Wall Street Rally Fizzles as $700 Billion in Gains Vanishes

Monday looked like the day Wall Street would shake off October's $2 trillion technology stock selloff. Then, within a few hours, roughly $700 billion of freshly minted gains disappeared.

The S&P 500 climbed as much as 1.1% in morning trading, only to close 0.5% lower. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.1%, adding to the previous week's punishing selloff in AI stocks.

The turnabout followed closely on a post from CNBC host Jim Cramer on X:

“Here we go: biggest tech takeout.”

That remark referred to Marvell's $115 billion purchase of Lumentum. The timing, though, quickly brought back jokes about Cramer's market calls, which have a famously uneven record.

Why the Stock Market Rally Collapsed So Suddenly

The early optimism had its origins in the Middle East.

Oil slid to $104 as hopes for US-Iran peace talks lifted expectations that energy would get cheaper and inflation would ease.

Equities jumped at the open: the Nasdaq 100 gained about 1.3%, while the Dow added more than 1%.

Before long, though, attention swung back to the question that stripped more than $2 trillion from the Nasdaq 100 during October: how much longer can Big Tech keep pouring billions into AI without producing adequate returns?

BREAKING: US stocks surge as investors buy the dip in technology stocks and US-Iran peace deal hopes resurface:

1. S&P 500: +1.0%
2. Nasdaq 100: +1.3%
3. Dow Jones: +1.1%
4. WTI Crude: -6.5%
5. Brent: -7.0%
6. Gold: +2.0%

US stocks have added over +$700 billion in market cap…

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) November 2, 2026

Oracle tumbled nearly 9% after unveiling plans to raise $20 billion through stock and bond sales to fund its AI expansion. Marvell shed almost 13%.

White House Says There Is Plenty of Money for AI

Elsewhere, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett played down fears of an AI financing crisis.

“There’s so much cash in the ecosystem that I think that people should be reassured,” Hassett said.

Notably, close to 70% of S&P 500 companies finished higher. The weakness stayed concentrated in the big technology names.

$700,000,000,000 wiped out from the US stock market in the last 2.5 hours.

— The Macro Paper (@macropaperr) November 2, 2026

As for the supposed Cramer curse, the Inverse Cramer ETF, which was built to bet against his recommendations, shed 15% before it closed in 2024.

Tuesday's US midterm elections and Friday's jobs report now loom, and faith in the AI trade has already been shaken.