Nasdaq 100 falls over 4% as chip stocks drop a day after the midterm rally

The Nasdaq 100 fell over 4% on Thursday morning as chip and data center stocks sold off a day after the midterm rally.

The S&P 500 was down 2% and the Dow 1%, as of 10:16 a.m. ET. On Wednesday the S&P 500 had its biggest one-day gain in three months after the Democrats won Congress.

The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 7.5%, its second straight day of losses. The steepest drops among chipmakers:

• AMD (AMD): down 13%
• Micron Technology (MU): down 11%
• Arm Holdings (ARM): down 11%
• Qualcomm (QCOM): down 9%
• Nvidia (NVDA): down 6%, to $188

Qualcomm reported results on Wednesday that beat estimates, but its profit forecast for this quarter fell short. Its handset chip sales dropped 26% as higher memory costs pushed phone makers to raise prices.

Arm expects revenue of about $1.54B this quarter. That matched the average estimate, but some analysts had expected close to $1.7B, Bloomberg reports.

Micron has halted work on a $4.5B memory plant in Taiwan over a labor dispute, Bloomberg reports.

The selloff reached the companies that build and rent out AI computing capacity. Nebius Group (NBIS) fell 14%, Dell Technologies (DELL) 11% and CoreWeave (CRWV) 10%.

These stocks have fallen since Tuesday's vote, when Democrats also won in states where opposition to data centers is growing. "Data center pauses will slow the pace of buildout into 2028," UBS strategists wrote, with about 30% of the capacity planned for 2028 at risk.

Big Tech, which some investors saw as a winner from a slower buildout, fell too. Microsoft (MSFT) was down 2% and Meta Platforms (META) 5%.

Sources & Further Reading

1. "Nasdaq falls at open after midterms-fueled surge as chip, data center stocks fall." Reuters. November 5, 2026.
2. "Qualcomm stock drops 7% on weak earnings forecast as memory shortage weighs on smartphone sales." CNBC. November 4, 2026.
3. "Arm Holdings Q2 2027 Earnings Release." Arm Holdings. November 4, 2026.
4. "Arm Forecast Meets Estimates as Data Center Sales Offset Smartphone Decline." Bloomberg. November 4, 2026.
5. "Micron Pauses Work on $4.5 Billion Taiwan Plant After Labor Spat." Bloomberg. November 5, 2026.