Europe Falls as AI Selloff Goes Global, Nasdaq Futures Bounce

Updated 15:11 UTC

The worldwide sell-off for AI stocks halted in New York on Friday, but other US stocks were still struggling. At the opening bell the Nasdaq rose 1.3 percent and the S and P 500 rose 0.4 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 percent, CNN reported. The split matched the early futures trade, when dip buyers stepped into the chip stocks hit hardest on Thursday and left the broader market behind.

Nvidia traded 5.5 percent higher at the open and SpaceX rose 4 percent, CNN reported. Both had fallen more than 9 percent on Thursday, and Nvidia's Thursday drop was its worst day since January 2025. In Europe the selling deepened through the morning in New York: the STOXX 600 was down 1.7 percent shortly after 9 a.m. ET, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 1.9 percent and the DAX in Frankfurt was down 2.4 percent. ASML, the Dutch chip equipment maker, was up 3.9 percent on Friday afternoon after falling 6.6 percent on Thursday.

The October jobs report, the test traders had been waiting for, beat forecasts by a wide margin. US employers added 165,000 jobs in October, well above the 59,000 forecast, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent from 4.2 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The stronger report did not lift the Dow, which stayed lower in early trade.

European stocks opened sharply lower on Friday, November 6, as the selloff in artificial intelligence shares that cut 5.5 percent off the Nasdaq in New York spread through Asia and into the London open. The FTSE 100 fell 164.33 points, or 1.5 percent, to 10,618.33 in early trade, and the FTSE 250 fell 0.7 percent to 24,524.52. In Frankfurt the DAX fell 1.5 percent at the open, and in Paris the CAC 40 fell 1.2 percent, Alliance News reported. The STOXX 600 fell as much as 1.6 percent, its steepest daily drop since July.

A rout that circled the globe

The selling started in New York on Thursday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.4 percent, the S and P 500 fell 4.4 percent and the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5 percent in its worst session since April 2025. The Nasdaq close left it in correction territory, more than 10 percent below its recent high, and Reuters put the value wiped off S and P 500 companies at nearly 3 trillion dollars. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 12.2 percent. Reuters linked the selling to investor fear that Democratic control of Congress after the midterm sweep could bring tougher scrutiny of the AI industry and slow the data center build-out.

Asia took the next leg down on Friday. Tokyo and Seoul both closed about 6 percent lower, and Taiwan's Taiex fell 4.5 percent into a bear market, Bloomberg reported. CNBC reported that contract chipmaker TSMC fell 9.6 percent and South Korea's SK Hynix lost more than 8 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 3.8 percent.

Futures try a bounce

US futures steadied before the New York open. At 4:14 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 342 points, or 0.66 percent, while S and P 500 E-minis were up 28.5 points, or 0.39 percent, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 395.25 points, or 1.48 percent, Reuters reported. Nvidia rose 3.6 percent in premarket trade after its biggest one-day fall since January 2025, and AMD, Intel, Broadcom and Micron rose between 5 percent and 8.3 percent. The CBOE Volatility Index stood at 26.07 on Friday after its biggest one-day jump in about 19 months on Thursday.

The jobs report decides the next move

The October jobs report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (13:30 GMT), is the next test. A Dow Jones survey expects payrolls to rise by 59,000, with the unemployment rate steady at 4.2 percent. Weekly jobless claims fell to 189,000 on Thursday, matching a 57-year low, Reuters reported. Traders see a 68 percent chance that the Federal Reserve raises rates in December, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury stood at 4.83 percent early on Friday, and the pound was quoted at 1.3396 dollars, down from 1.3473 at the London close on Thursday.

Key numbers

FTSE 100 open: down 1.5 percent at 10,618.33. STOXX 600: down as much as 1.6 percent. Nasdaq on Thursday: down 5.5 percent, in correction. Nasdaq 100 futures: up 1.48 percent. Payrolls consensus: 59,000 new jobs, unemployment at 4.2 percent.