04:56 PM EST, 11/06/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes fell at Thursday's close as a slump in government bond yields following the biggest October planned layoffs in two decades revived the growth-versus-valuation debate.

The Nasdaq Composite slumped 1.9% to 23,053.99, with the S&P 500 down 1.1% to 6,720.32 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.8% lower at 46,912.30. Growth sectors with reverberating valuation concerns, consumer discretionary, technology, and communication services, declined. Energy emerged as the standout gainer.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported firms planned to cut 153,074 jobs in October, the largest for the month since 2003, up from 55,597 a year ago. The most cited reason was cost-cutting, which accounted for 50,437 of the total, followed by AI, which drove 31,039 layoff intentions.

The jobs data were even higher than "I had expected above 100k given announcements toward the end of October from companies like Amazon, UPS, and other tech firms," Derek Holt, head of capital market economics at Scotiabank, said in a note. "That raises the [year-to-date] tally to about 1.1 million, which is only exceeded by crisis points like the dot.com bomb, [Great Financial Crisis], and the [coronavirus] pandemic. Hiring is also slow."

Holt said the print also indicates the jobs data released Wednesday by Automatic Data Processing "may be subject to downward revision." Private jobs rose by 42,000 in October following two straight months of weak hiring, ADP reported. The consensus was for a 30,000 gain in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

US Treasury yields slumped, with the 10-year yield down 7.2 basis points to 4.09% and the two-year rate also lower by 7.5 basis points to 3.56%.

The ICE US Dollar Index fell 0.5% to 99.71.

The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as the fear gauge, jumped 8.3% to 19.50.

The Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF ( AIQ ) , with net assets of $5.98 billion and investments in companies related to AI, slumped 2%. The $386 billion Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), a tech-heavy exchange-traded fund offering exposure to Magnificent-7 across technology and communication services sectors, retreated 1.9%.

In company news, the results of Tesla's (TSLA) shareholder vote on Chief Executive Elon Musk's proposed $1 trillion compensation package are expected later on Thursday. Tesla shares slumped 3.5%.

Datadog ( DDOG ) shares rose 23%, the top performer on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, after the firm posted higher Q3 non-GAAP earnings and sales, and raised its 2025 outlook. The worst performer in the two indexes was DoorDash ( DASH ) , which retreated 17% after Q3 earnings missed analysts' expectations.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court judges signaled skepticism around the legality of Trump's tariffs against most of the country's trading partners, CNBC reported Wednesday.

"The White House is always preparing for Plan B," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said ahead of the hearing, BBC reported, referring to other tools that the administration has at its disposal to impose tariffs outside of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.