Markets
The 7am Briefing: Nvidia Probes Its CEO as CPI Week Begins
Nvidia slips premarket, Berkshire's record cash and a heavy inflation week ahead.
HedgeWeekly Video & Briefing Desk ·
Top line: Nvidia's board is investigating its own chief executive, and the world's most valuable chipmaker is down about 5% before the bell. The rest of the market is calmer, with Dow futures up and a heavy inflation week ahead. Here is what changed overnight, in about four minutes.
Before the bell (US futures as of 5:30 a.m. ET): S&P 500 futures +0.47% · Nasdaq 100 +0.29% · Dow +0.79%. 10-year Treasury about 4.86% · 2-year about 4.52%. WTI crude −0.39% to about $90.48 · Brent −0.69% to about $97.64. Gold +1.2% to about $4,113 · Dollar index −0.45% to 101.72. Bitcoin −2.07% to about $74,250.
Markets and macro: 1. Nvidia opens a probe into its CEO. Independent directors, helped by outside counsel, will examine whether Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. The New York Times reported last month that he had a relationship with a former Megaspeed executive whom US authorities linked to Chinese intelligence. Huang told staff he had been unfaithful to his wife. Nvidia says he stays as CEO and it has no reason to believe secrets were compromised. Beijing called the spy claims "a smear". Shares were about 5% lower premarket.
Markets and macro: 2. A crowded week for inflation and AI. October consumer prices arrive Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. Tickmill puts consensus at +0.3% for the month, with core prices up 0.2%. Producer prices follow on Friday. On Wednesday, Veterans Day, stocks trade but the bond market is closed. CoreWeave reports on Tuesday evening, and Cisco, Applied Materials and Cerebras on Thursday. These are the first AI-spending updates since last week's sell-off.
Markets and macro: 3. Berkshire keeps buying itself back. Berkshire Hathaway's third-quarter operating earnings fell 5.8% to $12.7 billion, as insurance underwriting profit dropped. Its railroad, energy and manufacturing arms all earned more. The company bought back about $9.6 billion of its own shares in the quarter. Its cash pile hit a record $377.4 billion, Investing.com reported.
Markets and macro: Also overnight: Japan's Nikkei closed up 2.3% and Taiwan's index gained 4.9% as TSMC rose 4.7%, while Seoul's Kospi slipped 0.8%. Europe's STOXX 600 rose 0.5%, led by banks; UniCredit gained 5.2% after raising its profit goal. Oil eased after President Trump said new strikes on Iran looked unlikely while talks continue.
Hedge fund moves: October split winners from losers. Hedge Fund Research estimates its main index lost 1.4% last month, with about 60% of funds down. Tech-focused stock pickers lost 4.8%, while activists made 3.6%. The top tenth of funds gained 7.7% on average and the bottom tenth lost 13.2%. Goldman Sachs data show fundamental and quant long/short funds both lost more than 3%, a first in its records.
Hedge fund moves: Brevan Howard loses five credit managers. At least five credit portfolio managers have left the roughly $35 billion firm, Hedgeweek reported, citing Bloomberg. Separately, credit trading head Andy Silver is moving to an advisory role. The Alpha Strategies fund lost about 1% in October, wiping out its gains for the year. The flagship Master Fund returned 0.4%, trimming its 2026 loss to 0.2%.
Earnings to watch: KKR reports before the open. Analysts expect $1.41 a share, up from $1.22 a year ago, StockTitan said. Constellation Energy is due this morning, with consensus at $3.90 a share against $3.04 last year. Ferguson and NRG Energy also report before the open. After the close: Take-Two (expected $0.49 a share), Occidental ($1.43), Rocket Lab , Hims & Hers and AST SpaceMobile .
HedgeWeekly Stockwatch: NVDA Nvidia: down about 5% premarket after its board opened an investigation into chief executive Jensen Huang. KKR KKR: reports third-quarter results before the open, as private credit faces scrutiny after a weak October for credit funds. CEG Constellation Energy: reports this morning, with Democrats planning rules on data-centre power costs. TTWO Take-Two: reports after the close, with consensus earnings of $0.49 a share, down from $1.04 a year ago.
Today's calendar (ET): Before the open: KKR, Constellation Energy, Ferguson and NRG results. Today: New York Fed survey of consumer inflation expectations for October (prior 3.9%), and September wholesale inventories. Fed: Christopher Waller and John Williams are due to speak, Tickmill said. After the close: Take-Two, Occidental, Rocket Lab and Hims & Hers. Tuesday, 8:30 a.m.: October consumer price index.
Number of the day: 5.7%. That is how fast China's factory-gate prices rose in the year to October, the quickest pace since June 2022, up from 5.0% in September and above the 5.3% forecast. Consumer prices rose only 0.7%. For US investors, rising Chinese producer prices could feed into the cost of imported goods just as the Fed weighs another hike.
One thing to watch: Nvidia is among the biggest weights in the S&P 500, so its first hour of trading matters well beyond chips. Watch whether the broader market holds its gains if Nvidia stays lower, and whether lawmakers or regulators add new questions before Tuesday's inflation data.
Sources
- Reuters via Investing.com
- Investing.com
- TipRanks
- Grafa
- Yahoo Finance
- The New York Times via Reuters
- Associated Press
- Tickmill
- StockTitan
- Hedge Fund Research via Hedgeweek
- Goldman Sachs via Opalesque
- Hedgeweek
- Bloomberg
- Trading Economics
- see.news
- TradingKey
- SBS News