Tech fear trading hits Nasdaq futures as cryptocurrencies reel from biggest hack in history

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd from today’s Morning Squawk.

It’s a scary Friday for the market before Halloween has even begun.

The tech industry is taking another hit, dragged down by further disappointments with Amazon and Intel’s results.

But what will be the real horror of the day? The biggest robbery in virtual currency history. Binance is reeling from an unprecedented $6.3 billion hack, with fingers pointing at those backed by the government.

Friday is shaping up to be the Nasdaq’s worst trading day of the week. A series of steep declines in some of the tech industry’s largest companies compounded throughout the week, sending the index deep into the red.

Let’s get started Amazon.

The double failure in both EPS and revenue overshadowed AWS’s fastest growth in five years. Shares have fallen deeper after hours, falling more than 7% premarket.

Shareholder view: Blue Line Capital’s Bill Baruch said on “Closing Bell” that Amazon’s capital spending is out of the question, but the stock still has a lot of technical support. More warning signs: Maxim Group’s Tom Forte warned that a tough macro environment for consumers will be a negative indicator for Amazon heading into the fourth quarter.

Intel was an even bigger shock to investors.

Shares plunged 25% in premarket trading after the company issued a weak outlook for the fourth quarter and warned of continued weakness in the PC market.

Management’s view: Intel CFO David Zisner said, “We expect the PC slowdown to continue through at least the first half of next year.” Background: Intel’s stock price has soared, rising about 150% this year even before the company’s earnings release, but fell about 23% in October amid growing concerns about the scale of its artificial intelligence expansion.

Binance has been hit by the biggest cryptocurrency hack in history.

Early in the morning, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange revealed that a security incident had affected $6.3 billion in assets.

Here’s what we know so far:

Co-CEO Richard Teng told X.com that initial investigation suggests that a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop was the source of the hack. He also did not attribute responsibility to any individual, promising that “your money is safe and we will cover any losses.” Binance froze $3 billion, Circle $800 million, and Tether $1.56 billion in connection with the hack.

What we don’t know:

There is widespread speculation that this was a state-sponsored hack, and points have already been pointed towards North Korea. In 2025, the FBI determined that North Korea was responsible for a $1.5 billion heist at ByBit. This was the largest cryptocurrency hack ever. CNBC’s Arjun Karpal reported that hackers are testing Binance’s code, rehearsing the heist and seizing the moment.

Bitcoin dipped below $78,000 over breach concerns, Binance froze $3 billion in assets, while Circle froze $800 million and Tether $1.56 billion in connection with the hack.

Analysis: Ark Invest’s Frank Downing told CNBC overnight that regulators should avoid opportunistic responses to make crypto policies more restrictive, while Franklin Crypto’s Chris Perkins said investigations need to focus on the perpetrators of the hack, not the victims.

There are some stocks that have seen big price movements in the pre-market period, with some mega-cap stocks seeing double-digit declines.

Intel led the decline, falling more than 25% in early premarket trading.

Reddit is also down more than 20% after its CEO warned that total daily unique visitors could drop by double digits in the fourth quarter.

Amazon remains under pressure, losing more than 7% in pre-market trading.

alphabet Shares were flat after falling more than 12% during Thursday trading.

Analysis: Raymond James’ Matt Orton told CNBC early Friday morning that now is not the time for liquidation for the tech sector, and investors should use these moments of decline as buying opportunities.

On the other hand, selling related to the Binance hack is also active.

Circle stock was down more than 5% in early trading, with ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF and iShares Bitcoin Trust also falling.

It’s a big day for energy stocks, with ExxonMobil and Chevron both reporting earnings results.

chevron beat expectations in the third quarter on strong downstream results, sending the stock higher premarket.

Rating: William Blair rates Chevron as “outperform” and says the group has “built a differentiated upstream and downstream portfolio that, when combined with outstanding cash margins, delivers continued record returns.” EXCLUSIVE: Join “Squawk on the Street” to hear CEO Mike Wirth talk about how our energy system remains vulnerable.

exxon mobil The company is expected to post a 112% EPS increase after CEO Darren Woods said “the second quarter was shaped by disruption, but defined by execution.”

Kramer’s take: Jim argues that Chevron is better than ExxonMobil, especially in its offshore capabilities.

Trump and Vance cancel plans to appear at midterm election finals

President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance canceled several appearances across three states scheduled in the final days of the midterm election campaign, when Republicans could lose control of Congress.

President Trump has canceled two weekend rallies in Kansas and Iowa and will instead hold a series of telephone rallies and address voters by phone. The Republican National Committee announced that the president will reach at least 19 states in a “72-hour sprint” before Tuesday’s election.

The canceled stops were part of the midterm election campaign, where President Trump said he would visit 35 locations to boost Republican voter turnout. He was scheduled to appear in Kansas on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday.

—CNBC’s Robert Hum, Kate Rooney, Jordan Novelt, Arjun Kharpal, Jason Gewirtz and Anniek Bao contributed to this report.

John Meloy edited this version.