Nvidia's late slide drags Nasdaq futures lower and divides Asia's chip stocks

Nasdaq-100 futures were down 0.97% at 12:28 a.m. ET on Thursday, November 12, after Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) shares fell more than 8% in after-hours trading, according to CNBC. S&P 500 futures were down 0.37% and Dow futures up 0.15%.

The late slide followed a Wall Street Journal report that Nvidia's board was preparing to remove chief executive Jensen Huang, CNBC said, as FinanceInTime reported. The board has announced no decision. Its most recent published statement, dated November 10, says the independent directors retained the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz "to conduct a thorough and independent investigation," according to Nvidia's newsroom.

A 2.9% gain became a loss of more than 8% after the close

Nvidia ended Wednesday's regular session up 2.9%, the Associated Press reported. CNBC said the day's gains in US stocks "were driven by a post-earnings advance in CoreWeave and a rebound in Nvidia"; the S&P 500 rose 1.3% and the Nasdaq composite 1.6%, as FinanceInTime's report on the close set out.

After the close the direction reversed. Nvidia fell 8.6% in after-hours trading, according to the AP and Al Jazeera, and CNBC's overnight update had the shares "last down more than 8%." Bloomberg put the largest drop in late trading at as much as 10%. CoreWeave (Nasdaq: CRWV), whose results led Wednesday's rally, fell more than 6% after hours, Reuters reported.

Each futures reading before 1 a.m. ET was a little lower

Contract	Change	Read at	Source
Nasdaq-100 futures	-0.97%	12:28 a.m. ET	CNBC
S&P 500 futures	-0.37%	12:28 a.m. ET	CNBC
Dow futures	+0.15%	12:28 a.m. ET	CNBC
S&P 500 futures	-0.5%	12:52 a.m. ET (2:52 p.m. Tokyo)	Bloomberg
Nasdaq-100 futures	-1.2%	same report, time not stated	Bloomberg

Sources: CNBC and Bloomberg, Thursday, November 12. Futures prices change through the night.

The contracts that track the technology-heavy index fell most, while Dow futures rose. The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.99%, Bloomberg reported, as bond trading resumed after Wednesday's Veterans Day closure.

Taipei fell while Chinese chip designers rose

Asian markets opened into the news. In the AP's report, published at 11:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday (4:15 a.m. UTC on Thursday), Taiwan's Taiex was down 1.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.9% and Japan's Nikkei 225 down 0.1%. By Bloomberg's later report the Taiwanese benchmark was down 2.6%, the Hang Seng 1.1% and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index 0.9%.

The moves were not one-directional. Shares of Naver, the South Korean internet company, fell 5.89% on Thursday, CNBC reported; Reuters said Nvidia holds a $1 billion stake in it. Chinese chip designers Moore Threads, MetaX and Cambricon each rose nearly 10%, according to Reuters.

Jobless claims arrive before the opening bell

Thursday's US calendar has initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET and existing home sales at 10 a.m. ET, CNBC said. Regular trading in New York starts after the first of those reports, so the overnight futures readings will be tested against both the labor data and any statement from Nvidia's board.

How much of the AI trade is one company is the question we would weigh

We think the overnight move says more about concentration than about a change in the outlook for AI spending. A single night of futures trading is weak evidence, and the readings above differ by source and by the minute. What they share is the pattern: the technology-heavy contract fell, Dow futures rose and the 10-year yield barely moved, which points to a repricing of one company and its closest partners, not of rates or growth.

The threat is that a leadership change at a company so central to AI chip supply unsettles the financing links that tie it to cloud providers and customers. The opportunity is a market that learns to price AI demand apart from one founder; Thursday's gains in Chinese chip designers show that investors already look for who benefits. We expect volatility to stay high until the board speaks, if the reports are accurate, and we would change this view if the selling spreads to stocks with no AI exposure or if Treasury yields start to fall on it, which would signal a broader loss of risk appetite.

The view in this final section is FinanceInTime's editorial opinion, for information only. It is not investment, tax, legal or other advice, and it does not take your circumstances into account. Forecasts are uncertain and past results do not guarantee future ones.