What Happened?

Shares of online advertising giant Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) fell 2.6% in the afternoon session after reports surfaced that its Google unit was expected to be fined by EU antitrust regulators for favoring its own services, contributing to a broader tech sector downturn. 

The potential penalty stemmed from charges that Google did not do enough to comply with the Digital Markets Act, which can lead to fines of up to 10% of a company's global annual turnover. Adding to the regulatory headwinds, the European Commission also launched a separate investigation into whether Google improperly used other publishers' content for its AI purposes. The negative news was compounded by a wider market retreat from technology stocks. The sell-off was triggered after Oracle, seen as a key indicator for AI investment, reported cloud sales that missed estimates, sparking concerns across the industry about the high cost and uncertain returns of AI infrastructure spending. This sentiment pulled down most major tech stocks.

The shares closed the day at $312.41, down 2.4% from previous close.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Alphabet? Access our full analysis report here.

What Is The Market Telling Us

Alphabet’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 5 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 3 days ago when the stock dropped 2.6% on the news that investors appeared to take profits after a recent period of strong performance. 

The move lower came as the stock was near its record high, having just completed its eighth-straight positive month. This extended run-up left the stock open to selling pressure, even as some analysts raised their price targets on the same day. Additionally, the stock traded ex-dividend for a $0.21 per share payout, an event that typically caused a minor price adjustment downward, though this did not account for the majority of the day's decline.

Alphabet is up 65.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $313.03 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $323.44 from November 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Alphabet’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,527.

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