Wall Street stocks in relief rally after heavy AI-related selloff

Wall Street equities saw a relief rally on Friday, reversing a heavy AI-related sell-off that wiped out trillions of dollars in global stock market value. Benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes were trading higher, with technology, communication services and consumer discretionary stocks driving gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged lower, while the S&P 500 rose 0.71 percent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.4 percent.

Nvidia, heavily impacted by the emergence of low-cost Chinese AI model DeepSeek, rose 3 percent after suffering its worst day since January 2025. Other heavyweight chipmakers, including AMD, Intel, and Micron Technology, also saw gains between 5.5 percent and 10 percent. Tech luminaries Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX posted gains of 2 percent and 8 percent respectively, following earlier losses.

Gerry Sparrow, president and portfolio manager at Sparrow Capital Management, attributed the market volatility to uncertainty surrounding the change in government from Republican-led to Democratic-led, at both federal and state/local levels. He noted that most of the disruption from AI buildout is unlikely to materialize, but the uncertainty surrounding government change is causing investor disruption.

The volatility surrounding elections and political events, whether war or terrorist attacks, always disrupts the market. Texas Democratic governor-elect Gina Hinojosa announced new regulations in her state to protect local communities from further mass buildup of data centers. The AI trade has been under pressure due to concerns about the massive cost of data centers and other infrastructure, potentially leading to margin calls and spooking investors.