Key Notes
- Nasdaq 100 futures gained about 1.3% in a post-payrolls snapshot, while Dow futures remained almost 1% lower.
- US employers added 165,000 jobs in October, unemployment slipped to 4.1% and prior payroll gains were revised up by 84,000.
- Chip stocks recovered part of Thursday’s losses, with Lam Research buoyed by a new $25 billion buyback authorization.
Nasdaq 100 futures rose Friday as buyers returned to battered chip stocks after Wall Street’s steepest selloff since April 2025. A stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report added evidence of economic resilience, although the recovery in equities remained uneven and Dow futures stayed lower.
Employers added 165,000 jobs in October, while unemployment edged down to 4.1%. The figures arrived after a session in which the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.52% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 12.2%, as investors questioned the pace and financing of the AI infrastructure boom.
The early buying followed an overnight rebound that had already lifted technology futures from their lows. The payroll release gave traders a new set of numbers to assess before Friday’s cash-market opening.
Chip Stocks Lead the Premarket Rebound
A futures snapshot at approximately 9:03 a.m. Eastern, or 14:03 UTC, showed:
- Nasdaq 100 futures: up 1.33% at 27,108.50.
- S&P 500 futures: up 0.12% at 7,391.50.
- Dow futures: down 0.98% at 51,111.
The split left the technology-heavy contract well ahead of the broader market. These were premarket futures quotes, measured against the contracts’ own previous closes, rather than gains in Friday’s cash indexes.
Individual chip and storage stocks also recovered ground. Premarket prices around 9:11 a.m. Eastern showed the following moves from Thursday’s regular-session closes:
- Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA): up about 4.1% at $189.00.
- Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD): up about 8.5% at $438.74.
- Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU): up about 6.2% at $697.26.
- SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK): up about 9.5% at $882.95.
- Lam Research (Nasdaq: LRCX): up about 13.6% at $210.46.
The size of those gains reflected the depth of the previous day’s losses. Nvidia was still about 5.6% below Wednesday’s close at that snapshot, while AMD remained roughly 10.2% lower and SanDisk about 14.9% lower.
Hiring Beats Forecasts as Wage Growth Picks Up
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 165,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls, far above the 59,000 gain expected by economists in the Dow Jones survey. Unemployment fell from 4.2% in September to 4.1%.
Revisions also strengthened the picture. August’s gain rose to 186,000 from 133,000, while September’s increase was lifted to 60,000 from 29,000. The combined upward revision was 84,000 jobs.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% over the month to $38.00 and were 3.1% higher than a year earlier. Professional and business services added 70,000 jobs, health care gained 42,000, and transportation and warehousing added 25,000.
For equities, the report cuts two ways. Stronger hiring supports household incomes and sales, easing concern that the economy is abruptly weakening. Faster monthly wage growth also gives the Federal Reserve less reason to assume inflation pressure is fading. The report offered support for the growth outlook without resolving investors’ concerns about borrowing costs.
AI Investment Risks Remain in Focus
Thursday’s Wall Street rout erased the previous day’s rally. The S&P 500 fell 4.36% to 7,353.73, the Nasdaq Composite closed at 24,315.00, and the Dow lost 1,833.06 points to 51,523.06. The Nasdaq 100 dropped 6.36% to 26,629.81.
Investors have been repricing the AI buildout after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress and important state races. Voter-backed data-center restrictions and proposals for construction moratoriums have sharpened the risk that projects could take longer to begin generating revenue.
That matters throughout the supply chain. Later openings can postpone orders for chips, memory and storage, while cloud operators continue to carry equipment and financing costs. A change in congressional control is not itself a nationwide construction ban, but the prospect of tighter oversight has unsettled a trade already facing questions about debt and returns on investment.
The selling continued across Asia before the U.S. payroll release. Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi both closed about 6% lower, with Seoul briefly halting trading after an early drop of more than 8%. Their closing losses showed that the tentative U.S. rebound had not prevented another punishing session for overseas suppliers.
Lam Research Adds a Buyback Catalyst
Lam Research had a company-specific reason to attract buyers. The semiconductor-equipment maker’s board authorized up to $25 billion in share repurchases on Thursday, supplementing the balance left under its earlier program.
The authorization has no expiry date and does not require Lam to buy a set amount of stock. It nevertheless gives the company substantial room to return cash at a time when investors are cutting valuations across the chip industry.
Lam also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.33 a share, payable January 6 to shareholders of record December 2.
