Nasdaq Futures Recover Partly as Chip Selloff Pauses
Nasdaq futures rose on Friday, November 6, 2026, as chip stocks steadied after a technology-led rout that had wiped nearly $3 trillion off the market value of S&P 500 companies. The rebound was partial. Futures are contracts that show where the market is expected to open, and they recovered only some of the ground lost in an AI-led selloff that had intensified in Asian trade overnight.
The slide started in semiconductors. Chipmakers sank on Thursday, November 5, on fears of tougher AI regulation, and the Nasdaq Composite ended sharply lower that day. The index posted its deepest one-day drop in 19 months and moved into correction territory, meaning it closed at least 10% below a recent peak. The selling did not stay in the United States. The AI-stock sell-off spread to European and Asian trading, and the tech rout continued in Asian markets on November 6.
Friday's session also carried a scheduled macro event. The Bureau of Labor Statistics scheduled the Employment Situation report for October 2026 for release on Friday, November 6, at 8:30 a.m. ET. Investors were bracing for the jobs data as the release approached. The monthly payrolls figure, which counts net jobs added, and the unemployment rate feed into market pricing for the Federal Reserve's policy path. A single print can therefore move bond yields and equity valuations at the same time. A strong number and a weak number can both hurt richly valued technology names, through different channels.
Concentration is the part of this story that matters most for ordinary holders. A market-cap-weighted index, which weights each company by its total stock market value, gives the largest companies the biggest weights. A drawdown concentrated in a handful of AI-linked chipmakers therefore passes straight through to index funds and retirement accounts that never chose those names individually. The S&P 500 lost nearly $3 trillion in a single technology-led episode, which means the index's headline level was being driven by a narrow group of stocks. Anyone with broad index exposure owned the same chip names, just at smaller weights.
I would be cautious about reading a futures rebound as a turn. Futures trade before the cash open and can swing on thin volume. A pause in chip selling is not the same as a recovery in chip earnings or in the regulatory outlook that triggered Thursday's move. The regulatory concern is also the least quantified piece of this story, and any attempt to put a number on that risk would be speculation.
What to watch is narrower than the headlines suggest. The first test is the 8:30 a.m. ET jobs release, which will set the tone for rate-sensitive stocks. The second is whether chip stocks hold their stabilization through the day, and whether the Asian selling fades when those markets reopen. Those are observable facts that will settle the near-term picture faster than any forecast.
