Tech scare trade hits Nasdaq futures while crypto reels from its biggest-ever hack

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd with today’s edition of Morning Squawk.

It’s a Friday fright for markets before Halloween has even gotten underway. 

Tech is taking another beating, dragged down by more earnings disappointment from Amazon and Intel. 

But the real scare of the day? The biggest heist in crypto history. Binance is reeling from a hack that is impacting an unprecedented $6.3 billion, with fingers pointing at a state-backed actor. 

Friday looks set to be the worst session of the week for the Nasdaq. Huge declines for some of the biggest names in tech have compounded through the week, pushing the index deep into the red.  

Let’s start with Amazon. 

A double miss on both EPS and revenue overshadowed the fastest growth for AWS in five years. Shares are deepening their after-hours losses, trading down over 7% premarket. 

• Shareholder view: Blue Line Capital’s Bill Baruch told “Closing Bell” that Amazon’s capex is the elephant in the room, but that the stock still has a lot of technical support. 
• More warning signs: Maxim Group’s Tom Forte warned the challenging macro environment for consumers is a negative indicator for Amazon going into the fourth quarter. 

Intel was an even bigger shock to investors. 

Shares are plunging 25% in premarket trading after the chipmaker issued weaker guidance for the fourth quarter, warning of continued softness in the PC market. 

• The executive view: Intel CFO David Zisner said “we see the PC slowdown continuing at least through the first half of next year.” 
• The backdrop: Intel’s stock has been on an upward tear, up about 150% so far this year prior to the earnings report, although it’s down roughly 23% in October over growing concern over the size of the artificial intelligence buildout. 

Binance has been hit by the biggest-ever crypto hack. 

In the early hours, the world’s largest crypto exchange revealed that a security incident had impacted $6.3 billion in assets. 

Here is what we know so far: 

• Co-CEO Richard Teng took to X.com to say an initial investigation suggests a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop is the source of the hack. 
• He also promised, “your money is safe, and we’re covering every loss.”
• He did not attribute responsibility to any individual. 
• Binance has frozen $3 billion, Circle froze $800 million and Tether froze $1.56 billion related to the hack. 

What we don’t know: 

• There is widespread speculation that this is a state-backed hack, with fingers already pointing to North Korea. In 2025, the FBI determined that North Korea was responsible for the $1.5 billion heist on ByBit, which was the largest crypto hack – until now. 
• CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal reported that hackers have been testing Binance code, rehearsing a heist and then seizing their moment. 

Bitcoin fell below $78,000 on concerns over the breach, with Binance freezing $3 billion in assets, while Circle froze $800 million and Tether froze $1.56 billion related to the hack. 

• Analysis: Ark Invest’s Frank Downing told CNBC overnight that regulators should avoid a knee-jerk reaction to make crypto policy more restrictive, while Franklin Crypto’s Chris Perkins said the investigation needed to focus on the offenders, not the victims of the hack.

There are some huge premarket movers, with double-digit declines for some mega-cap stocks. 

Intel is leading those declines, down over 25% in early premarket trading.

Reddit is also falling over 20% after the CEO warned that total daily unique visitors could fall by a double-digit amount in the fourth quarter.

Amazon is still under pressure, losing over 7% in premarket trading. 

Alphabet shares are flat after losing over 12% during Thursday’s trading session.

• Analysis: Matt Orton from Raymond James told CNBC early Friday that this isn’t a moment of reckoning for the tech sector, and that investors should use these moments of downside as a buying opportunity.   

Meanwhile, there is also heavy selling related to the Binance hack. 

Circle shares are lower by over 5% in early trading, while the Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF and iShares Bitcoin Trust are also lower. 

It’s a big day for energy stocks, with both ExxonMobil and Chevron reporting earnings. 

Chevron has topped third-quarter forecasts on solid downstream performance, sending shares higher in premarket. 

• Rating: William Blair is initiating Chevron as ‘outperform’, saying the group has “assembled a differentiated upstream and downstream portfolio, which, when combined with notable cash margins, results in continued record earnings.”
• Exclusive: Join “Squawk on the Street” to hear CEO Mike Wirth on how energy systems remain vulnerable. 

ExxonMobil is forecast to log a 112% jump in EPS, after CEO Darren Woods said, “The second quarter was shaped by disruption, but defined by execution.” 

• Cramer’s take: Jim has been saying that Chevron has the edge over ExxonMobil, flagging the offshore capabilities as a particular strength. 

Trump, Vance scrap planned appearances in final stretch of midterm campaign

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance canceled several planned appearances across three states, in the final days of a midterm campaign that could see Republicans lose control of Congress.

Trump canceled two weekend rallies in Kansas and Iowa and will instead hold a flurry of tele-rallies, addressing voters by phone. The Republican National Committee said the president would reach at least 19 states in a “72-hour sprint” before Tuesday’s elections.

The canceled stops were part of a midterm blitz in which Trump said he would travel to 35 locations to boost Republican turnout. He had been scheduled to appear in Kansas on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday.

— CNBC’s Robert Hum, Kate Rooney, Jordan Novet, Arjun Kharpal, Jason Gewirtz, and Anniek Bao contributed to this report.

John Melloy edited this edition.