Biggest Single-Day Market Cap Drops in US Stocks

With its market cap cut by $119 billion on July 26, 2018, social media giant Facebook Inc. (FB) became the largest — and latest — company to see its one-day stock price decline wipe more than $100 billion from its valuation. The price plunge came after the Menlo Park, California-based company reported disastrous financial results for the second quarter. (For more, see Is Facebook Too Big for Our Own Good?)

While the $100-billion plus record-setting number looks big, there are other instances of similar magnitude that saw big single day stock specific declines.

Closely following Facebook is the leading chipmaker Intel, which lost more than $90 billion on September 22, 2000. The decline was a result of the company announcing a weaker demand in Europe that would result in hitting the third quarter numbers, in the backdrop of the dot-com bubble burst. The third quarter revenue growth was expected to remain at half compared to the analysts’ expectations, reports CNN Money. Around 22 percent of company’s value was wiped off amid heavy trading volumes.

The third spot in the list is claimed by Microsoft, whose valuation nosedived on April 3, 2000 to the tune of $80 billion. Bill Gates, then among the company's largest shareholders, lost around a record $11 billion in the sell-off carnage. The decline was triggered by a federal court decision which found that the Redmond-based company violated country's antitrust laws by (mis)using its monopoly in personal computer operating systems to restrain open competition.

iPhone maker Apple holds the fourth spot for losing close to $60 billion on January 24, 2013. Despite the Cupertino, California-based company reporting a record profit for the quarter, its future forecasts were not perceived positively by the market as they indicated declining consumer demand for its products, in particular for its iconic iPhones. Overall, the intraday decline was around 12 percent for Apple shares, and 36 percent down from their all-time intraday high of $705 around four months back.

Exxon is next in the list, with close to $52.5 billion single day loss that occurred for the oil major on October 15, 2008. The declines in XOM shares was coupled with that of the overall market, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 733 points, its second biggest one-day point loss ever, second only to September 29, 2008. Crude oil prices touched a then record low of $74.62 and the oil major Exxon was the worst hit. The decline came as Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) released its monthly report citing renewed worries of the global recession hitting the oil demand and stalling the world economy.

Heavyweight conglomerate GE's market cap had a record fall of around $47 billion on April 11, 2008, attributed to a decline in quarterly earnings and second-quarter forecast falling short of analysts' expectations. The share price of the index heavyweight - that was then viewed as a symbol of the nation's economy - tumbled around 13 percent.

Internet giant Alphabet saw its market cap drop by more than $41 billion on February 2, 2018. The drop was a result of the company missing quarterly profit forecasts leading to a decline of more than 5 percent after results announcement. Though the Mountain View, California-based search giant reported robust sales growth in advertisements, the gains were offset by its higher spending to promote its consumer gadgets, YouTube video app and cloud computing services.

Bank of America lost more than $38 billion in market valuation on October 7, 2008, as its share price fell by around 26 percent. The trigger was a steep decline in quarterly profits that fell short of the street’s estimates and the company announcing a cut in the dividend. The bank also announced a need to raise $10 billion capital through a stock sale and a need to set aside capital for bad loans.

Shares of online retailer Amazon fell by more than 5 percent on April 2, 2018, wiping out nearly $36.5 billion from the company’s market cap. Despite being among the best performing stocks over the past 12-months period, Amazon lost big owing to a tweet from President Trump accusing Amazon for scamming the U.S. Postal Service, and adding that the service loses "billions of dollars" delivering packages for the e-commerce giant.