Nasdaq Sinks 5% as Investors Retreat from AI Trade After Election

(wsj.com)

Comments

mrinterweb 5 November 2026
As uncomfortable as this may be for the tech industry, I have been hoping for AI related stock prices to come back to reality. A market correction is a healthy thing so long as it doesn't turn into a collapse. IMO, some AI companies have ludicrous valuations considering their astronomical debt. A reality check may be healthy long term.
bearjaws 5 November 2026
Cloudflare is a steal at $240 IMO.

Regardless of what happens to the AI models, you will still need protection a decade from now.

Not to mention the most comprehensive platform to use with AI, they will inevitably eat Lovable / Repl's lunch.

sailfast 5 November 2026
Beware any simple narrative for the decline of a massively complex market.

Did the election matter at all for this trade? This trade has been in the works for the last 2-3 years. This correction is required to bring down inflation - and we're already seeing T-notes dropping lower which will decrease mortgage costs in the near term and allow for more liquidity for consumers for home equity loans.

I don't understand why folks continue to click-through and "buy" these overly simplistic narratives from news outlets.

seizethecheese 5 November 2026
Whenever I see daily stock results I try to reframe it in a longer term. Interestingly, Nasdaq is only up ~4% YoY.

This is surprising to me, given how much acceleration there has been in AI capabilities since the same time last year. I guess costs and risks are accelerating just as fast.

empath75 5 November 2026
Democrats are not going to try and stop AI or rein in AI. There is too much money at stake. They'll pass some regulations, sure, some data center rollouts might be blocked or modified, but they aren't going to stop the train.
WarmWash 5 November 2026
Stopping DC rollout effectively works as calling the bluff of AI.

AI is a hyped up nothing burger? AI demand retreats, lots of vacant compute, revenues sink (and the DC hold ends up being a (small) blessing in disguise for the labs).

AI lives up to it's hype? AI demand surges, capacity is severely constrained, margins explode as inference costs soar (and the DC block ends up being counter productive knee-jerk behavior)

The only way this plays out in anti-AI favor is if people stop using AI and demand goes down. Even if it flatlines, labs can rebalance towards inference and start harvesting those huge margins.

t1234s 5 November 2026
Depending on how long the bloodbath goes on this could be a massive buy moment similar to: dot bomb, 9/11, 2008, covid panic.

AI is not going anywhere and will only grow more and more.

mschuster91 5 November 2026
Mwahaha. Hope it all crashes down and burns.

The earlier it burns the better, because every day the bubble only grows larger otherwise.

Kevin_Flynn 5 November 2026
Election euphoria and hangovers,

Sobriety the following day,

$8,000 for a video card,

Empty boxes on Christmas day.

Can't even rhyme without AI anymore.

asdev 5 November 2026
Are we finally realizing "agents" are overrated and jagged in performance?
karmakurtisaani 5 November 2026
If this is now where this bubble pops, I have to point out that this has by far been the least fun bubble of my lifetime.

Remember the frenzy before the .com bubble? The nerds were finally winning! The housing one? Finally everyone could afford a house!

AI bubble? Layoffs for everyone, techbros turned fascists, impending doom somehow as a selling point. Like, wtf?

Of course the consequences were always shit, but that's a given in an economic crisis.

ChrisArchitect 5 November 2026
ak39 5 November 2026
The Trump-Tech Bro alliance guarantees of bailouts for data centre and AI brinkmanship seems no longer guaranteed to the market.
tinyhouse 5 November 2026
Great opportunity to buy the dip in a couple of weeks. If anyone thinks they can slow down or stop AI adoption by banning data centers, good luck with that... The Chinese built an AI empire with much less compute that exists today in the US.

Also, people don't have issue with data centers. They have issues with AI cause they think it's gonna make them unemployed, which is a real worry I can relate to. I just don't think that banning data centers or AI progress in general would help anyone keeping their job.

rvz 5 November 2026
The beginning of the AI bubble's dotcom-style crash.

Accurate. [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45960032