Intel shares plunge about 30% in worst day since 1974 as Wall Street tech rout deepens
Intel shares fell about 30% on Friday, 30 October, their worst day since 1974 according to CNBC, after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue well below expectations and said it does not expect positive cash flow this year. The slump spread through chip and hardware stocks and hit several companies that had just reported results, including Reddit, Roblox and Illumina, as the Nasdaq fell about 3.4%.
Intel said late on Thursday that it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $15bn to $16bn and adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share, against analyst forecasts of about $17.1bn and 43 cents, according to LSEG data. Third-quarter revenue rose 21% to $16.51bn, in line with estimates, but finance chief David Zinsner said the company does not expect positive cash flow this year and that "the PC slowdown" should continue "at least through the first half of next year". Intel blamed weak PC demand, soaring memory prices and a plant shutdown in Israel.
The shares fell about 30% on Friday, the worst day since 1974 according to CNBC, wiping well over $100bn off Intel's market value. The stock had more than doubled this year before the report. The US government, which took a 10% stake in Intel in 2025, saw the value of its holding fall by about $12bn, and Nvidia's stake lost about $6bn, CNBC reported. Analysts at D.A. Davidson downgraded the stock to neutral.
The warning dragged down other chip and hardware stocks. AMD fell about 12%, Nvidia about 5%, Arm about 12% and Dell 12.5%, according to Reuters and other market data. SanDisk lost about 15% after Japan's Kioxia warned that NAND memory price growth was slowing.
Several companies that had just reported earnings also slumped. Reddit fell about 30%, its biggest one-day drop, after weaker user numbers and a revenue forecast below expectations; it warned that Google's AI-powered search is cutting the traffic it sends to the site. Roblox dropped about 20% and Illumina about 19% despite third-quarter results that beat forecasts. Amazon also fell after missing expectations. The crypto news site Watcher.Guru compared the day's moves to a memecoin market.
Late in the session the Nasdaq Composite was down about 3.4% at a three-month low, the S&P 500 about 2.1% and the Dow Jones about 1.1%, according to Reuters. Crypto-linked shares such as Coinbase and Strategy also fell sharply after hackers stole about $6.3bn from the exchange Binance.