The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose on Friday as chip stocks bounced off heavy losses posted in the previous session on fears that a Democratic-led U.S. Congress could result in tougher AI regulation, even as the jobs report raised interest-rate hike concerns. The Nasdaq Composite logged its steepest one-day decline in 19 months on Thursday, confirming it had entered correction territory. The index was also headed for a fourth straight weekly fall. The selloff followed Democrats’ midterm election victory, including in some key data-centre states, stoking concerns that AI data-centre buildout could slow. Optimism over the sector’s rapid growth had propelled stock markets to record highs this year. On Friday, megacap and growth stocks were mixed. Nvidia added 6.5 per cent, after suffering its worst day since January 2025 when the emergence of low-cost Chinese AI model DeepSeek rattled Wall Street. Chip stocks staged a recovery, with broader semiconductor index rising over six per cent, after plunging over 12 per cent in the previous session. AMD, Intel, and Micron Technology were up between seven and 13 per cent. Meanwhile, U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased more than expected in October and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 per cent, suggesting the labour market remained resilient. “Those are strong numbers and normally that would say that the Fed would have to be more on the hawkish side,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading. “The flip side of that is that what we saw yesterday and how volatility has spiked, will the Fed want to raise interest rates in the face of a market which is teetering?” Traders added to bets that the U.S. Federal could hike rates as soon as next month, with a 78 per cent chance of a December move compared with a 70 per cent chance seen earlier. At 9:57 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 112.96 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 51,410.1, the S&P 500 gained 75.23 points, or 1.02 per cent, to 7,428.96 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 443.34 points, or 1.82 per cent, to 24,758.34. Gains in tech sector overshadowed losses elsewhere, with six of 11 major S&P 500 sectors in negative territory. Consumer staples fell the most, down 1.6 per cent, while rate-sensitive utilities slipped 0.9 per cent. Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index, eased slightly on Friday, at 23.88, after logging its biggest one-day jump in about 19 months on Thursday. Data-centre operators IREN and Applied Digital, neoclouds CoreWeave and Nebius Group and AI-exposed utilities and equipment suppliers such as GE Vernova and Constellation Energy recovered from deep losses in the last session. Elon Musk-led Tesla and SpaceX were also up 3.5 per cent and 6.2 per cent, respectively, after dropping sharply in the last two sessions. A jump in crude oil prices on Thursday had also pressured equities over concerns of energy-fuelled inflation and prospects of higher interest rates by global central banks. Brent crude futures were slightly lower on Friday. Despite the gains, oil prices were set for sharp weekly declines, putting the S&P 500 energy index on track for a more than 11 per cent weekly drop. The S&P 500 was on pace for its worst week since March 2025, when concerns regarding the Trump administration’s tariff policies had roiled global markets. Among other stock movers, software firm Atlassian dropped 11.5 per cent after reporting first-quarter results. Airbnb climbed 9.2 per cent after the vacation rental platform raised full-year 2026 revenue growth forecast. (Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Arun Koyyur)
