[New York Stock Market] Stocks plunge across the board as AI theme collapses on 'Black Thursday'; Nasdaq enters correction territory

[Financial News]  

The New York stock market was swept up in massive aftershocks on the 5th (local time), two days after the U.S. midterm elections.
Amid concerns that AI investment could stall as Democrats turn to tighter regulation, AI-themed stocks—including semiconductor stocks that had driven the market's rise—tumbled.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunged 5.5%, while the Nasdaq-100, made up of 100 large-cap technology stocks, fell 6.4%.
SOXL, a leveraged ETF that invests in 30 major semiconductor stocks, plunged 39%.
Losses widened as the day wore on, showing that investor fear had reached a peak.
However, there was a slight uptick in after-hours trading following the close of regular trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), comprising 30 large-cap blue-chip stocks, plunged 1,833.06 points (3.44%) from the previous session to 51,523.06.
The tech-heavy S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell even further. The S&P 500 plunged 334.89 points (4.36%) to 7,353.73, while the Nasdaq tumbled 1,421.52 points (5.52%) to 24,315.00.
The Nasdaq entered correction territory after recording its steepest one-day decline since April last year. A drop of 10% or more from a previous high is classified as a correction, while a drop of 20% or more is considered a bear market.
The Nasdaq-100 plunged 1,807.36 points (6.36%) to 26,629.81. TQQQ, a leveraged ETF that tracks three times the index's daily moves, collapsed by $11.77 (18.92%) to $50.47.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index (VIX), known as the 'Wall Street fear gauge,' surged 70%. It jumped 11.54 points (69.48%) to 28.15. In a single day, the psychologically important 20 mark was easily breached.

Semiconductor stocks plunged on the day. The selloff was fueled by concerns that if Democrats become the majority party in the new Congress in January next year, data center construction could be disrupted, hurting semiconductor supply as well.
Sector leader NVIDIA plunged $18.53 (9.26%) to $181.60, while Micron fell $138.84 (17.46%) to $656.39.
AMD plunged $84.38 (17.26%) to $404.40, while SK hynix's American depositary receipt (ADR) sank $19.17 (13.40%) to $123.90.
The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) plunged $8.10 (17.96%) to $37.01. Its decline was steeper than that of the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), which includes non-memory stocks and fell $18.24 (12.15%) to $131.90.
Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (SOXL), a leveraged ETF that tracks three times the daily share-price moves of 30 major semiconductor stocks, plunged $25.81 (38.71%) to $40.87.

Neocloud stocks, a core part of the AI theme, also collapsed.
CoreWeave plunged $4.76 (9.83%) to $43.66, while Nebius sank $21.15 (14.94%) to $120.37.
The Australian company IREN plunged $3.68 (16.95%) to $18.03.

Big Tech stocks generally held up well. Their losses were not as steep as those of other stocks.
Alphabet's Class A shares fell $6.36 (2.20%) to $282.57, while Apple dropped $5.34 (1.53%) to $344.17 at the close.
Microsoft (MS) fell $19.87 (3.58%) to $535.93, while Amazon dropped $5.82 (2.19%) to $260.21 at the close.
Meta Platforms plunged $24.92 (3.96%) to $605.08.
All were hit less hard than the Nasdaq, which fell more than 5%.
By contrast, Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX were hit hard.
Tesla plunged $41.50 (10.77%) to $343.69, while SpaceX tumbled $12.30 (9.05%) to $123.62.
Palantir, which has maintained close ties with the Donald Trump administration, also sank $16.71 (9.73%) to $154.99.

[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter