Why Is the US Stock Market Crashing? 3 Reasons Behind the $2 Trillion Wipeout

Dextape brief

By Dextape Desk · November 5, 2026

American stocks lost close to $2 trillion in value during the first hour of Thursday trading, with chipmakers falling hardest on worries that Democrats would curb AI data center growth. The S&P 500 slid 1.8% in its opening half hour, erasing Wednesday's post-election gain, and later fell more than 3%. The Nasdaq entered correction territory while the Dow lost 1,000 points. The article cites three pressures. Democrats won both congressional chambers and governor races in Texas, Georgia and Ohio, where winners had campaigned against fast data center expansion. Qualcomm's handset chip revenue fell 26% to $5.14 billion, below estimates, and tech stocks had already weakened over AI spending doubts. Fundstrat's Tom Lee called the drop a short-term reaction, and the next test is Friday's jobs report.

Why it matters: The sell-off shows how political pressure on data centers and AI spending doubts can rapidly unsettle US equities, a risk the article ties to crypto as well.

Mentioned: Nasdaq

Summary by Dextape, based on reporting by BeInCrypto. Written with AI from the publisher’s text and checked automatically for copied wording and unsupported figures. Not investment advice.