Stocks are attempting to bounce back after a late-day fade on Thursday. Treasuries are selling off again, while the dollar, crude oil, and precious metals are mostly flat. Bitcoin sank back below $70,000 for the first time since August.
Big Tech is in the news thanks to TWO big developments. First, Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang was ousted yesterday amid reports of multiple affairs, including one with potential national security implications. Huang was replaced by Colette Kress, a top finance executive at Nvidia who has been with the firm since 2013.
NVDA (Red), MSFT (Blue) YTD % Change
Source: TradingView
The move comes after Nvidia stock lost $600 billion in value this week alone. It’s now down 12% year-to-date. As for what the developments mean to the AI industry, that remains to be seen. Huang led efforts to finance a wide range of AI companies. The goal was to boost sales of Nvidia chips and solidify business relationships. If that money dries up or Nvidia changes strategy, it could slow AI sector growth.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is at the center of the other major tech development. The firm’s Exchange Online services failed yesterday afternoon, impacting users of Outlook email, Teams videoconferencing, and Copilot AI in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Some companies, governments, and individuals lost access to those applications entirely, while other customers could only use them intermittently. Microsoft said the problems weren’t caused by a cyberattack. While Microsoft stock dipped on the news this morning, it entered the day up 10.5% YTD.
Not all the tech news is glum though. Shares of Cerebras Systems Inc. (CBRS) surged after the firm reported better-than-expected Q3 sales. The company also raised its outlook for Q4 and announced new deals with two hyperscalers.
Cerebras makes chips used by AI sector players like OpenAI. It went public in May and traded above $380 at one point. But it has been mostly downhill since then. Cerebras stock closed yesterday at $97.84.
