What Is Behind The Rebound In Qualcomm Stock?

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Qualcomm (QCOM) stock gained 5.5% on Friday, November 6, 2026, while the S&P 500 rose 0.3%. The company issued no announcements, earnings reports or filings that day, and four of its five peers also finished higher. Separately, Reuters reported on Friday that Alphabet disclosed a Qualcomm stake worth $548 million. Friday’s gain followed a 9.5% fall on Thursday, November 5, the day after Qualcomm reported its fiscal fourth-quarter results. So what changed for chip stocks, and for Qualcomm, between Thursday and Friday?

Qualcomm Rose As Chip Stocks Recovered From A Sell-Off

Qualcomm climbed on Friday as semiconductor shares bounced back from a sell-off. A Democratic sweep of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections raised fears in the market of a slowdown in data center spending, and stocks sold off sharply on Thursday. Chip stocks were lower across the board that day. Qualcomm led the decline after its fourth-quarter results slightly beat estimates but came with light guidance. Stocks recovered some of those losses on Friday, with Nvidia, AMD and other chip manufacturers rebounding alongside Qualcomm.

These market fears reach Qualcomm because the company is building a data center business alongside its phone chips. On its November 4 call, management reiterated its $5 billion revenue target for data center in fiscal 2027. Management said most of that revenue is custom silicon for AI accelerators at two large cloud customers.

How Did Qualcomm Compare With Other Chip Makers?

Qualcomm rose more than three of the five chip makers on its peer list. Texas Instruments was the only company among the five to fall. Advanced Micro Devices posted the largest rise in the group, gaining 11.0%, while Intel also rose more than Qualcomm.

The wider technology sector advanced at a slower pace. XLK, the SPDR fund that tracks the sector, gained 1.5%, finishing well short of Qualcomm’s rise. Qualcomm moved in step with its chip peers rather than on its own.

Qualcomm Stock Is Still Down Over Twelve Months

A rise of this size is not rare for Qualcomm. The stock recorded 11 sessions with a gain at least this large in the prior 365 days, and its most recent move of this magnitude in either direction was Thursday’s fall.

Friday’s gain still left the stock down 6.0% over twelve months, while the S&P 500 returned 9.8%. Over the past six months alone, Qualcomm lost 23.8%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.25%. At $165.41, the stock closed about a third below its highest close of the past twelve months, $251.02 on May 29, 2026. It remains well above its lowest close of the year, $124.07 on April 7, 2026.

Qualcomm trades at 4.1 times its sales over the past twelve months, compared with 3.1 times for the S&P 500.

Qualcomm is expected to report its fiscal first-quarter 2027 results in February 2027. This will mark its first quarter with data center sales counted inside its chip business, and data center revenue is the figure to watch.

Does This Mean You Should Act On QCOM?

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