The S&P 500 fell 4.36% to 7,353.73 on Thursday, wiping out Wednesday’s post-election rally and posting its steepest daily decline since April 2025. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite plunged 5.5%, entering correction territory at nearly 12% below its October record.

December S&P 500 futures traded as high as 7,738.75 and as low as 7,391.25. The contract traded near 7,405 late in the session, roughly 315 handles below Wednesday’s settlement of 7,720.50 and 160 handles below the day’s midpoint of 7,565.

AI-related stocks bore the brunt of the selling as investors reconsidered the outlook for data-center construction amid potential regulatory hurdles and local opposition following Democratic election victories. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged roughly 12%, its worst session since March 2020. Nvidia fell 9.3%, while AMD plunged more than 17%.

Economic data offered little reason for the risk-off reaction. Third-quarter labor productivity increased at a 3.6% annualized rate, while unit labor costs declined 0.7%. Initial jobless claims also fell to 189,000 from 195,000 the previous week.

On Friday, market participants can look forward to the October employment report at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect employers to have added 65,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate holding at 4.2%.

Among the largest components of the index, Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was the best performer, although it still lost on the day. The retail giant declined by $1.45, or 1.12%, to close at $127.72, outperforming the cash index by approximately 3.2 percentage points.

Conversely, the biggest loser was Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). For the day, the electric-vehicle maker declined by $41.50, or 10.77%, to close at $343.69.