A company deciding this month whether to sign a lease, add a shift or hold more cash is doing it after a week in which technology stocks fell hard, and with the politics of data centers suddenly open again.
The Nasdaq Composite fell into a correction in the week ended Nov. 6 as artificial-intelligence stocks took the worst of the selling, CNBC reported. Thursday's one-day selloff left the Magnificent Seven collectively poorer by $1 trillion, with Nvidia alone accounting for $440 billion. Thursday was also the biggest day of retail selling since the Covid pandemic, according to Vanda Research. The VIX, Wall Street's volatility gauge, was last around 24 on Friday.
"Even before a Democratic sweep of the House and Senate complicated the outlook for data center development in the U.S., investors had been anxiously waiting" for a reset of the AI trade, CNBC wrote. Investors have been moving into defensive sectors such as healthcare and consumer staples.
Monday: energy, power and deal money
Monday, Nov. 9, is the heaviest day for company results. Occidental Petroleum, NRG Energy and Constellation Energy report, along with KKR, Take-Two Interactive Software and Skydance, according to CNBC's calendar. September wholesale inventories are due at 10 a.m. ET.
NRG and Constellation report in a week when, in Texas at least, what data centers do to Texans' electricity bills has become a campaign promise.
Tuesday: the small-business survey
For small firms, the most relevant number of the week comes early. The NFIB Small Business Index for October is released Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6 a.m. ET. It is the one release of the week built around firms that size.
The Consumer Price Index for October follows at 8:30 a.m. TransDigm Group reports earnings the same day.
Thursday and Friday: chips, claims and producer prices
Applied Materials, a maker of chip-production equipment, reports Thursday, Nov. 12. Its results arrive in the middle of the AI pullback and ahead of Nvidia, which reports later this month.
Thursday's calendar also includes initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. and October existing home sales at 10 a.m. New York Fed President John Williams appears on a panel. The Producer Price Index for October comes Friday, Nov. 13, at 8:30 a.m.
Most of the third-quarter reporting season is already done. S&P 500 companies are expected to have grown earnings 31 percent last quarter, according to FactSet's John Butters.
Texas and the data-center question
The political change most directly tied to data centers came in the governors' races. Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the Texas governor's race and has called for a moratorium on all data-center approvals until the Legislature, which meets in January, passes protections, the Texas Tribune reported.
"When I am governor I will issue a moratorium — a ban — on all data center approvals until laws can be passed by the Legislature to protect Texans," she said in an Oct. 22 video on X.
Her priorities include requiring union workers, protecting water supplies, ending nondisclosure agreements, making sure Texans do not pay more for electricity because of data centers, and stopping tax subsidies. She takes office Jan. 19.
Texas has already slowed the pipeline. Since August, Gov. Greg Abbott has paused data-center approvals at the state grid and at the environmental permitting agency for an audit expected to last until December.
Texas is not alone. Data Center Watch found that 43 percent of the 74 gubernatorial candidates it studied in 36 states supported a data-center moratorium or ban.
What it means for firms that build and supply
For a firm that builds or supplies data centers, a pause on approvals is first a question of timing. The start date moves, and the date invoices get paid moves with it. Payroll runs on its own calendar, and the cash to cover the wait has to come from somewhere.
Hinojosa does not take office until Jan. 19. Abbott's audit runs into December. Between now and then, the week's earnings calls and Tuesday's survey are the nearest published evidence of how companies large and small are planning.