Stocks opened lower Thursday and stayed there through the close as market participants wondered what another hot inflation reading means for a December rate hike. The latest batch of corporate earnings also kept a lid on sentiment, with a rare miss from Google's parent, Alphabet ( GOOGL ), sending the mega-cap stock sharply lower — and renewing fears over big AI spending.

At the close, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 1.4% at 26,184, the broader S&P 500 was off 0.3% at 7,720, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.3% lower at 52,342.

Alphabet created a massive drag on the three main equity benchmarks, shedding 12.6% — its worst day ever — after the Google parent unveiled its third-quarter results.

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