Tech stocks took a big tumble Tuesday as investors bailed from dozens of companies that had rallied at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell amid investor fears of a slowdown in the digital advertising sector, following a profit warning by social media firm Snap Inc. The company, which also said it’s planning to slow hiring and spending, saw its stock lose a stunning 43% of its value, its largest single-day decline on record.

Snap’s stock is now down 85% from its September 2021 all-time high and its plummeting value quickly rubbed off on other tech stocks. Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. sank 7.6%, while Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. fell 5.1%. Another tech giant, Amazon.com Inc., fell 3.2%. Overall the Nasdaq fell 2.3% during the day, compared with a 0.8% decline in the S&P 500 and a 0.2% gain in the Dow Jones Industrial.

Because of their lofty values, tech stocks tend to have an outsized influence on the wider financial market. As a result, the technology industry has been blamed for much of the volatility that has hit stock markets in recent weeks, along with the broad decline of all three major indexes since April. The pullback followed a broad rally just one day earlier, underscoring the wild swings that currently characterize the stock markets.

Dozens of smaller tech firms were affected by the downturn too. Social media giant Twitter Inc. fell 5.5%, cloud database firm Snowflake Inc. was down 6.6% and communications provider Twilio Inc. fell 7.9%.

Some enterprise software companies fell much more yet. Avaya Holdings Corp., plunged almost 22%, Asana Inc. fell almost 13%, Appian Corp. was down 12%, HashiCorp. almost 11%, Cloudflare Inc. 11% and the list went on.

Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge said in a note to clients that Snap was the main culprit behind Tuesday’s market decline. “Some are a bit incredulous that a relatively small and perennially unprofitable ephemeral social media firm can take down the whole tape, but given how sensitive this tape is, SNAP is able to punch above its weight,” he said.

A few tech firms did manage to buck the trend, with IBM Corp.’s stock posting a 2.1% gain, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. up less than 1%, and the chipmaker GlobalFoundries Inc. rising 1.7%.

Analyst Charles King of Pund-IT Inc. told SiliconANGLE that having survived the dot.com bust and the 2008 financial crisis, he’s come to believe that speculative investing tends to increase volatility in already flammable circumstances. “Add to that the incessant focus of many investors on short term/quarterly performance, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how bonfires are stoked,” the analyst said. “Where today’s events will lead us to is anyone’s guess, but I’m hoping and praying that shareholders will proceed with clarity.”

On the other hand, some analysts believe the declining market could have some long-term positives. Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. said rising inflation, falling consumer confidence, the rippling effects of the Ukraine conflict and a pandemic that drags on and on mean that company executives are operating in what may well be the most challenging environment they’ve ever faced.

“As always, such challenges will weed out the weaker, less resilient business models,” he said. “Now it all comes back to technology firm’s ability to deliver to guidance in order to restore investor confidence.”

Today’s decline means the Nasdaq index has now fallen almost 30% from its peak last year, amid an aggressive campaign of rate increases by the Federal Reserve to fight inflation. Fears over tech stocks have also pushed the benchmark S&P 500 closer to bear market territory, which is officially declared when an index falls 20% from its most recent record high. At the day’s end, it was down 18% from a record high set earlier this year.

The market is bracing itself for yet more volatility in the coming days as a number of big tech firms have earnings reports scheduled, beginning with chipmaker Nvidia Corp. on Wednesday.

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