Investors dump tech shares as shutdown relief evaporates

Wall Street's relief at the end of the government shutdown gave way on Thursday to new fears about a flood of delayed economic data, the prospect of slowing interest-rate cuts and the extreme valuations of tech giants.

- Sam Goldfarb

U.S. stocks posted their worst day in a month, unwinding a rally that began with news of a deal to end the federal government's longest closure. Declines were broad, with tech stocks sliding alongside the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which lost almost 800 points. Shares of smaller companies dropped, with the Russell 2000 index losing 2.8%. Bitcoin extended a recent fall, slipping back below $100,000 to its lowest 4. p.m. level since May.

For more than a month, investors have lived without key government reports that normally shape their basic understanding of the economy. That is set to change after President Trump signed spending legislation late Wednesday. But investors are now worried the incoming torrent of data could swing markets and upend bets on a December interest-rate cut that they had once taken for granted.

"What equities are possibly reflecting today is we're going to see a deluge of data," said Mina Krishnan, multiasset portfolio manager at Schroders. "We've been in the dark for the past 40 days, and it'll be a lot of data all at once."

The S&P 500 fell 1.7% Thursday. The Dow also dropped 1.7%, or about 798 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite sank 2.3%, marking the largest declines for all three major indexes since Oct. 10. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow remained slightly up for the week and near record highs.