Tech stocks enter November after a brutal October: Is it time to buy the dip?

By Mark DeCambre

Plus: Apple's big test, a warning from Warren Buffett and why the midterms could be good news for stocks

👋🏽 Hello, MarketWatchers. After a bruising October for tech stocks, we enter November with a familiar question: Is it time to buy the dip?

Intel just suffered its worst one-day stock decline in more than four decades. Alphabet endured a punishing selloff of its own, while the Nasdaq closed out its worst month since March 2025. And the bond market is asking tougher questions about the costs of AI financing.

Yet Deutsche Bank, which downgraded tech stocks three weeks earlier, is already recommending that investors buy them again.

The bank's strategists point to five V-shaped recoveries over the past 21/2 years. They also believe investors have become too pessimistic about tech companies' earnings prospects.

Of course, five previous rebounds don't guarantee a sixth. And the next move for tech tocks may depend less on the earnings companies just reported than on what they say about future demand for AI ... and whether that demand will justify the hundreds of billions of dollars they're spending to satisfy it.

A selloff can make stocks cheaper. Whether it makes them a bargain is another matter altogether.

I write Need to Know each morning to cut through the noise and focus on the market moves, investing ideas, and economic developments affecting your money. Sign up here to get it.

Three stories worth your time ...

-- The midterm election will be good news, regardless of outcome, says Morgan Stanley's chief stock-market strategist

-- Marine sniper turned macro strategist says this bull market has six to 12 months left. Here's his playbook.

-- Private equity in your 401(k)? Heed Warren Buffett's warning.

On markets: Deutsche Bank sees a buying opportunity in tech's selloff. But MarketWatch columnist Mark Hulbert sees something more troubling: that the Nasdaq's recent performance is starting to bear an uncanny resemblance to the dot-com era.

-- Follow our live stock-market coverage.

Can Apple stem tech's fall?

Apple reports earnings today after emerging relatively unscathed from last week's tech wreck. The iPhone maker ended October as the world's most valuable company, helped by its approach to AI spend.

Now comes the hard part: Can Apple deliver the growth investors want without outspending rivals? Follow along with our live Apple earnings coverage for more.

'GTA 6' fever? Take a sick day ...

"Grand Theft Auto VI" is already the hottest videogame in years, and many gamers are preparing for its Nov. 19 release by scheduling the day off. In fact, by one estimate, nearly one in five workers will skip work that day to play the game. Aditi Shrikant explains why it's such a phenomenon.

Time to intervene?

A reader whose father has Alzheimer's disease is worried that his father's caretaker is taking advantage of him, including using his debit card for food deliveries.

Before jumping to conclusions, here's what The Moneyist suggests he do first, and how to deal with a parent's rapidly declining acumen.

Data centers welcome ...

As communities across the country push back against data centers, West Virginia is practically rolling out the welcome mat. The state hopes the AI boom will bring jobs and tax revenue. But what will residents get in return? And what might they give up?

MarketWatch's Claudia Assis explores the risks and rewards the state faces and the community concerns that are being raised.

About me

Mark DeCambre is editor in chief of MarketWatch. He has spent more than 20 years covering Wall Street, markets and personal finance, and writes Need to Know, drawing on the award-winning analysis and journalism of the newsroom.

-Mark DeCambre

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11-02-26 0710ET