What Happened Yesterday
Thursday, November 5, 2026
The 30-second version: Stocks had their worst day in a year and a half on Thursday. Chipmakers crashed on fears that the new Democratic Congress will slow down AI data centers, and everything else got dragged down the stairs with them. The whole Wednesday rally is gone. Your 401(k) fell about 4.4%, so maybe don't open the app before coffee.
Market | Thursday close | Move | Mood |
|---|---|---|---|
S&P 500 | 7,353.73 | -4.36% | Evacuated |
Nasdaq Composite | 24,315.00 | -5.52% | Left its shoes behind |
Dow Jones | 51,523.06 | -3.44% | Gave back the party and the cake |
Chip index (SOX) | 9,011.14 | -12.25% | Building condemned |
VIX (fear gauge) | 28.18 | +69.66% | Pulled the alarm |
Small caps (IWM, fund) | $270.98 | -4.59% | Took the stairs too |
Gold (GLD, fund) | $375.49 | +0.81% | Already outside, smug |
U.S. oil (USO, fund) | $148.21 | +1.93% | Came back for its keys |
10-year Treasury rate | 4.84% | down from 4.89% | Safe room |
Bitcoin | $75,942 | -5.55% | Not fireproof |
The fund rows (IWM, GLD, USO) are there for the move, not the price. The SOX is a basket of 30 big chip stocks. The VIX, the "fear gauge," measures how much traders will pay to protect against big swings. Bitcoin is a 24-hour close.
The $1,000 test: $1,000 in an S&P 500 fund lost about $44 on Thursday. $1,000 in Nvidia lost about $93. $1,000 in AMD or Micron lost about $175, which is roughly a fire extinguisher, installed.
The worst day since April 2025
and it erased Wednesday in one shift
The Dow lost 1,833 points, or 3.44%. The S&P 500 fell 4.36% and the Nasdaq 5.52%. All three had their worst day since April 2025, back when tariffs sent everyone running. Wednesday's post-election party, the one where the Dow jumped 1,569 points? All three indices now sit below where they were on Tuesday. The party didn't just end. Somebody took the furniture.
The Nasdaq is now in a correction, which is Wall Street's word for "down 10% from the top." It closed about 12% below its record from October 6. The fear gauge jumped 70% to 28.18, its biggest one-day leap since December 2024 and its highest close since March 30.
Who ran? Everybody. Nomura's Charlie McElligott called it a "frantic dash" by hedge funds cashing in their 2026 gains (Yahoo Finance). And regular investors bolted too: Vanda Research said everyday traders had their biggest day of net selling since March 17, 2020. Vanda's Viraj Patel called it "a total capitulation by retail investors," which is a fancy way of saying people stopped holding the door and just ran.
A fire alarm doesn't mean there's a fire. It means one person smelled smoke and 300 people decided not to find out. Thursday was a stampede. Whether the building is actually burning, we find out over the next few weeks.
The chip stocks didn't evacuate
They got carried out
The chip index fell 12.25%. That's its worst day since March 16, 2020, the week the world shut down for Covid. Here's the damage:
Micron (memory chips): -17.46%
AMD: -17.26%
Broadcom: -10.43%
Qualcomm: -9.49%, after a forecast that came in a hair light Wednesday night
Nvidia: -9.26%
The fear is the same one from Wednesday, just louder. Democrats won Congress and several gubernatorial races, and voters said no to new data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures (CNBC). Data centers are the giant warehouses of computers that run AI, and they're the reason these chip companies have been making a fortune. Then Sen. Bernie Sanders called for a national pause on new data centers (CNBC). That's a call, not a law. Nothing has passed. But investors weren't in the mood to wait for the vote count.
And Wednesday's big winners? Same building, same alarm. Microsoft fell 3.58%, Amazon 2.19%, and Alphabet 2.20%. Tesla, which is building its own chip factory and AI data center in Texas with SpaceX, fell 10.77% (CNBC). AMD CEO Lisa Su said the market "can sometimes be a little bit short-sighted" (Yahoo Finance). She said that on a day her stock fell 17%, which takes some nerve.
