RB Markets · The desk · Thursday 5 November 2026

Nasdaq fell 5.52% on data center fears while Hormuz attacks lifted Brent 3.88%

The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52% on Thursday to close at 24,315.00, and the S&P 500 lost 4.36%. All three major US averages had their worst day since April 2025, CNBC reported. Chipmakers led the fall, with Nvidia down 9% and Broadcom down 10%. Firms that rent out AI computing capacity fell at least as hard. Nebius closed down 14.94% at $120.37, and CNBC had CoreWeave down almost 10%.

CNBC tied the rout to fears of a slower data center buildout after the Democratic sweep, and to Bernie Sanders' renewed call for a national moratorium. Yahoo Finance reported fund managers selling this year's AI winners to lock in gains. "They're shooting the generals," said Nomura's Charlie McElligott. By 2:58 p.m., retail investors had sold a net $358 million of stocks, the most since March 2020, according to Vanda Research.

The price counted megawatts that may now go unpermitted. It did not count the voters behind that turn, or the households whose bills share a grid with the campuses. Landlords of rented compute took the first loss.

Oil went the other way. Brent crude futures settled up 3.88% at $98.29 a barrel after new attacks on tankers, Reuters reported. Settlement is the official end-of-day price of a futures contract. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said two tankers and a tugboat caught fire after using "unauthorised routes" through Hormuz. Whoever holds the strait now sets the price of passage, and drivers far downstream pay it.

The desk ruled on that move alone. Chipmakers fell nearly as far as the compute landlords, so the session cannot separate local resistance from a wider sale of AI stocks. The tape will watch whether those landlords keep falling once chips steady.

Sources

RB Markets is analysis of how value is being measured and mismeasured. It is not investment advice.