Big swings keep rocking Wall Street as US stocks drop sharply after
erasing a morning surge
[November 21, 2025] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Jarring swings keep rocking Wall Street, and U.S. stocks
erased a big morning gain to drop on Thursday as the market remains
skittish following weeks of doubts and erratic moves.
After initially soaring toward what seemed like its best day since May,
with an early surge of 1.9%, the S&P 500 erased all of it and fell 1.6%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 386 points, or 0.8%, and the
Nasdaq composite sank 2.2%.
The sharpest losses again hit what used to be the market’s biggest
winners. Nvidia, cryptocurrencies and other areas that had soared with
nearly relentless momentum, as traders feared missing out on more gains,
forced the market lower. Bitcoin dropped below $87,000, down from nearly
$125,000 last month.
The market had been shaky coming into Thursday, largely because of twin
worries: Nvidia and other superstar stocks caught up in the frenzy
around artificial-intelligence technology may have simply shot too high,
and the Federal Reserve may be done delivering the invigorating cuts to
interest rates that Wall Street loves.
Nvidia initially appeared to tamp down the worries about a bubble for AI
stocks after reporting a big profit for the summer, along with a
forecast for coming revenue that easily cleared analysts’ expectations.
By delivering strong profits and indicating more are coming, Nvidia can
justify its stock’s price gains and make it look less expensive.
Given Nvidia’s forecasts, “it is very hard to see how this stock does
not keep moving higher from here,” according to analysts at UBS led by
Timothy Arcuri. They also said “the AI infrastructure tide is still
rising so fast that all boats will be lifted.”
Nvidia jumped to an early gain of 5% but then dropped to a loss of 3.2%.
Because it’s the biggest company in the U.S. market by value, Nvidia’s
stock has more pull on the S&P 500 than any other company’s.
Despite Nvidia’s big numbers, worries about a potential AI bubble aren’t
gone. The concern among investors is that all the dollars pouring into
AI chips and data centers may not ultimately produce the big profits and
productivity for the economy that proponents have been promising.
Yes, Nvidia expects to sell another $65 billion of chips in the coming
three months, which is more than analysts expected. But will all those
chips actually create much bigger profits for Amazon and other companies
using them? That question — whether all the investment in AI will prove
to be worth it in the end — is still unanswered.
The most recent survey of global fund managers by Bank of America showed
a record percentage of investors saying companies are “overinvesting.”
Amazon went from an early gain of 2.1% Thursday to a loss of 2.5%.
Palantir Technologies swung from a jump of 5.5% to a loss of 5.8%.
The last time the overall stock market had swings in one day as wild as
Thursday’s was in April, when President Donald Trump shocked the world
with his stiff “Liberation Day” tariffs.
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Specialist Michael Pistillo, left, and trader Fred Demarco work on
the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
 For the second worry that’s been
dogging Wall Street, interest rates, Thursday’s jobs report from the
U.S. government came in mixed and offered some relief. Financial
markets initially seemed to pick the data apart for encouraging
signals, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at
Principal Asset Management.
The report showed hiring by U.S. employers was stronger in September
than economists expected, which may suggest the economy remains
solid. But it also said the unemployment rate worsened slightly,
which could give the Fed reason to cut its main interest rate at its
next meeting in December.
Traders still see a December rate cut as relatively unlikely, giving
it a roughly 40% probability, according to data from CME Group. But
that’s better than the 30% chance they saw a day earlier.
What the Fed does is critical for the stock market because prices
ran to records in part because of expectations for continued cuts to
rates. The Fed has already cut rates twice this year to shore up the
slowing job market. But lower rates can worsen inflation, which has
stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Walmart, which rallied 6.5%
after the retailer delivered another standout quarter. It reported
strong sales and profits that blew past Wall Street expectations as
it continues to lure cash-strapped Americans nervous about the
economy and prices.
That wasn’t enough to drown out the losses for Nvidia and tech.
Companies enmeshed in the crypto industry also tumbled, as bitcoin
dropped to its lowest price since April. Robinhood Markets fell
10.1%, and Coinbase Global sank 7.4%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 103.40 points to 6,538.76. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dropped 386.51 to 45,752.26, and the Nasdaq
composite sank 486.18 to 22,078.05.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.09%
from 4.13% late Wednesday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and
Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.6%, and South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.9%
for two of the bigger gains.
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AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
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