Overnight Developments
Dow futures extend the post-election rally while Nasdaq lags — CNBC
Wednesday’s Democratic sweep of both chambers sent the Dow up about 1,500 points, helped by an ~8% drop in crude (WTI Dec settled at $88.12 vs. $96.09 Tuesday). This morning the rotation continues: banks lead Dow futures higher (Goldman, JPMorgan and American Express are up more than 1% each), while AI and neocloud names slip on fears that newly elected Democrats will tighten data-center rules. CoreWeave, Nebius and Iren are each down roughly 2.5–3.6% pre-market. Oil has stabilized, with WTI up about 1.8% to ~$89.70. Affected sectors: Financials, AI infrastructure, Semiconductors, Energy
Qualcomm sinks on a weak forecast, AppLovin soars — CNBC
Qualcomm beat estimates but guided low, saying the memory shortage is hurting smartphone sales. It is down about 10% pre-market ($156 vs. $173.19). AppLovin is up about 21% ($329 vs. $271.75) after beating estimates and raising guidance. Qualcomm is one of the weights on Nasdaq-100 futures this morning.
Affected sectors: Semiconductors, Ad tech
Asian chipmakers hit hard on AI-curb worries
The data-center backlash fear hit Asia’s chip names hardest. SK Hynix fell 9.5% and Samsung Electronics fell 7.6% in Seoul, and the Kospi dropped about 5%. OpenAI pledged to pay the full cost of powering its data centers as part of a set of commitments published Thursday, in an explicit response to the election results. Affected sectors: Semiconductors, AI infrastructure
Bank of England hikes to 4%, its first increase since 2023 — CNBC
The Bank of England raised rates 25bp to 4%. It is the last major central bank to start tightening since the Iran war began. Markets had priced the move at more than 99%, so this isn’t a surprise. Traders see about a one-in-four chance of another hike in December. Affected sectors: Rates, UK financials
Futures & Pre-Market
| Index | Futures | Change |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,737.00 | +0.21% |
| NASDAQ | 28,449.50 | -0.41% |
| DOW | 53,853.00 | +0.65% |
Changes vs. Wednesday’s settle, as of 07:00 ET. ETF pre-market quotes agree: SPY +0.2%, QQQ -0.6%, DIA +0.6%.
Watchlist Movers
No watchlist name is moving more than 3% pre-market. The semis are softest: TSM -2.2%, SMCI -2.5%, INTC -2.2%, NVDA -0.9%. The megacaps are firmer: AMZN, GOOG and META are each up about 1.4%.
International Markets
Asia split sharply. The Hang Seng rallied 3.7% on a rebound in Chinese tech, while the Nikkei fell 1.8% and the Kospi about 5% as chip stocks sold off. Shanghai finished up 0.1%. Europe is higher: the FTSE 100 is up about 0.8% near a three-month high and the DAX is up about 0.8%.
What to Watch at Open
The post-election rotation out of AI infrastructure and into banks and cyclicals is the story: watch whether Nasdaq weakness from Qualcomm and the Asian chip rout spreads to US semis. Oil has steadied near $90 after Wednesday’s 8% drop, so a renewed slide would extend the Dow’s lead.
This alert is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.