Nov 6 (Reuters) - Nasdaq futures climbed on Friday as chip stocks gained ground after a technology-led rout wiped nearly $3 trillion off the market value for S&P 500 companies on fears that Democratic control of the US Congress could lead to tougher AI regulation.
The Nasdaq Composite notched its deepest one-day drop in 19 months on Thursday, confirming it had entered a correction territory and putting the index on track for a fourth straight weekly fall.
"We view Thursday's selloff as reactionary,
not a fundamental reset, driven by a collision of concerns around AI spend, policy and inflation," said Jane Gibbons, equity strategist at Jefferies.
The sharp declines followed Democrats' midterm election victory earlier this week, including in some key data-center states, stoking concerns that AI data-center buildout could slow, after optimism over the sector's rapid growth propelled stock markets to record highs this year.
Wall Street's most closely watched gauge of anxiety, the CBOE Volatility Index, logged its biggest one-day jump in about 19 months on Thursday. It was down slightly on Friday, last at 26.07.
At 4:14 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 342 points, or 0.66%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 28.5 points, or 0.39%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 395.25 points, or 1.48%.
Megacap and growth stocks were mixed. Nvidia added 3.6% in premarket trading, after clocking its biggest one-day fall since January 2025, when the emergence of low-cost Chinese AI model DeepSeek had rattled Wall Street.
Other chip stocks, including AMD, Intel, Broadcom and Micron Technology, were up between 5% and 8.3% following steep losses in the previous session.
Data-center operators IREN and Applied Digital, neoclouds CoreWeave and Nebius Group and AI-exposed utilities and equipment suppliers such as GE Vernova and Constellation Energy all recovered from deep losses in the last session.
Adding to Thursday's hammering, a jump in crude oil prices raised concerns of energy-fueled inflation and prospects of future interest-rate hikes by global central banks. Brent crude was down 0.7% on Friday.
An October jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. ET could be the next catalyst for market pricing on interest rates, with traders pricing in a more than 65% chance of a hike in December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Among other stock movers, software firm Atlassian dropped 15.6% after reporting first-quarter results. Airbnb climbed 12.1% after the vacation rental platform raised full-year 2026 revenue growth forecast.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
