Extreme Afternoon Selling Wave Means Few Stocks Spared in Tumble

(Bloomberg) -- As the U.S. stock market’s decline accelerated Wednesday, a real-time measure of selling pressure registered one of its most extreme readings on record.

The number of stocks falling on the New York Stock Exchange exceeded those rising by 1,922 at 2:19 p.m. in New York, sending the NYSE TICK Index to the lowest since June, when the gauge registered its most extreme reading ever. It happened as the S&P 500 Index fell more than 2%, bringing its loss from a record to 9.3% -- not far from the 10% threshold that is classically regarded as a stock-market correction.

In a change from earlier in the week, megacap technology stocks once again led losses. The Nasdaq 100 was down 2.9% as of 3:16 p.m. Tesla Inc. dropped more than 10%, while Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc., and Apple Inc. each fell at least 3.8%. An hour before the market close, more than 90% of stocks in both the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 were trading lower.

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