By Andrew Moran
Contributing Writer
U.S. tech stocks attempted to rebound on Friday, capping a volatile week after the Nasdaq suffered its steepest selloff in 19 months.
The Nasdaq Composite Index rose about 400 points, or 1.7%, at 10:16 a.m. EST on Friday, though the tech-heavy benchmark remained on track for a weekly decline.
The worst single-session performance since the April 2025 tariff shock was widely linked to concerns that midterm blue-wave results could slow the pace of data-center expansion across the United States.
The Magnificent Seven stocks, which lost approximately $1 trillion a day earlier, were also looking to recover. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Tesla Motors were up. Microsoft and Apple remained in the red.
President Donald Trump also weighed in on the market selloff, attributing the decline to the Democratic victory earlier this week.
“Such a sad thing to watch! It took so much work to get us to a level that no one has ever seen before, and then this. Your 401(k)s have, therefore, dropped,” Trump said in a Thursday Truth Social post.
But while a temporary hiccup is expected, the artificial intelligence spending boom will likely continue heading into the new year, said Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO of Laffer Tengler Investments.
“Data centers will ultimately not be as negatively impacted as many expect (they will engage in a charm offensive and remind politicians they pay taxes, lots of them), but the big winners will be the hyperscalers and stocks overall,” Laffer said in an emailed statement. “I think you’ll see the left move more to the center on this issue.”
The other leading stock market benchmarks — the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broad-market S&P 500 — opened mixed.
The Dow and S&P 500 rose nearly 100 points.
The overall third-quarter earnings season has been strong, but the Magnificent Seven have been reporting lower earnings growth than the other 493 S&P 500 companies, according to FactSet Insights data.
“If these results hold until the end of the earnings season, this will mark the first time the ‘Magnificent 7’ companies have reported lower earnings growth than the other 493 S&P 500 companies since Q4 2022,” John Butter, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, said in a Tuesday report.
Apple beat Wall Street estimates earlier this week, reporting earnings per share of $2.10 and revenue of $114.48 billion.
Nvidia will post its third-quarter results later this month, and market watchers expect earnings per share of $2.47 and revenues of $108.82 billion, according to Trading Economics.
October Jobs, Inflation
Wall Street shrugged off the blockbuster October jobs report released on Friday.
The economy created 165,000 new jobs last month, higher than the consensus estimate of 65,000. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1%, below the market forecast of 4.2%.
Employment gains were also seen across multiple industries, led by professional and business services (70,000), health care (42,000), transportation and warehousing (25,000), and manufacturing (19,000).
“On the whole, the economy is registering healthy job growth and low unemployment,” Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, said in an emailed statement.
Next week will bring updates on inflation.
The October Consumer Price Index — scheduled for release on Tuesday — is expected to show the annual inflation rate holding steady at 3.7%, according to the Cleveland Federal Reserve. Stripping out food and energy, the 12-month core inflation rate could ease to 2.5%.
Amid resilient employment, inflation-fighting monetary policymakers are widely expected to raise interest rates in December.
U.S. Treasury bond yields were mostly higher, with the benchmark 10-year rising to around 4.87%. The 30-year remained above 5.2%. The two-year yield, which typically tracks Federal Reserve policy expectations, firmed above 4.5%.
