Nvidia Probes Its Own CEO 🕵️

Welcome back to the Day Trading newsletter 📈

Thursday's AI-driven rout, the S&P 500's worst day since April 2025, gave way to a Friday bounce, but the index still ended the week down 2.68% as a hot jobs report put a December Fed rate hike back in play.

Now Nvidia is in the spotlight, with its board investigating CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.

Let’s get into it 👇️ 

🗓️ Tuesday 11/10 — October CPI (8:30 AM ET): The inflation report that will help decide whether the Fed hikes in December. Forecasts call for roughly a 0.3% rise in headline prices after September's 0.6% jump, and a hotter number would add to rate-hike bets.

🗓️ Tuesday 11/10 — CoreWeave earnings (after close, call at 5:00 PM ET): The AI cloud provider is a read on whether data-center demand is holding up after last week's selloff. Watch its spending plans and borrowing costs.

🗓️ Wednesday 11/11 — Veterans Day (all day): Stocks trade normally, but the bond market is closed. Thin Treasury trading can exaggerate moves, so watch yields Thursday.

🗓️ Thursday 11/12 — Cisco and Applied Materials earnings (after close, calls at 4:30 PM ET): Two reads on AI networking and chip-equipment demand. Watch guidance, since that's what sank Atlassian last week.

🗓️ Friday 11/13 — October PPI (8:30 AM ET): Wholesale inflation, which feeds into what consumers pay later. Forecasts call for roughly a 0.4% rise in headline producer prices after a hot September, so another surprise would reinforce the hike narrative.

💼 U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in October, far more than economists expected. Forecasts were roughly 60,000 to 65,000. Unemployment slipped to 4.1% and wages rose 0.4%, leaving traders pricing in about a 77% chance the Fed raises rates in December.

📉 The S&P 500 finished the week down 2.68% at 7,376.86, even after a Friday bounce. The index sank 4.36% on Thursday, its worst day since April 2025, then gained 0.31% Friday. The Nasdaq rose 1.09% Friday after Thursday's 5.52% plunge, while the Dow slipped 0.46%.

💾 Chip stocks rebounded Friday after Thursday's rout, with AMD jumping 11%. Nvidia gained about 3% and Micron rose roughly 5%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had plunged about 12% on Thursday, so the bounce recovered only part of the damage.

💰 Lam Research authorized a new $25 billion share buyback, and the stock jumped about 9% Friday. The chip-equipment maker's authorization has no expiration date, and companies aren't required to spend the full amount. Lam also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.33 per share.

🛢️ Oil fell about 13% this week, its biggest weekly drop since mid-April. U.S. crude settled near $90 a barrel Friday as traders bet on a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran. Tehran still demands the U.S. lift its naval blockade before it reopens the Strait of Hormuz, so the risk hasn't gone away.

🏠 Airbnb shares jumped more than 10% after a third-quarter beat and a new $12 billion buyback. Revenue rose 19% to $4.87 billion versus the $4.75 billion Wall Street expected, and earnings per share came in at $3.16 versus $2.85 expected. The company also lifted its full-year outlook.

☁️ Atlassian shares fell about 16% Friday despite a strong quarter. Revenue grew 24% to $1.77 billion, beating estimates, but a cautious outlook for its cloud and self-hosted Data Center businesses spooked investors, a reminder that in this market even beats get punished when guidance disappoints.

🚀 SpaceX stock bounced back 8.6% on Friday after falling about 9% on Thursday. The rebound tracked the broader AI and tech recovery, but the shares remain highly volatile, and Elon Musk's companies are among the most politically exposed names in the market.

Nvidia's board opened an independent investigation on Sunday after Jensen Huang acknowledged a relationship with Alice Huang of Singapore-based Megaspeed, a company that buys Nvidia's AI chips and has drawn scrutiny from U.S. authorities over suspicions it helped Beijing get access to advanced chips barred from shipment to China.

In a message to employees, Huang wrote "I was unfaithful to my wife" and apologized, while the board said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised.

The story traces to a memo circulated among U.S. policymakers, first reported by The New York Times, which claims China's Ministry of State Security recruited her to spy on Huang.

Nvidia says he will keep running the company "without interruption."

This is a key-person risk at one of the most valuable companies on Earth, worth more than $5 trillion, and it lands while the AI trade is already fragile after Thursday's chip rout.

Huang is also Nvidia's face in Washington, where he has lobbied the Trump administration to ease limits on chip sales to China.

Questions about his judgment hand ammunition to lawmakers who want tougher export controls.

What to Watch:

• Three House Republican committee chairs have already requested a closed-door briefing for Nov. 18. 

• Monday's trading is the first test of how investors weigh the news. Next up is Nvidia's earnings report on Tuesday, Nov. 17 (call at 5 p.m. ET), the first chance to hear Huang address investors, followed by the congressional briefing the next day.

• Also watch for any findings from the board's probe and for any shift in U.S. chip export policy toward China.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: Not financial advice. Do your research before making any trades.