US Stocks Attempt Rally After $3 Trillion Tech Rout Drops S&P 500 to Worst Week Since June

Wall Street attempted to find its footing on Friday following a historic tech sell-off, but a modest late-week bounce wasn’t enough to save the benchmark indexes from their worst weekly performance since June 5. Following a Thursday rout that erased $3 trillion in market value, major indexes parted ways. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4% on Friday, while the S&P 500 gained between 0.3% and 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite rose roughly 1.6%, recovering some ground after sliding into a correction during the previous session. Thursday’s dramatic downturn saw the S&P 500 tumble more than 4%, marking its sharpest single-day drop since the April 2025 tariff crash. The crash was triggered by mounting market concerns over slowing data center construction, high financing requirements, and a potential pullback in artificial intelligence capital expenditure. Over the week, technology and energy stocks fell 7% and 11%, respectively.

Semiconductors Rebound From Historic Drop

Chipmakers led Friday’s partial recovery after bearing the brunt of the previous day’s liquidation. The PHLX Semiconductor Index bounced 4% on Friday, recovering slightly from a 12% plunge on Thursday that marked its worst single-day drop since March 2020. Individual chipmakers mirrored the broader bounce. Nvidia shares jumped 6% on Friday after dropping 9% on Thursday—its worst session since the January 2025 DeepSeek scare. AMD climbed 8% following a 17% slide, while Intel gained nearly 6% to claw back a portion of its 10% Thursday decline. Neocloud infrastructure provider Iren surged up to 20% on Friday after falling 17% in the prior session. Despite the bounce, Iren remains down more than 50% year-to-date. The former bitcoin miner, which counts Microsoft among its clients, generated $200 million in AI revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30, up from $71 million in the preceding quarter and $7 million in the year-earlier period. The broader anxiety surrounding AI spending has also affected private markets. Investors evaluating Anthropic’s upcoming initial public offering are now targetting a market valuation between $1 trillion and $1.3 trillion for the AI startup.

Strong Labor Data Meets Corporate Realignments

Friday’s trading unfolded against the backdrop of a surprisingly solid labor market report. October economic data showed nonfarm payrolls grew by 165,000 jobs, far exceeding expectations of roughly 70,000 and blowing past the 12-month average monthly gain of 48,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, beating forecasts of 4.2%. “Demand for labor is skyrocketing,” said Kevin Hassett, director of President Trump’s National Economic Council, pointing out that initial jobless claims have reached their lowest levels since World War II while job-quitting rates reflect elevated worker confidence. Outside of the tech sector, corporate strategy shifts made waves early Friday. Elon Musk announced that Tesla will pivot away from its controversial pickup, writing that “Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production.” The decision comes despite Musk’s past claim that demand for the Cybertruck was “so far off the hook, you can’t even see the hook,” backed by more than 1 million preorders.