#USStocksFaceHistoricSelloff Wall Street had its roughest day in months on 5 November, and the damage was concentrated in the names that carried the AI rally. Closing prints from the Gate feed show the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) at $733.00, down 4.41%, and the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) at $647.05, down 6.49%. Reuters reported that the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% and erased about $2.5 trillion in market value, its deepest one-day drop since "Liberation Day" in April 2025. The sell-off started after the midterm results, when investors began to question how much of the AI data-center buildout could survive a Democratic Congress.

The leaders took the heaviest losses

NVIDIA closed at $181.60, down 9.26% from $200.13, and sits about 25% below its 52-week high of $243.37. AMD fell 17.26% to $404.40 from $488.78, and Broadcom dropped 10.43% to $291.53 from $325.48. Those three names show how concentrated the damage was. Meta closed at $605.08, down 3.96%, and Microsoft at $535.93, down 3.58%. Apple slipped 1.53% to $344.17, and Amazon and Alphabet each fell about 2.2%, to $260.21 and $282.57 respectively. The hyperscalers held up better than the chipmakers, but they still fell.

Why the selling spread so fast

The trigger was a fear about physical supply, not just valuations. Investors worried that a Democratic Congress and new state leaders could slow or block data-center construction. UBS estimated that nearly a third of new US data-center capacity due in 2028 could be delayed if construction pauses spread. That changes the story for the entire supply chain, from chip designers to server makers, power utilities and data-center operators. Reuters reported that chip stocks posted their second-biggest one-day fall on record, and that data-center operators like Applied Digital, Cipher Digital and IREN each tumbled more than 14%.

Rates moved the other way

Treasury yields eased as traders pushed back their expectations for the next Federal Reserve rate hike. Futures markets now price the next move no earlier than March 2027, compared with a December hike that looked likely a week ago. The 10-year yield fell about 5 to 6 basis points to roughly 4.9%. That is an unusual combination for a sell-off: falling yields did not rescue the broad market, because investors were worried about growth in the AI sector rather than about financing costs.

What the drop means for the rest of the market

The Nasdaq's decline matters because it is the index most exposed to the AI trade. The S&P 500 had been carried by the same group. When the AI leaders fall together, the market loses its main source of earnings growth, and the rest of the index struggles to compensate. The sell-off also reached into energy infrastructure. GE Vernova fell 7.4%, and Constellation Energy slipped 2.5%, as investors priced in slower data-center demand for power.

What the technicals show

QQQ closed near its session low of $647.05, after opening at $683.12. Its 52-week range runs from $554.41 to $762.86, so the ETF sits in the lower-middle of that band. SPY closed at $733.00, just above its session low of $732.71 and well above its 52-week low of $626.11. The day's close near the low, with heavy volume, is a classic sign of distribution rather than a shakeout. A sustained recovery would need a close back above Thursday's open, not just a bounce from the lows.

I did not verify moving averages or RSI for these ETFs in this pull, so I am not quoting them. Several intraday news reports gave different numbers from the closing prints. For example, one report put the S&P 500 drop at more than 3%, and another put NVIDIA's intraday loss at about 6%. The closing figures above are more reliable for the close, but check them against an official source before acting on them.
This is a sentiment and supply shock, not yet a recession signal. Earnings for the megacaps remain strong, and the lower-rate move is a support. The risk is that the AI capex story loses credibility in the next few quarters, and that the market repeats the pattern seen after earlier AI sell-offs. Watch whether NVIDIA holds its recent lows, whether the data-center delay narrative spreads beyond construction into orders, and whether the next jobs report changes the rate outlook again.
The reaction to tomorrow's jobs report will matter more than usual, because it will shape expectations for a Fed move that markets have just pushed back. Watch also for updates from data-center operators and utilities, which will show whether the buildout is actually slowing, and for any federal or state action on construction permits.
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