*By Kristen Lee*
U.S. stocks accelerated losses at the end of the day Wednesday, with the Dow dropping 600 points and the Nasdaq on pace for its biggest monthly drop in a decade.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day down 608 points, the S&P lost more than 3 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost nearly 4.5 percent.
The sell-off was driven in part by a Commerce Department report that home sales plunged 5.5 percent in September, which rattled investors who expected only a slight decline.
Tech stocks especially weighed on markets. Netflix ($NFLX) and chipmaker Nvidia ($NVDA) were both down nearly 10 percent, Facebook ($FB), down nearly 6 percent, and Google parent Alphabet ($GOOGL), down more than 5 percent.
Under Google’s updated inactive account policy, which the tech giant announced back in May, accounts that haven’t been used in at least two years could be deleted. Accounts deemed inactive could be erased beginning Friday.
Supporting nonprofits on GivingTuesday this year could have a bigger impact than usual. Why? Because nonprofits and industry groups say donations so far are down compared with previous years.
