Weekend Edition · Sat 17 Oct 2026
Nasdaq Ends the Week Down 4.48%: What Thursday's Rebound Failed to Signal
The Nasdaq Composite closed Friday 16 October at 26,140.03, down 4.48% from its 9 October close, its worst week since June. Thursday's late recovery added just 0.08% and was erased by a 2.15% fall on Friday, led by chipmakers and debt-funded AI infrastructure names.
Not investment advice: this article is for information only.
Chanan Zevin - Chief Editor and Head of Desks
Published
A 4.48% weekly loss
The Nasdaq Composite closed at 26,140.03 on Friday 16 October, down 1,226.14 points from its close of 27,366.17 on Friday 9 October. That is a close-to-close decline of 4.48%, calculated by the Journal from daily closing values published by Nasdaq and carried by Yahoo Finance and the St. Louis Fed's FRED database. The Associated Press reported the same weekly drop, rounded to 4.5%, and called it the index's worst week since June. It was also the Nasdaq's first weekly loss in five weeks, according to the AP.
Friday counted separately
Friday alone accounted for almost half of the damage. The index fell 572.99 points, or 2.15%, after opening at 26,652.98 and touching an intraday low of 26,023.10. The weekly figure and the Friday figure should not be confused. Without Friday's session, the index would have been down 2.39% for the week as of Thursday's close. The S&P 500 lost 1.1% on Friday to 7,659.44, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3% to 52,002.41.
Four down days in five
The week was not a straight line, but four of its five sessions were negative. The Nasdaq lost 0.44% on Monday and 0.15% on Tuesday, when the first big bank earnings reports drew a mixed reception. It then fell 1.88% on Wednesday, rose 0.08% on Thursday and dropped 2.15% on Friday. Chart 1 shows the daily closes from the prior Friday baseline of 9 October through 16 October. The steepest steps came on Wednesday and Friday, the two sessions that together explain most of the weekly loss.
Thursday's late turn
Thursday is the session that looked like a rebound. The index had been down as much as 1.4% during the day, according to Investing.com, and turned positive only in the last hour of trading. It closed up 20.16 points at 26,713.03. Dow Jones Market Data said that snapped a three-session losing streak. The Dow rose 1.08% the same day and the S&P 500 gained 0.33%, so the recovery was broader outside technology than inside it.
What the rebound did not show
In the Journal's analysis, Thursday's close was a reversal of an intraday loss rather than evidence that selling had run its course. A 0.08% gain is small relative to the 1.88% loss of the day before. It came on a day when the 10-year Treasury yield fell about 10 basis points, which eased pressure on rate-sensitive growth shares. That support did not carry into Friday, when yields were roughly flat and chip stocks fell again. One session's close cannot establish a market bottom, and this one did not.
Wednesday's inflation shock
Wednesday was the decisive day for sentiment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices rose 0.6% in September and 3.7% from a year earlier. Reuters reported that the hotter-than-expected reading revived bets on further Federal Reserve rate increases and sent the Nasdaq to its biggest daily drop since 23 July. Oracle lost 8.8%, while CoreWeave and Nebius fell 15% and 10%, according to Reuters. The S&P 500 information technology sector dropped 2.6%.
| Session | Close | Daily change |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 12 Oct | 27,245.90 | -0.44% |
| Tue 13 Oct | 27,204.38 | -0.15% |
| Wed 14 Oct | 26,692.87 | -1.88% |
| Thu 15 Oct | 26,713.03 | +0.08% |
| Fri 16 Oct | 26,140.03 | -2.15% |
CoreWeave's bond signal
CoreWeave was the Nasdaq-100's weakest stock on Wednesday, Investopedia reported. CNBC reported that the yield to maturity on the company's 9.625% bond due 2032 stood at 14.8%, and that its 9.75% bond due 2031 yielded about 14.9%. Those yields imply that lenders now demand a much higher return to hold the company's debt. Bloomberg reported that chief executive Mike Intrator said the market was acting irrationally and that he remained confident in the business model. The Financial Times reported the same day that CoreWeave was seeking funding from life insurers.
Debt behind the AI build-out
The broader concern was financing, not demand for AI services alone. Reuters wrote on Friday that stress had spread to parts of the credit market as investors worried that data-centre operators might not become profitable in time to service their debts. The AP reported that investors feared companies relying on debt markets might not be able to keep borrowing and spending as heavily, with bond yields worldwide near multi-year highs. The Wall Street Journal described CoreWeave as being at the centre of the week's technology rout.
