Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 5, 2026 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
U.S. stocks continued their day lower on Thursday as investors took a risk-off stance, leading to popular technology trades. Bitcoin To figure it out.
of Dow Jones Industrial Average It decreased by approximately 593 points (1.2%). of S&P500 While it fell by 1.2% and fell into negative territory for the year, Nasdaq Composite It fell 1.6%. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 700 points, or about 1.4%, at the session’s low, while the market-wide S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down 1.5% and 1.9%, respectively.
alphabet was the most recent of the Magnificent Seven companies to report financial results. The company has called for up to $185 billion in capital spending in 2026, predicting a surge in artificial intelligence spending that has scared off some investors. The stock price last fell 1%. however, broadcom Shares rose nearly 1% on news of Alphabet’s spending plans, offering some hope for artificial intelligence trading as the market deciphers the winners and losers.
“The fact that some of these companies are actually announcing capital expenditures and announcing additional capital expenditures is an astronomical number at this point, but we actually see that as a positive sign for the overall health of the market, because…the market has insight at this point, rather than just irrational exuberance,” said Stephen Tuckwood, investment director at Modern Wealth Management.
Along with the alphabet Qualcomm It fell 9%, under pressure after the company announced a weaker-than-expected outlook due to a global memory shortage.
Elsewhere, the cryptocurrency market sell-off continued to gain momentum as Bitcoin fell below $64,000 after falling below $70,000, which is considered an important support level. In the precious metals space, pressure on silver has increased again. The metal’s price ended a two-day rally and fell by as much as 16%. It had plunged nearly 30% last Friday.
Bad news for the labor market
Concerns over a weak labor market added to the bearish tone after outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs in January, the highest number of layoffs in January since the global financial crisis.
In addition, the number of new jobless claims for the week ending January 31 rose more than expected, and the number of job openings in December fell to the lowest level since September 2020.
This comes ahead of the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January employment report, which has been postponed due to the partial government shutdown that ends next Tuesday.
“It feels like we’re moving away from the no-hiring, no-firing situation that we’ve had for the past few months,” Tuckwood said, adding that future BLS jobs reports “will likely be consistent with other employment reports in that the numbers for layoffs and layoffs are starting to turn negative.”
If that’s the case, he believes the Fed will cut rates at the end of at least one of its meetings in March or April.
Wall Street is emerging from a chaotic trading session that saw software and semiconductor stocks sold off, sending the S&P 500 index into a second straight day of losses. These stocks tumbled as concerns about AI disruption in the industry drove investors away from the technology en masse and into other, more attractively valued areas of the market.
Tuckwood told CNBC that the decline in software stocks, which entered a bear market last week, may be ahead of the curve. “We’re not there yet in terms of not catching a falling knife, but for that particular subsector, if things get a little too far on the sell side, there will be an opportunity at some point,” he said.
