Wall Street’s Bear Market Is No Longer So Stealthy

Wall Street’s internal damage is getting harder to ignore. Just days after data showed that more than 60% of S&P 500 stocks were already in bear-market territory, another wave of selling has hit major tech names, with Intel extending a historic collapse and Apple now joining the ride south.
Wall Street Situation Worsens
CryptoPotato reported over the weekend that the percentage of S&P 500 companies down by over 20% from their respective highs has risen past 60%, even as the headline index remained relatively close to record territory. At that point, AppLovin, Coinbase, CoreWeave, Intel, Oracle, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon were already among the large-cap entities deep in what the analysts at the Kobeissi Letter consider bear-market territory.
The latest damage has been particularly brutal in semiconductors and AI-related stocks, as Kobeissi updated. They highlighted Intel’s continued collapse on November 2, with its stock tumbling nearly 10% during the session after plunging almost 30% on Friday. That left INTC down by 37% in just three trading days, and around 57% below its recent record high.
There’s more, though, as Intel is hardly alone. Oracle fell roughly 9% after announcing plans to raise $20 billion through debt and equity to fund AI expansion, while Marvell dumped by almost 13%. The Nasdaq 100 consequently slipped into correction territory, more than 10% below its record close, as investors continue questioning whether Big Tech’s enormous AI investment plans can generate adequate returns.
Apple Is No Longer Immune
Until this point, Apple had held up considerably better than many of its mega-cap peers during the sell-off, but that resilience is now being tested. Its shares fell almost 5% in pre-market trading on November 3 after the company warned that rising memory-chip costs would pressure its holiday-quarter margins.
The firm expects gross margin to fall to roughly 45%-46%, compared with 48% in the previous quarter. This nosedive took place despite the impressive latest revenue, which exceeded Wall Street expectations.
This matters because the market’s resilience has depended heavily on a relatively small group of mega-cap stocks holding up while large portions of the S&P 500 weakened underneath.
Alphabet already suffered a double-digit post-earnings decline last week and lost nearly 19% during October. At the same time, Meta, Amazon, Oracle, Intel, and numerous semiconductor names have sustained major nosedives as well.
There’s an important nuance, though. Monday’s selling was still heavily concentrated in technology. Nearly 70% of S&P 500 companies actually finished higher, even as losses in several heavyweight names dragged the headline index lower. So this is not yet a synchronized collapse across every sector.
Uncertainty around today’s midterm elections could also take some of the blame. Current expectations suggest there’s a near-80% chance of a Democrat “sweep,” and US President Trump has vowed to become “Mr. Veto” if that’s the case. As such, the Kobeissi Letter concluded:
“A change in the political landscape always comes with uncertainty; markets hate uncertainty. Objectively, the market is in the process of pricing in two years of political gridlock.”
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