The key facts

  • Amazon lost 5.5%, Intel more than 27% after earnings; Nasdaq fell 2.3% at the opening
  • Bitcoin dropped 3.7% to $77,170 after the Binance hack, which affected about $6.3 billion
  • Brent oil rose 2% to $117.18 after reports of four tankers hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz

Tech stock sell-off intensifies

Technology companies continued to fall on Friday after poorly received earnings reports from US corporations, which heightened concerns about the investment boom in artificial intelligence, AFP reported. Amazon shares fell 5.5% at the opening of trading in New York after the company failed to meet analysts' expectations for profit and revenue. Intel plunged more than 27%, admitting that the AI boom is slowing its key personal computer market due to rising memory chip prices. AI semiconductor makers also came under pressure: Nvidia lost 3.2%, Micron 5.7%, and AMD 10.3%. Shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company, fell another 1.5% after Thursday's sell-off, which wiped billions of euros off its value. The Nasdaq Composite index dropped 2.3% at the opening.

Analysts' reaction and other markets

“The end of the week is being shaped by the continuation of the recent sell-off in AI stocks amid disappointing earnings and concerns about cryptocurrency security,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB. According to her, the focus is shifting to non-tech sectors and safe-haven assets. Against this backdrop, London's FTSE 100, where tech has a small share, rose slightly thanks to strong results from AstraZeneca and BP, but NatWest bank shares slumped more than 8% after a decline in quarterly net profit. Asian trading ended mixed: South Korea's Kospi lost 3.5% over the week, Tokyo 2.0%, while Hong Kong, by contrast, closed up 1.5%. Friday's sharp losses erased the optimism at the start of the week generated by the IPO filing from AI company Anthropic.

Binance hack and oil

Bitcoin fell 3.7% to $77,170 after the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, reported a serious hacker attack affecting around $6.3 billion in funds. According to AFP, this is four times the amount of the previous largest such attack — in February 2025, $1.5 billion was stolen from the Bybit platform. Oil, meanwhile, rose about 2% after Iran reported four tankers hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz. ExxonMobil shares rose 1.8%: its quarterly profit more than doubled to $15.4 billion on the back of high oil prices and refining margins, which the company linked to the US–Iran war. Market attention is also focused on the US midterm elections on Tuesday and their possible impact on the final two years of Donald Trump's presidency.