THE SHORT VERSION

Nasdaq futures bounce — Nvidia up 3.6% before the bell

Satirical cartoon: a giant soap bubble marked AI bursts over a Shanghai trading floor as a stunned investor in red clutches his stock certificate; a Unitree robot sits sliced in half on a counter with a UNITREE −50% sign while the red STAR50 chart plunges off a cliff. — Machine Age Cartoon · Zimbo

Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 1.5% in early Friday trading as chip stocks steadied after Thursday's rout, with Nvidia up 3.6% before the bell and AMD, Intel, Broadcom and Micron up between 5% and 8.3%.

The bounce came after the Nasdaq's worst day in 19 months wiped nearly $3 trillion off S&P 500 companies, driven by doubts over AI spending returns and fears that Democratic control of Congress could slow data-center construction.

Strategists called Thursday's selloff reactionary rather than a fundamental reset, but the next test is the October jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET — with traders pricing in a better than 65% chance of a December rate hike.