Stocks Bounce, Yields Climb and Nvidia Loses Its Founder-CEO

The S&P 500 closed at 7,561.67, up 2.51% on the week, ending a four-week losing streak. The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.27% to 25,136.27, the Dow gained 2.07% to 52,347.55 and the Russell 2000 added 1.32% to 2,790.49. Nearly all of the gain arrived Monday, when the S&P jumped 2.35% and the Dow rose 1,104 points as falling oil eased inflation worries and chip stocks rebounded from the prior week's rout. The S&P is now up about 10.5% year to date. We could not verify the NYSE Composite close at press time and have left it blank rather than guess.

Nvidia: A Leadership Shock Days Before Earnings

On Thursday, Nvidia announced that Jensen Huang had resigned as president and CEO, with the board accepting his resignation on Wednesday. CFO Colette Kress is interim CEO while remaining CFO, and longtime director Harvey C. Jones becomes the company's first board chair and will lead the search for a successor. The departure followed reports of a personal relationship that drew national-security scrutiny; Nvidia's board has said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised, and investigations continue. Nvidia fell about 12.8% for the week and closed Thursday roughly 30% below its October 6 high. The rest of the chip complex told a different story: AMD rose about 18.9% and Broadcom about 18.2% on the week, and CoreWeave surged Wednesday after beating estimates and raising its full-year revenue outlook. The market, in other words, sold the headline and bought the industry.

Inflation Runs Warm, and the Fed Is Priced to Hike

October CPI rose 0.4% on Tuesday, above the 0.3% forecast, with core CPI up 0.3% against 0.2% expected. Energy rose 0.7%, food 0.5% and shelter 0.3%, while used vehicles fell 1.2%. No year-over-year rate was published because October 2025 prices were not collected during the government shutdown; September's annual rate was 3.7%. Friday's October PPI rose 0.3%, a touch below the 0.4% consensus, but producer prices are up 6.5% from a year earlier, the fastest pace since November 2022, with core PPI up 5.0%. Fed Governor Waller had said a core CPI reading near 0.3% or higher could put a 50 basis point hike on the table. By Friday, futures showed a December quarter-point hike fully priced, with roughly 15% odds of a half-point move. The 2-year yield jumped about 34 bps to 4.85%, and the 10-year closed at 5.15%.

Oil, Gold, Crypto and Hormuz

WTI settled at $88.56 and Brent at $95.84, a second straight weekly decline, and AAA reported the national average for regular gasoline fell below $4 a gallon for the first time since July. Iran said two tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a claim the US disputed, so shipping risk remains a live variable in either direction. Gold fell about 4.6% to $3,886.30 as yields rose, bitcoin slid about 10% to roughly $68,240, its lowest since August, and the dollar index rose to 103.43. The VIX eased to 19.30 from 25.64. On Friday, a Microsoft 365 outage and an FAA nationwide ground stop added some afternoon noise.

Nvidia Reports, Anthropic Lists

The marquee event is Nvidia earnings on Tuesday, November 17 after the close, the company's first report without Jensen Huang as CEO. Investors will want guidance on data-center demand and continuity of leadership. Close behind is the Anthropic IPO, which is expected to price Wednesday in a $70 to $78 range and begin trading on the Nasdaq Thursday under the ticker ANT. At the top of the range, reported valuations are as high as about $1.4 trillion on a fully diluted basis.

Mon Nov 16 and Tue Nov 17: Warsh, Retail Sales and Nvidia

Monday brings the Empire State Manufacturing Index and remarks from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh at noon ET. Tuesday is the busiest day of the week: October retail sales, import prices and industrial production in the morning, Home Depot and Disney before the open, and Nvidia after the bell.

Wed Nov 18 to Fri Nov 20: Minutes, Housing and Walmart

Wednesday brings housing starts, pending home sales and the FOMC minutes from the October meeting at 2:00 PM ET, plus TJX, Lowe's and Palo Alto Networks earnings. Thursday features jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed index, Walmart earnings and Anthropic's trading debut. Friday closes with the final November University of Michigan sentiment reading.

The constructive reading is that stocks shrugged off a historic leadership change at the market's most important company, breadth improved, the VIX fell back below 20 and gasoline dropped under $4. The cautious reading is that inflation is still running hot, producer prices are up 6.5% from a year ago, the 10-year yield is above 5% and the Fed looks set to hike in December. With Nvidia earnings and what would be the largest IPO on record both arriving next week, the AI trade is about to get its most public stress test of the year.