THE ALASKA STORY
Nov. 5, 2026 – Wall Street’s post-election rally lasted a day. The S&P 500 fell 3.2% Thursday morning as investors dumped chipmakers and data-center stocks, more than erasing Wednesday’s gains after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress.
The Nasdaq Composite sank 5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 1,146 points, or 2.1%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern, according to the Associated Press.
Wednesday’s rally had lifted the S&P 500 by 1.6% to 7,688.62 and the Nasdaq Composite by 1.4% to 25,736.51. The Dow jumped 1,569 points, or 3%, to 53,356.12. Falling oil prices helped lift stocks as investors weighed the prospect of legislative gridlock with President Donald Trump in the White House and Democrats set to run Congress. Thursday’s drop erased the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gains, while the Dow still held part of its Wednesday advance at the morning snapshot.
Nvidia fell 8.3% in morning trading, while Advanced Micro Devices sank 15.9% and CoreWeave dropped 14.9%. The losses in the largest tech stocks carried enough weight to pull the broad index sharply lower even as roughly two in five S&P 500 stocks rose.
The election added a new question to a market already worried about the cost of building out artificial intelligence. Investors are weighing whether tougher congressional scrutiny and local opposition could delay data-center construction, slowing demand for chips, power and equipment. The industry is also facing higher borrowing costs and questions about how quickly the billions committed to AI infrastructure will translate into profits.
Reuters reported Thursday that companies in the Nasdaq-100 were on pace to lose about $1.8 trillion in market value, an intraday estimate. Separately, Reuters reported that the Nasdaq lost more than $2.5 trillion in market value in October as investors reassessed the returns on AI spending. Thursday’s slide put the Nasdaq Composite on track to close more than 10% below its Oct. 6 record, the usual threshold for a market correction.
