Tech sell-off on the Nasdaq: why the gold price fell too

On Friday, 30 October 2026, Wall Street had one of its worst days of the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed 2.84% lower at 25,442 points, its biggest one-day drop since June. The S&P 500 fell 1.83% and the Dow Jones 1.06%. Anyone expecting investors to rush into gold was in for a surprise: the gold price fell sharply too, hitting its lowest level of the year.

The trigger: Intel's weak outlook

Intel started it. The chipmaker guided fourth-quarter revenue to 15 to 16 billion US dollars, while analysts had expected around 17 billion. Its earnings-per-share and gross-margin forecasts also came in well below expectations.

The bigger problem was the outlook, not the quarter that had just ended. CFO David Zinsner expects the PC slowdown to last at least through the first half of next year. One reason is memory chips: they have become much more expensive as manufacturers shift capacity to AI memory, which makes computers pricier and weighs on demand. A production outage in Israel added to the pressure.

Intel shares lost about 29%, their worst trading day since 1974 according to market reports. The selling spread across the sector: AMD and Dell each fell more than ten percent, and Nvidia, Qualcomm, Broadcom and Micron also declined.

The second worry: AI spending

At the same time, Amazon's results deepened concerns about the huge sums tech companies are pouring into data centres and AI infrastructure. Free cash flow dropped sharply, and many investors are asking when that spending will actually pay off.

Weak outlooks from individual companies added to the pressure: Reddit lost about 29% and Roblox about 18%.

Put simply: weaker sales forecasts, higher costs and doubts about the return on AI spending combined into a broad sell-off.

What about gold? Why it fell as well

Gold is seen as a safe haven, yet on the same day it dropped below 3,900 US dollars per troy ounce, its lowest level of 2026. In euros, our price data shows the ounce falling from about €3,650 the day before to roughly €3,470.

There are several reasons:

• Rate expectations: Strong US economic data and sticky inflation (the PCE price index rose 3.6% year on year in September) have traders betting on another Federal Reserve rate hike in December. Higher rates make gold, which pays no interest, less attractive.
• High real yields: Rising oil prices keep inflation expectations, and therefore bond yields, elevated.
• Selling and ETF outflows: Speculative positions were unwound. When stocks fall hard, some investors also sell gold to cover losses or raise cash.

That isn't a contradiction. In sharp sell-offs, gold often falls at first. Its role as a hedge tends to show over longer periods rather than on single days. Read more in What determines the gold price?

What does this mean for investors in Germany?

For buyers, a lower gold price can be an opportunity, but there is no guarantee the bottom is in. Analysts see 4,000 US dollars as the key level on the upside. The Fed's December rate decision and the stock market are likely to set the next move.

If you want to sell gold, don't act under time pressure and compare buy-back prices from several dealers. You can follow the current price on our home page and the long-term trend in the gold price history.

Note: prices refer to trading on 30 October 2026. This article is not investment advice.