True Roots Media | 6 November 2026
The sell-off that ended early Friday morning in India was one of Wall Street’s sharpest in more than a year. During the November 5 U.S. session, the S&P 500 fell 4.4%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,833 points. Reuters estimated that nearly $3 trillion in market value was wiped off S&P 500 companies as investors sold shares across the market. www.reuters.com
Chipmakers took the hardest hit
Micron fell 17.5% and AMD dropped *17.3%. Broadcom lost **10.4%, Intel fell **10.3%, and Nvidia dropped **9.3%. Nvidia’s percentage loss was smaller than AMD’s or Micron’s, but its size made it the biggest single drag on the S&P 500. The selling spread beyond chipmakers. Palantir fell **9.7%, Oracle **6.9%, and Microsoft *3.6%. portfolio-terminal.com
The immediate concern was that Democratic gains in the U.S. midterm elections could bring greater scrutiny of new data centres, especially in communities already questioning how much power and water they would use. Slower approvals could delay orders for chips, servers and power equipment. Behind that concern was a question investors were already asking. How long will it take for the billions committed to AI infrastructure to generate enough revenue to justify the spending? www.reuters.com
By Friday’s U.S. premarket session, some chip stocks were recovering. At *4:54 p.m. IST, Nasdaq-100 futures were up **1.4%, S&P 500 futures were up **0.3%, and Dow futures were down **0.9%. Nvidia was up *4.5% in premarket trading. The moves showed some buyers returning to chip stocks ahead of Friday’s regular session. www.reuters.com
What Jammu can take from the debate
In Jammu’s Dogra farming communities, a discussion about a village kuhl, or irrigation channel, starts with practical questions. Who gets water, who maintains the channel, and what happens when supply runs short? The scale of an AI data centre is vastly different, but residents weighing a proposal have similarly practical questions about where the electricity and water will come from, who will pay for the upgrades, and how many permanent jobs the project will bring.
Those are questions Jammu can ask when it weighs large technology investments of its own. A proposal can look attractive on paper while leaving the local costs and benefits unclear. Before a project is celebrated for its investment figure, residents should be able to see what it will draw from local infrastructure and what it will deliver in return.