S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq End Lower Amid Nvidia Turmoil, But Record Best Week Since August — SPCX, NVDA, ARM, AZN In Focus

• The S&P 500 ended Friday 0.4% lower, the Nasdaq 100 lost 1.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%.
• Arm CEO Rene Haas has reportedly been approached to replace Jensen Huang, FT reported.
• October’s producer prices rose 0.3%, below expectations of a 0.4% rise. 

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 ended lower on Friday, with Nvidia shares recording their worst week since April last year, amid worries about its future after Jensen Huang’s ouster.

The S&P 500 ended Friday 0.4% lower, the Nasdaq 100 lost 1.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%. The Russell 2000, which tracks small-cap stocks, ended 1.2% lower. 

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The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) fell 0.4%, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) added 0.1%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ended 1.2% lower on Friday.  

Meanwhile, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and the iShares Semiconductor ETF fell between 3% and 3.6% each on Friday, mostly pulled down by weakness in Nvidia (NVDA). The broader Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) fell 1.7%.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for SPY, QQQ, and DIA all moved to ‘extremely bullish’ territory from being ‘bearish’ at the end of October. 

US Market Drivers

Rene Haas, CEO of Arm Holdings, has reportedly been approached by Nvidia’s board to replace Jensen Huang, while an unverified internal memo suggested NVDA employees have threatened to join SpaceX Terafab if Huang is not reinstated. 

Haas has led the SoftBank-backed semiconductor designer since 2022. Before leading Arm, he spent roughly seven years working at Nvidia more than a decade ago. Haas maintains robust professional relationships with Huang and several members of Nvidia's board.

Huang resigned from his role on Thursday after allegations surfaced regarding inappropriate relationships, including an association with an individual suspected by American intelligence of covert ties to Beijing, along with romantic ties with an Nvidia employee. Nvidia stock dropped about 13% this week, its worst since April last year. 

“The next real test arrives when Nvidia reports on November 17, and the thing to watch is not who is at the podium but whether the order book has changed,” Brian Jacobsen at Annex Wealth Management told Bloomberg.

Alongside Nvidia’s earnings, Anthropic's highly anticipated IPO would also occupy investor attention as it looks to list on November 19.

Elsewhere, wholesale inflation data for October revealed a 0.3% monthly uptick in the producer price index, coming in slightly cooler than the 0.4% advance projected by Dow Jones analysts. On an annualized basis, producer prices jumped 6.5%, marking the sharpest twelve-month expansion recorded since November 2022.

Key Trending Stocks

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a rare nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon, halting all departing U.S. flights until further notice, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons due to a communication issue at air traffic control centers, sending airline stocks modestly lower. 

Shares of Fermi Inc. (FRMI) extended their rebound on Friday, clocking their best day ever, and building on a sharp Thursday advance after the company disclosed major commitments from an unnamed investment-grade hyperscaler for 600 megawatts of power capacity at its Project Matador campus near Amarillo, Texas. 

Anthropic PBC’s CEO Dario Amodei said on Friday that compute power remains the top dilemma ahead of the highly anticipated IPO while addressing a Manhattan briefing hosted at JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s headquarters. 

Drugmaker AstraZeneca (AZN) has reportedly eliminated roughly 600 positions from its U.S. respiratory and immunology commercial teams as it seeks to cut costs and realign its pipeline. 

Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO Chuck Robbins said on Friday that the dip in the company's second-quarter revenue guidance is routine and that investors are focusing on the wrong margin. 

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