S&P 500 Drops 3% and Nasdaq Sinks 5% as Chip Stocks Plunge
The S&P 500 fell about 3.3% and the Nasdaq 5% by midday Thursday as chipmakers sank, wiping out the post-midterm rally. The Dow lost over 1,200 points.
Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled Thursday as a rout in semiconductor shares erased the gains from Wednesday’s post-election rally, putting the S&P 500 on course for its worst day since April 2025.
As of about 12:15 p.m. Eastern time, the S&P 500 was down 3.3%, the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost more than 1,200 points, or 2.2%, according to Yahoo Finance. The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 11%. ABC News reported the Dow down 1,220 points, after the index posted its best session in more than a year on Wednesday with a gain of more than 1,500 points.
Chipmakers lead the decline
Nvidia fell about 7%, its steepest one-day drop since April 2025, and was the largest drag on the Dow, NBC News reported. Advanced Micro Devices slid about 13%, according to the Associated Press and Investopedia. Memory and storage makers Micron, SanDisk, Western Digital and Seagate were among the S&P 500’s biggest decliners, each down by double digits.
NBC News said the selling was set off by quarterly reports from Qualcomm and Arm Holdings released Wednesday night, which investors viewed as mixed. Both stocks slid about 12%, according to NBC News. Investopedia reported Qualcomm issued a weak outlook tied to a shortage of memory components for smartphones.
The Associated Press said shares tied to data-center construction have swung for months on worries that higher borrowing costs could slow new projects, and that Democrats’ midterm gains raised the possibility of governments pausing some construction. Tesla and SpaceX also fell, Investopedia reported.
Correction territory for the Nasdaq
A 5% drop would leave the Nasdaq Composite in a correction, defined as a decline of at least 10% from a recent high, Yahoo Finance and NBC News reported. Outside stocks, Brent crude traded near $97 a barrel, Yahoo Finance said, recovering part of Wednesday’s slide, while the 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.86%, according to the AP.
Developing: Trading is still under way; index levels are intraday figures and closing numbers may differ.
Related: AppLovin Q3 2026 revenue and buyback.
Sources: Yahoo Finance, ABC News, Investopedia, Associated Press, NBC News
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