The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted wildly on Thursday, posting its biggest drop in almost 2½ years and strongly affected the broader stock market.
The Nasdaq index fell 129.79 points, which amounted to a 3.1% drop, landing at 4054.11. Two major factors involved were the Nasdaq Biotechnology index, which fell 5.6%, and the Nasdaq Internet Index, which dropped 4.6%.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 266.95 points to 16170.22, the biggest fall since February 3; the S&P 500 sank 39.10 points to 1833.08
The Internet index was affected by the poor performance of Facebook, at +0.44% and Netflix, at -1.24%. Dave Rovelli, managing director of equity trading at brokerage Canaccord Genuity, told the Wall Street Journal, “There’s been a lot of selling in these highfliers; anything with the huge [valuations] is really getting hit…(people are) putting their money into safer stocks.”
Robert Glownia, quantitative analyst at RiverFront Investment Group, said that the urge to sell tech and biotech stocks shows that the market is “skittish” because of the Fed’s reduction of monthly asset purchases.