Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: The VIX Plunges In Post-Election Rally (undefined:VIX)

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The VIX plunges after a powerful post-midterms rally. (0:16) Qualcomm shares slide as its earnings outlook disappoints. (1:23) Meta warns that data center construction is getting harder. (2:18)

The following is an abridged transcript:

Wall Street is breathing a collective “om,” pushing out the jive and bringing in the love as the post-midterms rally soothed trading jitters.

The Volatility Index (VIX) tumbled more than 20% in its biggest one-day percentage drop since April 2025. The VIX had been above 21 to start the week and is trading this morning around 16.8.

Neil Sethi, MP at Sethi Associates, said the VIX’s 4-point drop was also the largest in absolute terms since April of this year.

In the wake of the blue tsunami, the Dow (DJI) finished up 3% Wednesday, adding more than 1,500 points in its best-performing day since April 2025. The S&P 500 (SP500) and Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) notched gains of around 1.5%.

The VIX has swung widely over the past two years. It briefly topped 60 intraday in April 2025, AKA Liberation Day, when tariffs were introduced, and reached about 35 in March 2026 before easing toward the mid-teens.

In premarket trading this morning, Dow futures (INDU) point to further gains at the open, up about 0.5%. S&P futures (SPX) are flat, though, and Nasdaq 100 futures (US100:IND) are down 0.5% with Qualcomm (QCOM) dragging post-earnings.

Qualcomm is down about 10% premarket following mixed guidance that overshadowed fiscal Q4 results.

For fiscal Q1, Qualcomm said it expects EPS of between $2.15 and $2.35 on an adjusted basis. The midpoint of $2.25 is below the $2.29 consensus. Revenue guidance of between $10.4B and $11.2B with $10.8B midpoint is a hair over the $10.55B expected.

Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said the company highlighted that data centers are now a supply question, not a demand question.

The company said it is “reiterating our $5B revenue target (for data centers) for fiscal ’27 with healthy order coverage supporting continued revenue growth in fiscal ’28.”

“Upside beyond the $5B FY27 target is constrained by supply, and two hyperscalers at scale make up most of the $5B, both running into FY28 and FY29,” Moorhead said.

Data center development now faces an uncertain future after victories by Democrats, especially at the governor level, who campaigned against the White House’s build-baby-build strategy.

Meta (META) President Dina Powell McCormick said at the WSJ Tech conference yesterday that building new data centers is an increasingly difficult task. But she also indicated potential for negotiation.

“We did have a governor that won last night who did make data centers a big part of their platform say, ‘As soon as we get past the inauguration, let’s meet because we don’t want to lose this investment in our town. We don’t want these jobs to go elsewhere,’” she said.

Powell McCormick, who said she spends 80% of her time working on securing computing power, also said “every hyperscaler is now thinking about ‘Do we need to build outside the United States?’ Because they’re enormous investments, hedging those investments is a wise thing to do.”

In addition, OpenAI (OPENAI) is already ramping up its friendly neighborhood data center campaign.

The maker of ChatGPT said it will not use nondisclosure agreements with public officials in negotiations over projects and will “pay the full cost of the electricity we use and the infrastructure needed to serve us.”

The company unveiled a National Community Compact, outlining commitments to disclose potential effects on communities, including noise, water consumption and energy demand. It also pledged to curb electricity use during peak periods, return power to the grid and set local hiring targets where workforce availability permits. OpenAI said it would publicly track and report its progress.

On the economic calendar

8:30 a.m. Weekly Jobless Claims

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