Dow surges 1,556 points past 53,000 after Democratic sweep, shaking off AI rout
Friday’s session started cautiously, with futures mixed and tech stocks edging higher as Wall Street tried to put a brutal week behind it. The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned positive in late-morning trading, helped by Nvidia, the top performer in the blue-chip index, as AI names drew some buying interest ahead of October’s jobs report.
The caution follows a week of wild swings for the Dow Jones index, which went from a 1,833-point plunge on artificial-intelligence fears to a 1,556-point surge that carried it above 53,000 after the Democratic Party’s midterm sweep. What’s left is a market healing unevenly: the Dow has recovered most of its losses, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq still sits in correction territory.
From a 1,833-point drop to a 1,556-point surge
The rally on Wednesday was one of the sharpest single moves in the Dow’s recent history. The index climbed 1,556 points, or about 3%, to touch 53,342 in afternoon trading, its best single-day gain since April 9 last year. It closed above the 53,000 mark for the first time since September 8, and the advance was the biggest post-midterm gain in 44 years, according to CNBC-TV18 and WION.
The day had started in the opposite direction. When the midterm result first landed, Dow futures crashed 479 to 690 points as markets braced for a Democratic-controlled House. Democrats went on to win 52 seats, taking full control of Congress, and President Donald Trump told reporters he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results. Sentiment flipped, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also rose, and oil prices fell more than 8%.
Why the Dow outperformed the Nasdaq
For the first time since 2022, the Dow outperformed the Nasdaq on the day. Crypto Briefing attributed the divergence to two things: a rally in energy and financial stocks, and fears that AI regulation would follow the midterm sweep, pushing technology shares toward a correction.
The Dow is a price-weighted index of 30 large publicly traded companies, with futures traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. It leans far heavier on banks, industrials and energy names than the growth-heavy Nasdaq, which is why the selloff in AI stocks hurt the latter so much more. The blue-chip index also got a tailwind from oil’s more-than-8% fall, which eased cost pressures across the economy.
The AI selloff in numbers
The rout that set up this week’s bounce was among the worst in recent memory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,833 points, or 3.44%, to 51,523.06. The S&P 500 fell 4.36% to 7,353.73, and the Nasdaq Composite crashed 5.52% to 24,315. Upstox and Within Nigeria reported that Wall Street gave back in a single afternoon everything it had gained the day before, showing how fragile the AI-led rally had become.
The decline was the Nasdaq’s worst in 19 months and pushed the index into correction territory. The trigger was concern that the boom in artificial-intelligence spending is running ahead of actual revenue, leaving Nvidia and its peers vulnerable if corporate clients trim their AI budgets.
Friday’s jobs report and the road ahead
Friday offered some tentative relief. Tech stocks edged up after the AI slowdown fears hit company values earlier in the week, and the Nasdaq attempted to recover from its worst rout in 19 months as AI stocks saw some buying. MarketWatch reported that a rally in Nvidia shares lifted the Dow into positive territory in late-morning trading.
But futures were mixed after Thursday’s lower close, which snapped the momentum from the rally. Investors were watching October’s nonfarm payrolls report, with Airbnb, Cloudflare and Lam Research among the stocks in focus as traders positioned for the data. The jobs report is the next test of whether the Dow can hold above 53,000, or whether the week’s whiplash resumes.
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