Key Highlights

● ServiceNow suffered its worst day on record on Thursday, October 29, 2026.

● The plunge kept enterprise software at the center of the AI valuation debate.

● Fortinet and Caterpillar also dropped sharply on Thursday.

● Alphabet lost about $500 billion in Market Value on Thursday.

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) suffered its worst day on record on Thursday, October 29, 2026, a collapse that left the enterprise software company at the center of the market conversation heading into Friday's session. Available reports did not detail ServiceNow's move on Friday, October 30, 2026, but the stock's Thursday plunge framed a day in which technology selling deepened.

ServiceNow, based in Santa Clara, California, sells cloud-based software that companies use to manage IT, employee and customer workflows. It has promoted AI tools across its platform, putting it squarely in the middle of investors' debate over which software companies will benefit from the technology.

A brutal Thursday for tech

ServiceNow was not the only casualty on Thursday. Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) fell steeply and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) also dropped sharply. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had its worst day ever, losing about $500 billion in market value after reporting negative free Cash Flow of $9.1 billion.

A senior market strategist captured the mood on Thursday. "The love-hate relationship with tech and AI continues, and investors are becoming more discerning following earnings," he said.

Friday's spreading selloff

On Friday, the pressure intensified. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)'s weak fourth-quarter outlook and warning of cash burn this year set off a rout in chip stocks, with Intel suffering what market reports called its steepest one-day drop on record. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported trailing 12-month free cash flow of negative $42.4 billion and signaled another increase in Capital spending next year.

Software stocks were caught up in the selling. Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) finished as the S&P 500's top decliner after Intel, according to market data, and Cloudflare (NYSE:NET), Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW), MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB) and Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) all fell sharply. A software-focused exchange-traded fund closed lower, although Market data said some software names had been among the few gainers during the session.

The S&P 500 fell 140.32 points to 7,580.07, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 572.25 points to 51,770.31 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 747.73 points to 25,437.00, its worst day since June. The Russell 2000 lost 47.37 points to 2,811.84.

Why it matters for software

ServiceNow's plunge resonated because it hit one of the largest names in enterprise software. When a company of that size suffers a record drop, investors tend to reassess the whole group.

Strategists said the bar for tech companies has risen. "The Earnings bar is very high," an Investment strategist said. A senior market analyst said that "strong AI Demand is no longer enough on its own." A senior market strategist said the tech decline "does not appear abnormal" compared with earlier bull-market pullbacks.

Technology was the worst-performing S&P 500 sector on Friday, while energy, consumer staples, utilities and health care rose. Oil above $100 a barrel, a reported $6.3 billion hack at Binance and expectations of a December rate increase from the Federal Reserve added to the defensive tone.

What to watch

Software investors will get more data points next week. Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) reports on Monday, November 2, alongside Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Datadog reports during the week. Those results will test whether ServiceNow's plunge was a one-off or a sign of broader strain across enterprise software.

The midterm elections on November 3 and the October jobs report on Friday, November 6, will also shape sentiment toward high-valuation tech stocks.