Cloud companies, e-retailers and household tech names got hammered on Thursday, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value and pushing the Nasdaq Composite to its worst one-day plunge since June 2020.
A day after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a half point in a bid to stem rising inflation, investors sold out of the part of the market that’s generally viewed as the growth driver, on concerns that the economy is in for some dark times ahead.
Big Tech suffered a massive sell-off, with Amazon dropping almost 8% and Facebook owner Meta Platforms off about 7%. Among other big names: Apple fell nearly 6%; Google parent Alphabet declined about 5%; and Microsoft shares slid 4%. Overall, the Nasdaq plummeted 5%.
Investors were particularly down on e-commerce after Shopify, which ballooned during the pandemic by helping physical retailers go digital, reported disappointing first-quarter earnings and revenue. The stock tumbled 15%. Ebay and Etsy also suffered double-digit drops following their earnings reports.
