Archive photo: Carlos Delgado / CC BY-SA 3.0; resized. Archive photograph, not Friday trading.
The Nasdaq lost 2% this week and Intel fell nearly 29% in one day, as the stock market’s AI trade ran into a simple accounting problem: the buildout is real, and so is the bill.
For the five sessions, the Nasdaq Composite fell 2%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.9%. October ended with the Nasdaq down 5.3% and the S&P 500 off 0.9%, while the Dow gained 1.7%, showing the gap between the major indexes.
How the week unfolded. Alphabet crashed 12.6% on Thursday after its earnings report, even as cloud growth topped 100%. Amazon followed hours later: a record 13.9% operating margin and 39% AWS growth could not overcome a $220 billion capital-spending plan and negative free cash flow. Reddit lost 29% on its own results. And Intel supplied the finale, guiding the holiday quarter lower and crashing 29% on Friday – as the chip-sector index fell 7.2%.
Where the money went. Energy and value caught the bid. Exxon Mobil and Chevron both rallied after refining-driven profit surges, with Chevron’s U.S. refineries setting a processing record. Crude settled the week at $104.12 a barrel. Gold futures settled Friday at $3,898.90 an ounce.
What it means. The market is no longer rewarding AI revenue growth alone; it is grading the price of achieving it. Amazon’s approximately $220 billion capital-spending plan puts the cost of that buildout in focus.
Next week. Apple reports Monday, November 2, the midterm campaign closes, and traders return Monday to a market that just repriced its favorite trade. The question that ended October follows them in: not whether AI demand is real, but what it costs to serve it.
JBizNews Desk | Wall Street
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