The Nasdaq fell 1.9% today and the S&P 500 lost 1.1%, with tech stocks hit significantly harder. The losses weren’t triggered by a single event but by the accumulation of pressure points finally showing through the surface.
The first major data point came from Challenger jobs data which reported 153,074 announced job cuts in October, the highest figure for that month since 2003. The market has been operating on a “soft landing” assumption for months, but this data combined with no official government data is creating heightened uncertainty
The second source of stress is the Trump tariff case, where the Supreme Court now seems poised to rule against the administration’s trade restrictions. In theory, removing tariffs should be good for markets. In reality, it won’t remove them but it just reopens the issue. Trump clearly has backup plans, and investors know it. Instead of clarity, the ruling heightens uncertainty around something that was supposed to be settled, and that uncertainty is what’s pressuring the market.
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