Stocks slump again as Wall Street's miserable week continues

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are tumbling again Friday as Wall Street closes out a punishing week and its first back-to-back monthly loss since worries about the pandemic first peaked in March.

The S&P 500 was 1.7% lower in morning trading, putting it on pace for a 6.1% loss for the week, which would be its worst since March. It's also on track for a 3.2% drop for October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 388 points, or 1.5%, at 26,270, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 2.6%.

Worries about whether expectations built too high for some of the stock market’s biggest stars helped drive the losses. They piled on top of fears that built earlier this week about the economic damage coming due to surging coronavirus counts around the world, uncertainty surrounding the upcoming presidential election and Washington’s inability to provide more support for the economy.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google’s parent company are four of the five biggest stocks in the S&P 500 by market value, which gives their movements outsized sway on the index, and they were principal forces driving Wall Street’s huge rally since March. All four reported profit for the summer that was even better than analysts were expecting, just like the other stock in the Big Five did earlier this week. But also like Microsoft, most nevertheless fell as investors found reasons for concern within their reports.

Apple dropped 5.4% after investors focused on weaker revenue than expected for its iPhones and sales in China. Amazon fell 3.9%, and Facebook lost 6.1%.

Twitter, another high-profile tech stock, slumped 19.8% for the largest loss by far among stocks in the S&P 500. It also reported better-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter. Investors were focusing instead on its growth in daily users, which...