Market Summary

U.S. equities sold off sharply at midday on Thursday, November 5, 2026, with the technology complex bearing the brunt. As of 12:05 ET, the S&P 500 sat at 7426.25 (-262.44, -3.41%), the Nasdaq Composite at 24568.95 (-1187.95, -4.61%), and the Dow at 51979.94 (-1376.39, -2.58%). All three averages were carving out fresh session lows. The Nasdaq entered correction territory, more than 10% below its October 6 closing high. The S&P 500 surrendered all of Wednesday’s gains, and all 11 S&P 500 sectors were negative.

The driver was a second straight session of intense selling in semiconductors and AI infrastructure names. The PHLX Semiconductor Index fell 9.7% and the information technology sector dropped 5.7%. Unlike Wednesday, when the weakness was confined to chips and AI infrastructure, the selling spread to mega-cap stocks and hyperscalers. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF was down 4.2% at 11:25 ET. Concerns persist that Democratic control of Congress could mean tighter regulation and a slower AI buildout. Crude oil rebounding toward and above $90 per barrel added another headwind. The VIX surged 42.8% to 23.72.

The session also marked a reversal of Wednesday’s rotation. On Wednesday, consumer-oriented and defensive areas led after the midterms, while semiconductors lagged. Today there was nowhere to hide. Consumer discretionary was hit by stock-specific news, and the Russell 2000 (-3.3%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (-2.7%) also fell firmly. Breadth was lopsided, with decliners far outnumbering advancers on both major exchanges.

Market Snapshot

Indices (12:05 ET)

S&P 500: 7426.25, -262.44 (-3.41%)
Nasdaq Composite: 24568.95, -1187.95 (-4.61%)
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 51979.94, -1376.39 (-2.58%)
Russell 2000: -3.3% (as of 11:25 ET)
S&P Mid Cap 400: -2.7% (as of 11:25 ET)
VIX: 23.72, +42.8% (Wednesday close: 16.78)

Exchange Breadth (Briefing.com)

NYSE: Advancers 385, Decliners 2,237, Volume 470.12 million
Nasdaq: Advancers 743, Decliners 3,592, Volume 6.76 billion

WaveFinder Breadth

Primary sentiment: Bearish (Bulls 591 / Bears 1,299)
4% sentiment: Extreme Bearish (Bulls 118 / Bears 1,198)
40 SMA sentiment: Bearish
Above 20 SMA: 55%
Above 40 SMA: 54.12%
9M Bulls 20 / Bears 144; 9M Bull Follow-Through: 9.3%

Sector Performance

Briefing.com Industry Watch listed no strong sectors. Weak sectors were Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Communication Services, Materials and Financials. Only two sector figures are available from the 12:05 ET update, and the others are intraday readings from earlier updates.

Ranked from weakest to strongest, based on available data:
1. Information Technology: -5.7% (12:05 ET), the weakest by a wide margin. The semiconductor index was down 9.7%.
2. Consumer Discretionary: -4.4% (11:05 ET). The ranking of the remaining sectors is not available with percentages.
3. Industrials, Communication Services, Materials, Financials: flagged as weak, with no percentage figures provided.
4. Energy, Consumer Staples, Health Care, Utilities, Real Estate: no 12:05 ET performance figures are provided. At 11:25 ET, energy was +0.9% and consumer staples +0.3%, the only gainers then. By 12:05 ET all 11 sectors were negative.

WaveFinder Sector ATR (volatility)

Technology: -3.01% (falling, P0)
Consumer Discretionary: 1.34% (rising, P79)
Communication Services: -0.56% (rising, P95)
Financials: 0.12% (rising, P95)
Industrials: -0.96% (flat, P42)
Health Care: 2.36% (flat, P47)
Energy: -1.42% (falling, P0)
Consumer Staples: 3.01% (rising, P89)
Materials: 0.81% (rising, P53)
Utilities: 2.98% (rising, P74)
Real Estate: 1.22% (rising, P95)

Key Earnings & Movers

Decliners

Arm Holdings (ARM): 167.89, -23.91 (-12.47%). Revenue grew 27% year over year and data center royalties doubled. Smartphone weakness, higher expected operating expenses and modest overall royalty growth tempered enthusiasm.
Qualcomm (QCOM): 155.80, -17.40 (-10.04%) at 10:30 ET. Q4 results narrowly beat, but Q1 guidance was mixed.
NVIDIA (NVDA): 187.07, -13.06 (-6.53%) at 10:30 ET, falling into bear market territory.
CoreWeave (CRWV): 42.53, -5.89 (-12.16%), lowest since May 2025.
Roundhill Neocloud ETF (NCLD): 12.03, -1.96 (-14.01%), a fresh record low.
Tesla (TSLA): 343.12, -42.07 (-10.92%).
SpaceX (SPCX): 121.16, -14.76 (-10.86%).
DoorDash (DASH): 167.55, -31.04 (-15.63%). Amazon announced a partnership with Uber to integrate Uber Eats into its shopping platform for Prime members.
Amazon (AMZN): 254.62, -11.41 (-4.29%).
Uber (UBER): 67.96, -1.91 (-2.73%).
Expedia (EXPE): 278.77, -37.11 (-11.75%). Its Q4 outlook pointed to slowing growth and margin compression.
Booking Holdings (BKNG): 165.86, -5.11 (-2.99%).
Other post-earnings losers named this morning: Zillow (ZG), Dutch Bros. (BROS), Snap (SNAP) and Cava (CAVA). No prices were provided.

