Dow Jones falls 400 points as layoffs data, AI valuations spook Wall Street

Wall Street returned to losing ways on Thursday after an unconvincing recovery during the mid-week session on Wednesday as tech-related stocks resumed their losses and data pertaining to layoffs weighed on sentiment.

The Dow Jones ended the session down 400 points, while the S&P 500 fell over 1%. The Nasdaq emerged as the underperformer, leading the losses with a fall of 1.9%. With this fall, the Nasdaq has set itself up for its worst week since April this year. The Cboe VIX, a volatility gauge, also surged over 8% on Thursday.

Qualcomm, AMD, Tesla, Palantir, Meta, and Nvidia led the losses on Thursday with declines ranging from 3% to as high as 7%. Qualcomm's fall came despite better-than-expected results, but on a warning that it may lose future business with Apple.

Adding to the concerns were layoff announcements revealed by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. October saw layoffs of over 1.53 lakh employees, almost triple compared to September, and 175% higher from last year. That is the highest level for any October in 22 years and the year is shaping up to be the worst one for layoffs since 2009. Initial jobless claims also jumped to 2.28 lakh last week from 2.19 lakh the week prior, according to an analysis of state jobless claims by Bloomberg.

The probability of the Fed cutting rates by 25 basis points on December 10 jumped back to 71% from 61% earlier after the layoffs data, according to the CME FedWatch.

With the US Government shutdown entering its 38th day, making it the longest in history, the FAA and the US Transport Department has announced a 10% cut to flight capacity, leading to major airlines already cancelling 400 flights on Friday.

Elsewhere, drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk signed deals with the Trump Administration on Thursday, which will lead to them cutting prices of their respective blockbuster weight-loss drugs. In turn, they will get a three-year grace period from any potential tariffs that the administration imposes on pharmaceutical imports.

The US Dollar index continues to remain around the 100 mark, while Gold futures are below the mark of $4,000 an ounce.