S&P 500, Nasdaq end sharply lower as revived AI doubts ignite tech selloff
By Stephen Culp and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi
Thu October 22,
2026
I noted on Wednesday that, at least for one day, AI was back in favor. But today was indeed another day and a spate of depressing Q3 tech reports, especially in AI, brought all the old fears right back to the front burner. The S&P fell dramatically but not nearly as bad as the Nasdaq which suffered its biggest loss since June. In fact, the chip index is now down 26% from its June record high. But this whole environment is neatly summed up by today’s expert, “It’s a wonderful day on Wall Street. The only part of the market that is really suffering is technology, which had been the golden child until June.
Investors are starting to realize there are holes in the AI story and that’s having an impact since the indices are so heavily weighted towards tech.” But a number of major industrials such as P&G, Blackstone, Lockheed, Spotify and Union Pacific rose substantially so, even though the Dow spent much of the day in the red, it eventually rose to close just barely above zero. Unemployment benefits stay at multi-decade lows which points to resilience in the job market which in turn points to justification for rate hikes as evidence that the economy can handle them. About 1/5 of Q3 has reported with 83% beating estimates. Today’s winners vs losers were almost exactly equal. Volume for once was well above the 17.19 average, closing at 18.79 billion.
DJ: 52,856.09 +360.21 NAS: 26,702.86
+278.04 S&P: 7,757.17
+44.60 10/21
DJ: 52,867.98 +11.89 NAS: 26,008.86
-694.00 S&P: 7,663.43
-93.74 10/22
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