Happy Thursday, when the market fell to its lowest level since September. Most names on the S&P 500 fell, Bitcoin pulled back 3%, the Dow was the lowest declining of the big three indexes. Energy climbed as oil rose to above $100/barrel again, the positivity of Trump’s five-day pause tweet wearing off after just four days.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell into correction territory.

All seven mag seven stocks fell, save for Apple, Meta and Google leading the way after a social media court decision found them and other giants liable for claims they build addictive elements.

Tech shares plummeted on Thursday after landmark jury verdicts in California and New Mexico found Meta and Google liable for intentionally designing addictive platforms that harm children, sparking a sector-wide rerating of social and ad-tech companies.

It’s a landmark case that side steps the legal excuse these massive platforms have hidden behind as non-publishers: Section 230. Facebook argues it just hosts stuff, and its obvious, outsized influence on the world order is not their fault. 😍 If they and other mega tech firms become considered one and the same as say a news publisher, they may be found liable for user posts on top of their design. The case was instead focused on the pains of a single woman who suffered using their platform as a child.

The RIP: $375M in civil penalties awarded against $META in New Mexico. $6M in total damages for a single plaintiff in a California trial. 11% drop for $APP as investors weigh the impact on the broader mobile ad ecosystem.

The twin verdicts have shattered the long-standing "Section 230" shield by focusing on negligent product design — like infinite scroll and autoplay — rather than hosted content. The contagion spread to $APP ( ▼ 10.42% ) , as a forced redesign of social engagement loops threatens to dry up the high-velocity user data that powers the global mobile advertising machine.

AppLovin’s decline mostly stemmed from an analyst note from Piper Sandler that it would face trouble monetizing ads for mobile games in the AI age.

The focus now shifts to TikTok and Snap, both of which settled the initial case but remain primary defendants in the next round of trials. With a major federal trial involving school districts set for June 15, 2026, in Oakland and a second state-level bellwether in Los Angeles scheduled for July, the industry is bracing for a "Big Tobacco" reckoning that targets core features. ⚖️

Today, according to Bloomberg’s minute-by-minute war blog coverage, a lot of talk and a lot of nothing happened in Iran.

Tehran rejected the U.S. claims of peace talk deals, and Trump said Iran offered to let 10 boats through the Strait, though tanker tracking data showed little to back that up. U.S. gas prices are close to a $4 average, and crude futures saw their highest monthly gain since 1990. The pain is felt in eastern countries the most, that rely on Gulf traffic, like Australia and the Philippines.

The EU is discussing helping open the strait. Trump called out NATO for not supporting whatever the current aims of the war are, with running death toll estimates above 4,500.

Privately, Trump is asking aides how they can end the war soon, but 3,200 paratroopers are still en route, and Pakistan has confirmed it is relaying messages between the two powers. Oil passed $100 a barrel again.

After hours, Trump posted he would halt U.S. strikes for another week and a half. When it comes to 20% of the world’s oil supply, deadlines are made to be extended. 🛢

For generations, everyday Americans could own a piece of the best companies on earth thanks to the U.S. stock market.

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Until now.

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*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

Chip stocks suffered a brutal across-the-board selloff on Thursday as Google’s breakthrough AI memory compression technology, TurboQuant, triggered fears of a structural decline in physical hardware demand. Basically, the algorithm claims to cut the amount of memory required to run AI models, by a lot.

The RIP: 14% plunge for $SOXL ( ▼ 14.15% ) as the triple-leveraged semi ETF tracks a broad industry rout. 6x memory reduction claimed by Google’s TurboQuant algorithm for AI inference. $25B raised capex forecast from Micron failed to reassure investors facing a "valuation peak."

The selloff, which erased billions in market cap for $MU, $WDC, and $SNDK, stems from Google’s research showing that software-level quantization can slash AI memory requirements without losing accuracy. Apparently this research was already around last year, it just took an X post to really freak people out today. While Intel and AMD faced rotation-driven pressure, equipment giants $LRCX and $AMAT cratered after analysts warned that extreme efficiency might mean less buying.

Other analysts, like Morgan Stanley’s Shawn Kim, wrote the impact might be positive: if memory bottlenecks disappear, won’t everyone still… buy a ton of memory? 📉

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

Macro: Michigan 1-Year Inflation Expectations (Mar) (10:00 AM ET), FOMC Member Daly Speaks (11:30 AM ET), U.S. Baker Hughes Total Rig Count (1:00 PM ET). 📊

Pre-Market Earnings: $CCL, $TMC, $MLSS Milestone Scientific Inc.. ☀️

After-Market Earnings: $ZNOG Zion Oil & Gas Inc, $ORGN Origin Materials Inc, $IMTE Integrated Media Technology Limited, $ENTX Entera Bio Ltd, $NXPL NextPlat Corp, $BYSI BeyondSpring Inc, $ALTS ALT5 Sigma Corporation, $GIGM Gigamedia. 🌙

P.S. You can listen to all of these earnings calls on Stocktwits.

📈 Trump extends pause on attacking Iran energy facilities to April 6

🤑 John Thune says he’s aiming to land DHS deal Thursday

😨 Global forecasting group sees U.S. inflation at 4.2% this year, much higher than Fed estimate

🏠 Fannie Mae to accept crypto-backed mortgages for the first time

📺 Apple plans to open Siri to rival AI services, Bloomberg News reports

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