The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 652.82 points, or 1.23%, to settle at 52,215.16 on Friday, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.52% to 7,623.68 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.21% at 25,955.34.

The sell-off that had battered tech stocks in the prior session shifted to other areas of the market, with consumer staples, utilities and healthcare all lower as defensive names came under pressure too.

What makes Friday surprising is that the safe-haven rotation itself ran out of fuel.

"For the last two weeks, investors have been sprinting from tech stocks and data center beneficiary stocks to safe stuff, and eventually, you run out of people willing to do that sprint, and that's what today looks like and feels like," Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management, told CNBC.

Yet he noted tech earnings have proven strong this season, giving investors reason to look past fear-driven flights to safety.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips all traded at all-time highs, according to CNBC, while uranium and clean energy ETFs fell to 52-week lows — a stark divergence showing how completely energy now dominates market leadership.

Treasury yields resumed their climb, with the 10-year rising roughly 5 basis points on the day — CNBC put it around 4.999% while Kiplinger reported it at 5.001% at the close, back above the key 5% level after briefly dipping below it Thursday.

Kiplinger also cited a 2-year yield of 4.686% and a 30-year at 5.329%.

The benchmark had fallen below 5% for the first time in a month as investors grew cautious about the massive borrowing underway to finance AI data centers, and that wariness is now hitting single names: Morgan Stanley cut its CoreWeave price target to $70 from $99, per CNBC, citing financing uncertainty, while Seaport reiterated a sell rating on Nvidia with a $180 target.

Looking ahead, Kiplinger reports the Fed is widely expected to keep rates unchanged when its October meeting concludes next Wednesday.

The damage was broad but uneven: on the week, the Dow gained 0.4% while the S&P 500 lost 0.5% and the Nasdaq shed 0.7%, per CNBC.

American Express fell more than 3% as the worst Dow stock after announcing a 5% global workforce cut — roughly 3,850 of nearly 77,000 employees — to prepare for AI, taking a $336 million restructuring charge despite beating third-quarter earnings expectations, according to Kiplinger and CNBC.

High fuel costs are also squeezing discount retailers, with Wells Fargo estimating the diesel hit to earnings per share will more than double to 6.2%, per CNBC.

Kiplinger notes attention now turns to a jam-packed calendar of mega-cap earnings from Alphabet, Caterpillar and Amazon, plus the October Fed meeting.