Daily Summary: Bloody Thursday on Wall Street: Nasdaq Leads the Sell-Off

📈 Wall Street

• Today's session on Wall Street is dominated by a sell-off.

• The Dow Jones Index is losing about 0.6%, with the S&P 500 recording a similar decline.

• The greatest pressure is visible in the tech sector, where the Nasdaq Composite is falling by over 1.5%.

• The primary catalyst for the deteriorating sentiment is yesterday's Alphabet earnings report, which failed to meet market expectations; despite record results, investors viewed the release negatively, translating into a sharp sell-off in the company's shares and mounting pressure across US indices.

• A key source of uncertainty remains the massive capital expenditures on artificial intelligence development alongside mounting questions regarding their impact on future cash flows and profitability of major tech firms.

• In contrast, Microsoft delivered a stronger performance, reporting results that beat analysts' expectations, while Azure cloud revenue growth reaffirmed the company's expanding capacity to monetize artificial intelligence.

• ServiceNow shares came under intense pressure, tumbling nearly 25% following its Q3 2026 earnings release; the plunge occurred despite a 20% YoY revenue increase to $4.1 billion, underscoring that revenue growth alone is no longer sufficient as markets scrutinize valuations, margin trajectories, and capital efficiency.

• Significant weakness is also evident across the memory segment, with Micron and SanDisk sliding over 5%, further weighing on technology sentiment.

• Following the closing bell, Intel and Amazon are scheduled to report earnings; for Intel, the critical metric will be server processor sales driven by data center infrastructure buildouts, whereas Amazon must demonstrate that AWS expansion and massive AI expenditures are driving profitability gains and free cash flow generation.🏛️ Equity Markets – Europe

• Positive sentiment dominated across European exchanges, in clear contrast to conditions on Wall Street.

• The British FTSE 100 gained over 0.2%.

• The French CAC 40 rose by more than 1%.

• The German DAX advanced by over 1.3%.

• Spain's IBEX 35 was the laggard, underperforming and sliding by about 0.3%.

🌐 Macroeconomics & Central Banks

• US Q3 GDP expanded at an annualized rate of 3.4%, beating consensus forecasts of 3.2%, driven by resilient consumer spending and heavy capital investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

• US PCE inflation accelerated from 3.4% to 3.6% YoY; this persistent price pressure alongside robust economic activity restricts the Federal Reserve's room for monetary easing and elevates the likelihood of rates remaining higher for longer or being hiked further.

• Financial markets are currently pricing in an approximately 80% probability of an additional Fed rate hike in December.

• The European Central Bank left benchmark rates unchanged, maintaining the deposit facility rate at 2.5%.

• Rising energy prices and a pickup in Eurozone headline inflation to 3.8% YoY in September have intensified fears of re-accelerating price pressures and a potential ECB rate hike as early as December.

• Christine Lagarde announced her early departure as ECB President effective February 7, 2027—nearly nine months ahead of her official term expiration in October 2027—with no formal reasons provided; the early exit accelerates the succession process ahead of the French presidential election amidst an ECB policy environment challenged by resurgent inflation.

🛢️ Commodities & Energy

• Crude oil prices remain relatively stable, with Brent crude hovering around $110 per barrel and WTI trading at approximately $102.

• Natural gas is experiencing heightened downward momentum, with Henry Hub front-month contracts dropping over 2% and slipping below $3.

• Precious metals face broad-based weakness: gold is down roughly 1%, though holding above the $4,000 per ounce threshold.

• Silver is seeing an extended sell-off, down over 3.3% and breaking below $52 per ounce at the time of writing.

🪙 Cryptocurrencies

• Digital assets are trading predominantly in the red.

• Bitcoin is down roughly 0.8%, testing the psychological $80,000 support level.

• Ethereum is falling by nearly 1.5%, fluctuating around $2,320.

📌 Session Summary

• Today's market action highlights increasingly selective investor sentiment toward Big Tech, shifting scrutiny from top-line growth to AI capital deployment costs and sustained cash-generation visibility.

• Over the coming hours, market focus will pivot to quarterly reports from Amazon and Intel, as well as the Federal Reserve's monetary policy outlook in the face of persistent inflationary pressures.