NASDAQ 100 plunges 500 points led by selloff in tech stocks; Meta dips 6% on $25 billion fine from Mexico

Wall Street opened in red across the board on Thursday after crude oil prices surged to a four-month high level. Brent crude futures rose to the $ 112-per-barrel mark, last seen in May 2026, while WTI crude oil prices rose to the $100-per-barrel mark. The sharp rebound in crude oil prices dampened investor sentiment.

Tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 faced the most pressure, dropping over 1% or 350 points at the open, while the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 fell a little less than 0.5% for the same period.

As mentioned earlier, the sharp bounce back in crude oil prices continued to elevate the fears of sticky inflation, further amplifying worries of higher interest rates for longer. Meanwhile, Treasury yields remained under pressure as investors increased their bets on safe-haven assets, lifting off some worries.

The US 10Y yields fell nearly 100 bps to 5.02%, after hitting two-decade high levels of 5.3% earlier this month. The 30Y yields also fell below the 5.40% mark, after hitting the 5.7% mark in the first week of October.

At the stock-specific level, Meta Platforms shares plunged over 6.5% on Thursday, after the company was fined $25 billion in Mexico over consumer protection violations from 2010 to 2021. Besides this, investors also remained skeptical about increased capex guidance of $135-$145 billion for AI and surrounding infrastructure.

Meta’s third-quarter earnings for 2026 saw a 26% YoY jump in revenue to $64.6 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $63.4 billion. The company now expects $73 to $76 billion in revenue in Q4 of 2026.

Besides this, other mega-cap stocks like NVIDIA (-2.4%), Alphabet (-1.8%), Microsoft Corporation (-1.3%), Amazon Inc. (-3.5%), and Space Exploration Technologies (-4.3%) were also among the top losers on Thursday, intensifying the selloff.

Shares of IBM also fell over 3%, despite strong results and cash-flow guidance. Total revenue was largely flat at $17.2 billion, largely defended by the software services segment, which grew 5% YoY, while consulting revenue remained flat and the infrastructure segment was down 7% YoY.