Outlook Business Desk
Leading technology companies, including Amazon, Nvidia, and Tesla, faced their steepest decline since April after US President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on Chinese goods, erasing around $770 billion in market value on Friday. A CNBC report said each stock fell nearly 5%, hitting broader markets.
The Nasdaq slid 3.6% and the S&P 500 fell 2.7% during October 10 trading, according to the report, marking their worst performance since April when Trump first revealed his plan for “reciprocal” duties on trade partners.
In a social media post last week, Trump revealed plans to levy a 100% tariff on Chinese goods and enforce export restrictions on all critical software from November 1. As a result, Amazon, Nvidia, and Tesla shares dipped roughly 2% in after-hours trading.
Nvidia, a top manufacturer of graphics processing units crucial (GPUs) for AI and high-performance computing, experienced a nearly $229 billion market value drop on Friday, its largest single-day loss among tech giants. In late September, the company had reached a record $4.5 trillion market capitalisation.
Amazon’s market value plunged by $121 billion in a single day, erasing the company’s gains for the year. Microsoft, heavily investing in cloud data centre infrastructure, lost $85 billion in market capitalisation, while OpenAI, relying on Microsoft and Nvidia’s GPUs, continues to see soaring demand.
After launching more affordable vehicles, Tesla’s market value fell by $71 billion. Meanwhile, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, slipped 2%, and Meta, which owns Facebook, dropped close to 4%. The company had previously alerted investors to possible tariff-related risks in July.
Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese tech exports and export controls on critical software triggered sharp turmoil in cryptocurrencies also. Bitcoin fell 8.4% to $104,782, wiping out $19 billion in total market value and rattling investor confidence.
The cryptocurrency market experienced extreme volatility, as Coinglass reported more than 1.6 million traders liquidated in a single day, including approximately $7 billion in positions closed within just one hour.