Nvidia Slides After the Bell, and Nasdaq Futures Follow

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The one thing that matters tonight

The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang, Reuters reported. The board "is preparing to meet as soon as Wednesday to determine his future," the Journal reported. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report, and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nvidia was down 7.23% at $161.17 in after-hours trading as of 6:05 PM CT, after closing up 2.92% at $173.73 (Yahoo Finance data).

Our read

Today's AI comeback ran into a problem that has nothing to do with earnings. CoreWeave answered the money question this afternoon. Tonight the question is leadership at the company at the center of the AI trade, and that's why Nasdaq futures are carrying most of the drop. Until the board says something on the record, this is a report, not a decision, and the market is pricing that uncertainty.

The reopen

Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ): 28,217.00, down 0.90% (Yahoo Finance data, 5:55 PM CT).
S&P 500 futures (ES): 7,607.00, down 0.44% (Yahoo Finance data, 5:55 PM CT).
Gold futures (GC): $3,985.40, down 0.38% (Yahoo Finance data, 5:55 PM CT).

Asia tonight

Time CT	Market or event	Consensus	Why it matters
6:00 PM	Tokyo and Seoul open	—	First reaction to the US chip rally and to tonight's Nvidia news
7:30 PM	Hong Kong and Shanghai open	—	Chinese tech stocks pick up the same AI story

Carried over from the US session

The S&P 500 closed up 1.31% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.60%, led by chip and AI stocks after CoreWeave's results (Yahoo Finance data; Reuters).
On Sunday, Nvidia's board launched an investigation, overseen by independent directors with outside counsel, into whether Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence operation, Reuters reported. At the time, the board expressed confidence in him.
Removing Huang immediately "could be challenging for Nvidia" because the company has no succession plan in place. (Reuters)^{Gil Luria, D.A. Davidson}
The US bond market was closed today for Veterans Day and reopens tomorrow.

What could move NQ, ES and gold overnight

Anything on the record from Nvidia's board. A statement either way would replace a report with a fact, and Nasdaq futures tend to react hardest to news about the biggest tech names.
How Asia's chip stocks trade. Seoul and Tokyo are chip-heavy, so they're an early read on how far tonight's Nvidia news travels.
Gold is slipping with stock futures tonight, not rising against them. Watch whether that holds once bond trading resumes tomorrow.

What we're watching for the morning

Time CT	Event	Consensus
7:30 AM	Weekly jobless claims (check timing, holiday week)	—
9:00 AM	Fed Governor Barr speaks on AI and inequality	—
11:00 AM	Weekly US crude inventories (EIA), moved from Wednesday for Veterans Day	—
Thu	30-year Treasury bond auction (US Treasury schedule)	—
After the close	Applied Materials and Cisco results	—

Does Nvidia's board say anything before the bell?
Bonds reopen after a hot-CPI week. Do yields pick up where they left off?
Applied Materials and Cisco report after the close. After today, every AI-related report gets a closer look.

The short version (the what and the result)

Nvidia fell 7.23% after hours on a WSJ report, cited by Reuters, that its board is preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang. Reuters couldn't verify it, and Nvidia didn't immediately comment.
Nasdaq 100 futures −0.90%, S&P 500 futures −0.44%, gold futures −0.38% (5:55 PM CT, Yahoo Finance data).
Tokyo and Seoul are open now. Hong Kong and Shanghai open at 7:30 PM CT.