Stock market today: Nasdaq and S&P 500 fall as tech stocks slide, capping volatile week Ines Ferré and David Hollerith Updated Fri, October 16, 2026 at 2:13 PM EDT 1 min read ES=F -1.23% YM=F -0.60% NQ=F -2.44% CRWV -12.52% TSLA -2.68% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
US stocks fell on Friday, led lower by the tech (XLK) sector amid continued scrutiny of AI, with software and semiconductor stocks also declining.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^IXIC) dropped 2%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped 0.4%. All three major averages closed in the green on Thursday.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track for weekly losses after a sell-off in chips earlier this week. The Dow, meanwhile, was on pace to finish the week up roughly 1%.
Go deeper with AlphaSpace 51,934.12 -243.57 (-0.47%) As of 2:14:58 PM EDT. Market Open. ^DJI ^GSPC ^IXIC Semiconductor stocks edged lower following a volatile week for the sector, a key driver of this year's AI trade.
Shares of Nvidia-backed CoreWeave (CRWV) came under pressure again on Friday amid concerns over its debt-heavy balance sheet. The stock rebounded on Thursday after Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang voiced optimism about the neocloud provider.
Investors have been rotating out of Tech (XLK) and into defensive sectors such as Health Care (XLV), which climbed to record highs.
Tesla (TSLA) shares rose more than 1% after the EV maker unveiled a jaw-dropping redesign of the Roadster.
Earnings season continues with Tesla on deck for next week. Streaming giant Netflix (NFLX) and social media giant Meta (META) will also post quarterly results.
The biotech company sank as investors took profits and Wall Street grew cautious on the stock's blistering rally of more than 600% year to date.
Goldman Sachs (GS) raised its target on the stock to $137 from $120 on Thursday while maintaining a Neutral rating, implying a more than 40% drop from current levels.
Tesla, strictly speaking, is a car company. But CEO Elon Musk has gone out of his way to tell investors he doesn't want it to be. The adrenaline-soaked Roadster EV unveiling — packed with aerial acrobatics — was another reminder.
Tesla (TSLA) was showing off its newest, fastest car. But it was also, in the eyes of many analysts, soft-launching a merger with SpaceX, of engineering, audacious flair, and Musk's ambitions.
Most S&P 500 (^GSPC) stocks are still rising, and chip stocks are recovering some lost ground. But software's early gains are giving way to broad selling.
Roughly 70% of S&P 500 stocks are advancing, down from nearly 80% earlier. Meanwhile, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is bouncing after a test of its earlier lows. Nvidia (NVDA) turned positive briefly before heading lower again.
Salesforce (CRM), ServiceNow (NOW), and Atlassian (TEAM) have surrendered early gains and are each losing more than 3%. Twilio (TWLO) is sliding about 10%.
In a Yahoo Finance basket of 45 software stocks, 41 are falling, erasing roughly $130 billion in combined market value today. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is losing nearly 3%, leaving its October gain close to zero.
The recent recovery hasn't disappeared entirely. More than half the stocks in the software basket remain higher for the week.
Watch whether software finds buyers as chips try to recover. Continued selling would suggest the pressure within tech is again stretching beyond the semiconductor trade.
Fed chair Kevin Warsh isn't committing to another rate hike this month, and traders are increasingly betting he'll wait — despite inflation data showing price pressures reaching more of the economy.
The odds of an October hike are falling to roughly 15%, according to Bloomberg's bond futures pricing, down from 33% after Wednesday's hot consumer price report and 24% before its release.
That retreat began before Warsh spoke at the IMF gathering in Bangkok, where he declined to preview the Fed's next decision. "I don't prejudge meetings," he said.
The 10-year yield (^TNX) is hovering near 5.07%, roughly 29 basis points below its October 7 intraday high. The 30-year yield (^TYX) is near 5.42%, down roughly 32 basis points from its peak that same day. Both are edging lower again today.
Bank of America calculates that 55% of the core consumer price basket is experiencing three-month annualized increases above 2.5%. Its economists still expect an October hike.
That connects to a concern Warsh raised at Jackson Hole in August: how widespread price increases remain. His analysis examined a different inflation measure, personal consumption expenditures, but similarly looked beyond the headline number to gauge underlying pressures.
Traders aren't abandoning further tightening. Futures still price roughly one quarter-point hike by December. Watch whether inflation pressures keep broadening when the government releases its PCE inflation report on October 29 following the next Fed decision the day before.
Nearly four in five S&P 500 stocks are advancing this morning, with Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) among the companies reaching record highs even as chip stocks extend their selloff.
Advancers are outnumbering decliners by nearly 4 to 1, with nearly 400 stocks higher and about 100 lower. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are gaining, led by financials (XLF) and energy (XLE).
New intraday highs are stretching well beyond the payments sector. MetLife (MET), McKesson (MCK) and Expeditors International (EXPD) are also setting records, alongside ConocoPhillips (COP) and Box (BOX). The Dow Jones US consumer finance (^DJUSSF) and reinsurance (^DJUSIU) indexes are joining them.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is losing more than 2%, setting up for a ninth straight decline — the first since 2006. In a Yahoo Finance semiconductor basket, 57 of 60 stocks are falling.
Watch whether the broad buying holds through the session. That would strengthen the case that investors are finding alternatives to the struggling AI leaders.
US stocks largely held steady at Friday's open as investors looked for direction after a turbulent past few days.
At Friday's open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained 0.4% while the the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 0.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.3%.
For the week through Thursday, the Dow is up while the Nasdaq is down and the S&P 500 is slightly lower.
