The key facts

  • The Dow Jones fell 1,834.84 points (3.44%) to 51,521.28; the S&P 500 lost 4.35%, the Nasdaq 5.52%
  • This was the sharpest one-day drop in the indices since April 2025, when Donald Trump's tariff announcements triggered a global market storm
  • The VIX rose 61.89% to 26.89; Brent fell to $98.40 per barrel, while gold rose to $4,080 per ounce

Sharp decline after 19 months of relative calm

US stock markets closed deep in the red on Thursday, posting their worst one-day result in 19 months, Anadolu reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,834.84 points, or 3.44%, to 51,521.28. The S&P 500 lost 4.35% (334.82 points) and finished at 7,353.80, while the Nasdaq Composite, the most sensitive to the technology sector, dropped 5.52%, or 1,421.52 points, to 24,315.00. The VIX volatility index, known as the 'fear index,' jumped 61.89% to 26.89.

Why the market went down

According to the outlet, the last time US major indices fell this sharply was in April 2025, when President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff announcements triggered a global market storm. This time, the selloff was driven primarily by a pullback in technology stocks: after a series of corporate earnings reports, investors reassessed the high valuations of mega-cap technology companies. Sentiment was further worsened by growing skepticism about when large corporate spending on artificial intelligence will translate into meaningful profit. Pressure also came from persistently high Treasury yields, which raise borrowing costs and offer an attractive risk-free return, as well as profit-taking in the industrial and consumer sectors after the market's recent rally. Uncertainty over the central bank's further rate-cut path kept traders from buying the dip until the end of the session.

Commodities, macro data and European exchanges

After the Democrats' victory in the US midterm elections, energy prices fell noticeably on Wednesday evening and Thursday: Brent, which had traded above $110 earlier in the week, stood at $98.40 per barrel by 21:00 GMT despite a partial recovery. Gold rose 0.6% to $4,080 per ounce. Meanwhile, macro data came in better than expected: the number of initial jobless claims in the US fell by 6,000 over the week to 189,000, according to the Labor Department. European markets closed mostly lower: the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.38% to 654.87 points, the UK's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX 40 each fell 0.43%, Italy's FTSE MIB dropped 1.03%, while France's CAC 40 gained 0.34% and Spain's IBEX 35 rose 0.59%.