Wall Street lost $3.2 trillion after the Democrats’ victory. Euronext’s CEO says Europe is where to invest

ANDRIEVSKII.CH | November 9, 2026

Fears over the future of data center construction hit chipmakers hard. European stocks held up better, and the region’s airlines had a reason of their own to attract investors — cheaper fuel.

On November 5, 2026, two days after Democrats swept the U.S. midterm elections, American stocks lost $3.2 trillion in market value in a single session. The Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% and the S&P 500 dropped 4.4%. According to Financial Times calculations based on FactSet data, it was the largest one-day loss in market value for companies in the broad S&P Composite 1500 since the turn of the millennium.

AI Stocks Take the Hit

Tech stocks had started falling before the election. Alphabet’s Class A shares dropped 12.64% on October 29, and Intel fell 28.6% the following day. By the close on November 5, Alphabet was trading at $282.57 a share, about 31% below its all-time intraday high.

Once it became clear that Democrats would take both chambers of Congress, the broader market rallied even as some data center stocks were already slipping. Wall Street remembered that data centers have neighbors, lawmakers have constituents, and construction projects have budgets. Some newly elected officials had opposed new facilities. If permits take longer to secure, orders for chips and servers may come in later than investors had counted on.

Why investors looked to Europe

As U.S. indexes tumbled, the Stoxx Europe 600 closed just 0.4% lower on November 5. As Bloomberg’s Michael Msika noted, Europe’s limited exposure to the AI boom had until recently counted against it. During the selloff, its mix of industrials, banks, commodity producers and defensive stocks became an advantage for investors looking to reduce their exposure to U.S. tech giants.

Speaking on Bloomberg Daybreak Europe on November 6, Euronext CEO Stéphane Boujnah said that European companies with global operations offer investors a way to diversify their portfolios. “Europe is the place to invest in these troubled times,” Boujnah said. “Europe is a very safe place when it comes to return risk profile.”

Aviation squared

“Collective, concerted action is substantially greater than the sum of its parts. Mathematically, that’s x squared,” said Sergei Kapitsa, the distinguished Soviet and Russian physicist.

Investors were looking for somewhere to put some of the money they were pulling out of U.S. AI stocks. European airlines had two things going for them. Jet fuel had become cheaper, and revenue per available seat kilometer had come in above Barclays’ expectations.

On Wall Street, an airline’s success is often credited to the people who run it. Let jet fuel get a little cheaper, and it turns out a fair amount of managerial talent is sold at the pump.

Who benefits first from cheaper jet fuel?

Barclays’ team, led by Andrew Lobbenberg, linked lower fuel prices, including for delivery in the months ahead, to expectations that tensions in the Middle East would ease. Ryanair had locked in prices for about a quarter of its fuel needs for fiscal 2028, while Norwegian Air Shuttle had hedged 22% of its needs for fiscal 2027. The less fuel an airline has hedged, the sooner falling prices can help its margins. When fuel gets more expensive, costs rise with the same efficiency.

Which airlines Barclays upgraded

Barclays upgraded five airlines. On the bank’s scale, Equal Weight is the neutral rating between Underweight and Overweight.

• Air France–KLM. Upgraded from Underweight to Overweight, skipping the neutral rating. The price target rose from €9 to €18 (+100%).
• Norwegian Air Shuttle. Upgraded from Equal Weight to Overweight. The price target rose from NOK 11.50 to NOK 16 (+39.1%).
• Finnair. Upgraded from Underweight to Equal Weight. The price target rose from €3.40 to €4.60 (+35.3%).
• Ryanair. Upgraded from Equal Weight to Overweight. The price target rose from €24 to €29 (+20.8%).
• Deutsche Lufthansa. Upgraded from Underweight to Equal Weight. The price target rose from €7.50 to €8.40 (+12%).

Barclays cited resilient demand for premium travel and a geographically diverse long-haul network in its assessment of Air France–KLM. The analysts were more cautious about Lufthansa and Finnair, which have greater exposure to passenger routes to Asia. Lufthansa also has greater exposure to air cargo.

Andrievskii Verdict

Until recently, you could pass for an ignoramus on Wall Street if you got through lunch without mentioning AI. Buy a stock over that same lunch without asking how much the company would need to earn to justify its price, and you were considered broad-minded.

Diversification had gone out of fashion, too. Why spread your eggs across several baskets when one of them promises to be worth a trillion dollars? That’s how plenty of people ended up with a dozen tickers. Each had a different logo. It took only one reason to bring them all down.

“The donkey knocked down the elephant. Time to celebrate.” That was more or less how Wall Street greeted the election results. The party lasted one trading session. The next day, the first piglet sent to slaughter was the one they’d already valued as an entire hog farm.

Wall Street booked the band on the strength of future AI profits. The band, unfortunately, is accustomed to being paid in the present.

Disclaimer: This publication is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute personalised investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. Investments in financial instruments involve risks, including the potential loss of capital.

Aleksei Andrievskii | Advisory Board Member, Bendura Bank AG | Liechtenstein