DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.

Wall Street’s postelection surge violently reversed Thursday as investors dumped technology shares and dragged the Nasdaq Composite into correction territory. The index fell 4.8%, leaving it more than 10% below the record it set last month.

The S&P 500 declined 3.7% and headed toward its worst session since April 2025. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,521 points, or 2.9%, erasing most of its advance from Wednesday’s powerful rally.

Artificial intelligence shares remained at the center of the rout as investors weighed the implications of Democratic victories in the 2026 midterm elections. Concerns focused on whether political opposition could slow construction of data centers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats, has called for a national moratorium on data centers. Sanders wrote on X that “Americans don’t want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity’s future.”

Broadcom and Nvidia each fell 6%, while software company Oracle also dropped 6%. Qualcomm sank 11% after reporting earnings that beat estimates but issuing an outlook that fell short of expectations.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF fell as much as 11%, putting it on course for its worst day since the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020. Later market updates showed Micron and AMD down 16%, while Nvidia was down 8%.

Companies providing cloud computing infrastructure suffered even steeper declines. CoreWeave lost 9%, Nebius slid 13%, and Iren shed 14% as election results intensified concerns about a possible backlash against data center expansion.

Tim Holland, chief investment officer at Orion, said investors were “stepping away until they get a better sense of the implications of the midterms around the AI capex cycle in particular, which is the biggest economic tailwind we’ve had going for us for the last, call it, three years.”

Selling soon spread beyond technology. Caterpillar declined 4%, JPMorgan fell 3%, Boeing dropped 3%, and Nike pulled back 2%, showing how quickly pressure in the largest technology names reached the broader market.

“Unlike yesterday, you’re just seeing that the sell-off in tech, the size of it, is now feeding itself into the broader market,” said Keith Lerner, chief investment officer at Truist Wealth. “The rubber band is becoming increasingly stretched.”

The reversal followed Wednesday’s rally, when the Dow surged more than 1,500 points for its best day since April 2025. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained more than 1% each, although artificial intelligence shares were already under pressure.

The market decline also reduced expectations for a Federal Reserve rate increase at its Dec. 9 meeting. The probability of a quarter percentage point increase from the current range between 3.75% and 4.00% fell to 70.1%, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

That probability stood at 82.7% on Wednesday and 79.9% one week earlier. The chance that the Kevin Warsh led central bank would leave rates unchanged rose to 29.9%, compared with 17.3% Wednesday and 20.1% a week earlier.

The CBOE Volatility Index climbed as the equity selloff gathered force, with Wall Street’s fear gauge last at 22.59. The sharp deterioration came after the Dow had opened 334 points higher, while the Nasdaq initially slipped only 0.7%.

Investment strategists at the Macro Research Board warned that technology losses might not be finished. “The shakeout in A.I.-related stocks has much further to run,” the firm said, adding that “investors are beginning to question excessive forward profit estimates.”

Not every stock followed the broader market lower. Global Payments traded higher after reporting adjusted earnings of $3.58 per share, matching the FactSet consensus estimate and rising 10% from the previous year.

Global Payments reaffirmed its full year 2026 outlook, while its adjusted operating margin increased 220 basis points to 42.5%. The company raised its expected Worldpay synergies to $650 million from $600 million by the end of 2028.

Precious metals also advanced as the dollar weakened and Treasury yields declined. December gold futures reached $4,155.80 an ounce, while December silver climbed to $53.49, their highest levels since October 22 and October 29, respectively.

Gold had risen more than 5% for the week, while silver gained more than 6%. The VanEck Gold Miners ETF added about 1% Thursday and more than 10% for the week as investors fled the technology rout.

DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.