TheDrop Market Analysis, 11/18/25

Markets sank yet again as investors await Nvidia's heavily consequential earnings report, along with Thursday's jobs report.

ADP jobs report by week, with companies shedding jobs in the end of the month, ADP Research.

The Nasdaq Composite, which comprises of the largest tech stocks by market cap, led losses with its 1.21% decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average followed closely behind with its 1.07% decline, and the S&P 500 has the least devastating losses with its 0.83% loss. The Russell 2000, meanwhile, rose 0.31%, contradicting its larger counterparts. The VIX volatility index surged 10.3%, reflecting the non-stable decline experienced by many stocks during trading hours.

European stocks fell once more, fueled by momentum from last week as tech stocks deemed overvalued become victim to mass selloffs. The British blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 1.27%, the French CAC 40 fell 1.86%, and the German DAX P fell 1.74%. And Asian stocks leveled out as they make correction from their heavy losses from last week; the SSE Composite fell 0.81%, for instance.

Gold and Bitcoin had minimal shifts, but the former became a victim of speculation of a potential shortfall in value as the beginnings of an AI bubble affect the heavily liquid cryptocurrencies first. The USD did make some improvements in valuation, nevertheless.

Markets fell as investors have low expectations of Nvidia's earnings report tomorrow, Wednesday. The stock has been criticized for its heavily overvalued state, and Nvidia's AI investments have been deemed negatively by those seeing waning AI demand despite large supply. Additionally, investors await a key jobs report from the BLS this Thursday which will play a major role in the Federal Reserve's future interest rate decisions. Payroll data from ADP Research today showed that firms laid off employees toward the end of the month of October, in combination with shutdown-related issues.

Key AI contributors like Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft all fell by large margins as artificial intelligence's vitality is greatly on the line in Nvidia's earnings report tomorrow, in combination by systemic downgrades by Rothschild & Co Redburn among other analysts, who've deemed AI valuations far too high to justify a buy rating.