The S&P 500 fell 1.6% in afternoon trading, on track for its worst day in nearly eight weeks, falling further from the record high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 418 points, or 1%, as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was down 2.4%, heading for a second straight loss after setting its latest all-time high.

Microsoft reported greater profit growth for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Sales also exceeded expectations, but shares nevertheless fell 6% as investors and analysts watched closely for potential disappointments. Many focused on Microsoft’s estimate for coming growth in its Azure cloud computing business, which fell short of some analysts’ expectations.

Meanwhile, Facebook’s parent company also presented a better-than-expected earnings report. However, as with Microsoft, that wasn’t enough to send the shares soaring. Investors focused on Meta Platforms’ warning that it expects a “significant acceleration” in spending next year as it continues to pour money into developing artificial intelligence. This fell by 3.6%.

Both Microsoft and Meta Platforms have soared in recent years amid the frenzy surrounding AI, and they are entrenched among Wall Street’s most influential stocks. But such stellar performance has critics saying their stock prices have simply risen too quickly, making them too expensive. It’s hard to meet everyone’s expectations when they’re so high, and Microsoft and Meta were both among the heaviest weights on the S&P 500 on Thursday.

The next two companies in the highly influential group of stocks known as the “Magnificent Seven” to deliver their latest results are Apple and Amazon. They will report this after the day’s trading ends, and both fell at least 1.3% on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Tesla and Alphabet started reporting the Magnificent Seven with results that investors found impressive enough to reward with higher stock prices. The lone remaining member, Nvidia, will report its results later this earnings season, and Thursday’s 4.3% decline was the heaviest weight on the market after Microsoft.

The decline for Big Tech on the last day of October helps wipe out the S&P 500’s gains for the month. The index is down 0.7% and is on track for its first downward month in the past six months, even though it hit a record high mid-month.

Still, it wasn’t a total crisis on Wall Street, thanks in part to cruise ships and cigarettes.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holding rose 8.2% after posting stronger last-quarter profit than analysts expected. The cruise ship operator said there was strong demand from customers across its brands and routes, and raised its full-year 2024 profit forecast.

Altria Group rose 7.6%, another one of the S&P 500’s bigger gains, after also beating analysts’ earnings estimates. CEO Billy Gifford praised, among other things, the resilience of the Marlboro brand and announced a cost-saving program.

Oil and gas companies also rose broadly after the price of a barrel of U.S. crude rose 1.3% to recoup some of the week’s and year-to-date losses. ConocoPhillips rose 4.9% and Exxon Mobil gained 1%.

In the bond market, government bond yields continued to rise following mixed reports about the US economy.

One report said an inflation measure the Federal Reserve likes to use slowed from 2.3% to 2.1% in September. That’s almost all the way back to the Fed’s 2% target, although after ignoring food and energy costs, the underlying trends were a bit hotter than economists expected.

A separate report said growth in workers’ wages and benefits slowed over the summer. That could put less pressure on upcoming inflation. A third report shows that fewer American workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. That’s an indication that layoffs remain relatively low across the country.

Government bond yields rose and fell several times after the reports before rising. The yield on the 10-year government bond rose to 4.31% from 4.30% late Wednesday. That is up sharply from the level of around 3.60% in the middle of last month.

Yields have risen following a series of stronger-than-expected reports on the US economy. Such data strengthens hopes that the economy can avoid a recession, especially as the Fed cuts rates to support the labor market rather than keeping them high to curb high inflation. But the surprising resilience is also forcing traders to lower their expectations about how deeply the Fed will ultimately cut rates.

On foreign stock markets, indexes fell in much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.5%, one of the bigger losses after North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to hit the US mainland in a move likely aimed at getting America’s attention to be drawn prior to election day.