Wall Street tumbles as the Nasdaq enters correction territory
· BehindLines newsroom
A day after a sharp rise, US stocks fell on Thursday, November 5, dragged down by artificial intelligence and semiconductor shares. According to CBS News, the Dow Jones lost 1,833 points (3.4%), the S&P 500 335 points (4.4%) to 7,354, and the Nasdaq Composite 1,422 points (5.5%) to 24,315. The Nasdaq thus enters a "correction", meaning more than 10% below its October record. CNBC adds that all three indexes had their worst session since April 2025 and that all 11 S&P 500 sectors fell.
The causes put forward
Investors fear that a Democratic-majority Congress will slow data center construction and tighten AI regulation, according to CBS and CNBC. Al Jazeera notes that, according to Data Centers on the Ballot, 39 measures restricting data centers passed out of 45 ballot votes, and that UBS estimates possible construction pauses could put about 30% of the additional capacity planned for 2028 at risk. Joe Maher of Capital Economics sees that fear as the apparent trigger, while judging it uncertain that the election marks the end of the AI boom. A fear of a bubble comes on top. CNBC also mentions that markets were pricing in roughly a 70% chance (CME FedWatch tool) of a quarter-point Federal Reserve rate increase on December 9.
The stocks hit
Also per CNBC, Nvidia lost 9%, or more than $440 billion in market value, and turned negative for 2026. Micron and AMD each fell 17%, CoreWeave 10% and Tesla 10.8%. Meta gave up 3.9%, Microsoft 3.6%, Alphabet and Amazon 2.2%, Apple 1.5%: the "Magnificent Seven" lost more than $1 trillion in total. Al Jazeera, whose midday figures were milder (Nasdaq down 4.8%), quotes analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote, who describes a rotation out of technology into other sectors.
After the session
On Friday the decline spread to Asia: South Korea's Kospi fell more than 6% to 5,059.69, Japan's Nikkei 5.96% to 57,434.77, entering a bear market, and Taiwan's Taiex 4.51%, according to CNBC. Nasdaq-100 futures were up about 1.7% early in the day. Brent traded between $97 and $100 depending on the source; CBS has it up 2.6%, after recovering part of its drop of nearly 9% the day before. Uncertainty remains over the war with Iran and the energy market's return to normal.