Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq sink as Nvidia and Tesla lead Big Tech slide

After impressive gains this year, some of the biggest names in tech are losing ground as investors take profits, rebalance their portfolios or reassess their lofty valuations. Tesla (TSLA) fell more than 4% on Friday. Nvidia (NVDA) fell 3%, while Amazon (AMZN) fell 2.5%.

Every member of the Magnificent Seven was in the red Friday morning, dragging the broader market lower and putting the “Santa Claus” rally on hold ahead of the start of the final trading week of the year.

Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) lost more than 2%, while Meta fell almost 2%. Apple shares had the smallest decline, falling 1.5% after hitting an all-time high on Thursday, closing at a market capitalization of $4 trillion.

But even as investors exited technology stocks, their losses came amid an epic rise.

The U.S. government has long had its sights set on the country’s biggest tech giants, and in 2024 it hit the mark.

The big victory came in August, when the Justice Department convinced a federal district court judge that Google (GOOG, GOOGL) had abused its search engine dominance and violated antitrust laws.

What happened in 2024 could have future implications for some of the other big names in the tech world, Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan reports.

Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) are all defending themselves against a number of other federal and state antitrust lawsuits, some of which make similar claims.

At the moment, Wall Street doesn’t seem to be unsettled. The so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks of the world’s largest technology companies helped drive the market higher in 2024, thanks in part to advances in artificial intelligence.

But the new Trump administration is adding another layer of uncertainty to the next chapter of Big Tech’s antitrust enforcement.

Read more about Washington’s changing attitude toward the biggest tech platforms.

US stocks opened negative as Wall Street neared the end of a largely triumphant year.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down about 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was down 1.3% on Friday morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) lost 0.3%. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) hovered near a seven-month high of around 4.6%.

Wall Street has just three trading days left in a 2024 full of big gains and is hoping to continue a “Santa Claus” rally through the end of the year. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up more than 26% year-over-year, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) is up over 30%. The blue-chip Dow (^DJI) is up a more modest 14%.

Airline stocks skyrocketed in 2024. The S&P Supercomposite Airlines Index is up 60% this year, its biggest annual gain in a decade, Bloomberg reports.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up about 27% in that period.

While major airlines Delta (DAL), United (UAL), Alaska (ALK) and JetBlue (JBLU) were all slightly in the red on Thursday, they are expected to post annual profits well above their S&P 500 peers.

United Airlines is the best performer of the group – its shares rose 144% in 2024. Meanwhile, shares of Alaska Air Group are up nearly 72% for the year. Delta Air Lines rose 55% and JetBlue rose 41% in that period.

American Airlines (AAL) performed in line with its peers, while Southwest Airlines (LUV) lagged behind with year-over-year growth of 18%.

At the same time, Spirit Airlines (SAVEQ) plunged as the company struggled to stay afloat after bankruptcy.