Image: Ryan Schwark, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain / CC0).
Wall Street suffered its worst day in months on Thursday, 5 November 2026, as a ferocious selloff in technology and artificial intelligence stocks dragged US shares sharply lower and wiped out the previous day's post-election rally.
A brutal day on Wall Street
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.44% to close at 51,523.06, while the S&P 500 dropped 4.36% to 7,353.73. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 5.52% to 24,315.00, leaving it 10% below its record closing high of 27,599.89, reached on 6 October — the widely used threshold for a market correction. At its lowest point, the index was down as much as 14% from its all-time high, set only a month earlier. Around $2 trillion was wiped off the Nasdaq's market value in a single session.
Chip stocks lead the rout
The selling was broad: all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 ended lower. Technology shares fell 7.3%, and the Philadelphia semiconductor index plunged 12%, its second-biggest one-day fall on record. SanDisk sank 22%, while Micron Technology, AMD and Marvell each lost about 17%, and Nvidia, the world's most valuable chipmaker, dropped 9%.
Why investors turned on AI
The trigger was a sharp reassessment of the AI boom. Investors who had cheered the Democrats' sweeping midterm election wins on Wednesday began to worry that the new Congress will scrutinise the huge spending on AI data centres more closely, raising doubts about how quickly the buildout can continue. Thursday's plunge erased all of the gains the Nasdaq had made in the previous session, and marked the index's second correction of the year.
The selloff spreads beyond the US
The rout was not confined to Wall Street. In Asia, Japan's market fell 1.8%, while European and British shares each slipped 0.4%, as investors around the world reconsidered the valuations of AI-related companies.
What comes next
Attention now turns to whether the selloff deepens or stabilises in the days ahead. Investors will be watching company spending plans, upcoming earnings and any signals from policymakers, as markets test whether the AI trade that powered much of this year's rally can recover its footing.
Source: Reuters — "Nasdaq set for correction as investors reassess AI spending boom"
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