Wildest Trading Day Since Tariff Shock to Test Dip Buyers’ Nerve

A blowout forecast from Nvidia Corp. was supposed to bring back dip buyers. Instead, a tech rout and a mixed jobs report left investors battered and with a choice of nursing their wounds or wading back.

To strategists on Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk, a pickup in shorting across macro products including exchange-traded funds, custom baskets and futures contributed to Thursday’s rout. The desk also flagged poor liquidity, with top-of-book depth in S&P 500 futures slipping below $5 million versus a one-year average of $11.5 million, a factor that may be magnifying stock-market moves.