North American Morning Briefing: Nvidia's Leadership Crisis Drags Stock Futures

Stock futures largely fell Thursday as the prospect of Nvidia ousting its

chief executive reverberated across the tech sector and weighed on investors' overall sentiment.

The turmoil affecting the helm of the company at the heart of the artificial-intelligence ecosystem was putting the brakes on a rally in AI stocks and dragged European tech names and Asian equities lower.

Prediction markets ascribe a 75% chance Jensen Huang will resign or be removed from his post.

"If it turns out the board doesn't remove him [Jensen Huang] now this would clearly bring further risk as more allegations seem likely to surface from here," Bernstein said.

Quilter Cheviot said that though the potential departure of Jensen Huang shouldn't damage Nvidia, the company's size means changes within the company will be felt across other tech stocks.

"This has been an incredibly volatile period for the big tech companies, and this whole episode has the potential to add more fuel to the fire."

Saxo Bank, meanwhile, said the uncertainty could accelerate a shift toward alternative suppliers.

The hubbub hurt Nvidia shares, which fell more than 6% ahead of the opening bell, and pulled Nasdaq futures into the red. Futures for the S&P 500 were also in negative territory, though those of the Dow were in the green.

Stocks to Watch

Amidst Nvidia's leadership crisis:

Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom were up about 4% and 3%, respectively, while Intel was down about 2%.

Sandisk fell 2.8%, while Micron Technology lost 2.7%.

CoreWeave shares declined 5.4% and Oracle edged 1.8% lower.

Watch For:

U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims; U.S. Existing Home Sales for October; EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report; appearances from a host of Fed policymakers including New York Fed President John Williams, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack and Governor Michael Barr.

Today's Top Headlines/Must Reads:

- Big Tech Wants Everyone to Use an AI Agent. But Who Shoulders the Cost?

- 'The Ass-Kicking We Needed': A Loss in GOP Heartland Exposes a Party in Pieces

- A Quarter of Key Goods Vulnerable to Supply Disruptions, Study Finds

MARKET WRAPS Forex:

The dollar's recent rapid appreciation could have further to go, KBC Bank said after the DXY dollar index reached a 19-month high. The DXY last traded flat while the euro fell below key support.

The euro traded flat against the dollar, and ING said the EU's single currency was at risk of falling below $1.10 in coming days.

Sterling was little moved after better-than-expected U.K. GDP data for September. The currency was down against the dollar and was flat against the euro.

Bonds:

Treasury yields rose as the dollar remained elevated on expectations for further interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Eurozone and U.K. bond yields, meanwhile, fell modestly.

Pressure on bond yields will remain upward, Franklin Templeton Fixed Income said, expecting that continued loose fiscal policy will keep generating substantial funding requirements.

"Adding about 1 percentage point of term and risk premium would give us a fair value of 5%-5.50% for 10-year U.S. Treasurys," it said, adding that "any slack in funding demand created by a potential slowdown in AI infrastructure is likely to be taken up by investment in other sectors of the economy. Upward pressure on yields is therefore likely to persist."

Quoniam recommends investors to go long German Bunds and short Treasurys, arguing economic concerns across the euro-area serve as a structural brake on how aggressively the European Central Bank can raise rates.

Energy:

Oil prices fell as traders looked to diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts in both the Middle East and Ukraine.

Metals:

Gold contracts fell back below $4,000 a troy ounce.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

Foxconn Maintains Strong Earnings Growth on Resilient AI, Tech Hardware Demand

Foxconn Technology Group continued its strong earnings momentum in the third quarter, driven by robust demand for its artificial-intelligence servers and other tech hardware as the data-center boom is facing growing headwinds.

Once mainly known as an assembler of Apple's devices, the world's largest contract electronics maker now derives a meaningful share of revenue from building AI servers for industry leaders such as Nvidia.

Siemens Earnings Rise After Orders Hit Record High

Siemens said fourth-quarter net profit jumped after a record order intake and double-digit revenue growth in its smart infrastructure and digital industries units.

