Intel shares drop 28% on weak forecast, dragging markets with Amazon and Nvidia

U.S. stock indexes slid Friday as investors sold off technology companies. The S&P 500 fell 1.4% by 11:06 a.m. Eastern time, putting it on track to erase its gain for October. The Nasdaq composite dropped 2.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%, or 274 points.

Intel led the decline. Its shares tumbled 28%, a level close to its worst day since 1974. The drop came even though the chipmaker reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Intel's forecast for profit in the final three months of this year fell short of analysts' expectations. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the personal-computer industry continues to face pressure, which reduces demand for Intel's CPUs.

Amazon fell 1.8% after reporting a weaker profit for the summer than analysts expected. The company used $42.4 billion of cash over the prior 12 months, a measure called free cash flow. It spent $94.8 billion on property and equipment, mostly for artificial-intelligence technology.

Alphabet's stock dropped more than 12% Thursday, its worst day on record, after the company told investors it burned through more cash during the summer than the spring because of similar AI investments. Nvidia fell 3.1%, pulling the S&P 500 down more than Intel did.

Coinbase Global fell 12.5% despite reporting stronger results than analysts expected. Strategy, which says it owns about 4% of the total supply of bitcoin, fell 7.5%. It reported a stronger profit than expected and said its chief financial officer will resign next week for personal reasons.

Other parts of the market held up better. The S&P 500 was roughly evenly split between gainers and losers. Exxon Mobil rose 1% and Chevron added 1.7% after both oil companies reported stronger profit for the summer than expected. Mondelez International climbed 3.3%, and Colgate-Palmolive rose 2.7%. Starbucks fell 2.5% after its revenue for the quarter fell short of analysts' expectations.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.94% from 4.98% late Thursday and from more than 5.30% earlier this month. Brent crude oil rose 2.4% to $113.45 a barrel. South Korea's Kospi dropped 3.5%, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.1% after the Bank of Japan kept interest rates steady, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.5%.