Chipmakers lead Friday's fall
Friday's losses were concentrated in semiconductors. Micron Technology fell 5.6%, Advanced Micro Devices dropped 6%, Broadcom lost 4.5% and Intel gave up 5.8%, according to the AP. Meta fell 3.7% and Alphabet 2.5%. All but seven of the 75 stocks in the S&P 500 technology sector closed lower, the AP reported, even though only slightly more than half of the index's members fell. That pattern points to selling aimed at one sector rather than at equities as a whole.
Indexes tell different stories
The gap between the main indexes was wide. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.95%, the Russell 2000 of smaller companies lost about 3%, and the Dow rose 0.67%, based on AP closing figures. Energy shares helped the Dow and the broader market. Exxon Mobil rose 2.5% and Chevron 2.6% on Friday, as Brent crude settled at $109.86 a barrel. The key figures box summarises the week's moves across the four benchmarks.
Overseas markets held up
The selloff was largely an American story. European and Asian markets closed higher on Friday, according to the AP, even as US technology shares fell. The Russell 2000 dropped 1.7% on Friday to 2,721.37, a smaller fall than the Nasdaq's but large enough to show that the pressure was not confined to the biggest names. Bitcoin, often traded alongside speculative technology shares, lost about 2.4% over the week, according to Babypips. Gold slipped about 0.5%, the same source said, so traditional havens offered little shelter.
The Fed in the background
Monetary policy framed every move. The Fed raised its target range by a quarter point to 3.75%-4.00% on 16 September, its first increase in three years, according to the AP. Producer prices rose 1.3% in September, the BLS said on Thursday. CME Group data cited by the AP put the odds of a December rate increase at 74.3%, up from 50.2% a month earlier, while traders expected no change at the 27-28 October meeting. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh offered no new signal in Bangkok on Friday.
Bonds rallied as stocks fell
The stock decline did not come with higher long-term yields. The 10-year Treasury par yield fell from 5.24% to 5.09% over the week, according to Treasury data. Matt Weller of StoneX told Reuters that the bond market drew some safe-haven buying while the dollar unusually fell alongside technology shares. In the Journal's analysis, that combination is more consistent with a repricing of leveraged AI infrastructure than with a pure interest-rate shock. It is an interpretation, not a proven cause.
Perspective on the year
The loss needs context. The Nasdaq remains up 12.5% for 2026, according to the AP. Friday's close was 5.29% below the record close of 27,599.79 set on 6 October, a level confirmed by Dow Jones Market Data. A decline of 10% from a peak is the conventional definition of a correction, and the index is about halfway there. The S&P 500 set an all-time high the previous week, the AP noted, before this week erased those gains. Since the start of the Iran conflict on 28 February, the Nasdaq had still gained 17.84% as of Thursday's close, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Earnings season adds noise
Third-quarter reporting began in earnest this week. Shares of JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup mostly ended lower on Tuesday despite generally solid results, according to market reports. On Friday, Alcoa rose 2.5% and Travelers gained 1.5% after beating forecasts, the AP said. Netflix fell 2.9% after announcing a change of chief content officer, and Tesla dropped 2.1%. Expectations for profit growth remain high, which leaves little room for disappointment.
What to watch next week
Fed officials enter their blackout period before the 27-28 October meeting, according to FXStreet, so fewer policy comments are likely. Preliminary October business-activity surveys are the main scheduled US data. Investors will watch whether CoreWeave's bond yields stabilise, because the credit market has become a gauge for the equity story. Oil above $100 is a second pressure point for inflation. The next test is whether chip shares can stabilise without help from falling yields. Nothing in this week's data shows whether the selloff has ended.
Sources
- Market data: Nasdaq Composite daily closes via Yahoo Finance (^IXIC) and FRED NASDAQCOM, fetched 17 Oct 2026; Dow Jones Market Data via Morningstar (15 Oct 2026).
- Reporting: AP (Alex Veiga, 16 Oct 2026; 'How major US stock indexes fared', 16 Oct); Reuters via Investing.com (14 Oct) and Euronext (16 Oct); CNBC and Investopedia (14 Oct); Investing.com (15 Oct); WSJ live coverage (16 Oct).
- Official data: BLS CPI September 2026 (14 Oct) and PPI (15 Oct); Federal Reserve FOMC statement (16 Sep 2026); CME data as cited by AP; FXStreet weekly dollar forecast (16 Oct).