Short answer: US stocks are having their sharpest fall in months. At 11:24 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, November 5, the S&P 500 was down 2.79%, the Nasdaq Composite was down 3.92% and the chip index was down 8.48%. Bitcoin had dropped below $77,000. The session is still open, so these numbers will move.
The trigger was chip and AI stocks, which fell on fears that the new Democratic Congress will slow data center construction. Weak Qualcomm results and the prospect of another Fed rate hike added to it. The claim going around, that $1 trillion disappeared in the first 20 minutes, holds up as a rough estimate, though we could not find it published for today.
Who this is for: people with a 401(k), an IRA, a brokerage account or crypto, wondering what happened and whether to act. What it does not cover: where the market closes tomorrow, or individual stock picks. Nobody can tell you the first, and this is general information, not personal advice.
The numbersWhat has fallen, and by how much
All moves are against Wednesday's close. The "low" column is the bottom so far, and many of these indexes have since recovered part of it.
| Market | By 9:50 a.m. ET | Low so far | At 11:24 a.m. ET |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | −1.36% | −3.73% | −2.79% |
| Nasdaq Composite | −2.57% | −5.55% | −3.92% |
| Dow Jones | −0.37% | −2.53% | −2.17% |
| PHLX Semiconductor index | −6.39% | −11.49% | −8.48% |
| Nvidia | −4.51% | −8.92% | −6.85% |
| Bitcoin | −2.17% | −6.13% | −4.41% |
| Ether | −2.57% | −7.58% | −5.83% |
Three more readings give the scale:
- The post-election rally is gone. The S&P 500 gained 1.58% on Wednesday as the Dow posted its biggest gain of the year. It now sits below Tuesday's close.
- The Nasdaq is 10.41% below its record close of 27,599.79 on October 6. A fall of 10% from a peak is the usual definition of a correction, and it is official only on a closing price. The S&P 500 is 4.41% below its own record.
- Fear has jumped. The VIX, an index of expected S&P 500 swings, reached about 25 from 16.61, and Yahoo Finance calls it the biggest one-day jump in more than two years.
In dollars, a 2.79% fall is $279 on a $10,000 index fund and $2,790 on a $100,000 401(k), if the money is all in the S&P 500. It is a paper loss unless you sell.
The $1 trillion claimDid $1 trillion really vanish in 20 minutes?
Roughly, yes, though the figure is an estimate and we did not find it reported for today. Headlines with "$1 trillion" in them are circulating, but the ones we traced describe the October 30 tech selloff, or the chip slump on June 5, not this morning.
So here is the arithmetic. Siblis Research puts all US stocks at $78.7 trillion on September 30, and we use the S&P 500's move as a stand-in for the whole market.
$78.7T × 1.36% ≈ $1.07 trillion$78.7T × 3.73% ≈ $2.94 trillion$78.7T × 2.79% ≈ $2.20 trillionTwo caveats matter here. Most of the first figure is measured from Wednesday's close, so it includes the drop that had already happened before the bell. And that money did not go anywhere. Market value is the latest price multiplied by all the shares, so a small number of trades at lower prices reprices everything. Nobody received $1 trillion, and most holders sold nothing.
The causesWhy the market is falling
Explanations of a one-day move are always written afterward, and no single cause can be proved. These are the ones reported today, most important first.
Data center politics
Democrats won both chambers on Tuesday. Investors fear limits on data center buildouts, and UBS said about 30% of the capacity additions expected for 2028 are at risk, according to Reuters.
Weak chip results
Qualcomm's phone chip sales fell 26% and missed estimates. Its shares were down 13.81% by 11:02 a.m., and Arm also fell after its results.
Rates moving the wrong way
Traders expect the Fed to raise rates next month after its September hike. Jobless claims fell to 189,000, which gives the Fed less reason to ease.
Pressure beyond chips
South Korea's Kospi closed down 5.28% before the US open, with SK hynix down 9.03%. US crude was near $91, up about 3%.
Concentration turned a chip story into a market story. As we showed in how much of the S&P 500 is Nvidia, the ten largest companies hold 38.8% of the index, so an S&P 500 fund carries much of this risk even if you never bought a chip stock on purpose. Not everything is falling: AppLovin was up 30.03% after its results.
The StockTitan live blog and Reuters via BusinessDay carry the timeline.
CryptoWhy bitcoin fell, and what liquidations are
Bitcoin fell from above $80,800 as the US market opened, and Yahoo's data shows a low near $75,497. That is a drop of 6.56% in a few hours. Part of the link is direct: many bitcoin miners now run AI data centers too, so they carry the same political risk. Bitcoin is also still trading like a risky asset on days like this rather than as a safe haven.
A liquidation is a forced sale. A trader who borrows to buy puts up a small deposit, and when the price falls far enough to threaten the loan, the exchange closes the position automatically. That sale can push the price down and trigger the next one.
How far bitcoin can fall before a long position is closed
Approximate, assuming a 0.5% maintenance margin, which varies by exchange. Today's high-to-low move was 6.56%, enough to close a 20x position opened near the top but not a 10x one.
So how large was it? About $370 million was liquidated in one hour as bitcoin broke $77,000, mostly long positions, according to Bitcoin Magazine, which does not name its source. Benzinga, citing CoinGlass, reported $837.99 million over 24 hours across 166,704 traders. Counts differ by tracker and time window.
