US stocks today: Nasdaq rebounds as chip stocks recover from steep losses, rate fears persist

Wall Street's tech heavy Nasdaq recovered on Friday as chip stocks bounced back from their steepest losses in months, offering some relief after a sharp AI driven selloff. However, stronger than expected US jobs data fuelled concerns that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates as early as December, limiting the broader market's optimism.

The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.73% to 24,736.2, while the S&P 500 rose 1% to 7,426.29. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was largely unchanged at 51,530.05.

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Chip stocks lead recovery after AI led selloff

Semiconductor stocks led the rebound after heavy losses in the previous session, when concerns over tighter AI regulation following Democrats' midterm election victory triggered a broad technology selloff.

The semiconductor index climbed 4.6% after plunging more than 12% on Thursday. Nvidia gained 5.6%, recovering from its worst single day decline since January 2025. AMD, Intel and Micron Technology advanced between 3% and 10.5%.

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Other AI linked stocks also recovered. Data centre operators IREN and Applied Digital, along with neocloud companies CoreWeave and Nebius Group, rebounded after suffering deep losses in the previous session. Tesla and SpaceX rose 5.5% and 6.3%, respectively.

The recovery followed Thursday's sharp decline, which pushed the Nasdaq into correction territory and left it heading for a fourth consecutive weekly fall.

Strong jobs data revive December rate hike concerns

Gains on Wall Street came despite fresh concerns over the interest rate outlook. US nonfarm payrolls increased by 165,000 in October, well above economists' estimate of 65,000, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%.

"Those are strong numbers and normally that would say that the Fed would have to be more on the hawkish side," Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading, told Reuters.

"The flip side of that is that what we saw yesterday and how volatility has spiked, will the Fed want to raise interest rates in the face of a market which is teetering?"

Traders increased bets on a December rate hike, assigning a 78% probability to the move, compared with 70% earlier.

Meanwhile, Airbnb jumped 9.4% after raising its full year 2026 revenue growth forecast, while software firm Atlassian fell 14.7% following its first quarter results.

(Disclaimer: This article is based on inputs from agencies. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)