On Wednesday, we said the companies that already own data centers were safe because the new guys can't get permits. Turns out "safe" lasted about 24 hours. When the alarm goes off, nobody checks who owns the building. They just leave.
Britain raised rates
Oil came back for its keys
The Bank of England raised its main interest rate to 4% from 3.75%, its first increase since 2023. The vote was 8 to 1, and the one holdout wanted an even bigger hike (Bank of England). The reason is oil. The bank expects British inflation to near 5% by mid-2027 because energy prices stay high while the Iran war drags on (CNBC). Another central bank is fighting the same gas bill.
About that gas bill. Oil fell 8% Wednesday on peace hopes. Thursday, it walked back in. Brent, the world price, rose nearly 4% to settle at $98.29. U.S. crude rose 2.7% to $90.52 (CNBC). Iran's Revolutionary Guard said two oil tankers and a tugboat caught fire after trying to use routes through the Strait of Hormuz that Iran hadn't approved (CNBC). Still no peace deal. Wednesday's treaty remains imaginary.
A few things did fine. Coach and Kate Spade owner Tapestry rose 7.07% after beating forecasts and raising its outlook. And Kleenex maker Kimberly-Clark rose 1.54%, which on this particular Thursday feels less like a stock move and more like a public service.
On Wednesday, oil sold the house on a rumor that the highway was getting built. Thursday, it saw two tankers on fire and asked for the house back. Gas prices follow oil, so don't count on that sub-$4 gallon until somebody actually signs something.
What to Watch Today
Friday, November 6, 2026. All times Central.
Overnight, Asia caught the alarm. South Korea's Kospi fell 6.02%, Japan's Nikkei fell 5.96%, and Taiwan's main index fell 4.51%. Japan and Taiwan are now in a bear market, meaning down 20% or more from their highs. Korea and Taiwan make many of the chips inside AI data centers, and Japan makes a lot of the machines that make the chips, so they all took Thursday personally.
Back home, it's calmer. Around 5:05 AM CT, bets on where the market opens (futures) had the Nasdaq 100 up about 1.3%, the S&P 500 up about 0.5%, and the Dow down about 0.9% (CNBC). Somebody is going back inside to check for smoke.
After Thursday's close (that's "after hours," trading outside the normal 8:30-to-3 day), Airbnb jumped about 11% to 12% after its results topped forecasts. DraftKings fell about 20% to 24% after a much bigger loss than expected (CNBC, Yahoo Finance). The house always wins, except when it's the house's stock.
Time (CT) | Event | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
Before the open | Earnings: Vistra, Moderna, Humana, Charter, Enbridge | Vistra sells electricity to data centers. Today, that's either the bravest or the worst earnings date on the calendar. |
7:30 AM | October jobs report (Labor Department) | The big one. Forecasts run from about 55,000 to 65,000 new jobs (Dow Jones: 59,000), with unemployment at 4.2%. September added 29,000. |
8:10 AM | St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem speaks | No vote on rates this year. Regional presidents take turns. |
9:00 AM | Consumer sentiment (University of Michigan) | How people feel about money. After Thursday, survey takers may want to sit down. |
11:15 AM | Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks | She votes at every meeting, so her words count more than Musalem's. |
The Fed watch: Betting markets now give about a 7-in-10 chance the Fed raises rates again on December 9 (Kalshi ~70%, pulled 5:06 AM CT Friday). CME FedWatch, which reads it from bond-market bets, shows about the same (CNBC). That's down from about 4-in-5 on Thursday morning. Kalshi is a site where people bet real money on events. The Fed's target range is 3.75% to 4.00% today.
The one thing that could ruin everyone's day: The jobs report at 7:30. If it comes in hot, the Fed has more reason to raise rates into a market that just fell down the stairs. If it comes in cold, people start saying "recession." The only safe number is a boring one, and boring has not been on the menu this week.
Bottom line: Wednesday, Wall Street threw a block party. Thursday, it pulled the fire alarm on itself. Friday, the fire marshal shows up at 7:30 with a clipboard full of jobs numbers.
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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. We are a newsletter with opinions and a spreadsheet. Do your own homework, and please don't sell your 401(k) because someone else pulled the alarm.