It has been a tough day for US stocks. At the time of writing, the slide is still building and the Nasdaq is down 2% on the session.
The fade was widely expected in principle, but few anticipated it would run this deep. What started as a relief rally after Nvidia’s earnings has morphed into a broad reversal across the major indices.
The early surge driven by Nvidia’s good results and strong guidance quickly evaporated. The Dow is now down 1%. The S&P 500 has fallen 1.3%. The Nasdaq Composite is off 2%. All three indices had pushed higher earlier in the day before rolling over.
Nvidia shares followed the same pattern. The stock jumped as much as 5% after the company beat Wall Street’s revenue and earnings estimates and projected stronger fourth-quarter sales. CEO Jensen Huang said demand for its Blackwell chips is off the charts and dismissed the idea of an AI bubble. Yet the strength did not hold. Nvidia slipped more than 2.3% as concerns resurfaced about stretched AI valuations, especially if the Federal Reserve holds back from another rate cut.
Other AI-linked names weakened too. Oracle and AMD were among the first to turn red before Nvidia followed.
The macro backdrop added more pressure. The shutdown-delayed September jobs report showed the economy added 119,000 jobs, ahead of forecasts. After the release, fed funds futures implied less than a 40% chance of a December rate cut, reflecting diminishing optimism that the Fed will ease again this year.
The broader picture remains uneasy. November has been a difficult month for the AI trade as investors took profits after a strong year. Through Wednesday, the S&P 500 was down about 3% for the month and the Nasdaq nearly 5%. Nvidia itself had fallen 7% in November until Thursday’s early rebound.
Crypto saw heavy selling too. Bitcoin dropped more than 5.4% to $86,514 by 19:00 GMT, extending its five-day decline to nearly 10%. The broader crypto market has followed, with no clear sign the sell-off is slowing. Bitcoin’s slide has become a drag on risk sentiment more broadly.
The theme through November has been the same. High-profile investors trimming positions in AI leaders or opening new short trades has added to the sense that the sector is vulnerable. Today’s reversal only reinforced that unease.