Block and Nvidia lead sharp tech sell-off as markets close the week deeply in the red

Block and Nvidia weren’t just part of the problem on Friday, they were the problem. The U.S. stock market took an aggressive beating to close out the week, led by tech names that couldn’t keep it together.

Block, the payments company started by Jack Dorsey, plunged by 10% after reporting disappointing third-quarter numbers.

As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, Block’s earnings per share came in at just 54 cents, while analysts surveyed by LSEG expected 67 cents. Revenue didn’t help either, coming in at $6.11 billion, short of the $6.31 billion expected.

Sure, that’s still 2% higher than last year, but nobody’s clapping for single digits, and the stock has now fallen 24% this year. It’s the latest blow to Dorsey’s once-shiny Square platform, which clearly isn’t printing profits the way it used to.

Nvidia, Oracle and others sink deeper into red

While Block was bleeding from weak earnings, Nvidia was dragging the rest of the tech market with it. The chip giant lost 4% just on Friday, closing out the week with a brutal 11% decline. It wasn’t alone in the mess.

Oracle also dropped 4%, locking in the same 11% weekly loss, while Palantir Technologies was down a painful 15% and Broadcom sank 8% this week. Tech leaders were no-shows when it mattered.

The damage didn’t stop with individual stocks. Major indexes followed them straight into the gutter. The S&P 500 fell 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 416 points, or 0.9%.

These capped off an ugly stretch. The S&P 500 is now down 3% week-to-date. The Dow lost around 2%, and the Nasdaq cratered nearly 5% during the same period.

By Friday morning, the S&P 500 broke below its 50-day moving average for the first time since April 30, 2025. That ended the index’s longest run without dipping below that average since a 147-day streak back in 2007.

Economic fears rise as government shutdown delays key data

This week wasn’t only about corporate misses. It was also about rising fears that the U.S. economy is losing steam. On Friday, the University of Michigan dropped new data showing consumer sentiment is nearly at its lowest point ever.

It followed a Thursday report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which said October layoffs hit their highest level for the month in 22 years. Investors are seeing the signs, and none of them are good.

To make it worse, the U.S. government shutdown has completely screwed up the economic calendar. The Bureau of Labor Statistics was supposed to release the nonfarm payrolls report Friday, but this marks the second month in a row it couldn’t happen.

Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected a 60,000 job decline and an unemployment rate rising to 4.5%, but with no official data, markets are flying blind.

Still, not everyone’s panicking. Leah Bennett, investment chief at Concurrent Asset Management, told CNBC that some money is rotating into value stocks.

She said the sell-off isn’t too alarming when it comes to the “Magnificent Seven”, and that “AI spending is still here.”

Leah added, “This AI rally that we’ve had I think does resume… It’s hard to call the top, but I don’t think we’re at the end of it.”

Try telling that to traders who just watched Nvidia lose double digits in five days.

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