Markets
Luke Kawa

US stocks sink in biggest tech rout since 2022

The S&P 500 sank 2.7% in its worst day of the year, the Nasdaq 100 gave back 3.8% in its worst session since 2022, and the Russell 2000 fell 2.7%.

The rout in momentum stocks continues to be at the heart of the market’s struggles, though increasing fears about a US economic downturn are causing broader pain.

Tech, consumer discretionary, communication services, and financials were the worst-performing sectors. Financials erased all their year-to-date gains with Monday’s retreat. Utilities were the best-performing sector.

Tesla got slammed in its worst day since 2020 to make it the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 so far this year. Palantir’s rapid unwind continued, with the stock down double digits.

Airlines continue to be rattled by the overhang from tariffs and fears of a slowing US consumer, with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines all sharply lower. Gaming stocks were in the same boat, with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft falling as levies threaten to push console costs upward.

Semi stocks took another shellacking, with Nvidia and Broadcom each off 5%.

It was also a rough day for crypto-adjacent stocks: Strategy’s plan to accumulate even more bitcoin was not well received given the plunge in digital assets, and Robinhood tumbled partially in sympathy with the crypto space, but also amid a settlement with Finra and S&P’s decision not to add it to the benchmark US stock index, as some had hoped.

(Sherwood Media is an independently operated subsidiary of Robinhood Markets Inc.)

Elsewhere, in gambling, DraftKings was routed as the downdraft in the stock market may weigh on Americans’ appetite for wagers.

Novo Nordisk tumbled after trials for its latest weight-loss shot disappointed.

Traders didn’t love Rocket Cos’ acquisition of real estate listing platform Redfin in an all-stock deal.

Some ports in a storm for investors included consumer staples and defense stocks like Conagra and Northrop Grumman.

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Tasha Matsumoto
18h
Tech drags down stocks; gold and silver plummet

Gold and silver sank amid Trump’s plans to nominate reputed inflation hawk Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair.

Public sculptures along the Clear Creek Trail in downtown Golden, Colorado.
Ben Walsh, Luke Kawa

Gold and silver plunge, suffering their worst losses since the 1980s

Gold and silver suffered their worst losses in decades on Friday, with the iShares Silver Trust falling more than 30% at one point during afternoon trading before recovering slightly.

After recently crossing $5,000 per ounce for the first time, gold’s dip was relatively muted compared to silver’s rout, but nevertheless eye-watering for a traditional safe haven asset. At one point, gold’s intraday dip exceeded 10%, its worst intraday drop since the 1980s and surpassing its declines seen during the 2008 financial crisis, per Bloomberg.

Silver’s drop was its worst in percentage terms since 1980.

Gold, and particularly silver, have been pushed higher recently by a storm of retail trader enthusiasm for the metals, as well as more traditional drivers of precious metals such as geopolitical risks and concerns over a fall in the dollar’s value due to trade wars and possibly waning central bank independence.

Leveraged ETFs that hold gold and silver futures have become increasingly popular trading vehicles amid the parabolic moves in precious metals prices, and likely contributed to the magnitude of the unwind today.

Case in point: look at silver futures for delivery in March. That’s the dominant contract held by the ProShares Ultra Silver ETF, which offers exposure to 2x the daily move in the shiny metal. Volumes exploded (and the contract rebounded modestly) right around 1:25 p.m. ET, which is when silver futures settled and around the time the ETF performed its daily rebalancing (which in this case, involved massive selling).

Max Knoblauch

Gaming stocks plunge following release of Google’s AI tool that can create playable, copyrighted worlds

Shares of major gaming companies are plunging on Friday as investors get a deeper look at the capabilities of Google’s new generative-AI prototype, Project Genie.

The tool allows users to “create and explore infinitely diverse worlds” with a text or image prompt. Users have already exposed its ability to realistically recreate knockoffs of copyrighted games from Nintendo and other gaming companies.

As users experiment with recreations of game worlds like Take-Two’s “Grand Theft Auto 6,” shares of major gaming companies are sinking. Unity Software, the maker of the popular Unity game engine, is down over 25%, while gaming platform Roblox is down about 9%.

Collision 2019 - Day One

D-Wave Quantum CEO on what’s next after the most eventful month in the company’s history

“If 2025 was the international year of quantum, 2026 is the international year of D-Wave Quantum,” said CEO Dr. Alan Baratz.

Luke Kawa1/30/26
markets
Matt Phillips

SoFi bests Wall Street’s Q4 expectations, shares rise

SoFi Technologies reported better-than-expected Q4 sales and earnings-per-share numbers Friday before market open, sending the shares higher in the premarket. 

The online lender reported: 

  • Adjusted Q4 earnings per share of $0.13 vs. the $0.12 consensus estimate collected by FactSet.

  • Adjusted revenue of $1.01 billion in Q4 vs. the Wall Street forecast for $977.4 million.

  • Q1 2026 adjusted net revenue guidance of approximately $1.04 billion vs. the $1.04 billion consensus expectation, according to FactSet.

SoFi shares rallied roughly 70% last year, as the company’s growing menu of financial products — including trading, wealth management, mortgages, credit cards, and cryptocurrency trading — showed signs of gaining traction beyond its traditional base of student borrowers. But the stock has stumbled in early 2026, falling nearly 7% in January through Thursday’s close, though most of that slump seems to have been reversed this morning.

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