The S&P 500 closed Thursday at 7,353.73, down 2.8% from its election day level. Wednesday's post-midterm rally, the Dow's biggest post-midterm gain in 44 years, lasted one session.
A 12.25% collapse in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index to 9,011.14, drove the reversal. A drop that large in the SOX is rare in daily exchange data.
The S&P's 4.36% loss was its steepest since the April 2025 tariff shock. The selloff erased roughly $2.5 trillion in Nasdaq market value.
The Dow shed 1,833 points to 51,523, more than reversing Wednesday's entire 1,569-point rally. The Nasdaq fell 5.52% to 24,315, entering correction territory.
All eleven S&P sectors finished lower, with technology down 7.3%. The index now sits roughly 6% below its October 6 record.
Nvidia fell 9.26% to $181.60, slipping below its $186.50 year-end 2025 close. Every cent of the stock's 2026 gain is gone.
AMD and Micron each fell roughly 17%. Qualcomm dropped about 10%, extending Wednesday's after-hours slide on a 26% decline in handset revenue.
Democrats' midterm sweep added a regulatory layer to the earnings damage. The new Texas governor ran on a data-center moratorium.
That political risk now compounds the chip-sector weakness heading into Friday.
Treasuries absorbed the equity outflows. The 10-year yield fell about 5 basis points to 4.84%.
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The 2-year dropped 8 basis points to 4.50%. The 30-year slipped 3 basis points to 5.25%.
The 10-year has now declined roughly 50 basis points from its October peak near 5.37%. The VIX touched 28.09 intraday, its highest since March 31.
Thursday's BLS release reinforced the bond bid: nonfarm productivity rose 3.6% versus 2.8% consensus, and unit labor costs fell 0.7%. Both now weaken the case for a December hike.
Oil bucked the equity rout. WTI crude settled at $90.52 on Nymex, up 2.72% on renewed Iran supply concerns but still about 13% below last Friday.
Gold settled at $4,102.50 per ounce on Comex, up about 1%, on the same safety flows that pulled yields lower. Jobless claims fell to 189,000, a 57-year low, but that figure barely registered.
Oil and gold rising alongside falling yields points to distinct risks, not a single story Friday's data can resolve.
October nonfarm payrolls arrive at 8:30 a.m. ET. Consensus is 65,000, up from September's 29,000.
The unemployment rate stood at 4.2% in September. A weak print would layer recession fears onto the regulatory risk already priced into chips.
A strong number could steady equities but would also revive December hike expectations that Thursday's productivity data softened. The wide gap between consensus and September's dismal 29,000 leaves room for surprise in either direction.
