Markets
The 7am Briefing: Nvidia CEO in Doubt, Cisco Reports Tonight and UK Grows 0.7%
Futures slip on a WSJ report about Jensen Huang's future; jobless claims at 8:30 a.m.
HedgeWeekly Video & Briefing Desk ·
Top line: A Wall Street Journal report says Nvidia's board is preparing to remove chief executive Jensen Huang. That has wiped out much of Wednesday's AI rally in Nasdaq futures.
Before the bell (US futures as of 4:11 a.m. ET; other prices early Thursday): S&P 500 futures −0.38% · Nasdaq 100 −0.79% · Dow +0.04%. 10-year Treasury about 4.99% · 2-year about 4.77%, up three basis points. WTI crude −0.91% to about $85.74 · Brent −0.91% to about $91.92. Gold −1.17% to about $3,954 · Dollar index −0.05% to 102.77. Bitcoin −0.66% to about $73,440.
Markets and macro: 1. Nvidia's leadership is now in question. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's board is preparing to oust Huang, Investing.com said. Huang has disclosed two extramarital affairs, and the board opened an investigation into him on November 8. Reuters said the shares fell about 7% premarket. CBS News said Nvidia has lost more than $450 billion in market value since the probe was announced. Bernstein cut its rating to Market Perform, Saxo said. Nvidia reports results on November 17.
Markets and macro: 2. Wednesday's rally is under pressure. The S&P 500 rose 1.3% to 7,619 on Wednesday, the Nasdaq gained 1.6% to 25,466 and the Dow added 0.5%. CoreWeave closed up 24.7% after its results, and the VIX fear gauge fell to about 17.5. Before the open, Reuters said CoreWeave was down 7.2%. Intel, Marvell and Micron were down 2.6% to 3.4%. Taiwan's main index fell about 2.8% overnight.
Markets and macro: 3. Rate-hike bets keep the dollar strong. The 2-year yield edged up again after Tuesday's 17-basis-point jump on hot inflation data. Markets fully price a Fed rate rise on December 9, and about 0.6 percentage points of tightening by mid-March, Saxo said. The Bloomberg dollar index hit its highest level since May 2025. The yen traded near 160 per dollar, and Japan's producer prices rose 7.1% from a year earlier in October.
Markets and macro: Also overnight: Alibaba fell more than 6% in Hong Kong. It rented Nvidia chips through Megaspeed, a firm linked to the Huang reports, Investing.com said. Europe's Stoxx 600 closed at a record on Wednesday, led by a 10.8% jump in Siemens Energy. Britain's economy grew 0.7% in the third quarter, with AI-linked investment helping, City AM reported.
Hedge fund moves: Funds cut risk at a decade-record pace. Global equity hedge funds reduced risk in the first week of November at the fastest rate in more than ten years, Morgan Stanley prime brokerage data show. Gross exposure in long/short books is down 10.7% since late June. US net leverage, longs minus shorts, fell five points in one session to 42%. Asia-based managers lost 1.5% that week, against a fall of more than 5% in the regional index.
Hedge fund moves: Bridgewater's co-CIO moves to Canada's new wealth fund. Karen Karniol-Tambour will be the first chief executive of the Canada Strong Fund, Prime Minister Mark Carney's office said. The sovereign fund starts with C$25 billion of committed capital and will run at arm's length from government. Karniol-Tambour joined Bridgewater in 2006 and has been co-chief investment officer since 2023. A retail element would let Canadians invest alongside the fund.
Earnings to watch: Nebius reports before the open, with revenue of about $905 million to $907 million expected; the shares were down 4.7% premarket after a 15% gain on Wednesday. Siemens and Allianz report in Europe today. After the close: Cisco, with consensus earnings of about $1.32 a share on revenue of about $18.12 billion, TradingKey said; and Applied Materials, expected to earn about $4.05 a share on revenue of $10.30 billion, with options implying an 8.8% move either way.
HedgeWeekly Stockwatch: NVDA Nvidia: down about 7% premarket after a Wall Street Journal report that its board is preparing to remove CEO Jensen Huang. BABA Alibaba: fell more than 6% in Hong Kong over its use of Nvidia chips rented through Megaspeed. CSCO Cisco: reports after the close; analysts expect revenue of about $18.12 billion, up roughly 22%. AMAT Applied Materials: reports after the close, with options pricing an 8.8% move.
Today's calendar (ET): 8:30 a.m.: weekly jobless claims, forecast about 195,000 against 189,000 last week. 10:00 a.m.: October existing home sales. Fed speakers: Hammack at 9:00 a.m., Barr at 10:00 a.m., Goolsbee at 11:15 a.m., Daly at 1:10 p.m., Schmid at 1:30 p.m. and Williams at 6:30 p.m. Afternoon: 30-year Treasury bond auction. Friday: October producer prices.
Number of the day: More than $450 billion. That is how much stock market value Nvidia has lost since it announced the probe into Huang on November 8, CBS News reported. Nvidia is one of the largest weights in the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, so its moves reach almost every US index fund.
One thing to watch: Nvidia's board has not confirmed any decision. Watch for a company statement before the open, and whether chip stocks follow Nvidia or hold Wednesday's gains. Tonight, Cisco and Applied Materials will show whether AI orders are holding up.
Sources
- Reuters via Investing.com
- Investing.com
- The Wall Street Journal via Investing.com
- CBS News
- Saxo
- NordFX
- finwire
- Stocktwits
- Hedgeweek
- Canadian Press
- City AM
- TradingKey
- TipRanks via BigGo Finance
- GuruFocus via TradingView