AI chip sell-off drives Nasdaq into correction and wipes Wednesday’s post-election rally, outlets report

U.S. stocks sold off hard on Thursday, Nov. 5, as shares tied to artificial-intelligence chips and data centers led a broad tech drop that erased Wednesday’s post-election rally. NBC News (Steve Kopack and Allie Canal), in a report updated at 1:09 p.m. ET (10:09 a.m. PT), put the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down 5.3% and into “correction” territory — a drop of at least 10% from a recent record — the S&P 500 down 4% with more than $2.5 trillion of index value erased, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 1,600 points, or 3%. The BBC (Rachel Clun and Lily Jamali) wrote that the Nasdaq had fallen by more than 5 percent at one point in early trading and that the S&P 500 stood down 3.8% by lunchtime. CNBC-TV18 (Asmi Saxena) separately cited Nasdaq −5%, S&P 500 −3.3% and Dow −2.2%, or more than 1,200 points. Business Insider (Jennifer Sor) gave a roughly 1 p.m. ET snapshot of the S&P 500 at 7,390.12 (−3.9%), the Dow at 51,784.59 (−2.95%, −1,571.53 points) and the Nasdaq 100 at 26,855.98 (−5.6%). A Yahoo Finance live tape this desk sampled later showed the S&P 500 near 7,403 (−3.71%), the Dow near 51,856 (−2.81%) and the Nasdaq Composite near 24,460 (−4.96%). Figures move with the tape; this desk treats them as time-stamped snapshots, not a final close.

Chip stocks drove the damage. NBC News said the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index sold off by 11% and stood on course for its worst day since March 2020, when the pandemic shuttered much of the economy, and that a “DRAM” ETF tracking memory makers sank 15%. CNBC-TV18 and a Reuters markets note carried on Euronext also put the semiconductor index down about 11%. On single names, NBC listed Qualcomm and Arm Holdings each down about 12% after Wednesday-night results that investors read as mixed, Nvidia down 9% (its largest one-day drop since April 2025, NBC said), SanDisk down 20%, Western Digital and AMD down about 15%, and Seagate and Micron down about 13%. The BBC had AMD down more than 14%, Micron off as much as 17% before recovering slightly, Intel down more than 7% and Nvidia down nearly 9%. @CNBC on X, around late morning Eastern time, put AMD down 12% and Micron down 11%, and a separate @CNBC post put Qualcomm down 13% after a light current-quarter forecast despite a slight Q4 earnings beat. CNBC-TV18 put Nvidia down more than 6% and AMD more than 13% at the time of its write-up — another reminder that percentages shift through the session.

Two narratives ran together. First, earnings: NBC and CNBC tied the open sell-off to Qualcomm’s and Arm’s reports, with Qualcomm’s guidance the sharper disappointment. Second, politics: NBC, the BBC and Business Insider wrote that Democratic wins on Tuesday raised the odds of tighter rules or delays for AI data-center construction in large markets. NBC named Texas, Ohio, Michigan and Georgia as states of particular concern. The BBC wrote that Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa had campaigned against new data centers and pledged a moratorium. Business Insider framed the day as the end of a one-day “postelection honeymoon,” with investors fretting that slower data-center capex could hit growth and the AI trade. A Reuters note on Euronext quoted Nationwide’s Mark Hackett linking “disappointing earnings and the Dem sweep potentially slowing the AI buildout.”

Musk-linked names also fell. The BBC put SpaceX shares down more than 9% by lunchtime and Tesla down more than 11%; NBC said SpaceX and Tesla each slid nearly 10%, tying the move largely to the midterm result while noting both firms’ AI and data-center exposure. The BBC added that Musk had spent nearly $450 million backing Republican campaigns, including at least $45 million for Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate bid, and that Texas flipped. This desk did not independently verify Musk’s spend totals beyond the BBC’s account.

Analysts and executives tried to frame the drop. Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research told NBC News: “I don’t think this is an AI bubble bursting. I think it’s an AI bubble losing some air very, very rapidly,” and called the session “the cold shower that I anticipated might occur after a blue-wave situation.” Susannah Streeter of Wealth Club told the BBC: “Fresh panic over the AI trade has hit Wall Street hard,” adding that fears about AI infrastructure returns now collide with the prospect of a sharp slowdown in data-center construction. At the WSJ Tech conference in Napa on Wednesday evening, OpenAI president Greg Brockman told the BBC’s reporting that communities need more than a tweet: “You need to be in those communities.” Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, also per the BBC, said the industry needed to “double and triple down on telling the story.” On X, @YahooFinance posted AMD CEO Lisa Su saying, “The market can be short-sighted, but it is what it is,” while arguing long-term AI demand still holds.

Beyond chips, the tape showed other moves. NBC said Brent and U.S. crude rose nearly 2% by midmorning after Wednesday’s drop; CNBC-TV18 later had Brent around $97 and WTI near $90. NBC said U.S. Treasury yields stood slightly lower. @CNBC reported the Cboe Volatility Index hitting an intraday high of 28.09, its highest level since March 31. Hyperscalers Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft also fell, NBC said, but by less than the broader market; Dow components Cisco and Caterpillar, both AI data-center suppliers in NBC’s framing, each dropped around 5%.

Context from the prior session matters. Seems News already covered Wednesday’s surge in “Dow jumps 1,569 points after Democrats win Congress as oil slides, CNBC and Reuters report.” Thursday’s AI-led drop more than reversed that relief rally for the major indexes, according to NBC, CNBC-TV18 and Business Insider. CNN’s @CNN post on X said the Nasdaq had plunged into correction territory and stood on pace for its worst day in months amid fears that Democratic midterm gains could hit the AI data-center boom. @CNBC likewise said the Nasdaq had declined 4.3% at one point and traded more than 10% below a record set last month.

This desk checked NBC News, the BBC, CNBC-TV18, Business Insider, a Reuters markets file via Euronext, a Yahoo Finance live page, and X posts from @CNBC, @CNN and @YahooFinance read on X. AP’s Stan Choe markets story returned a bot challenge page (unused). Direct reuters.com URLs for this file did not open cleanly for this desk; the Euronext-hosted Reuters note did. Times convert from Eastern to Pacific (UTC−8). Index and stock percentages above come from mid-session snapshots and disagree by source and clock; none of the cited outlets had posted a final close when this desk filed.