Alphabet just had its worst day as a public company. BofA now values Google search at a lower multiple than fossil fuel stocks

Google search, the business that paid for two decades of Alphabet's ambitions, is now valued at about 10 times earnings, by Bank of America's count. The S&P 500 trades at 18.7x forward earnings, according to FactSet. Energy, the market's cheapest sector, trades at 13x. That math pummeled the stock Thursday. Alphabet's Class A shares fell 12.6% to $283.82, their worst day since they began trading in 2004. The decline wiped out about $482 billion in market value. Previously, Alphabet's worst day was in March 2020 when the stock dropped 11.6%. The trigger was the search business—the same juggernaut that turned Google into a verb. Search and other revenue grew 12% in the third quarter to $63.35 billion. Analysts expected 15%.