Nasdaq rallies as chip stocks recover from brutal losses

The Nasdaq Composite climbed on Friday after a sell-off hit artificial intelligence stocks and sent the exchange into correction territory during the prior trading session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.09%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 237.33 points, or 0.46%, to 51,285.73. The S&P 500 was up 0.31%.

Technology and chip stocks were among those hardest hit on Thursday as investors weighed what Democrats' sweeping midterm election victories could mean for AI regulation and data center development.

On Friday, megacap and growth stocks were mixed. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

On Friday, megacap and growth stocks were mixed. Nvidia added 6.5%, after suffering its worst day since January 2025 when the emergence of low-cost Chinese AI model DeepSeek rattled Wall Street.

Chip stocks staged a recovery, with broader semiconductor index rising over 6%, after plunging over 12% in the previous session. AMD, Intel, and Micron Technology were up between 7% and 13%.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
NVDA	NVIDIA CORP.	186.64	+5.04	+2.78%
AMD	ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC.	449.04	+44.64	+11.04%
INTC	INTEL CORP.	56.28	+4.03	+7.71%
MU	MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC.	690.00	+33.61	+5.12%

The sell-off came just one day after stocks rallied following the midterm elections.

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"The obvious catalyst for the sharp selloff is that markets are pricing in the midterm results, after yesterday saw markets rise across the board as the political risk premium unwound," eToro market analyst Jakub Rochlitz said.

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. (Reuters)

U.S. payrolls data released on Friday showed the economy added 165,000 jobs in October, blowing past economists' estimate of a gain of 65,000. The unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.1%.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	51285.73	-237.33	-0.46%
SP500	S&P 500	7376.86	+23.13	+0.31%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	24579.424792	+264.43	+1.09%

"The encouraging news is more industries are hiring again and more people are looking for work as they see opportunities growing," said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. "The Achilles Heel is that wages are still well below inflation, but wage growth came in stronger than expected in October."

FOX Business' Sophia Compton and Reuters contributed to this report.