**Tech Stocks Get Hammered as Fed Kills Rate-Cut Hopes**

Wall Street had a rough Thursday. The S&P 500 dropped 1.56%, Nasdaq 100 nosedived 2.38% to a 2-month low, and the Dow fell 0.84%. Big Tech took the hardest hit—Nvidia down 3% despite beating earnings, Tesla and Amazon both down 2%+, while chip stocks like Micron crashed 10%, AMD fell 7%.

The whiplash was real: Nvidia's strong Q4 guidance and Walmart's 6% pop initially lifted the market, but it all reversed after Fed officials went full hawk mode. Cleveland Fed Hammack and Chicago Fed Goolsbee both warned that cutting rates too fast could reignite inflation. Translation: Don't expect more rate cuts coming.

Here's the twist—the jobs report showed 119K new hires (way above expectations) but unemployment ticked up to 4.4%, a 4-year high. Normally that'd scream "rate cut incoming," but Fed officials basically said "not so fast."

Crypto got slapped too. Bitcoin tanked 3% to a 7-month low, dragging crypto stocks with it—Galaxy Digital down 9%, Coinbase down 7%.

**Bottom line**: Investors are pricing in only a 35% chance of a December rate cut now. When the Fed pumps the brakes, growth stocks get hurt first.