Nasdaq falls 5.5% and Dow 1,833 points as weak chip earnings and fears of Democratic data-center curbs hit AI stocks.
Stocks fell hard on Thursday, Nov. 5, erasing Wednesday’s post-election rally. The S&P 500 fell 4.4%, its worst day since the April 2025 tariffs, per NBC, and the Nasdaq is now in a correction, 10% or more below its recent peak. NBC and Reuters tied the selling to weak chip earnings and to fears that the Democrats who won the midterms will slow data-center construction.
Indexes
Chip stocks
The chip index is the Philadelphia semiconductor index. SanDisk fell more than 22%, so its column ends in an open fade.
The Nasdaq lost more than $2 trillion in value, per NPR and the Guardian. Qualcomm and Arm had reported results Wednesday night that NBC called mixed.
Analyst Dan Ives called the “blue tidal wave across the Senate and House” “a seismic shift that will have a negative impact on the pace of the AI Revolution buildout.” Trump wrote on Truth Social that the market “crashed today because the Dumocrats had a big Tuesday.”
The recordFrom 2000 through 2025, the Nasdaq closed down 5.5% or more on 28 days, by our count of FRED data. Only two of them fell in 2021–2025.
The data centersGoldman Sachs estimates that come January, 45% of planned U.S. data-center capacity will sit in states led by Democrats who back moratoriums, per CNN. That counts where capacity sits. It does not say how much will be delayed.
Stock futures pointed lower again for Friday, Nov. 6.
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Thomas Massie will force a House vote next week on eight impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Massie told ABC he will introduce them Monday, Nov. 9, or Tuesday, Nov. 10, as a privileged resolution, which forces a House vote within two legislative days. Leaders can first move to table it, which kills it without a vote on impeachment itself.
One unnamed House Republican told Fox that Hegseth is “screwed.” Another said: “If he introduces it, it’ll pass.” Fox also reported that most House Republicans still oppose impeaching him.
“sham articles of impeachment” from “a disgruntled, defeated congressman.”Hegseth, in a nearly six-minute video posted Thursday
Massie lost his May primary after Trump endorsed his opponent, and he leaves office Jan. 3. Trump said he has “every intention to keep him.” A Trump adviser told Axios that Hegseth is “definitely on thin ice.”
The recordSince 1789, the House has impeached two Cabinet secretaries. Neither was removed. The Senate acquitted War Secretary William Belknap in 1876 and dismissed the charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024. Removal takes two-thirds of senators present, or 67 of 100. If every Democrat and independent votes to convict, at least 20 of the 53 Senate Republicans must join them.
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Trump meets his security team and says he’ll decide “soon” whether to resume full-scale strikes on Iran.
It was his first Iran meeting with his national security advisers since the midterms, Axios reported, eight months into the war. He acknowledged that the war contributed to Republicans’ midterm losses.
“I would rather not destroy the rest of the country if possible, but maybe I will have to. You’ll know soon enough.”Trump, to reporters in the Oval Office, per Axios
Qatar’s two-day draft, per Axios
- Day oneThe U.S. lifts its naval blockade and releases some frozen Iranian funds. Iran invites UN nuclear inspectors to bombed sites.
- Day twoThe Strait of Hormuz reopens. Nuclear talks resume.
Qatari mediators are still discussing it with Iran and the White House, Axios reported, citing regional sources.
The same day, Iran’s top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. He said afterward that Iran will not reopen Hormuz or negotiate until the U.S. meets its seven conditions. Central Command is finalizing plans to possibly resume major combat but has no new order, a U.S. official told Axios.
The straitHormuz carried 10.3 million barrels of oil a day in October, per early Vortexa estimates. The IEA’s 2025 average was 19.87 million.
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Colom’s Mississippi lead grows to 1,813 votes, Peltola still leads Alaska’s first-choice count by 637, and Democrats pass 250 House seats.
Mississippi has no recount that candidates can request. On Thursday, Hyde-Smith’s lawyers and the Senate GOP’s campaign arm told all 82 counties to set aside and preserve affidavit ballots, a first step toward possible legal action, The Hill reported.
MississippiScott Colom leads Cindy Hyde-Smith, 466,775 to 464,962, with about 96% counted, as of Thursday evening, Nov. 5, per ABC News and The Washington Post.
1,813 Colom’s lead
About 3,600 mail ballots still out on Wednesday, Nov. 4, per Secretary of State Michael Watson
No number Affidavit ballots, still being counted
AlaskaMary Peltola leads Dan Sullivan, 102,962 to 102,325, in first-choice votes in the state’s latest count, last updated Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 4, per the Anchorage Daily News.
637 Peltola’s lead
3,600 votes for Dan J. Sullivan, a different candidate with the senator’s name
4,846 votes for Gerald Heikes
Dan J. Sullivan and Heikes per the Division of Elections. Affidavit ballots have no reported count, so they get no bar.
Trump posted Thursday that votes for Dan J. Sullivan and Gerald Heikes should be “immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan.” He has no power over Alaska’s election procedures. A New York Times analysis of the state’s ranked-choice data says Peltola is likely to keep her lead.
The HouseDemocrats passed 250 House seats on Thursday after AP calls ousted Reps. Mike Turner and Richard Hudson, the NRCC chair, Politico reported. NBC now projects 259 Democratic seats, above the 257 the party won in 2008. NBC says the 12-point vote margin is the largest in a midterm since 1974.