Wall Street stocks mostly declined on Friday as tech shares faced continued pressure following the sudden resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang, a prominent figure in the tech industry and a strong advocate for artificial intelligence (AI), stepped down after reports of extramarital affairs surfaced, including one involving a woman suspected of spying for China. Nvidia, which had been the world’s most valuable listed company until recently, saw its shares drop another 2 percent. Rival companies AMD and Broadcom, which had rallied the previous day, also experienced significant losses, with AMD falling 8.8 percent and Broadcom down nearly 5 percent.
Analysts attributed the pullback in AMD and Broadcom shares to profit-taking. Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones noted a shift toward defensive leadership in the market, suggesting caution among investors. He also highlighted that AI will likely remain in the spotlight next week when Nvidia reports its quarterly results and Anthropic makes its Wall Street debut.
The Producer Price Index, which measures prices received by producers, rose 0.3 percent in October from the previous month. This followed a higher-than-expected consumer price reading earlier in the week, driven by rising energy costs due to the US-Iran war. Investors anticipate the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by at least a quarter percentage point next month to combat persistent inflation. The dollar reached its highest level against the euro since April 2025 on these expectations.
Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com noted that while the wholesale inflation data was better than some analysts expected, it was not entirely comforting due to upward revisions for September. The September monthly gain was revised up to 1.4 percent from 1.3 percent, and the annual rate for October hit 6.5 percent, the highest since November 2022. O’Hare emphasized that inflation at the wholesale level remains a significant concern.
Microsoft shares recovered from early losses as the company worked to resolve a problem that disrupted its Outlook email service globally. Asian and European stocks showed mixed performance, while oil prices fluctuated after the International Energy Agency reported that global supply is expected to exceed demand in the fourth quarter, despite the ongoing conflict with Iran.