Key Highlights

● Meta snapped a five-session losing streak while Alphabet had its worst day since 2004.

● Apple rose with the broad market and no company-specific news.

● Amazon closed at $243.79 and slid further after hours following its report.

● Communication services was the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s collapse did not drag down all of Big Tech on Thursday, as investors bought a few megacaps they saw on the right side of the AI cost debate.

Not every giant fell

On a day when Alphabet erased roughly $500 billion in market value, two of its Big Tech peers moved the other way. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) both rose on Thursday, a sign that investors were sorting the megacaps rather than selling them wholesale.

The broader context made the gains more notable. The Nasdaq Composite fell 365.13 points to 26,184.72 and the S&P 500 slipped 23.59 points to 7,720.39, while communication services, the sector that houses both Alphabet and Meta, was the worst in the S&P 500.

Meta snaps a losing streak

Meta's gain ended a five-session slide. According to market data, the stock had been under pressure following a roughly $97.5 billion Equity Financing plan, including a $25 billion offering priced at $625 a share, and a capex guidance increase to $135 billion to $145 billion.

The rebound got a lift from a high-profile voice. One prominent investor called the stock "incredibly undervalued" on television, according to market data. Midday data had Meta near $629.16, just above the price of its recent offering.

The timing was striking. Meta rose on the same day Alphabet, its main rival in digital advertising, suffered its worst day since its 2004 IPO after missing on Revenue and Search.

Apple moves with the market

Apple also climbed during Thursday's session. No company-specific news was found for Apple on the day, and its gain appears to have tracked the broad rally beneath the headline indexes, in which more than 400 S&P 500 members advanced.

That matters in its own right. On a day when the market's chief worry was the cost of AI data centers, a megacap without a fresh spending headline was free to drift higher with the crowd. Apple did not need a catalyst; it simply avoided becoming one.

The rest of the pack

Other megacaps fared worse. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) closed the regular session at $243.79, down ahead of its earnings, then slid further in after-hours trading after its report. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) slipped to $213.66. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) finished roughly flat to lower, according to market data, after rallying in after-hours trading on Wednesday on what one report called "a big cash-flow beat."

The contrast reflects a market recalibrating. One market analyst said that "markets are no longer rewarding companies simply for investing heavily in AI." One market commentator said of Microsoft: "Microsoft provided both, and that eased some of the worry about what its growth is going to cost."

Rotation, not retreat

Thursday's session was less a sell-off than a reshuffling. NYSE advancers beat decliners by nearly two to one, and the Russell 2000 gained 28.71 points to 2,859.22. Health care, real estate, staples and utilities led the sectors.

"Money is rotating within the market rather than leaving it," one market strategist said. Another strategist added, "There's plenty of other places to go with your money outside of the AI trade that have pretty decent prospects."

What to watch

For Apple, the test is whether a gain built on broad market strength can hold if the rotation fades and money flows back toward the AI trade.

For Meta, the question is whether Thursday's rebound marks a bottom after the financing-driven slide or a brief pause. Its stock trading near the $625 offering price gives investors a clear reference point. Elsewhere in Big Tech, Friday's session will show how Amazon's after-hours losses settle. In a market now grading on cash flow, the sorting of Big Tech winners and losers is likely to continue.