Dow plunges 500 points as Home Depot outlook cuts rattle markets, cloud outage adds pressure

Markets opened under pressure and slipped further through the trading day as investors reacted to a mix of company specific shocks and lingering macro uncertainty. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the session down roughly 500 points, extending a recent pullback after months of narrow leadership among a handful of mega cap technology names.

Retailing giant Home Depot trimmed its outlook, a signal that demand in the housing and home improvement sector is softer than investors had expected. The guidance cut reverberated across retail and materials shares and intensified concerns about consumer resilience heading into the holiday season. Weakening home improvement spending matters for an economy where housing related activity acts as a key source of cyclical momentum.

Technology stocks also weighed on sentiment after Cloudflare reported a significant outage that disrupted services for customers worldwide. The incident highlighted operational risk for cloud infrastructure providers and the potential for single point failures to cascade through dependent software and e commerce platforms. Tech firms that rely heavily on cloud networks were repriced as traders reassessed reliability premiums and contingency costs.

The equity downturn coincided with broader uncertainty about monetary policy. Investors are still parsing Federal Reserve signals after earlier comments that a December rate cut is not necessarily inevitable. That uncertainty has reduced conviction around a smooth pivot and contributed to increased volatility in rate sensitive sectors. By contrast, large cap winners remain concentrated, exemplified by Nvidia reaching a $5 trillion market capitalization in recent weeks, a development that underscores how gains have been concentrated in a narrow group of AI related leaders.

Amid the market stress there were notable corporate developments. Topgolf Callaway confirmed a sale of its Topgolf driving ranges unit to Los Angeles based private equity firm Leonard Green for approximately $1.1 billion. The company said it expects to receive about $770 million in net proceeds and anticipates the transaction will close in the first quarter of 2026. Topgolf Callaway shares had jumped last Friday after reports that a deal was imminent, and the official announcement provided a one off source of liquidity and strategic clarity for that company.

Other active movers included semiconductor and consumer names cited in intraday watch lists, such as AMD, On Holding and Circle Internet Group, reflecting ongoing sector rotation and idiosyncratic earnings and operational news.

For investors and policymakers the market action underscores two competing forces. On one hand, concentrated gains in a few technology leaders have masked broader fragility in consumer facing and infrastructure dependent areas. On the other hand, intermittent corporate shocks and a less certain Fed path mean volatility could persist as market participants reassess earnings prospects and discount rates. How companies deploy proceeds from strategic sales such as the Topgolf deal and how retailers update guidance over coming quarters will be key signals for growth momentum into 2026.