Futures-options traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, US, Nov. 5, 2026.

Stock futures were mixed early Friday after a punishing sell-off in artificial intelligence stocks that sent the Nasdaq into correction territory. Traders also awaited a key payrolls report.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 1.3%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.35%, while Nasdaq-100 futures inched 0.3% higher, clawing back a fraction of heavy losses suffered on Thursday.

In Asia, South Korea led losses in the region, with the Kospi plunging more than 6%. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 5.9%, falling into bear market territory. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.9%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1%, and mainland China's CSI 300 declined 1.47%.

The moves follow a bout of heavy selling during Thursday's regular Wall Street session that saw the three major averages post their worst one-day performances since April 2025. The Nasdaq Composite tanked 5.5%, closing more than 10% below its most recent high and landing in correction territory. The broad-market S&P 500 lost 4.4%, while the Dow fell more than 1,800 points, or 3.4%.

While all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 closed with losses, shares of companies tied to the AI build-out suffered keenly. Democrats' big wins in the House and Senate, as well as key governorships in states like Texas, sparked traders' worries of a potential slowdown in data center construction.

Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices plummeted 17% each, while neocloud CoreWeave slid 10%. Even the Magnificent Seven weren't spared, as Nvidia dropped 9%, turning negative for 2026, and the cohort of tech juggernauts shed more than $1 trillion in aggregate market cap.

The three major averages are poised for losses on the week, with the Nasdaq down 4.4% and the S&P 500 off almost 3% in the period. The 30-stock Dow is the relative outperformer of the three, off just 0.5% week to date.

The pullback creates a buying opportunity, Victoria Greene, CIO at G Squared Private Wealth told CNBC Thursday. "The AI trade, in my opinion, is not dead here," she said, adding, "it's a good discount." She's interested in memory stocks, citing how management teams throughout this earnings season have been talking about the capacity crunch. "Buying a volatile dip tends to be good as long as we're still in a non-recessionary period," she said.

Another market catalyst awaits investors on Friday morning in the form of the October payrolls report. The Dow Jones consensus estimate is for 59,000 jobs added last month and for the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.2%.

Correction: Victoria Greene is the CIO of G Squared Private Wealth. An earlier version misspelled her name.