Alphabet suffers worst month ever after earnings sell-off

Alphabet ↘ 1.45% ended October with about $758 billion less in market value, after its third-quarter results set off a sell-off that ran through the week. That makes October the Google parent's worst month since it went public in 2004, according to Yahoo Finance. The stock fell nearly 19% for the month, a steeper drop than its previous worst, an 18.5% decline in November 2008.finance.yahoo.com

The company lost about $468 billion this week alone, its worst week on record. By Yahoo Finance's count, that is the second-largest weekly loss for any US-listed stock, behind only Nvidia's ↘ 4.22% roughly $552 billion loss in late January 2025. The stock fell nearly 13% for the week, its worst since August 2011, and the October decline is the second-largest monthly loss of value ever for a US-listed company.finance.yahoo.com

A record single-day drop

Most of the losses came on Thursday, October 29. Alphabet shares fell about 13% that day, wiping out roughly $500 billion in market value. It was the stock's worst session since its IPO, beating the previous record of 11.63% set in March 2020. Further losses on Friday, October 30, erased the gains the stock had made earlier in the week. After the drop, the stock traded at about 14.6 times earnings, its cheapest level since 2012.markets.businessinsider.com+2

Search slowdown and cash burn

Alphabet released results after the market closed on Wednesday, October 28. Third-quarter revenue was $127.6 billion, short of the $128.2 billion analysts expected. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.67 a share, below the $3.02 consensus, and net income fell 25% to $26.17 billion. Revenue from Google Search and other ads grew 12% to $63.35 billion but missed estimates. Chief business officer Philipp Schindler said part of the slowdown came from lower ad revenue per query in the company's AI Mode.rmb.reuters.com+1

Spending was the other worry for investors. Capital expenditures more than doubled from a year earlier to $51.4 billion, and free cash flow was negative $9.1 billion, the second negative quarter in a row. Alphabet kept its full-year capital spending forecast of $195 billion to $205 billion. Google Cloud did better than expected, with revenue more than doubling to $30.7 billion.cnbc.com+2

Wider tech sell-off

Other big tech stocks also fell. SpaceX, Intel ↘ 28.58% and Nvidia each lost more than $100 billion in market value this week. Intel dropped as much as 30% on Friday after giving a weak outlook, and Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. ↘ 1.41% lost about $80 billion after its own results. Even so, UBS ↘ 0.91% advised investors to stay in the market. "Further volatility does not make retreating from markets an effective way to protect portfolios from potential drawdowns, in our view," wrote Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, the firm's CIO for the Americas.finance.yahoo.com