American stocks suffered their steepest selloff in more than a year on Thursday, with the S&P 500 dropping 4.36% and the Nasdaq 100 plunging 6.36% as the retreat from artificial-intelligence stocks spread across Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 1,800 points, erasing the previous day's post-election rally.
Thursday's closing levels told the story of a broad reversal: the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.36% to 26,629.81, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.52% to 24,315.00, the S&P 500 lost 4.36% to 7,353.73, and the Dow fell 1,833.06 points, or 3.44%, to 51,523.06. The S&P 500 posted its worst daily decline since April 4, 2025, and Thursday's losses more than wiped out Wednesday's gains, when the Dow had risen about 1,570 points and the S&P 500 had advanced 1.58%.
The Nasdaq 100 finished 14.7% below its October 6 record close of 31,224.47, and would need another 6.2% decline to reach the conventional bear-market threshold. The broader Nasdaq Composite was already in correction territory, ending 11.9% below its own October 6 record close.
The Cboe Volatility Index, widely known as Wall Street's fear gauge, jumped nearly 70% from Wednesday's close. A VIX quote at 4:09 p.m. Eastern time put the index at 28.09, up 69.1% from Wednesday's 16.61 close. Investors who had initially welcomed the midterm election outcome turned their attention to the threat that tighter limits on data-center construction could slow one of the stock market's biggest growth engines.
Losses were particularly severe among the companies supplying the AI infrastructure buildout. Nvidia fell 9.3% to $181.60, Advanced Micro Devices dropped 17.3% to $404.40, and SanDisk sank 22.3% to $806.43. Cloud providers also retreated, with Nebius losing 14.9% and CoreWeave falling 9.8%, while Tesla dropped 10.8%. There were still sharp stock-specific gains — AppLovin rose 31.0% — but they offered little cushion against losses in the much larger companies that dominate the major indexes. Treasury prices rose as equities fell, with the benchmark 10-year yield slipping about six basis points to roughly 4.84%. Friday brings the next major test: the Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish October's employment report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
