NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market sank from its record heights on Oct. 30, as Wall Street sifted through mixed developments on everything from the U.S.-China trade war to profits for several “Big Tech” behemoths.
The S&P 500 fell 1 percent Thursday and pulled further from its all-time high set earlier in the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2 percent, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 1.6 percent from its record set the day before.
Stock markets elsewhere in the world were mixed, coming off a highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies. President Donald Trump hailed his talk with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as a “12” on a scale of zero to 10 and declared he would cut tariffs on China. But while the talks may offer some stability for the near term, major tensions remain between the two countries.
Plus, stocks had already run to records earlier this week on expectations for potentially huge improvements coming out of the Trump-Xi talks.
“The result was fine, but fine isn’t good enough given the expectations going in,” declared Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “The results were more like tiny gestures instead of a grand bargain.”
Also feeling the burden of high expectations were some of Wall Street’s most influential stocks.
Meta Platforms dropped 11.3 percent, cutting into what had been a 28.4 percent jump for the year so far, and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. Analysts declared investors were likely perturbed by how much Facebook’s parent declared it’s planning to spfinish in 2026. Companies across the indusattempt have been on an investment spree to build out their artificial-innotifyigence capabilities, and the concern is whether it will all pay off.
Microsoft sank 2.9 percent even though it reported a stronger-than-anticipated profit and sales for the latest quarter. Analysts pointed to how it also expects to spfinish more on investments in 2026 than in 2025, while growth for its Azure business may have fallen a bit short of some investors’ expectations.
On the winning side of Big Tech was Alphabet. Shares of Google’s parent company climbed 2.5 percent after its profit and revenue for the latest quarter easily topped forecasts.
How such companies do matters incredibly for investors. The trio of Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft alone account for 14.5 percent of the total value of all the companies in the S&P 500 index, which dictates the shiftments for many 401(k) accounts. That means shiftments for them and a handful of other Big Tech companies can easily overshadow what hundreds of other stocks are doing.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Chipotle Mexican Grill tumbled 18.2 percent after the restaurant chain pointed to pressures weighing on its customers, particularly younger ones and those who aren’t creating high incomes. CEO Scott Boatwright declared that hoapplyholds creating less than $100,000 are dining out less often becaapply of concerns about the economy and inflation.
He pointed specifically to 25- to 35-year-old customers, who are feeling the weight of unemployment, increased student loan repayments and slower growth in wages with respect to inflation, and he declared he considers restaurants across the indusattempt are seeing something similar. Chipotle cut its forecast for an important underlying measure of sales growth this year.
Eli Lilly, meanwhile, rose 3.8 percent after delivering stronger profit and revenue last quarter than analysts expected. It credited strong growth for its blockbuster Mounjaro and Zepbound drugs for diabetes and obesity, and it raised its full-year forecasts for revenue and profit.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady as traders continued to pare expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate in December.
Traders are still betting on it as likely, according to data from CME Group, but no longer as a near certainty. That’s after Fed chair Jerome Powell admonished markets Wednesday, declareing a December cut “is not a foregone conclusion — far from it.”
The Fed has lowered its main interest rate twice this year in hopes of boosting the slowing job market. But officials have also declared they may have to halt cuts if inflation accelerates beyond its still-high level, becaapply lower rates can worsen inflation.
In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped by 0.5 percent in France and by less than 0.1 percent in Germany after the European Central Bank decided not to shift its main interest rate.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 edged up by less than 0.1 percent after the Bank of Japan likewise held interest rates steady.
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