Nasdaq dives 3.4% as Wall Street's post-election glow fades

The Nasdaq 100 got hammered, down 3.4% in a session that erased a good chunk of the tech-heavy index's recent gains. The S&P 500 slid 1.47%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average held up far better, losing only 0.44%. The split tells the story: this wasn't a broad retreat, it was a targeted dump of tech.

Just hours earlier the mood had been the opposite. Thursday's session opened with the Dow extending a post-election rally while the Nasdaq struggled to stay positive, as fears that Democrats could push stricter regulation of artificial intelligence sapped appetite for tech names. Mercado Libre was among the day's worst casualties, sinking 11.67% at one point.

The whiplash follows a wild week. Democrats swept both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, and Wednesday's close saw the Dow surge 3.03%, a gain of about 1,570 points, with the Nasdaq 100 up 0.91%. 3M rode that wave higher by 9.55%. President Donald Trump blamed the war with Iran for his party's losses, pointing to higher prices driven by the conflict, but insisted he'd make the same call again.

After the closing bell, attention shifted to the earnings docket, with Airbnb, Lyft and Dropbox all reporting their quarterly results. Those numbers will help set the tone when trading resumes.

For now, the takeaway is a market pulled in two directions: old-economy names coasting on political enthusiasm, and tech getting punished over what Washington might do next.