That is painful for those traders, but it is far from a record. CoinGlass counted $19.13 billion on October 10, 2025, so today is about 4.4% of that so far. These totals also undercount, as CoinGlass itself has said, because exchanges do not report every order. And a liquidation total measures the size of closed positions, not the amount of bitcoin sold on the spot market.
We covered the same math over a longer window in bitcoin's October returns, where 20x leverage was wiped out in five of thirteen Octobers.
HistoryWhat happened after drops like this
We tested every S&P 500 trading day since January 1950, using closing prices and excluding today. Since today has not closed, the table shows both the 2.5% and the 3% lines.
| After a day like this | How many | 1 month later | 3 months later | 12 months later |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any day (baseline) | All | +0.8%, up 62% | +2.3%, up 67% | +9.4%, up 75% |
| Fell 2.5% or more | 237 | +1.8%, up 65% | +5.1%, up 72% | +16.7%, up 79% |
| Fell 3% or more | 132 | +1.3%, up 61% | +5.1%, up 70% | +19.8%, up 83% |
| First 3% fall in over a month | 54 | −0.1%, up 54% | +3.1%, up 69% | +11.2%, up 74% |
The last row is the one to read, and it is less exciting than the usual "buy the dip" chart. Big down days cluster near market bottoms, so the 132-day row is flattered by the worst periods, such as 2008 and 2020, when many of them fell close together. Counting only the first drop after a calm stretch, which is the only one you can identify at the time, the following year looks almost like any other year.
Selling after one bad day has not paid
A year later the index was up about three times in four, close to its normal rate. A 3% fall has come about 1.7 times a year, so it is a regular part of owning stocks.
A quick bounce is not promised
The next month was close to a coin flip, and its worst case was −24.1%. The first drop can be the start of something larger: the crash of October 19, 1987 (−20.5%) came one session after a fall of more than 5%.
The Nasdaq adds a second test. Since 1971 it has entered a correction 36 times by our count (a close 10% below the peak, after recovering to within 5% of it). In the 35 cases with a full year of data, it was up 80% of the time 12 months later, by 20.5% on average. The range is the warning: the best year was +96.6% and the worst was −58.7%, in the dot-com collapse.
The closest recent comparison is June 5, when a chip slump took the Nasdaq to 25,709.43. It went on to a record by October. Today's level is below that June close, so this drop has now erased the entire recovery.
These samples are small, they overlap, and they exclude dividends, which would raise every figure a little. They describe what happened and do not forecast 2026. Our midterm election analysis makes the same point: a good 12-month record can contain a drop like today's.
What to doFive sensible moves today
Money needed within 3 years
This is the one group with a real reason to act. If a house deposit or tuition bill sits in stocks, move it to cash or Treasury bills on a planned schedule, regardless of today's price.
Retirement contributions
Leave them running. Regular contributions buy more shares at lower prices, and pausing them is how people miss the recovery.
Leverage and margin
This is where a bad day becomes permanent. Check your liquidation price or margin call level now, and cut the position if a further 10% fall would close it.
Your actual exposure
Add up your funds and stocks and see how much depends on the same few chip names. Change it only if it is more than you meant to hold, and do it after the panic.
Taxable losses
A fall can create losses you can harvest before December 31. Stocks are subject to the wash sale rule, which disallows the loss if you rebuy within 30 days.
If you have cash to invest, lump sum vs. dollar-cost averaging is the better framework than trying to catch the low. If your mix has drifted, how often to rebalance explains the cheapest way to fix it, and tax-loss harvesting covers the deadline.
What to watch next: the October jobs report on Friday, November 6, and, per Bitcoin Magazine, inflation data on November 10 and the Fed's decision on December 9. Strong numbers could add to rate-hike fears.
FAQFrequently asked questions
Why is the stock market down today?
Chip and AI stocks led the fall on fears that the Democratic Congress elected on November 3 will limit data center construction. Weak Qualcomm results and expectations of another Fed rate hike added pressure.
Is this a stock market crash?
Not by the usual definitions so far. The S&P 500 is about 4.41% below its record. A correction is 10%, a bear market is 20%, and "crash" has no official definition. The Nasdaq is at about the 10% line. Market-wide trading halts begin at a 7% S&P 500 fall, and the low today was 3.73%.
Did investors really lose $1 trillion in 20 minutes?
As an estimate, yes on paper. The S&P 500 was 1.36% below Wednesday's close by 9:50 a.m., which is about $1.07 trillion across $78.7 trillion of US stocks. Most of it was repricing, not money leaving, and we did not find the number reported for today.
Should I sell my stocks or 401(k)?
History does not support selling because of one bad day: a year after a first 3% drop, the index was up 74% of the time, about its normal rate. The exception is money you need within about three years, which should not depend on stocks anyway. Your own situation may differ.
Why does crypto fall when stocks fall?
On days like this, investors cut risk across the board, and bitcoin has traded as a risky asset rather than a shelter. Today there is a direct link too, since many miners also operate AI data centers. Forced liquidations of borrowed positions then deepen the move.
Will the market recover?
Every past S&P 500 decline has eventually been recovered, but the time varied from days to years. In our data the next month is close to a coin flip, and the worst year after a first 3% drop was −37.7%. Anyone giving you a date is guessing.
Is it a good time to buy the dip?
It can be, with money you won't need for years and without borrowing. Nobody can identify the low in advance. Splitting new money into several purchases reduces the regret if prices keep falling, at a modest long-run cost.