Winners

Morning Page One named Applovin (APP), Unity Software (U), Warby Parker (WRBY), Sunrun (RUN) and Tapestry (TPR) as among the biggest post-earnings winners. No prices were provided.
Homebuilders showed relative resilience, with the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF down just 1.0% after surging 7.6% Wednesday.

Wednesday’s close for context

Microsoft: 555.80, +6.68%
AMD: 488.78, +1.01%
GE Vernova: 832.85, -9.30%
Comfort Systems: 1089.89, -15.19%
CVS Health: 79.96, -12.53%, on plans to separate into two public companies by the first half of 2028
3M: 193.95, +9.55%, on a PFAS settlement and a $6 billion buyback

Stock Spotlight

Qualcomm (QCOM) is the most significant single-stock story in the supplied Story Stocks data. The stock fell 10.04% to 155.80 as handset weakness and margin pressure overshadowed progress in diversification. Q4 EPS fell 28% year over year to $2.17, beating by a penny. Revenue of $10.32 billion declined 8.4%. Handset revenue dropped 26% to $5.14 billion on elevated memory costs weighing on smartphone demand and the Apple modem transition, though management said China Android revenue bottomed in June and has improved sequentially.

The bright spots were automotive, where revenue jumped 89% to $1.99 billion and exited FY26 at an $8 billion annualized run rate against a prior $7 billion expectation, and IoT, up 4% to $1.89 billion. Data center is on track, with more than $650 million of Q1 revenue expected from two hyperscaler customers including Amazon, and management reaffirmed its $5 billion FY27 target. The problem is profitability. QCT EBT margin contracted 500 bps year over year to 24%, and Q1 is guided to 20-22%, including a roughly 3 point hit from folding in data center. Q1 EPS guidance of $2.15-$2.35 sits slightly below the $2.25 midpoint expectation, while revenue guidance of $10.4-$11.2 billion is above the $10.8 billion midpoint. Briefing.com’s view is that investors want more evidence diversification can translate into stronger earnings growth.

Bond Market & Treasuries

The most recent yield check available is from 08:54 ET, before the equity selloff. It does not capture any midday safe-haven flows.

2-year: 4.62% (+3 bps)
3-year: 4.67% (+3 bps)
5-year: 4.71% (+3 bps)
10-year: 4.91% (+1 bp); note price -5/32 at 4.904%
30-year: 5.28% (unchanged)

On Wednesday, Treasuries rallied, sending yields on the 10-year and shorter tenors to their lowest closing levels since early September, with sliding oil offering support. The 10-year closed around 4.894% on a price gain of 12/32. Overnight, early Treasury gains faded as the Bank of England raised rates 25 bps to 4.00% (8-1 vote, as expected) and oil rose. The BoE projects CPI inflation near 5% by mid-2027. USD/JPY was 158.45, EUR/USD 1.1219, and the Dollar Index 101.61.

Commodities

WTI crude: +1.5% to $89.48/bbl in early trade. It later reclaimed the $90 mark as of 11:25 ET, recovering part of Wednesday’s decline, when it settled $7.93 lower (-8.3%) at $88.23, down more than 15% week to date.
Gold: +1.4% to $4,128.90/oz.
Copper: -0.5% to $6.395/lb.
Silver: not provided in the data.

Overseas Markets

No Asian or European equity index performance data was provided, so index levels and moves cannot be reported. Overnight developments that were provided:

Bank of England: raised rates 25 bps to 4.00%.
Bank of Japan: September minutes showed members agreed more rate hikes are needed.
Germany: September Factory Orders +4.4% m/m (expected +4.6%; prior -10.1%).
France: September Industrial Production -0.5% m/m (expected +0.3%).
Eurozone: September PPI +2.5% m/m, +11.1% y/y (expected +10.9%).
Japan: October Services PMI 51.7 (expected 52.0).
Australia: September trade balance AUD 2.826 billion (expected AUD 0.940 billion).
U.K.: October Construction PMI 43.6 (expected 46.4).
Construction PMIs: weak across Europe, with Germany at 41.6, France at 38.8 and the Eurozone at 42.5.

Economic Data

Initial jobless claims (week ending Oct. 31): 189,000, down 6,000 and below the 197,000 consensus. This is the lowest level since July. Continuing claims rose 23,000 to 1.718 million. Briefing.com’s takeaway is that layoff activity is minimal and employers see demand as solid.
Q3 nonfarm productivity: +3.6% (consensus 3.1%), following an upwardly revised 2.1% in Q2.
Q3 unit labor costs: -0.7% (consensus +1.4%), following an upwardly revised +1.9% in Q2. The combination of higher productivity and curbed labor cost inflation is positive for corporate earnings.
Market impact: The data helped support rotation into lower-beta names in the premarket, but it was overwhelmed by the AI-driven selloff during the session.
Natural gas inventories were scheduled for 10:30 ET (prior +80 bcf). The result is not provided.

Looking Ahead

The supplied data does not include a calendar of next-session events, earnings or economic releases, so none are listed. Themes to watch:

Whether semiconductor and AI infrastructure selling stabilizes after back-to-back sessions of heavy losses and the Nasdaq’s correction.
The VIX, which is above 20 at 23.72, and whether the S&P 500 can reclaim its 50-day moving average (7693 as of Wednesday).
Political developments after the midterms, including tariff relief, a possible resolution to end the Iran war, and Strait of Hormuz tensions, as these continue to drive oil.
Oil, which is back around $90 per barrel.
Any follow-through on the policy-driven AI regulation concerns, and Needham’s thesis that restrictions could favor established hyperscalers.
Per Briefing.com’s October 23 commentary, the macro backdrop of elevated rates, a Fed that has raised rates, and a 2027 earnings growth deceleration to 15.8% from 33% in 2026.