Nasdaq Suffers Worst Month Since March 2025 as October Ends in a Tech Rout

October ended the way it had been threatening to for weeks: with technology stocks leading the market lower and the month’s scoreboard split wide open. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.3% across October, its biggest one-month decline since March 2025, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, by contrast, added 1.7% for the month, recovering from a steep 4.3% decline in September. Friday supplied the final push. Intel plunged 29% to lead decliners in both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, after a weak outlook overshadowed better-than-expected third-quarter results, and Amazon fell 1.4% — after sliding as much as 6% early in the session — as it missed Wall Street expectations and reported a worrying decline in free cash flow amid massive spending on artificial intelligence.

The damage spread well beyond two names. Chip stocks fell sharply across the board: Advanced Micro Devices and Marvell logged double-digit declines, Broadcom and Micron each fell more than 5%, Nvidia dropped 4.2% to pace Dow decliners, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF fell more than 8%. Crypto-linked shares were hit too as bitcoin traded below $77,000, down from near $82,000: Coinbase fell more than 10%, Robinhood 7.2% and Strategy nearly 8%. Even gold offered no refuge, with futures down 3.7% to $3,883 an ounce, the lowest since last September, while West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 2.4% to more than $104 a barrel and Brent traded around $118 amid West Asia tensions. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury stood at 4.93%.

November, however, opens with a counter-signal that complicates the simple story of an AI boom running out of steam. South Korean exports rose 93.7% in October, described as the fastest growth since 1974, with reports linking the jump to the AI investment boom. South Korea is a bellwether for global manufacturing and electronics demand, so a surge of that size suggests parts of the technology cycle remain alive, even as investors punish companies spending without quick returns. At the same time, Binance said roughly 90% of the losses tied to its $6.3 billion hack had been covered or replenished, with withdrawals targeted to resume on Sunday, while reports linked the theft to North Korea.

What to watch next is a crowded calendar. In the United States, PMI data arrives on November 2, midterm elections follow on November 3 and jobs data lands on November 6, each able to shift risk appetite. In India, markets showed a different face last week: the Nifty moved above 23,000 and the Sensex above 74,000, pharma and healthcare led sectoral gains, and foreign institutional investors were net buyers in three of the five sessions, with the rupee holding below 95 against the dollar. Analysts put the next Nifty hurdle at sustaining above 23,200 for a move towards 23,500, with support at 22,800–23,000 — and their advice is restrained: favour gradual accumulation in quality businesses, follow buy-on-dips and sell-on-rallies, and avoid aggressive leverage while crude stays elevated.

Why this matters is the split at the heart of October. The same AI boom produced both the month’s biggest losers — companies judged to be spending faster than they earn — and its strongest trade data, in South Korea’s export surge. That tension — doubt about individual balance sheets versus evidence of real demand — is what November must resolve, starting with the PMI, election and jobs prints. For readers tracking how these cross-currents move currencies, our forex section explains the link between yields, risk appetite and exchange rates, and the forex tools page has calculators for sizing positions when volatility spikes. (Not financial advice.)