Markets
Chips Bounced, but the S&P 500 Had Its Worst Week Since June
The S&P 500 rose 0.31% to 7,376.86 on Friday as chip stocks recovered part of Thursday's rout, but it still lost 2.7% on the week, its worst since June.
A day after the steepest fall in 19 months, Wall Street managed a partial repair. On Friday, November 6, the S&P 500 rose 23.13 points, or 0.31%, to 7,376.86, the Nasdaq Composite gained 264.43 points, or 1.09%, to 24,579.42, and the Russell 2000 added 0.89% to 2,754.11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the exception, down 237.33 points, or 0.46%, at 51,285.73. Over the week the S&P 500 lost about 2.7%, its worst week since June according to Yahoo Finance, the Nasdaq about 3.4% and the Dow about 0.9%.
Chips led the bounce because they had led the fall. The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose about 4.2% to 9,390.25 after Thursday's 12% plunge, which still left it about 12% lower than a week earlier. AMD gained 11.04% after losing 17.26% the day before, Intel 7.71%, Micron 5.12% and Nvidia 2.78% to $186.64. "We view Thursday's selloff as reactionary, not a fundamental reset," Jane Gibbons, an equity strategist at Jefferies, told Reuters, linking the selling to worries about AI spending, policy and inflation after the midterm elections.
Fear eased without disappearing. The Cboe Volatility Index fell about 9% to 25.64, still well above the 16.61 it closed at on Wednesday. The week's sector damage was uneven: technology lost about 7% and energy about 11%, the latter as Brent crude fell from more than $117 a barrel on October 29 to about $98. Bitcoin hardly moved on Friday and ended the US session near $75,900, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 4.86% after a stronger-than-expected October jobs report.
Earnings decided the biggest single-stock moves. Airbnb rose 11.7% to $189.99 after its revenue beat and new $12 billion buyback, Vistra 10.5% after setting its first 2027 targets, IREN 20% on a near-tripling of its AI cloud revenue and Moderna 5.3% after an unexpected profit. On the other side, Axon fell 18.2% after delayed federal drone contracts cut its outlook, and Atlassian 16.2% on a forecast of slower subscription growth.
Measured against the damage, the rebound was small. The S&P 500 recovered 23 of the 335 points it lost on Thursday, and the Nasdaq about a fifth of its 1,421-point drop, which is what a relief rally after a shock usually looks like rather than a reversal. Next week brings October consumer prices on Tuesday and results from Cisco and Applied Materials on Thursday, ahead of Nvidia's report on November 17, the date chip investors are really waiting for.