Overview
- U.S. indexes fell sharply in a single trading day Thursday when the Dow dropped about 3.4 percent, the S&P 500 fell about 4.4 percent, and the Nasdaq slid about 5.5 percent.
- Chip and AI‑hardware names led the move with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunging roughly 12 percent, one of its largest one‑day drops on record.
- Major individual losses included Nvidia down about 9 percent and AMD and Micron falling more than 17 percent, and real‑time trackers showed large single‑day wealth declines for top tech owners with five billionaires losing about $152.9 billion combined.
- Reports and analysts said the trigger was a rapid re‑pricing of future AI and data‑center capital spending after the midterms, as investors worried congressional changes could slow planned build‑outs and reduce demand for servers and chips.
- The sell‑off pushed volatility higher, wiped out the election‑day rally within minutes, erased trillions in Nasdaq market value, and raises the risk that slower capex will hit suppliers, cloud providers, and hardware earnings in coming quarters.