{"text":[[{"start":11.84,"text":"Wall Street stocks steadied on Friday, a day after the Democrats’ victory in the US midterm elections triggered a stampede from AI shares that wiped $3.2tn from the value of American equities markets."}],[{"start":25.14,"text":"The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 rose 1.4 per cent on Friday, having plunged 6.4 per cent in the previous session — its worst day since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The blue-chip S&P 500 ended the session up 0.3 per cent after falling 4.4 per cent on Thursday."}],[{"start":45.16,"text":"Investors had ditched tech shares on fears that Democrats would hamper the development of data centres, vital infrastructure underpinning the AI boom."}],[{"start":54.08,"text":"The facilities were a political flashpoint for voters across the US, with Democrats vowing to slow their expansion."}],[{"start":60.96,"text":"But on Friday, some of the worst-hit tech stocks rebounded even as some investors were nursing “performance-pain shell shock” following Thursday’s brutal losses, said Nomura’s Charlie McElligott."}],[{"start":72.4,"text":"The S&P 500 on Friday recouped less than 10 per cent of the 334.89 points it shed in the previous session. The index has, on average since 1928, recouped about 46 per cent of the points shed on days of declines of at least 4 per cent, underscoring the feebleness of Friday’s rebound."}],[{"start":92.2,"text":"“Yesterday was a strange move — and quite scary,” said Ajay Rajadhyaksha, global chair of research at Barclays, who argued the election results did not warrant the size of Thursday’s sell-off. He attributed it instead to forced selling by hedge funds, which had bet on AI stocks and whose unwind exacerbated what would have otherwise been a modest sell-off."}],[{"start":114.12,"text":"Democrat Gina Hinojosa’s victory as governor in Texas — a hub for data centres — was at the heart of Thursday’s retreat. Rajadhyaksha said markets were soothed on Friday after Hinojosa reaffirmed that her planned moratorium on data centre construction would only affect new permits and would be temporary, meaning it should not affect 2027 construction."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":134.52,"text":"Nvidia, which fell more than 9 per cent on Thursday and wiped more than $400bn from its market value, rose 2.8 per cent. Chipmaker Micron rose 5.1 per cent, having shed more than 17 per cent the day before."}],[{"start":150.48,"text":"Some fund managers said the scale of Thursday’s falls had made a rebound highly likely."}],[{"start":156.284,"text":"The US earnings and economic outlook “hadn’t moved enough to justify yesterday’s sell-off”, said Arun Sai, senior multi-asset strategist at Pictet Asset Management."}],[{"start":165.92,"text":"Following a sharp-sell off in momentum stocks such as chipmakers, Sai said he would “not be surprised to see dip-buying emerge into the year-end”."}],[{"start":173.88,"text":"Still, some investors urged caution."}],[{"start":176.88,"text":"“Maybe the market is ultimately right to move on without serious concern, but the speed at which it has analysed and explained yesterday is not reasonable to me,” said Mike Zigmont at Visdom Investment Group. “There should be more caution out there.”"}],[{"start":189.84,"text":"Asian and European shares fell on Friday as the previous day’s rout reverberated through global markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 6 per cent for its worst one-day drop since Donald Trump launched his trade war in April 2025."}],[{"start":205.28,"text":"South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi index, one of the biggest winners from the AI boom and dominated by chipmakers, tumbled 6 per cent."}],[{"start":213.24,"text":"Declines in Europe, which lacks the Big Tech companies that dominate US and Asian markets, were smaller on Friday, with the Stoxx Europe 600 closing 1.1 per cent lower."}],[{"start":229.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794018401_2513.mp3"}