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Amazon loses over 11% after BRUTAL earnings report
Amazon reported third-quarter results that missed expectations on Thursday, with free cash flow plunging to a negative $42.4 billion amid massive AI infrastructure spending while holding its 2026 capital expenditure forecast at $220 billion.
Missed key metrics: Earnings per share came in at $1.89 versus $1.96 estimated, with revenue of $201.94 billion missing $202.31 billion as advertising fell short at $19.64 billion against $20.82 billion expected.
AWS growth accelerates: Amazon Web Services revenue rose 39% to $45.98 billion, beating estimates, while overall operating margin reached nearly 14%, the highest ever, and the company projected AWS growth above 40% in 2027 and 2028.
Record cash outflow: Trailing twelve-month free cash flow turned to a $42.4 billion outflow, nearly double the prior 2022 record of about $23 billion, driven by roughly $77 billion in property and equipment spending in the quarter.
Capex and debt surge: Full-year 2026 capital expenditure remained guided at $220 billion with more planned for 2027, as long-term debt climbed to about $173 billion from $66 billion at the end of 2025 and shares fell more than 6% after hours.
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Binance hit by record $6.3B hack as Tether, Circle freeze funds
Binance disclosed a security incident impacting about $6.3 billion in client assets on Thursday, the largest crypto hack on record, with Circle and Tether freezing roughly $3 billion as the exchange pledged to cover losses.
Largest theft on record: The breach affected an estimated $6.3 billion, with around $3 billion in assets frozen on-chain so far, as Binance said it found no evidence of any wallet private key leak.
Stablecoin freezes: Circle froze more than 800 million USDC and Tether froze more than 1.5 billion USDT tied to the incident, while Ripple assisted in halting related fund movements.
Coverage and recovery: Binance committed to covering all losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company funds, temporarily suspending withdrawals while expecting to resume them within 48 hours.
Market reaction: Bitcoin fell more than 4% to about $77,995 as the news weighed on crypto markets and Circle shares declined around 5% in after-hours trading.
Intel plunges 30% in worst day since 1974
Intel shares tumbled as much as 30% on Friday after the chipmaker issued fourth-quarter guidance well below expectations, putting the stock on pace for its worst single-day drop since 1974 and erasing more than $100 billion in market value.
Quarter beat expectations: Adjusted earnings reached 52 cents per share against 40 cents expected, with revenue of $16.51 billion up 21% year over year and data center revenue jumping 78% to $7.3 billion.
Guidance disappoints: The company forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion versus roughly $17 billion expected and earnings of 25 cents against 43 cents forecast, citing ongoing PC market softness.
PC demand weakness: Intel expects PC shipments to decline about 12% this year and another 10% in 2027, pressured by rising memory costs from AI data center demand and a factory incident in Israel.
Historic sell-off: Only the July 5, 1974 decline of nearly 30% was worse in more than five decades of trading, as the stock remained up more than 80% for the year even after giving back substantial gains from its June peak.
Alphabet loses $500B as AI Mode eats search ads
Alphabet shares plunged nearly 13% on Thursday, wiping approximately $500 billion from the Google parent’s market value after third-quarter results heightened worries over massive AI infrastructure spending and slowing search advertising growth.
Massive market wipeout: Class A shares closed at $283.82, down 12.64%, marking one of the largest single-day market capitalization losses in Wall Street history.
Revenue and spending: Quarterly revenue reached $127.6 billion, up 25% year over year, while capital expenditures hit about $51.4 billion with full-year guidance of $195 billion to $205 billion.
Cloud strength: Google Cloud revenue more than doubled to $30.7 billion, rising 103% from a year earlier and exceeding analyst expectations.
Core business pressure: Investor concerns focused on heavy AI and data center investments alongside slower growth in the core search advertising business that still drives much of the company’s revenue.
Polymarket freezes after hackers drain $2.7M
Prediction market platform Polymarket reported an outage on its international exchange on Thursday after a hack of a third-party provider led to unauthorized withdrawals, prompting a trading halt and referral of the matter to U.K. authorities.
Security incident details: The issue stemmed from a compromise of DebugBear, a website performance monitoring platform, with users reporting unauthorized fund withdrawals from their wallets.
Trading response: Polymarket halted trading on the international platform as a precaution, fixed the issue on its end, and resumed operations at 3 p.m. ET while pledging to refund affected users.
Fund impacts: Analytics showed one account withdrew at least $2.7 million across 710 wallets, with smaller losses under $10,000 set for restoration by October 30 and larger amounts requiring a release form.
Law enforcement: The company referred the incident to U.K. law enforcement given DebugBear’s location there, while confirming its U.S. platform was not affected.
Reddit plunges 25% as three tech stocks tank on Q3
Shares of Reddit, Roblox, Pinterest and ServiceNow dropped sharply after third-quarter earnings, with Reddit falling nearly 25%, Roblox 22% and ServiceNow 27% as user metrics, guidance and AI payoff timelines disappointed investors.
Reddit and Pinterest declines: Reddit shares plunged nearly 25% on weaker daily active users and a current-quarter revenue forecast that missed estimates, while Pinterest fell 7% after revenue of $1.17 billion and adjusted earnings of 46 cents both came in below expectations.
Roblox user weakness: Roblox dropped 22% as daily active users declined 9% year over year to 138 million, overshadowing beats on revenue and losses.
ServiceNow AI concerns: ServiceNow sank 27% for its worst day on record after revenue of $4.11 billion roughly matched estimates but adjusted earnings of $1.00 missed, reigniting worries over AI disruption and delayed returns from new engineering investments.
Guidance and context: ServiceNow slightly raised its full-year subscription revenue outlook while Reddit plans to test login requirements for forums, and all moves added to broader tech selling pressure.
Nvidia denies report China targeted Jensen Huang as spy
Nvidia rejected a New York Times report on Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies had surveilled a suspected Chinese asset who met multiple times with CEO Jensen Huang, calling the interactions routine for a major customer.
Report details: The account centered on Alice Huang, or Huang Le, a former executive at Singapore-based cloud company Megaspeed, who U.S. officials monitored over possible export control evasion and who developed a relationship with the Nvidia CEO.
Nvidia response: A spokesperson said Huang meets thousands of customer executives annually, that such meetings were not unusual, and that customers do not receive trade secrets or national security information.
Prior scrutiny: Nvidia stated that diversion allegations against Megaspeed were thoroughly investigated and debunked last year, and that the company was not briefed by the U.S. government on any concerns about the individual.
Official reactions: Chinese authorities rejected the claims as groundless speculation, while the report noted Huang’s discussions with President Trump on AI and export controls.