Wall Street suffered its worst session of the year on Thursday, November 5, 2026, with the Nasdaq 100 falling 6.36% to 26,629.81 points, the S&P 500 dropping 4.35% to 7,354.0 points, and the Dow Jones declining 3.44% to 51,523.1 points by the close, according to Zonebourse. The oil market moved in the opposite direction, with Brent crude rebounding to $98.29 a barrel after several tanker attacks in the Gulf.
Thursday’s session on Wall Street: a broad selloff in technology stocks
The decline was especially sharp among semiconductor and artificial intelligence stocks. Nvidia shares fell 9.26% on Thursday, closing at $181.60, while Broadcom plunged 10.43% to $291.53, according to closing prices reported by The Motley Fool and stockanalysis.com. The gap between the Nasdaq 100’s drop, heavily weighted toward technology, and the Dow Jones’s smaller decline, made up of more diversified stocks, illustrates that the selling was concentrated in a limited number of names rather than spread uniformly across the whole market.
| Asset | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nasdaq 100 | 26,629.81 points | -6.36% |
| S&P 500 | 7,354.0 points | -4.35% |
| Dow Jones | 51,523.06 points | -3.44% |
| Nvidia | $181.60 | -9.26% |
| Broadcom | $291.53 | -10.43% |
Brent rebounds to $98.29 after tanker attacks in the Gulf
Brent crude closed Thursday at $98.29 a barrel, up $3.67, or 3.88%, according to Channel News Asia. US WTI crude rose 2.72% to $90.52. The rebound follows a drop of more than 8% for both benchmarks the previous day, which had pushed them to their lowest closing levels since August 31. According to the British agency UKMTO, cited by the same source, attacks on tankers in the Gulf are continuing at a near-record pace, with at least five vessels reporting an incident since Sunday.
This oil price move adds to a series of volatile sessions already covered in the November 2 briefing on the Iran-Qatar talks, and follows the episode covered in the October 28 briefing on the Houthi attack on Ras Tanura.
Today’s agenda: the US October jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. Washington time
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its US employment situation report for October on Friday, November 6, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Washington time (2:30 p.m. Paris time), according to the official release schedule from the BLS. No numerical consensus is included here, as it could not be confirmed against an institutional source. This report follows the JOLTS data already covered in the November 4 briefing, where September job openings stood at 7.5 million.
What the day’s volatility means for an account under a drawdown rule
A session of this magnitude, whether a decline in indices or a surge in oil, is a reminder of why it matters to understand the mechanics that govern a proprietary trading account. The allowed loss threshold works differently depending on whether it is fixed once or whether it shifts every night, as detailed in the article on the trailing end-of-day drawdown. Likewise, the consistency rule governing the maximum share of a day’s result, the 30% Daily PNL Cap, matters most on a day when a single position can account for most of the result.
Frequently asked questions
Why did the Nasdaq 100 fall more than the Dow Jones on the same day?
The Nasdaq 100 includes a large share of technology stocks, including Nvidia and Broadcom, which fell 9.26% and 10.43% respectively on Thursday according to The Motley Fool and stockanalysis.com. The Dow Jones, made up of more sector-diversified stocks, was mechanically less affected by this selling concentrated in technology.
Why did Brent rise the same day stocks were falling?
The rebound in Brent to $98.29 followed repeated attacks on tankers in the Gulf, a factor specific to the physical oil market with no direct mechanical link to the decline in US stock indices observed on the same day.
Does the November 6 US jobs report cover the current month?
No, the report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics covers the employment situation for October 2026, not for the current month of November, in line with the official BLS release schedule.
Is a drop of more than 8% in Brent in a single session common?
The sources do not support a claim about frequency; it is only established that Wednesday’s session pushed Brent and WTI to their lowest closing levels since August 31, which indicates the scale of the move without making it a documented recurring event.