Overview
- A broad technology sell-off on Thursday pushed the S&P 500 down about 4.4 percent and the Nasdaq roughly 5 to 5.5 percent as investors reassessed regulatory risk for AI and datacenter expansion.
- The rout spread overseas on Friday with Japan's Nikkei falling about 6 percent and South Korea's Kospi near 5 percent while European indexes opened notably lower.
- Major chip and AI-linked firms led losses, with Nvidia down around 9 percent and U.S. tech names accounting for thousands of billions in market value wiped from indexes over two days.
- Bloomberg estimates updated during the market moves show large paper losses for top tech owners, including about a $100 billion decline in Elon Musk's net worth to roughly $785 billion.
- The sell-off was driven by political signals after the Democrats' midterm gains and statements from incoming officials about tighter scrutiny of datacenters, leaving markets volatile as investors await concrete policy moves and earnings clarity.