The New York Stock Exchange exterior in Manhattan (file photo; not from today’s trading). Photo: Kidfly182, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
U.S. equity futures pointed to a rebound in technology shares on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, after Thursday’s artificial-intelligence selloff pushed the Nasdaq Composite into correction territory, while the Labor Department’s October employment report showed a stronger-than-expected payroll gain. As of about 8:37 a.m. ET, Investing.com reported Nasdaq 100 futures up 1.3%, S&P 500 futures up 0.2% and Dow futures down 0.9%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said nonfarm payrolls rose by 165,000 in October and the unemployment rate stood at 4.1%.
Jobs beat lifts the labor tape; futures barely budge
The BLS Employment Situation summary for October, released at 8:30 a.m. ET under USDL-26-1632, said total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000. That was well above the roughly 65,000 gain many private forecasts cited ahead of the print, according to Investing.com’s market wrap. The unemployment rate changed little at 4.1%, after September’s 4.2% level. Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm employees rose 14 cents, or 0.4%, to $38.00, and were up 3.1% over the past 12 months.
Revisions added more strength to the recent path. BLS revised August payrolls up by 53,000, from +133,000 to +186,000, and September up by 31,000, from +29,000 to +60,000. Combined, August and September employment is 84,000 higher than previously reported. Household-survey detail also showed people employed part time for economic reasons rose by 339,000 to 4.8 million in October. Investing.com said stock futures showed little immediate reaction to the data while Treasury yields spiked, keeping attention on the December path for interest rates.
Chip rebound after Thursday’s AI rout
The futures rebound was led by semiconductors after Thursday’s tech-led slide. At 6:24 a.m. ET, Reuters reported Dow E-minis down 471 points, or 0.91%, S&P 500 E-minis up 21.75 points, or 0.29%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis up 378.5 points, or 1.41%. By 8:37 a.m. ET, Investing.com still had Nasdaq 100 futures about 1.3% higher, S&P 500 futures up 0.2% and Dow futures down 0.9%. In the same Investing.com wrap, Nvidia was up roughly 4% in premarket trading, Advanced Micro Devices about 7% and Micron about 8%, while a semiconductor ETF advanced more than 5%.
Reuters separately said Nvidia added about 4.5% in earlier premarket trading and that other chip names including AMD, Intel, Broadcom and Micron were up between about 4.6% and 8.2%. Investing.com, citing market tracking around 8:51 a.m. ET, said the iShares Semiconductor ETF jumped more than 5% and that Lam Research, Micron, Marvell, AMD and Applied Materials were among the strongest chip rebounds. Those moves reverse only part of Thursday’s damage: Investing.com said the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 12.25% Thursday, Nvidia nearly 10% and AMD about 17%.
By the numbers: jobs vs. the futures tape
TBR calculations from the BLS release put October’s 165,000 payroll gain about 3.4 times the prior 12-month average monthly gain of 48,000 that BLS cited in the same summary. The 84,000 combined upward revision to August and September equals roughly half of October’s headline increase. On the market side, the roughly 1.2-percentage-point gap between Nasdaq 100 futures (+1.3%) and Dow futures (−0.9%) at 8:37 a.m. ET underscores how concentrated the bounce remains in technology after Thursday’s correction move, based on Investing.com’s timestamped futures prints.
Policy risk after the midterms still frames the trade
Thursday’s selloff came after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections earlier this week, stoking investor concern that AI data-center buildouts could face tighter regulation. Reuters said a tech-led rout wiped nearly $3 trillion off the market value of S&P 500 companies. Investing.com separately estimated about $2.5 trillion in market-value losses on the Nasdaq Composite in Thursday’s session and said the Nasdaq entered technical correction territory after a roughly 5.5% decline. The Boston Report’s earlier coverage of the Nasdaq correction and chip selloff tracked that session’s midday damage.
Jefferies equity strategist Jane Gibbons, quoted by Reuters, described Thursday’s move as “reactionary, not a fundamental reset, driven by a collision of concerns around AI spend, policy and inflation.” CME FedWatch pricing cited by Reuters showed traders assigning more than a 65% chance of a December rate hike ahead of the jobs print. A firm labor report alongside sticky inflation keeps that debate alive for the U.S. economy and for rate-sensitive growth stocks.
What Wall Street watches into the cash open
For Wall Street, Friday’s setup is a test of whether semiconductor and megacap buyers can stabilize the Nasdaq after four weeks of pressure, even as Dow futures lag. Chip rebounds in Nvidia, AMD and Micron, plus the more than 5% premarket lift in the semiconductor ETF, show bargain-hunting after Thursday’s washout, but Investing.com and Reuters both stressed that futures barely moved on the jobs surprise itself. Yields, Fed path pricing and any further commentary on AI capital spending remain the near-term swing factors.
Investors can also compare Friday’s rebound attempt with Thursday’s midday tape, including The Boston Report’s note that the Dow fell more than 1,500 points midday as the Nasdaq dropped about 4.9%, and with the separate report that AMD slumped about 15% while the chip index sank more than 10%. Those sessions set the baseline for how much of Thursday’s AI-driven losses Friday’s futures bounce can reclaim once cash trading begins.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — The Employment Situation — October 2026 (USDL-26-1632)
- Investing.com — stock futures at 8:37 a.m. ET; chip rebound; Nasdaq market-value wipe estimate
- Reuters via Investing.com — futures at 6:24 a.m. ET; Nvidia +4.5%; ~$3 trillion S&P 500 market-value wipe
- Investing.com — semiconductor ETF +5% by 8:51 a.m. ET; jobs details
- CNBC — Nasdaq correction context and futures rebound framing (Nov. 6, 2026)
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