Why stocks fell on November 5, 2026: the AI selloff explained

Wall Street had its worst day in more than a year and a half on Thursday, November 5, 2026. The S&P 500 fell 4.4%, the biggest one-day drop since the "Liberation Day" tariff shock of April 2025, according to the Associated Press. Just 24 hours earlier, US stocks had posted their best day in three months.

The selloff was centered on artificial intelligence and chip stocks, and it did not hit every market the same way. South Korea and Japan fell, Hong Kong rose, and mainland China barely moved. Here is what happened and why it matters if you hold crypto.

What happened in the US

The Nasdaq ended 11.9% below the all-time high it set last month, which puts it in what traders call a correction (a drop of 10% or more from a peak). The heaviest losses came from the companies most tied to AI spending. AP reported that Nvidia fell 9.3%, AMD 17.3% and the AI cloud company CoreWeave 9.8%. Other outlets gave slightly different figures for individual stocks, which is common on a chaotic trading day.

Not everything fell. AppLovin jumped 31% after strong results and a share buyback, a reminder that a falling index doesn't mean every company is falling.

Why the AI trade cracked

News reports pointed to several worries arriving at the same time:

• Doubts about AI spending. Data centers cost huge sums to build, and borrowing is expensive. If construction slows, companies buy fewer AI chips.
• Valuation fears. Critics have argued for months that AI stocks are overpriced or forming a bubble.
• Politics. After Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, investors weighed the chance of tighter rules on AI infrastructure. Reuters reported that almost all of the 41 data-center ballot measures this week went against the server farms, and voters have raised concerns about AI and power bills.
• Weak chip earnings. Disappointing results from Qualcomm and Arm revived questions about growth in the semiconductor industry.

The day before, the mood was the opposite. On November 4 the Dow gained about 1,570 points (3%) as investors reacted to the election results and oil prices tumbled. Swings this large in both directions are a sign of an unusually nervous market.

Asia and Europe: not one global crash

A key detail about timing: Asian markets finished their Thursday session before Wall Street's plunge. Their moves reflect the chip weakness that had already begun, along with local news.

So despite headlines about a global rout, Chinese markets actually held up on the day. Investing.com, citing Reuters, credited Beijing's support for its chip industry and a People's Bank of China rate cut on a facility that funds share buybacks. How Asia responded to Wall Street's fall would only show up in the next session.

What about bitcoin and gold?

Bitcoin moved in the same direction as stocks. It rose about 3.7% to roughly $80,200 on November 4, then traded near $75,900 by the morning of November 6 in Sydney, down about 5.4%, according to an ABC Australia market snapshot. That was a live price, not a closing figure, because crypto trades around the clock and has no official close.

Gold was quoted near $4,100 an ounce. Brent crude rose 3.9% to about $98 a barrel, recovering part of the nearly 9% drop from the day before. The 10-year US Treasury yield eased to 4.84%.

What this means if you hold crypto

Crypto is often described as separate from the stock market, but in a sharp selloff it often isn't. Bitcoin tends to trade with risk assets, especially tech stocks, when investors rush to reduce risk. We look at this more closely in Crypto vs stocks: do they fall together?

A few practical points, whatever you hold:

• Leverage is what turns a bad day into a total loss. A falling price can be sat through. A liquidated margin position can't.
• Volatile days attract scammers. Be wary of anyone offering "guaranteed recovery" or a platform that promises to win back your losses. See the scams to watch for in 2026.
• Decide in advance, not during the panic. Decisions made in the middle of a 5% drop tend to be emotional ones.

Nobody knows whether this was a one-day shock or the start of something larger, and we don't make predictions. This article describes what was reported through the morning of November 6, 2026.

Sources

• AP via BNN Bloomberg: A wipeout for AI stocks sends Wall Street reeling
• Investing.com: Asia stocks mixed as chip rout triggers KOSPI trading halt
• ABC News (Australia): Markets live, November 6
• The National: Dow soars as Democrats sweep both chambers of Congress