The German industrial conglomerate said Thursday that net profit for the period ended Sept. 30 rose to 2.16 billion euros, equivalent to $2.40 billion, from 1.62 billion euros in the same period a year earlier. Profit in the industrial business hit a record high, Siemens said.

Hapag-Lloyd Vows to Keep Managing Costs Despite Boost From Freight Rates

Hapag-Lloyd said its results continue to benefit from elevated freight rates, but vowed to keep a firm grip on costs as Middle East tensions and adverse weather have disrupted operations.

The world's fifth-largest container line by capacity said Thursday that capacity bottlenecks resulting from port congestion in Asia, partly due to weather conditions, and persistently high demand led to a significant rise in freight rates in the third quarter.

U.K. Economy's Resilience Continues, Boosted by AI Investment

The U.K. economy continued to grow rapidly in the third quarter as a boost from AI helped offset the higher energy prices and rising borrowing costs stemming from the war between the U.S. and Iran.

Gross domestic product in the U.K. grew 0.7% in the three months through September from the previous quarter, the U.K.'s statistics agency said Thursday. It was the strongest quarterly expansion in economic activity since the first quarter of 2024.

Strategy, the World's Biggest Corporate Bitcoin Holder, to Be Dropped From MSCI Indexes

Strategy, the world's largest corporate bitcoin holder, will no longer be a part of MSCI's global benchmarks from the end of this month, after the index provider set out new eligibility rules Wednesday.

Founded by Michael Saylor, Strategy is a bitcoin-treasury company, meaning it sells shares and debt to buy up bitcoin. Its balance sheet comprises more than 850,000 bitcoin with an aggregate purchase price of more than $64 billion, according to an SEC filing.

Dovish BOJ Member Urges Caution in Raising Rates Further

The Bank of Japan needs to tread carefully when tightening policy, board member Toichiro Asada said, warning about the risk of higher interest rates hurting economic growth.

"Downside risks to the economy posed by a policy rate hike will gradually increase if the continued rate hikes have tightened financial conditions or have reduced the degree of accommodation," Asada told business leaders in the southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on Thursday.

China's Central Bank Signals Easing Restraint as Growth Holds Up

China's central bank gave little away in its latest quarterly report, but analysts' key takeaway is that no rate cuts are on the near-term horizon.

The People's Bank of China reiterated its commitment to maintain a pro-growth, accommodative policy stance, while again stating its concern about the risk of too-low rates.

The Spread of Cheaper Ballistic Missiles Rips Up Decades of Military Thinking

MANAMA, Bahrain-Technological advances making ballistic missiles cheaper and more precise have allowed Iran and the Houthis of Yemen to strike foes across the Middle East.

The development and spread of these weapons, once the preserve of nuclear superpowers, mean that military doctrines around the globe will need profound change-fast.

Scott Colom Wins Mississippi Senate Seat in Historic Victory

Scott Colom won a long-shot bid to oust Mississippi's Republican incumbent senator, the Associated Press said, part of a powerful blue wave that propelled Democratic candidates to victory across the country in the midterm elections.

Colom, a local prosecutor, is the first Democrat that Mississippi has elected to the Senate since 1982 and the first Black senator from the state since the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War.

This Shipping Lane Is Now the World's Deadliest. It Isn't Hormuz.

The deadliest body of water this year isn't the Strait of Hormuz. A series of attacks in the Black Sea has killed more people than strikes on shipping so far in the war between Iran and the U.S., disrupting trade routes and turning up the heat on NATO.

Russian forces have targeted commercial ships carrying food exports from Ukraine out into the Black Sea. Ukraine, too, has attacked Russian shipping on the other side of the sea with drones.

House Braces for Another Jeffrey Epstein Vote

WASHINGTON-Democrats and a small number of House Republicans have succeeded in forcing a new vote later this year on files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, gathering enough signatures for a measure that would let states and survivors sue the Justice Department over documents it has withheld.

The bipartisan effort, led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, reached the required 218-signature threshold Wednesday after Rep. John Garamendi (D., Calif.) signed on to the proposal, following Rep. Adam Smith (D., Wash.) earlier this week.

Write to pierre.bertrand@wsj.com

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November 12, 2026 06:17 ET (11:17 GMT)

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