Wall Street Wrap: Pre-Market, November 5, 2026

Dow futures extend the post-election rally as tech slips, Qualcomm sinks 11%, AppLovin surges 22% and the Bank of England raises rates

Wall Street looks set for a mixed open on Thursday, with Dow futures building on Wednesday's election rally while Nasdaq futures slip as chip and AI-linked names retreat.

Futures Snapshot

Futures were split, with the Dow leading and the Nasdaq-100 lagging, while the VIX dropped nearly 19% to below 17.

What's Driving the Open

The market is rotating. The Dow jumped more than 1,500 points on Wednesday, its best day since April 2025, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each gained more than 1%, and Dow futures rose again early Thursday, led by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and American Express (NYSE:AXP), each up more than 1%. Tech lagged, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) down about 2%, CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) down almost 4% and Nebius (NASDAQ:NBIS) and IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) down more than 3% on worries about a backlash to data-center construction after the election results.

Generali Investments' Thomas Hempell said Wednesday's rally also owed much to President Donald Trump's acceptance of the results and openness to working with Democrats, which eased fears of a contested outcome. Jordan Watson of Tandem Investment Advisors warned the move should not be read as an all-clear and called for "some sanity" on AI capital spending.

Economic data was solid. Initial jobless claims fell to 189,000 against a 197,000 forecast, and third-quarter productivity rose 3.6% against the 2.9% estimate, though yields edged up from earlier lows.

What could change the picture: Hawkish remarks from Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack at 8:50 a.m. ET or a strong payrolls report on Friday would push yields higher, further selling in AI and chip names would weigh on the Nasdaq, and renewed Strait of Hormuz incidents would send oil back up.

Overnight Markets

In Asia, South Korea's Kospi plunged 5.28% to 5,383.80 and the tech-focused Kosdaq fell 5.11% to 678.41, while Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.79% to 61,077.90 even as the Topix gained 1.16% to 3,940.39. Mainland China's CSI 300 rose 0.29% to 4,113.41, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 3.61% in its last hour of trade, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 2.61% to 9,065.10. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 rose 0.71%, France's CAC 40 gained 1.1% and Germany's DAX added 0.74%, while the FTSE 100 touched a three-month high and was last up 0.76% at 10,911.66. The Bank of England raised rates by 25 basis points to 4%, its first hike since August 2023, by a vote of 8 to 1, and said it expects U.K. inflation to reach about 5% by mid-2027. France's National Assembly unanimously rejected the government's 2027 budget a day before nationwide strikes.

Pre-Market Movers

Rates, FX & Crypto

Yields eased early in the session, with the 10-year dipping to about 4.87%, but rose back as the morning's data came in strong, with the front end leading. Sterling was little changed at about $1.348 after the Bank of England's hike, and 10-year gilt yields rose about 2 basis points to 5.15%. Bitcoin traded near $79,612, down 1.00%, and Ether near $2,385, down 1.52%.

Commodities

Oil rebounded from near two-month lows after plunging more than 8% on Wednesday, as traders judged whether a Democratic Congress improves the odds of a diplomatic end to the Iran war. Vice President JD Vance blamed voter anger over the conflict for his party's losses, while Iran's Revolutionary Guard said two oil tankers and a tugboat caught fire in separate incidents in the Strait of Hormuz. Gold extended its post-election rally to a more than two-week high after jumping nearly 3.4% on Wednesday, its best day since Aug. 19, with Saxo Bank's Ole Hansen saying precious metals "have emerged as major winners" as falling energy prices, yields and the dollar forced short covering.

Key Levels & Catalysts Today

Economic data

• Initial jobless claims fell to 189,000 for the week ending Oct. 31 against the 197,000 forecast and 194,000 prior, and continuing claims rose 23,000 to 1.718 million.
• Third-quarter nonfarm productivity rose 3.6% against the 2.9% forecast, the most in a year, with output up 3.7% and hours worked up 0.1%.
• Challenger job cuts totaled 43,994 in October, down 71% from a year ago and the lowest for an October since 2023.
• Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack speaks at 8:50 a.m. ET, and October nonfarm payrolls are due Friday.

Corporate

• Shake Shack holds its earnings call at 8 a.m. ET.
• Visa's research projects holiday retail sales rising 4.5% in the last two months of 2026, the strongest growth since 2021.

Top Stories

Qualcomm tumbles as its handset business shrinks. Handset revenue fell 26% to $5.14 billion, pulling chip segment sales down 8% to $9.02 billion, and the stock is on track to lose about $17.5 billion in market value. CEO Cristiano Amon said the company "saw the memory shortage coming and prepared for it early," and it reiterated a $5 billion fiscal 2027 data-center target and record automotive revenue of $1.99 billion. Morgan Stanley analysts said they "lack conviction" in a three-year AI semiconductor ramp.

AppLovin and Unity power an ad-tech rebound. AppLovin's CEO called last quarter's miss "our own foot fault" as the company re-accelerated gaming and added $3.2 billion to its buyback, bringing authorization to $3.6 billion, while Unity's results came in far above estimates and its fourth-quarter guidance topped expectations. Investors remain wary of a slowing sequential growth outlook at AppLovin, which is down about 60% this year despite the surge.

Bank of England hikes for the first time in more than three years. The Monetary Policy Committee voted 8 to 1 to raise the key rate to 4%, with Catherine Mann dissenting in favor of a 50 basis point move, as the Iran war keeps energy prices high. Governor Andrew Bailey said that without progress toward settling the conflict, risks to inflation "are to the upside," and traders priced about a one-in-four chance of another hike in December. U.K. inflation was 3.5% in September.

Data-center curbs spread across states. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium on data centers using 50 megawatts or more, the first full statewide moratorium, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an order requiring environmental safeguards and local approval, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a pause on approvals of new projects through the state's grid interconnection process. OpenAI reaffirmed its promise to pay the full cost of powering its data centers, and analysts say tighter rules could reward tech giants with capacity in hand while squeezing debt-funded rivals.

Wendy's rejects Trian's $1.4 billion bid. The board of Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) said the $7.35-per-share cash offer from a group led by Nelson Peltz's Trian "substantially undervalues" the burger chain and adopted a one-year poison pill after the group refused a standstill. Same-store sales fell for a seventh straight quarter, though earnings and revenue beat estimates, and the shares were down less than 1% in premarket trading.

Eyes on Beth Hammack's remarks at 8:50 a.m. ET, Shake Shack's call at 8 a.m., and Friday's payrolls report.