Go deeper with AlphaSpace 51,934.12 -243.57 (-0.47%) As of 2:14:58 PM EDT. Market Open. ^DJI ^GSPC ^IXIC Today at 1:17 PM UTC Jared Blikre CoreWeave’s bear trap offers fresh bulls hope CoreWeave (CRWV) may have trapped fresh bears Thursday.
The stock is falling about 5% before the bell after Thursday's dramatic reversal. The stock briefly broke below $60, near its late-July lows, before recovering to finish nearly 6% higher.
That's a bear trap — a breakdown that reverses, catching traders betting on further losses.
This morning, shares have retraced roughly half the advance from Thursday's low to the overnight high. For technicians, that puts a potential entry for fresh bulls around the midpoint of the rebound — near $65 and change.
"First of all, this is more sentiment driven. This is not about fundamentals," BofA Securities senior software analyst Tal Liani told Yahoo Finance when asked what would stop CoreWeave's selling.
Liani maintained a Buy rating and $140 price target despite the financing concerns, as my colleague Brian Sozzi reported.
The big test remains $60. Holding above it would keep the bear trap intact. A sustained recovery would bring potential resistance around $92–$93 into view, then $120. Losing Thursday's low at $60 would undermine the bullish setup.
Stock in Michael Saylor's bitcoin juggernaut Strategy (MSTR) fell more than 3% in pre-market trading on Friday after index provider MSCI announced new eligibility rules that could lead to the removal of the bitcoin giant from its global stock indexes.
MSCI said Thursday it will adopt new rules to exclude certain "non-operating companies" from its indexes, including those whose primary business resembles that of an investment fund rather than a traditional operating company.
Exclusion could include Strategy, the world's largest corporate holder of bitcoin, along with other digital asset treasury companies such as MetaPlanet. Exclusion is expected to force index-tracking funds to sell shares of affected companies.
MSCI said it will publish a final list of affected companies on Nov. 11, with the new rules taking effect after the market closes on Nov. 30.
Strategy, led by executive chairman Saylor, has previously criticized the proposal as discriminatory against digital asset treasury companies. The company currently holds about 4% of bitcoin's total supply.
More S&P 500 stocks are rising than falling before the bell. Chip stocks are still largely heading south.
Advancers among S&P 500 constituents are outnumbering decliners by more than 2 to 1, with 224 higher, 106 lower and 173 unchanged. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) are edging higher while Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) slip. Both remain negative on the week.
Go deeper with AlphaSpace 29,408.75 -735.00 (-2.44%) As of 2:04:57 PM EDT. Market Open. NQ=F ES=F The stealth stock buying seen this morning extends a broader rotation. Through Thursday, 366 of the S&P's components — 73% — were higher for the week. Since October 6, nearly 70% had advanced, even as the index lost roughly 1%.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) is falling over 1%, putting a ninth straight loss in play. Its only previous nine-session losing streak ended in May 2006. The fund subsequently fell another 17% through its July closing low two decades ago.
Meanwhile, Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) are each adding more than 1% after Thursday's rallies. Buyers are lifting 33 of 45 stocks in a Yahoo Finance software basket. Software — ex-cybersecurity — has been a source of strength recently, contrasting with the semis trade.
Watch whether that participation survives the opening bell. Continued buying beyond chips would show investors are sticking with alternatives to the struggling leaders.
Shares of Truist Financial (TFC) fell more than 2% pre-market after the regional banking giant posted third quarter profits that fell short of analyst expectations.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender reported adjusted earnings of $1.16 per share, up 12% from a year earlier but below the $1.19 expected by analysts, according to RBC Capital Markets. Reported earnings were $0.56 per share, reflecting a $1.4 billion loss from selling bonds as part of an effort to reposition its balance sheet.
Truist's stock has lagged its rivals since it was born of a so-called merger of equals between BB&T and SunTrust, which closed in December 2019. The bank has since continued to overhaul parts of its business.
Truist reported net interest income of $3.66 billion in the third quarter, up slightly from a year ago. The bank also said it moved to further simplify operations in the quarter.
Earlier this week, Truist sold $7.7 billion in unsecured consumer loans to private equity giant Carlyle Group. That comes after it sold $5.5 billion in near-prime auto loans to Apollo Global Management last month. (Disclosure: Yahoo is a portfolio company of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management.)
"We delivered a solid quarter while also taking decisive actions to better position Truist for the future," the bank's new CEO Mike Lyons said in a statement.
Yields are above multi-decade highs, both gas and diesel prices continue to climb, and critical midterm elections are around the corner.
Adding to pressure on the US economy and the current administration, the world's two largest hot wars are heating up.
In the Middle East, dual fronts along the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea have seen a resurgence of conflict in recent weeks that heavily disrupted oil flows in the region.
Multiple tankers and container ships in the Strait of Hormuz either caught fire or sank this week in the Iran-dominated waterway. The Washington Institute has tracked more than two dozen attacks recorded since the start of the month.
After a two-week delay, the Tesla (TSLA) Roadster event went off with a massive bang — a flying one.
The wedge-shaped, cyberpunk-looking Roadster EV appeared in front of an inverted half roller coaster ramp erected at SpaceX's facility in Waco, Texas. The Roadster cruised halfway up — glued to the ramp using a vacuum fan system — then launched off the ramp upside down and performed flips in the air, using air thrusters to right itself and land on the tarmac.
Tesla stock rose as much as 5.4% during premarket trading on Friday following the Roadster event.
