Nasdaq 100 slides 2.3% as Meta raises AI spending plan

Meta Platforms led a US technology selloff on Thursday, October 22, falling 6.1% to $655 after raising the low end of its 2026 capital-spending plan to $135 billion, Benzinga reported.

The move extended beyond one stock: the Nasdaq 100 slid 2.3% to 29,133, while the 10-year Treasury yield fell 12.5 basis points to 4.99% after Meta lifted the spending floor from $130 billion.

Benzinga said Meta beat third-quarter revenue estimates and guided higher, but investors focused on the funding demands of its artificial-intelligence buildout. The company’s free cash flow was negative $2.12 billion in the quarter, and the share decline erased about $108 billion of market value by midday.

Wall Street’s response was split, according to Benzinga. Bank of America Global Research raised its Meta price target to $845, saying the company’s “AI story continues to improve,” while Scotiabank kept a $650 target, below the stock’s reported level.

The pressure spread across AI-linked shares after Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang told CNBC that scarce capital was limiting neocloud providers, a term used for cloud companies focused on AI computing capacity. CoreWeave fell 8.3%, while Nvidia dropped 3.6%.

Chip-equipment and semiconductor names were among the hardest hit. Lam Research slid 9.7%, Advanced Micro Devices lost 6.7%, Micron Technology fell 4.8% and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF lost 4.8%, Benzinga reported.

The bond-market move pointed to a defensive shift, with the 10-year Treasury yield on track for its largest one-day drop since August 1, 2025, and its first close below 5% since September 22. The two-year yield fell 11.9 basis points to 4.69%, and the 30-year yield dropped 9.1 basis points to 5.32%.

US economic data did not show a clear deterioration. Initial jobless claims fell to 194,000, below the 200,000 consensus and the prior reading, while the Conference Board’s leading index was unchanged in September against expectations for a 0.2% decline.

Other markets moved unevenly. Brent crude rose 2.8% to $111.86 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate gained 1.7% to $98.77 after President Donald Trump denied talks with Iran and The New York Times reported US-Israeli plans for renewed strikes after Election Day, according to Benzinga.

Gold fell 2.1% to $4,061.30 an ounce, silver dropped 4.5% to $55.11 and Bitcoin fell 2.9% to $81,561. The S&P 500 fell 1% to 7,676, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed at 52,859, and the VIX jumped 10.5% to 18.43.

Atlas360 reported in July that oil had moved above $100 while AI spending worries weighed on bonds, Big Tech shares and the Nasdaq, underscoring how investor concern over the cost of AI infrastructure has recurred during 2026.