Nasdaq: Today's Performance, Key Movers, and Nvidia's Role

Before you even got your coffee this past Thursday, the market was already doing its usual morning dance. Futures were up, looking like a decent rebound after Wednesday, and then, without so much as a polite cough, the entire thing just… reversed. Abruptly. Violently. It was a textbook example of a market that’s more nervous than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

The Market's Sudden Jitters: When Good News Isn't Good Enough

Let’s be precise about what happened. Thursday, November 20, 2025, started with the usual optimism. Major U.S. indexes opened higher, basking in what seemed like a post-earnings glow for some tech giants. But by midday, the mood curdled. The Nasdaq Composite didn't just dip; it performed a full-blown swan dive, shedding over 2.1% from its morning high, marking a more than 3.5% intraday reversal. The S&P 500 wasn't far behind, dropping 1.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost a solid 380 points (0.8%), leading to a Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq slide out gains as Nvidia, tech stocks lead sharp reversal lower.

What’s truly striking is where the pain hit hardest: the very stocks that have been the darlings of this bull run. Nvidia (NVDA), the poster child for the AI revolution, closed down 3.15% at $180.64. This wasn't because of bad news; quite the opposite. Nvidia had just reported record Q3 FY26 revenues of $57 billion (up 62% year-over-year) and issued stronger-than-expected Q4 guidance. Yet, the stock, which had surged as much as 5% in early trading, was rejected by the market. This wasn't a profit-taking exercise; it felt like a systemic shudder. The screens on trading desks, usually a mosaic of green and red, turned a uniform, angry crimson in the space of an afternoon.

Other AI-related stocks followed suit, with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) falling around 5%, and infrastructure players like Western Digital and Seagate declining 4-6%. The breadth of the decline was stark: declining stocks heavily outnumbered advancing issues on both the NYSE and Nasdaq (roughly 76% and 73% respectively). New 52-week lows significantly swamped new highs. This isn't just a blip; it's the market actively shaking out what it perceives as "weak hands," or perhaps, more accurately, re-evaluating the very foundations of its recent gains.

Friday offered a modest attempt at a rebound, with Dow futures gaining 0.43% and S&P 500 futures up 0.31% in pre-market. But the Nasdaq futures decline as selling pressure continues in Nvidia, AI stocks: Live updates - CNBC, signaling that the tech jitters weren't entirely gone. Oil prices continued their slide, and gold eased, suggesting broader risk-off sentiment. Bitcoin, the wild card, was down a significant 9% on Friday morning, extending Thursday's sharp drop below $87,000. When even the digital gold is getting hammered, you know something fundamental is shifting.

The Data's Double-Edged Sword: A Conflicted Economy

The market’s hypersensitivity isn’t happening in a vacuum. The economic data coming out is less a clear signal and more a Rorschach test for economists. Take the long-delayed September nonfarm-payrolls report. It showed the U.S. economy added 119,000 jobs, which was well above the 51,000 expected—a 133% beat, not just 'well above'. On its own, that sounds robust. But then you look at the unemployment rate, which rose to 4.4% in September, up from 4.3% in August, hitting its highest level in almost four years. More jobs, higher unemployment. This is an unhelpful split verdict if ever there was one, muddying the waters for the Federal Reserve.

One has to question the timing of this September report, delayed as it was by the government shutdown. Is it truly reflective of November's underlying trends, or a historical artifact that’s being misinterpreted in real-time? Initial unemployment filings for the week through November 15 were lower than expected, 220,000 versus 227,000, which offers a glimmer of stability, but it’s a small data point against a larger, more ambiguous backdrop. The Fed’s October meeting minutes already revealed "strongly differing views" among policymakers, and this latest jobs data only pours more gasoline on that internal debate. Options traders are now pricing in about 38% odds of a Fed rate cut in December, up from 28% earlier, but that still means a 62% chance they won’t. This level of indecision, both within the Fed and among investors, acts like a brake on any sustained market momentum.

Adding to the complexity are the warnings from retailer executives. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Lowe's offered a "mostly unified warning" about consumer health. Higher-income families are shopping more, middle-income steady, but lower-income families are under significant pressure, impacting discretionary purchases. This bifurcation suggests that while some parts of the economy might be humming, a substantial segment is struggling. It’s like a car where the front wheels are spinning fast, but the back wheels are stuck in mud.

And this is the part of the report that I find genuinely puzzling. If the global AI story is so robust, why is a key market like China showing such a significant revenue contraction for the sector's bellwether? Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang, when asked about an "AI bubble," stated, "From our vantage point, we see something very different." Yet, the data tells a different story in one crucial geography. Nvidia's China business, which accounted for 13% of its overall revenue in the previous fiscal year, only brought in $2.8 billion in Q3 FY26 (5% of total sales). This is significantly lower than the $8.4 billion projected. That's a 66.7% miss, not a minor adjustment. When a key growth engine sputters like that, it's not "something very different" – it's a concrete headwind. Global investors are increasingly fearing that U.S. tech volatility could trigger a broader "risk-off" wave, and these numbers from China certainly don't assuage those fears. Ray Dalio characterized AI as a bubble but advised it's too soon to sell. My analysis suggests the market is starting to listen to the "bubble" part, even if it hasn't committed to the "sell" part just yet.

The Numbers Don't Lie, They Just Confuse

The market isn't just reacting to news; it's reacting to conflicting news, filtered through a lens of deep-seated anxiety. Thursday's violent reversal, particularly in the high-flying tech sector, wasn't a random event. It was the collective nervous system of the financial world registering the unresolved tension between strong individual company earnings and the growing cracks in the broader economic narrative. The "AI-driven bubble" isn't a theoretical concept anymore; it's a fear that's starting to manifest in actual trade data and investor behavior. We're watching a market that desperately wants to believe in the future, but keeps getting cold feet from the present's uncomfortable truths.