Nasdaq rebounds 1.1% but ends the week down 3.4%, as chips claw back 4.2% of Thursday's 12% rout

Wall Street took a partial breath on Friday after its worst day in more than a year. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.09% to 24,579.42, the S&P 500 gained 0.31% to 7,376.86, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 237.33 points, or 0.46%, to 51,285.73, CNBC reported. All three finished the week lower: CNBC put the Nasdaq down 3.4%, the S&P 500 down 2.7% and the Dow down 0.9%. For Thursday's session, see our close report.

The closing scoreboard

Index levels for the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow are as reported by CNBC and match Yahoo Finance closing data. The other rows are Yahoo Finance closes, and the percent changes are our arithmetic. The Dow Transports and Russell 2000 closes came from Yahoo's feed a few minutes after the bell.

The number behind the number: a bounce about a fifth the size of the fall

The Nasdaq lost 5.52% on Thursday and recovered 1.09% on Friday, which is about a fifth of the drop. It still closed 10.9% below its Oct. 6 record close (24,579.42 against the peak on our chart), so the correction label stands. The chip index did better in relative terms: it fell 12.3% Thursday and regained 4.2% Friday, roughly a third of the loss. CNBC said Micron rose 5% after a 17% decline and that Nvidia, up nearly 3% at its midday check, moved back into positive territory for the year. By the close, our Yahoo figure for Nvidia was +2.8%.

The VIX eased to 25.64 from 28.18, still well above the 16.61 it showed on Wednesday, so options markets are still pricing large moves.

Why the Dow lagged

The Dow was the one major average that fell. The jobs report is the likeliest reason it did not join the bounce, though no outlet we read says so directly, so treat this as our inference. The 165,000 October payrolls figure was far above the 59,000 economists polled by Dow Jones expected (see our jobs report story), and Treasury yields rose. The Treasury's par yield curve shows the 2-year at 4.51% on Friday, up from 4.46% on Thursday, the 10-year at 4.86% from 4.84%, and the 30-year at 5.26% from 5.25%. A faster-hiring economy keeps a December Fed rate increase in play, and higher rates weigh on the borrowing costs of industrial and transport companies. The Dow Transports index lost 1.6%, the weakest in our table.

Rotation inside the AI trade

The mood did not turn uniformly bullish. CNBC cited people familiar with the matter saying Microsoft plans to reduce its number of neocloud partners, and reported Microsoft pulling back from renting AI computing capacity from Oracle, a story Bloomberg broke. Oracle was down 2% at 1:05 p.m. per CNBC. We covered the report here. At midday CNBC listed Microchip Technology down 14% on a weak quarterly outlook and IonQ up 17% after raising its full-year revenue guidance to $505 million to $515 million.

On the cause of the underlying selloff, CNBC cites worries about a slowdown in data center construction after Democratic election wins, and quotes Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa saying "we will have laws to protect Texans" and that the state needs to stop what it is doing with data centers until there are protections. CNBC notes she and others do not take office until January. Separately, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote that the selloff in AI hardware came from lower valuation multiples, not lower earnings estimates. That is one analyst's view, but it frames the move as a repricing, not a change in orders. No law has been enacted.

Oil and gold

CNBC said WTI crude was trading near $91 a barrel and Brent above $98 during the session, with WTI down 12% on the week and Brent down 16%. It tied the oil slide to hopes for a Middle East resolution. S&P 500 energy was heading for a loss of nearly 12% on the week, the worst of the 11 sectors. Gold futures were near $4,072 an ounce at 4:25 p.m. on Yahoo Finance, about 1.0% below Thursday's $4,113.50. The dollar index rose to about 102.3 from 101.6, a gain of roughly 0.7%.

Who it actually hits

For a business owner, a 3% weekly drop in the Nasdaq shows up mostly in retirement accounts. The operational exposure sits with the trades that serve data centers. Our listings show about 25,380 independent electrical contractors and 40,729 independent HVAC businesses on file in the US. A firm with a data center project in its backlog has no filing or order cancellation to point to, but it is reasonable to ask the customer now about schedule and payment terms. Anyone with a floating-rate line should note that the 2-year yield rose on the jobs data, the opposite direction from Thursday. Our piece for restaurant owners, contractors and truckers works through the borrowing math.

What to watch next week

Volatility is still elevated, and the market is holding two competing stories: a correction in AI-linked stocks and a labor market that is stronger than forecast. Check the economic calendar for the next data releases that bear on the Fed. Our markets page carries live levels.

Sources: CNBC live updates; U.S. Treasury daily par yield curve; Yahoo Finance closing data pulled Nov. 6, 2026 after the close. Percent changes not attributed to CNBC are our arithmetic. This is market information, not investment advice.