Nasdaq rebounds 1.09% as chip stocks recover from AI rout

The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.09% on Friday after Thursday’s sell-off in artificial-intelligence and chip stocks pushed the exchange into correction territory, according to Fox Business. The tech-heavy index traded as much as 2% higher and finished with most of that gain, which the report rounded to 1.1%.

The rebound followed broad losses in technology and chip shares as investors weighed what Democrats’ sweeping midterm election victories could mean for AI regulation and data center development. Fox Business said the sell-off came one trading day after a broad stock rally following the midterm elections.

What did the market close show?

Fox Business reported the closing figures:

• Nasdaq Composite: up 1.09%; as much as 2% higher intraday; up 1.1% at the close, as rounded by Fox Business.
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: down 237.33 points, or 0.46%, to 51,285.73.
• S&P 500: up 0.31%.

The session therefore produced a pronounced split among the three major U.S. equity indexes, according to Fox Business. Technology supplied the strongest move, while the Dow ended lower and the S&P 500 posted a modest gain. That pattern followed a day when investors treated the election result as a new policy variable for AI and data-center stocks.

How broad was the chip recovery?

The semiconductor index rallied 4.2%, Fox Business reported. Nvidia rose 2.8%, Advanced Micro Devices gained 11%, and Sandisk rebounded by almost 4%. AMD’s 11% advance was nearly four times Nvidia’s 2.8% gain, making it the largest move among the three chip stocks named in the recap.

Shares across the sector opened strongly and retained much of their gains through the close, according to the report. That pattern gave the semiconductor recovery more weight than a brief opening rally. It also put the prior day’s losses at the center of the Nasdaq rebound, although the report did not publish index weights or quantify each stock’s contribution.

The sector’s move therefore reflected a broad reset rather than a single-name spike, according to Fox Business. The index-level gain and advances across Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Sandisk show that the rebound extended across several chip names.

What did investors price after the midterms?

Thursday’s technology and chip sell-off centered on an election-driven reassessment, according to Fox Business. Investors were weighing what Democrats’ sweeping midterm victories could mean for AI regulation and data center development. The report framed the political result as the source of the immediate market catalyst.

“The obvious catalyst for the sharp selloff is that markets are pricing in the midterm results, after yesterday saw markets rise across the board as the political risk premium unwound,” eToro market analyst Jakub Rochlitz said.

Rochlitz’s explanation placed the reversal immediately after a broad post-election advance. His wording matters for the market context: the political risk premium had receded, then the election result entered market pricing. For AI and data-center stocks, the report framed the exposure as political, with regulation and development conditions the two named areas of concern.

That distinction keeps the labor-market release separate from the stated catalyst. Fox Business reported payrolls on Friday, but Rochlitz identified the midterm results as the obvious catalyst for Thursday’s sell-off. The source did not present the employment figures as the trigger for either the Thursday decline or Friday’s recovery.

Which other technology shares rebounded?

Tesla and SpaceX also recovered from Thursday’s plunge, according to Fox Business. Tesla rose 4.2%, while SpaceX rose 8.6%. The report included both among technology shares bouncing back with the broader market. It did not assign a company-specific reason for either move.

Which company moves broke from the pattern?

Atlassian moved against the broad technology rebound. The software company fell 16% after reporting first-quarter results, even as the Nasdaq and semiconductor index advanced, according to Fox Business. Its decline supplied the clearest company-specific downside in the report.

Fox Business reported that Airbnb climbed 12% after the vacation-rental platform raised its full-year 2026 revenue growth forecast. The catalyst pointed beyond the current quarter and toward the rest of 2026. The report did not disclose the prior forecast, the revised range or any other revenue figures.

Together, Atlassian and Airbnb show how much company information still mattered inside a broad market move. One stock fell on quarterly results; the other rose on higher revenue guidance. Their moves sat alongside a wider recovery in technology and semiconductor shares, not as substitutes for it.

What did October payrolls show?

U.S. payrolls data released on Friday showed the economy added 165,000 jobs in October, well above the economists’ estimate of 65,000, according to Fox Business. The unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.1%. The employment figures supplied a stronger signal than analysts had expected, while the jobless rate also moved in the favorable direction.

“The encouraging news is more industries are hiring again and more people are looking for work as they see opportunities growing,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “The Achilles Heel is that wages are still well below inflation, but wage growth came in stronger than expected in October.”

Long’s assessment matched the payroll release on hiring and unemployment but retained an inflation caveat. The source presented three concrete signals: 165,000 added jobs, a 4.1% unemployment rate and wage growth that exceeded expectations. It also presented one unresolved weakness: wages remained below inflation.

The contrast prevents a one-sided reading of the report. Employment ran ahead of forecast, unemployment edged lower and October wage growth strengthened. Yet Long still identified the gap between wages and inflation as the economy’s Achilles Heel.

Timing did not turn the jobs report into the market’s stated catalyst. It arrived during Friday’s session, yet Fox Business presented it as a separate economic release while Rochlitz tied Thursday’s sell-off to the midterm pricing. Investors faced a stronger labor-market reading alongside unresolved policy risk for AI regulation and data-center development.

What does the rebound leave unresolved?

Friday’s recovery narrowed the immediate damage but did not settle the policy question behind Thursday’s losses. The Nasdaq’s 1.09% gain, the semiconductor index’s 4.2% rise and gains in Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Sandisk, Tesla and SpaceX showed a rapid reset in sentiment. The report still left the regulatory and development consequences of the Democratic sweep unresolved.

The next test for AI and data-center stocks is how investors update their regulatory assumptions after the Democratic sweep, a question the Friday rebound did not settle.