S&P 500 Plunges, Wall Street Fears Circuit Breaker, Just One Day After Trump Celebrated Record Highs

President Donald Trump's celebration of Wall Street's highs aged rather poorly. Less than 24 hours after boasting about Americans' retirement accounts going "through the roof," the S&P 500 plunged as much as 3.8% Thursday, bringing emergency trading halts into the conversation.

The selloff prompted traders to monitor the market's circuit-breaker thresholds, which can temporarily shut down trading across U.S. stock exchanges when losses become too severe. The S&P 500 would need to fall another 3.2 percentage points from its decline to trigger the first emergency halt.

The timing is particularly awkward for Trump, who has repeatedly pointed to stock market performance as evidence of his administration's economic success.

Market Circuit Breakers

The U.S. stock market has three emergency thresholds designed to slow panic selling. These mechanisms, known as circuit breakers, automatically suspend trading when the S&P 500 falls by a specified percentage from its previous closing price.

The first threshold is a 7% decline, corresponding to an S&P 500 level of 7,150.41 points for Thursday's session. Reaching that level before 3:25 p.m. ET would trigger a 15-minute halt across US equity markets.

A 13% decline, or 6,689.09 points, would trigger another 15-minute suspension. The most severe threshold comes at 20%, or 6,150.89 points, which would shut down trading for the remainder of the day.

Technology Sector Selloff

The technology sector was particularly hard hit as investors continued digesting the consequences of Tuesday's election results. At around 11 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite had fallen nearly 5%, while the S&P 500 was down 3.2%.

Nvidia lost more than 6%, while the broader semiconductor index plunged nearly 11%. Companies involved in building AI infrastructure were under pressure as investors worried that Democratic victories could bring stricter oversight of data-center construction.

The selloff also spilled into cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin fell below $76,000, wiping out its post-election recovery as approximately $428 million in leveraged crypto long positions were liquidated within an hour.

Stocks also faced pressure from persistent inflation concerns and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's next interest-rate decision. Investors are awaiting Friday's October employment report, which could provide further clues about the direction of monetary policy.