S&P 500 Plunges 3.8%, Circuit Breaker Nears — SkimNews
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- S&P 500 plunged as much as 3.8% Thursday, wiping out Wednesday’s 1.6% post-midterm gain; the Dow had jumped more than 1,500 points the day before, and the index remained above the 7% circuit-breaker threshold.
- New York Stock Exchange rules set the first 15-minute halt at a 7% decline, or 7,150.41 points, before 3:25 p.m. ET; later thresholds were 13% at 6,689.09 and 20% at 6,150.89, with the final halt lasting through the rest of the day.
- Nasdaq Composite fell nearly 5% around 11 a.m. ET; Nvidia lost more than 6%, and the broader semiconductor index plunged nearly 11%.
- Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote Bank said there was going to be scrutiny of the aggressive AI buildout; AI-infrastructure companies were under pressure as investors linked the Democratic Party’s midterm victories to tighter data-center oversight.
- Trump said Wednesday that the stock market had reached a record high and 401(k)s were “through the roof”; Thursday’s plunge came less than 24 hours later.
- Bitcoin fell below $76,000; Decrypt reported about $428 million in leveraged crypto longs liquidated within an hour, while The Block separately put crypto liquidations above $1 billion.
- Federal Reserve policy was in focus alongside persistent inflation concerns, with investors awaiting Friday’s October employment report for clues about the next interest-rate decision.
Why it matters: Nvidia shareholders and crypto traders bore losses: Nasdaq was nearly 5% lower, Nvidia fell more than 6%, and about $428 million in leveraged longs were liquidated within an hour. The first circuit breaker was 3.2 percentage points away; reaching it meant a 15-minute U.S. exchange halt, while concern about scrutiny of AI infrastructure after Democratic victories was a pressure point.
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