EconomyGlobal markets
Dow sinks 1,833 points and Nasdaq closes in a correction as chip stocks crash
Wall Street gave back its whole post-election rally on Thursday. The S&P 500 had its worst day since the tariff crash of April 2025 as AMD and Micron fell more than 17% each.
Key points
- The Nasdaq closed 5.52% lower at 24,315, in a correction.
- The Dow lost 1,833 points, more than Wednesday's 1,569-point gain.
- The chip index fell 12.25% as AMD and Micron dropped over 17%.
Wall Street gave back its entire post-election rally on Thursday, as a crash in chipmakers dragged the Nasdaq into a correction and handed the S&P 500 its worst day since the tariff turmoil of April 2025. Investors are betting that a Democratic Congress will slow the costly race to build artificial intelligence data centres.
At the close in New York (2:30 am IST on Friday), the Nasdaq Composite was down 5.52%, or 1,421.52 points, at 24,315.00, 11.9% below the record it set in October. The S&P 500 fell 4.36%, or 334.89 points, to 7,353.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,833.06 points, or 3.44%, to 51,523.06, more than wiping out the 1,569 points it gained on Wednesday, its best session in 19 months.
Chipmakers lead the fall
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 12.25% to 9,011.14. AMD sank 17.26% to $404.40 and Micron 17.46% to $656.39. Nvidia, the heaviest weight in the S&P 500, dropped 9.26% to $181.60, leaving it down for the year.
Companies that build and power data centres were hit just as hard. IREN, Applied Digital and Nebius each lost more than 14%, CoreWeave fell 9.8% and GE Vernova 7.5%. Elon Musk’s companies slid too: Tesla closed 10.77% lower and SpaceX 9.05% lower, as investors weighed what Democratic wins in Washington and Texas mean for their merger plans and for AI spending.
“The obvious catalyst for the sharp selloff is that markets are pricing in the midterm results,” said Jakub Rochlitz, an analyst at eToro. Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital, said: “This feels like the capitulation phase for the data center capex beneficiary stocks, especially the semiconductors.”
Few places to hide
A handful of stocks rose against the tide. AppLovin jumped 31% after its quarterly revenue and profit beat expectations. Bond prices climbed as money moved to safety, pulling the 10-year Treasury yield down to 4.84% from 4.90% late on Wednesday. Bitcoin briefly slipped below $76,000.
Oil went the other way. Brent crude rose 3.9% to $98.29 a barrel, winning back part of its fall of nearly 9% the day before. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi had already tumbled 5.3% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.8%, while London’s FTSE 100 dipped 0.4% after the Bank of England raised its main rate for the first time in three years.
What comes next
The US October jobs report is due on Friday. Dalal Street, where the Sensex rose for a sixth straight session on Thursday, opens later on Friday with this rout as its backdrop.