Stock Market Today: Nasdaq Futures Slip on Nvidia Probe
Stock market today began on a nervous note, with Nasdaq futures falling early on Monday as investors weighed a fresh shock to the artificial intelligence trade: an investigation by Nvidia’s board into its chief executive, Jensen Huang. The drop came after a brutal week for technology shares and a partial rebound on Friday, and it left Wall Street facing another test of whether the AI investment boom that has driven the market for two years can survive the doubts that have gathered around it in recent weeks.
Nasdaq 100 futures sank 1% early on Monday, while futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.15%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, by contrast, added 0.3%, a split that told its own story: the pressure was concentrated in technology, and the rest of the market was holding up better. The moves were modest in absolute terms, but they came at the start of a week packed with catalysts — inflation data, earnings from companies tied to the AI infrastructure boom, and a Federal Reserve decision looming in December — and they showed that the nerves that produced last week’s selloff have not gone away.
The immediate trigger was Nvidia. The chipmaker’s board of directors is opening an investigation into Huang’s relationship with a businesswoman whom United States intelligence agencies say is a Chinese spy, according to reporting on the probe. Nvidia’s Frankfurt-traded shares were more than 6% lower in early European trading, and the news weighed on the whole semiconductor complex. Nvidia is the bellwether of the AI trade — the company whose chips power the data centers at the heart of the boom — and any question about its leadership lands on a market already anxious about the scale and the returns of AI spending.
Why the Nvidia Probe Hit the Market So Hard
The investigation is a governance shock, not a business shock, and that distinction matters for how investors are reading it. There is no evidence of operational disruption, no supply-chain impact, and no customer defection reported. What the market is pricing is uncertainty: a board investigation creates a disclosure overhang, because any material finding would force a filing with regulators and could lead to trading halts or withdrawn guidance. That is the kind of tail risk that position managers have to price in, even when the underlying business is unchanged.
The probe also lands in a political context that makes it harder to dismiss. Lawmakers from both parties have raised questions about the reports, and the investigation follows a classified memo overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio this spring warning the administration that Huang was in a close relationship with a woman American officials believe was recruited by Chinese intelligence. Nvidia’s board opened its independent investigation on Sunday, after Huang told staff he had a romantic relationship with the woman. The sequence — a government warning, a board investigation, and a chief executive’s disclosure to his own employees — is the kind of thing that keeps a story alive in the market for days, as each new detail forces investors to reassess what they thought they knew.
It also connects to a wider argument about the AI trade that has been building for weeks. The question investors keep asking is whether the enormous capital spending on data centers, chips, and power will produce adequate returns, and how long the build-out can continue at its current pace. The Nvidia probe does not answer that question, but it adds a new kind of risk — governance and national security — to a trade already carrying valuation risk, regulatory risk, and execution risk. When the most important company in the trade becomes the source of the uncertainty, the whole complex feels it.
A Brutal Week, a Partial Rebound, and a Market Still on Edge
The early-Monday drop followed a week that had already shaken confidence. Friday’s session partially rebounded from Thursday’s AI-driven selloff as chip stocks recovered: the Nasdaq Composite bounced 1.09% to 24,579.42, and the S&P 500 rose 0.31% to 7,376.86. The recovery was led by technology, with the semiconductor index jumping 4.2%, Nvidia rising 2.8%, AMD climbing 11%, and Sandisk gaining almost 4%. But the bounce did not repair the damage from the week. The Nasdaq lost 3.37% over the week, the S&P 500 fell 2.68% — its largest weekly percentage decline since the week ended April 4, 2025 — and the Dow declined 0.94%. The Nasdaq has now fallen for four consecutive weeks, and it sits in correction territory, more than 10% below its peak from a month ago.
Thursday’s rout was the sharpest single day of the selloff. The Nasdaq plunged 5.5%, the S&P 500 dropped 4.4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.4%. The technology selloff was partly driven by concerns that the Democrats’ victories in the midterm elections could lead to tighter regulation of artificial intelligence development and data center construction. The election result created a fresh fault line in the AI trade: a Democratic Congress is seen as more likely to press for guardrails on AI, to scrutinize data center approvals, and to question the subsidies and energy arrangements that underpin the build-out.
Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, noted that the Nasdaq and the Nasdaq 100 are oversold, with heavy de-risking by traders. The observation captures the mood: the market has been selling hard, and the selling has been concentrated in the names that had run furthest. The question now is whether the de-risking has run its course or whether it is the early stage of a longer reassessment. Friday’s bounce faded into a mixed close, with the Dow slipping 0.5% even as the Nasdaq and S&P rose — a sign that dip buyers showed up during the session and were sold into by the close, which is distribution rather than accumulation.
The Week Ahead: Inflation Data, Earnings, and the Fed
Investors are looking ahead to a week that will test the market’s nerves again. The economic calendar will be dominated by inflation readings, with the October consumer price index due on Tuesday and producer price index data scheduled for Friday. The reports will be watched for clues on the Federal Reserve’s next move, and the stakes are high: markets are pricing in a nearly 80% probability of another Fed rate increase at its December 8–9 meeting, according to CME FedWatch, after stronger employment data revived expectations of tightening. A hot inflation print would strengthen the case for a hike and put more pressure on growth stocks. A soft print would do the opposite, and give the market room to breathe.
On the corporate front, earnings from companies closely tied to the AI infrastructure boom will provide further clues about demand and spending trends. CoreWeave, Cisco, and Applied Materials are all on deck this week, and CoreWeave’s earnings print on Tuesday, November 10, is the next binary event for the complex: the company is the purest high-beta proxy for AI infrastructure, and a cautious guide or a miss would confirm the thesis that capital spending is being delayed and drag the chip and memory names lower with it. A strong print would offer the opposite signal, and give the bulls something to work with.
There was also a brighter company-specific signal last week. AMD reported third-quarter revenue of $13.377 billion, up 45%, and data-center revenue of $8.546 billion, up 97%. It guided fourth-quarter revenue to approximately $17 billion, plus or minus 3%, above a consensus near $16.23 billion. The numbers showed that company-specific AI demand can remain strong even while the sector as a whole is being repriced, and they offered a reminder that the AI trade is not a single bet: some companies are delivering the growth that justifies their valuations, and some are not, and the market is starting to tell the difference.
What to Watch Before the Opening Bell
The first thing to watch is Nvidia itself. The board investigation is in its early stages, and the market will be looking for any statement from the company, any sign of what the board has found, and any indication of whether Huang’s position is secure. The shares were more than 6% lower in Frankfurt in early European trading, and the American session will be the first full test of how investors price the probe. A further slide would weigh on the whole semiconductor complex. A stabilization would suggest the market is treating the investigation as a governance matter rather than a business one.
The second thing to watch is the inflation data. The consumer price index on Tuesday is the most important release of the week, and it arrives with the market already braced for a December rate increase. The report will be read not just for the headline number but for the details — shelter, services, and the categories that have been driving the recent stickiness — and for what it implies about the Fed’s room to move. The producer price index on Friday will add a second reading, and together the two reports will set the tone for the rest of the month.
The third thing to watch is whether the AI trade can find a floor. The Nasdaq has now fallen for four consecutive weeks, it is more than 10% below its peak, and all the major indexes are below their 50-day moving averages, with the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 also below their 200-day lines. That is a bearish intermediate trend by any technical measure. The bull case is that the selling has been indiscriminate, that earnings like AMD’s show the demand is real, and that the market is oversold. The bear case is that the valuations were priced for perfection, that the midterm results have changed the regulatory outlook, and that the capital spending that drove the boom is now being questioned by the very companies doing the spending. This week’s earnings and inflation data will not settle that argument, but they will give both sides new evidence, and the market will move on whichever side the evidence favors.
For now, the facts are these: Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1% early on Monday, the S&P 500 futures slipped 0.15%, and the Dow futures rose 0.3%. Nvidia’s board has opened an investigation into its chief executive, and its Frankfurt-traded shares were more than 6% lower. The Nasdaq bounced 1.09% on Friday to 24,579.42, but it lost 3.37% on the week and has fallen for four straight weeks. Inflation data arrives on Tuesday and Friday, AI earnings are due through the week, and the market is pricing in a nearly 80% chance of a Fed rate increase in December. The AI trade is being tested, and this week will show how much of it holds.
*Source: CNBC*