Nasdaq falls 1.1% as Wall Street gains fade and technology stocks come under pressure

Key Facts

The Nasdaq Composite ended the November 2 session down 272.68 points, or 1.1%, at 25,164.32, as technology and artificial intelligence stocks remained under pressure, according to the Associated Press. The S&P 500 fell 38.67 points, or 0.5%, to 7,541.40. By contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 213.67 points, or 0.4%, to 51,983.98. The session showed a divergence among the indexes, with gains across most of the market while technology-heavy stocks remained under pressure. The S&P 500 had risen as much as 1.1% earlier before erasing its gains and ending the session lower.

About 7 in 10 companies in the S&P 500 rose during the session, but that breadth did not prevent the index from falling as technology and artificial intelligence stocks reversed course. The Associated Press said the market performed better outside those two areas, while the index's morning rally faded. That followed a loss of about 1.8% for the S&P 500 in the Friday, October 30 session, a 2.9% drop in the Nasdaq and a 572-point, or 1.1%, decline in the Dow. Friday was the S&P 500's worst day since June and came during its third consecutive losing week. For the month, the S&P 500 technology sector fell 6.8% in October, its biggest monthly decline since March 2025, despite gains in 9 of the 11 sectors.

Oil was a source of support for companies with large fuel bills after Brent crude fell 7.6% to $104.77 a barrel in the November 2 session, according to the Associated Press. United Airlines rose 4.8%, Southwest Airlines gained 3.6% and cruise operator Carnival advanced 4.2%. The stocks benefited from lower fuel costs, while the gains did not extend to the large technology stocks that carry significant weight in the indexes. Technology accounts for 38% of the S&P 500's weighting, according to Reuters, making its moves influential in the broader index's trajectory. Travel-related companies therefore rose as the index erased its early gains.

Volatility in artificial intelligence stocks was evident in Nvidia, which swung from an early gain of 2.6% to a 1.3% loss at the close, after falling 4.2% in the previous Friday's session. Marvell Technology fell 12.7% after the company announced its purchase of Lumentum, whose shares dropped 18.6%. The Associated Press said Marvell will pay 4.5 of its shares for each Lumentum share. Lumentum sells lasers and other products used in networking and artificial intelligence and cloud computing infrastructure. According to the Associated Press, concerns are growing that major technology companies' spending on artificial intelligence data centers may not deliver enough productivity and profits to justify the investment, while Reuters said investors have begun to question whether returns will match the scale of spending.

Intel's results offered a mixed picture of the chip market: the company reported revenue of $16.5 billion in the third quarter of 2026, up 21% year over year, according to its filing. But revenue from its Client Computing and Physical AI Group fell 5% to $8.1 billion, while revenue from its Data Center and AI Group rose 78% to $7.3 billion. Intel said in its filing that demand for its products in the client market declined in the third quarter compared with the first half of 2026. It attributed that to higher industry component prices, particularly memory, tight IT budgets and more stringent inventory management. The company expects these trends to worsen in the fourth quarter of 2026 and continue through 2027; its shares had closed at $65.76 on October 30, according to L7 data.

Investors are turning their attention after the session to U.S. labor market data scheduled for this week. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics scheduled the September Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report for November 3, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. It also scheduled the October Employment Situation report for November 6 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The dates follow a session in which gains among most stocks were not enough to offset pressure from technology and artificial intelligence on the indexes. The upcoming data put the labor market among the week's key events for trading.