6%, Bloomberg reported in coverage republished by BusinessLine, a scale of decline also reported by investingLive. The damage spread beyond the technology companies at the center of the artificial-intelligence boom into industrial, financial and consumer businesses, including defensive stocks investors often turn to during market stress.
Why there was nowhere to hide in stocks
CNBC and Reuters reported losses across all 11 S&P 500 sectors. That meant a portfolio spread across industries still faced a down day, even if it avoided the hardest-hit chipmakers.
- Technology: Information technology fell 7.3%, according to CNBC and Reuters. Chipmakers and the data-center supply chain were the epicenter as investors questioned the pace of AI investment after the midterm elections.
- Industrials and materials: Manufacturers, transport companies, equipment suppliers and materials producers were part of the broad sector retreat. The selling reached beyond software and semiconductors to the physical economy.
- Financials and real estate: Both sectors finished lower, extending the losses to banks, financial firms and property-related companies rather than containing them within the AI trade.
- Consumer businesses: Consumer discretionary and consumer staples both fell. Bloomberg reported that even Walmart, a defensive fallback, was pulled down. That made shifting from growth shares to everyday-goods businesses an imperfect shelter.
- Health care, utilities, energy and communication services: All joined the decline. Businesses serving essential needs and energy producers shared the negative sector close, though the severity differed across industries.
A warning for retirement savers
The breadth matters for workers and retirees holding stock funds in 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement accounts. A broad stock fund spreads money across businesses, but that spread cannot prevent its stock holdings from losing value when sectors fall together.
The S&P 500 fell about 4.4% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.5%, according to CNBC and Reuters. Stock funds tracking those benchmarks were exposed to that day’s market losses; an individual’s account result depends on its mix of stocks, bonds, cash and other assets. Investors drawing on retirement savings face particular pressure when withdrawals coincide with a sharp fall in stock values.
The retreat went beyond AI
Bloomberg reported that investors moved into Treasuries as a haven, while Reuters reported gains in gold. The “nowhere to hide” picture was especially stark within equities: different industries were falling together, even as some assets outside stocks offered shelter.
The Nasdaq 100’s Covid-era comparison is distinct from the broader indexes. CNBC reported that the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq Composite had their worst days since April 2025. The concern on Thursday was the combination of a severe technology shock and losses reaching the rest of the stock market.
For the closing figures and company-by-company moves, read JBizNews’s full market-close report.
JBizNews Desk | Markets & Economy
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