The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52%, while bitcoin touched $75,558, in the selloff documented by PANews in its November 6, 2026, report, published at 10:23 a.m. UTC+8. The report linked the retreat to U.S. midterm-election uncertainty, concerns over AI infrastructure approvals and hedge-fund deleveraging.
The episode was not confined to technology shares. Crypto liquidations reached $1.05 billion over 24 hours, predominantly in long positions, while Asian equities came under further pressure in early trading.
The scale of the unwind
The Nasdaq Composite lost 1,421 points, its largest one-day percentage decline in 19 months. The Nasdaq 100 dropped 6.36%, the S&P 500 fell 4.36%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.44%, or 1,833 points. The Russell 2000 declined 4.45%.
According to PANews, the three major U.S. benchmarks recorded their worst daily declines since the April 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs. Semiconductor exposure was particularly painful: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 12.25%.
The VIX rose 69.70% to 28.17. Estimated market-value losses totaled approximately $2.9 trillion across S&P 500 constituents, including about $1.04 trillion among the Magnificent Seven.
Asian trading extended the retreat. South Korea’s KOSPI fell more than 8%, triggering a circuit breaker. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped more than 5%, leaving it 20% below its June high and in technical bear-market territory.
Election concerns met already-heavy selling
PANews identified the midterm elections as the immediate catalyst. Democrats gained control of both congressional chambers and won key gubernatorial races, prompting concerns about tighter oversight of AI infrastructure. The report also said 40 of 41 related local ballot measures that week supported restrictions on data-center construction.
But institutional selling had already been substantial. Goldman Sachs data cited by PANews showed hedge funds had net sold approximately $20 billion of technology stocks over two weeks.
Walleye Capital, which managed $17 billion, announced that it would dismantle its core equity long-short team and return some investor capital. The fund lost 5.9% in October. Tiger Global’s flagship fund declined 8.5% that month.
Those figures establish that selling pressure preceded the session’s sharpest losses. They do not, by themselves, establish how much of the one-day decline came from forced deleveraging. Yahoo Finance characterized the retreat primarily as hedge funds rushing to lock in 2026 gains.
AI infrastructure faced a delivery and financing test
The report’s central interpretation was that investors were reassessing an assumption behind the AI buildout: that available financing would translate readily into completed infrastructure.
Bloomberg reported that Microsoft was tightening oversight of some projects involving Nebius, IREN and Nscale, abandoning projects it considered risky and internally discussing whether to sign new cloud-service agreements. Wiring problems at an IREN project in Texas could delay completion by weeks or months. Microsoft described its approach as normal management of large infrastructure projects.
Political and permitting concerns also reached bitcoin miners expanding into computing infrastructure. Morgan Stanley flagged Texas exposure for Cipher, Galaxy and MARA following Democrat Hinojosa’s election victory, while Bernstein lowered price targets for seven bitcoin-mining companies.
The buildout had not stopped. Google announced a $17 billion Wyoming data-center plan and said it would cover all electricity costs. OpenAI released a community compact pledging to pay the full electricity and infrastructure costs of its computing campuses.
Financing signals were mixed. The Wall Street Journal reported growing investor doubts about an Anthropic IPO at roughly a $1.5 trillion valuation. Some investors favored a valuation closer to $1 trillion; others questioned whether the listing might be delayed. OpenAI’s latest financing round had secured $11 billion against a $30 billion target, according to PANews.
Crypto absorbed both leverage losses and policy uncertainty
Alongside bitcoin’s decline to $75,558, ether fell 6.93% over 24 hours. The predominance of long positions in the reported $1.05 billion liquidation total shows that leveraged bullish exposure was being unwound; it does not establish that liquidations alone caused the decline.
Crypto-linked equities also fell. Bullish lost 10.46%, Robinhood 10.32%, Coinbase 9.69%, Strategy 9.29% and Circle 8.72%. CNBC said the Democratic sweep could leave the CLARITY Act on hold until 2028—a possibility, not a confirmed legislative outcome.
Traditional defensive assets offered limited offset. The 10-year Treasury yield fell just 0.6 basis points to 4.837%, while COMEX gold declined 0.77% to $4,081.90 an ounce. The dollar index edged up 0.06% to 101.63.
After-hours rebounds did not settle the cycle question
Some heavily sold shares recovered after the close. Lam Research rose 6.31% after announcing a $25 billion share-buyback authorization. SanDisk gained 4.71%, Micron 4.11%, Marvell 3.93% and AMD 3.37%. IREN rebounded 10.54% after falling nearly 17% during regular trading, despite reporting a quarterly loss and lower revenue.
These rebounds followed a severe positioning shock; they did not establish a durable market bottom. The report also cited September global chip sales growth of 146.8% year over year, underscoring the distinction between strong reported industry activity and falling equity valuations.
At publication, the next scheduled macro test was the October U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, due November 6 at 9:30 p.m. Beijing time. Initial jobless claims had come in at 189,000, below the 196,000 expected. The outstanding question was whether the payrolls release would also show labor-market resilience—not whether one data point could resolve the infrastructure, financing and positioning risks behind the selloff.
