QPOSIs the AI Stock Market Boom Running Out of Steam?
10 min read · Nov 9, 2026
QPOSTeaser: The Dow had its best post-election day in 44 years on Wednesday, then lost 1,800 points on Thursday. The Nasdaq is in a correction, chip stocks fell 12% in one session, and the jobs report came in at three times what economists expected. Now inflation data lands on Tuesday.
In short
Welcome to QPOS Market Pulse, your weekly look at what moved the stock market, why it happened, and what to watch next.
Last week the S&P 500 fell 2.7%, the Nasdaq 3.4% and the Dow 0.9%. The Russell 2000 lost 2.1%. For the Nasdaq it was the fourth weekly decline in a row, and for the S&P 500 the worst week since June. The technology sector fell about 8%, its fifth straight weekly loss.
The headline numbers hide a wild ride. On Wednesday, the day after the midterm elections, the Dow jumped 1,569 points, or 3%, its best day after a midterm in 44 years. The S&P 500 gained 1.6% and the Nasdaq 1.4%. Democrats won control of the House, the Senate and several governorships, and the president said he accepts the result. Markets like certainty, and they like a divided government even more.
Then came Thursday. The S&P 500 lost 4.4%, the Nasdaq plunged 5.5% into correction territory, more than 10% below its high, and the Dow fell more than 1,800 points. It was the Nasdaq's worst day since the tariff shock of April 2025. The seven largest technology companies lost more than one trillion dollars of market value in a single session.
Friday brought some relief. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Nasdaq 1.1%, while the Dow slipped another 0.5%. AMD rebounded about 9%, Intel 7% and Nvidia nearly 3%, and the semiconductor index bounced about 4%. One good day was not enough to erase the week's losses.
So what is driving these swings? Once again, artificial intelligence is at the center of the story.
The selloff was not about earnings. It was about permission to build.
Alongside the national races, voters decided 45 local ballot measures on data centers, and in 39 of them they chose restrictions: moratoriums, zoning limits, water and power rules. Several newly elected Democrats called for a pause on data center construction until protections are in place. UBS estimates that construction delays could put about 30% of the data center capacity planned for 2028 at risk.
That is the capacity Nvidia, Micron, AMD and Broadcom expect to sell into. On Thursday Micron fell 17%, AMD 17%, Marvell 16%, Broadcom 10%, Intel 10% and Nvidia 9%. The semiconductor index dropped about 12% in one day and is now down 28% since the start of the quarter. Tesla fell more than 11% as well, after the candidates its chief executive had backed lost in Texas.
Here is what made the week so confusing. Apple beat on earnings and revenue in its first report under John Ternus, but iPad sales and the margin outlook disappointed, and the stock slipped. Palantir beat on everything and fell anyway, because growth in new contracts slowed. AMD reported record data center revenue and a stronger-than-expected outlook on Wednesday night and jumped 9% after hours. Twelve hours later it was down 17%. Qualcomm beat and fell 9% on a soft profit outlook.
Four beats, four declines. When the question changes from "how much did you earn" to "will you be allowed to grow," a good quarter stops being the answer.
The lesson is not that investors have lost faith in AI. They are becoming far more demanding about costs, profitability and the path to growth, and last week they added a new question about where the data centers may be built at all.
Friday's employment report was strong. The economy added 165,000 jobs in October, more than twice the 59,000 to 65,000 economists expected, and the previous two months were revised up by a combined 84,000. Unemployment fell to 4.1% from 4.2%.
Strong hiring is good news for the economy and awkward news for anyone hoping the Federal Reserve is finished. After two officials voted for a hike in October, futures markets now price about a 70% chance of a quarter-point increase at the December 9 meeting, down from 85% a week ago only because Thursday's selloff pulled the odds in.
The rest of the market moved in the other direction from stocks. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.86% from 4.94% as money moved into bonds. Brent crude fell back below $100 a barrel, down more than 13% for the week, on hopes that the election result cools the conflict with Iran. Gold, which hit a one-year low a week earlier, rebounded about 5% to around $4,100 an ounce. The VIX, Wall Street's fear gauge, spiked above 28 on Thursday and finished the week at 25.6, up about a third from a week earlier: investors still expect big swings, but the level stayed short of the 30 mark many traders associate with a true washout.
Three things could move the market.
First, inflation. The October Consumer Price Index, which measures the prices consumers pay, arrives Tuesday morning. The consensus is 3.9% from a year ago, up from 3.7% in September, with core inflation expected to cool slightly month over month. A hot number locks in the December hike. A cool one gives a shaken market some room to breathe. The Producer Price Index, which measures the price pressures businesses face, follows on Friday.
Second, the AI build-out itself. CoreWeave, the data center company at the center of last week's fears, reports Tuesday after the close. Cisco and Applied Materials report Thursday after the close, and Applied Materials is the first chip-equipment maker to speak since the ballot measures. Nvidia does not report until November 17. Monday brings Constellation Energy, one of the utilities that powers the data centers, along with Take-Two, Occidental and KKR.
Third, the Fed's voice. New York Fed President John Williams speaks Thursday morning, and other officials are scheduled through the week. On Wednesday the bond market is closed for Veterans Day while stocks trade normally, so Wednesday's moves may be thinner than they look.
Round 2026-W44 ran from Friday, October 30, to Friday, November 6, straight through the election swing. Among the stocks on the prediction list, Micron fell 22%, CoreWeave 15%, Applied Materials 15%, Intel 14%, Palantir 13%, AMD 11% and Tesla 10%. Moderna rose 15% on strong vaccine sales.
The crowd read the week better than the machines: QPOS members called the direction right 54% of the time, the 100+ bots 33%. Again, though, the sharpest single calls came from the bots. Bot pessimist-014predicted Johnson & Johnson would rise 1.10%. It rose 1.105%.Bot pessimist-102 predicted JPMorgan would fall 0.75%. It fell 0.757%. Both calls landed within a hundredth of a percent.
The new AI Consensus had a harder week. Last Monday, every bot and the AI-Genie voted on the five stocks most likely to gain this round, and the consensus came back AMD, Palantir, Tesla, ServiceNow and Intel, each expected to rise 3% to 5%. All five fell, four of them by double digits. The consensus picks will be back on the home page this Monday with a new round to answer for. Every miss is recorded, and that record is the point.
One great call is luck. Doing it round after round is skill, and that is what QPOS tracks. Make your call for this round and see where you land.
Will inflation force the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher? Can AI stocks regain their momentum after Thursday's washout? And will CoreWeave, Cisco and Applied Materials restore confidence that the data centers will still be built?
What's your call? Make your prediction for this round at qpos.com, and see how you stack up against the bots.
This article is for information and education only and is not financial advice. Upcoming events are scheduled and may change.
QPOS is a free market intelligence and prediction platform where humans and more than 100 AI bots make market predictions and compare their accuracy. Learn. Predict. Compare.
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Market information through Friday, November 6, 2026. Outlook for November 9 to November 13, 2026.
Disclaimer: QPOS Market Pulse provides educational and informational content only, not financial or investment advice. Prediction accuracy in past rounds does not guarantee future results.
