Chip Stocks Bounce Back and the Nasdaq Gains 1.1%, but Wall Street Still Ends a Rough Week Lower

Friday's rebound won back only a slice of Thursday's losses, and a key inflation report is next.

How did the stock market do on Friday, Nov. 6?

The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.09% and the S&P 500 gained 0.31% on Friday, Nov. 6, as chip stocks bounced back from Thursday's AI-stock rout. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.46%. Even with the bounce, the S&P 500 lost about 2.7% for the week and the Nasdaq about 3.4%.

At the 4 p.m. Eastern close, the Nasdaq finished at 24,579.42, up 264.43 points. The S&P 500 ended at 7,376.86, up 23.13 points. The Dow closed at 51,285.73, down 237.33 points, according to Yahoo Finance and TheStreet. The small-company Russell 2000 rose 0.89% to 2,754.11, Yahoo Finance reported.

Friday came after a brutal Thursday. On Nov. 5, the S&P 500 fell 4.4% and the Nasdaq dropped 5.5%, their worst days since April 2025, as we covered in our story on the Nasdaq's slide into a correction. Investors worried that Democrats' wins in Congress could bring tougher AI and data-center rules.

Which stocks led the rebound?

Chipmakers, the companies that design and build the processors that power AI, did most of the lifting. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) jumped 11.04% after losing 17.26% on Thursday, StockTitan reported. Lam Research rose 8.23%, Intel gained 7.71% and Micron added 5.12%. Nvidia (NVDA) rose a smaller 2.78% after dropping 9.26% the day before, and Broadcom edged up 0.74%.

StockTitan calculated that eight large chip stocks won back just over a third of Thursday's drop on average. Not every big tech name joined in: Microsoft slipped about 1% and Apple fell about 0.5%, according to a closing recap from Capp Notes.

Some analysts saw Thursday as an overreaction. "We view Thursday's selloff as reactionary, not a fundamental reset," Jefferies equity strategist Jane Gibbons told Reuters, as quoted by StockTitan.

Why did the Dow fall while the Nasdaq rose?

The Dow tracks just 30 large companies and is weighted by share price, so it often moves differently from the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Our guide to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq explains why. On Friday, technology was the best sector in the S&P 500, up about 1.45%, while consumer staples fell about 1.28% and financials slipped about 0.59%, Capp Notes said.

Interest rates were the other force. October's jobs report showed employers added 165,000 jobs, far above the 59,000 economists polled by Dow Jones expected, and the unemployment rate stood at 4.1%. Strong hiring makes it more likely the Federal Reserve raises rates in December. Traders put the odds of a December hike above 65%, according to CME FedWatch data cited by Reuters via StockTitan. We broke down the report in our story on the strong jobs number and rate-hike odds.

The 10-year Treasury yield, a key rate that influences mortgages and other loans, rose to about 4.86% from 4.84%, Capp Notes reported.

What happened with fear, gold and oil?

Wall Street's "fear gauge," the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), fell 9.01% to 25.64, Yahoo Finance reported. That's calmer than Thursday, when it topped 28 during the day, TheStreet reported, but a reading in the mid-20s still points to nervous traders. Our VIX explainer covers what those numbers mean.

Gold futures fell about 0.8% to roughly $4,080 an ounce, and U.S. crude oil dipped about 0.2% to near $90 a barrel, according to Yahoo Finance's market data. Brent crude, the global benchmark, ended near $97.79, Capp Notes said.

What this means for your wallet

If you own an S&P 500 index fund in a 401(k) or IRA, this week probably showed up as a loss on your statement. Here's a simple example. A $10,000 balance that tracked the S&P 500 would have dropped about $270 over the week with a 2.7% decline. Friday's 0.31% gain would have added back roughly $30 of that. These figures ignore fees and dividends, and your fund's exact return may differ a little.

For long-term savers, a week like this is a reminder that stock prices can swing sharply in a few days. A drop on paper isn't a realized loss unless you sell. If you're still contributing to a retirement plan each paycheck, lower prices mean each contribution buys a few more shares.

Chip-stock swings are also bigger than the market's. AMD lost about 17% on Thursday and gained about 11% on Friday. That doesn't put it back to even: $1,000 that fell 17.26% would be worth about $827, and an 11.04% gain on that brings it to about $919. A loss takes a bigger percentage gain to make up.

What should investors watch next week?

The biggest scheduled event is the October consumer price index (CPI), the government's main inflation report, due Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, according to Capp Notes and StockTitan. A hot reading could push rate-hike odds higher. The October producer price index follows on Friday, Nov. 13. Stock markets will be open on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, Capp Notes said.

Earnings continue too, with Constellation Energy and KKR scheduled to report Monday morning, and Take-Two Interactive and Rocket Lab after the close, according to Capp Notes. Investors may also watch whether the chip rebound holds.