NEW YORK — Big swings for Nvidia’s stock price and oil prices are weighing on Wall Street Thursday, but the U.S. market appears to be absorbing them. After falling nearly one per cent at the start of trading, the S&P 500 quickly pared its drop to 0.4 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 50 points, or 0.1 per cent, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was down 0.6 per cent after trimming its early loss of 1.6 per cent. At the center of the action was Nvidia’s stock. It plunged as much as 14 per cent at the start of trading following the resignation of Jensen Huang, its CEO, co-founder and face of the brand. The chip company’s stock has been sinking since its board announced an investigation into Huang for a relationship with a woman suspected of being a Chinese government agent. It’s a stunning fall for Huang and for Nvidia, which had become Wall Street’s most valuable and influential stock because of its central role in the artificial-intelligence boom. Its stock price set a record last month after soaring an astounding 1,722 per cent in four years. That compares with the already healthy gain of nearly 109 per cent for the overall S&P 500 over the same time. But Nvidia’s price dropped 27 per cent from then through Wednesday on worries about whether Huang would remain and how Nvidia would navigate a future without him. Nvidia’s board answered the first question Thursday morning, when it said Huang resigned, and it named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as its interim CEO. The second question remains to be determined. And it looms over the entire market because Nvidia and the broader AI industry have been the main reasons the U.S. stock market has set so many records in recent years. Nvidia, to be sure, is still selling AI chips at a quick rate regardless of who stands on a stage and talks them up. Nvidia quickly halved its early loss from Thursday, and its stock was most recently down 6.1 per cent. Outside of Nvidia, other stocks across the AI industry swung in the uncertainty. CoreWeave, which buys Nvidia chips and then rents out access to them to customers over the cloud, fell 9 per cent. Micron Technology, which sells memory for computers that’s been getting gobbled up in the AI frenzy, sank 4.9 per cent. But Broadcom rose 5.3 per cent, and Advanced Micro Devices added 1.8 per cent on hopes for a competitive advantage. The rival chip companies to Nvidia were two of the strongest forces limiting the S&P 500’s losses. GE Vernova, which is helping to power AI data centers, flipped from a loss of 3 per cent to a gain of one per cent. Also swinging on Thursday were oil prices after President Donald Trump said he’s no longer interested in a deal with Iran to end their war. Instead of that, Trump said he asked his vice president to focus on investigating U.S. cities and states run by Democrats. “We don’t need a deal with Iran,” Trump said on his social-media platform. “Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!” The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil suddenly went from about US$92 to more than US$94 following Trump’s posting, before it later eased back. It was most recently at US$93.79, up 1.1 per cent. It’s been veering sharply since the United States and Israel began the war with Iran in late February, bouncing between roughly US$70 and US$150. Higher oil prices push up worries about inflation, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 5.07 per cent from 4.98 per cent late Tuesday. Trading in the bond market had been closed Wednesday for Veterans Day. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3 per cent for one of the world’s biggest moves. ___ Stan Choe, The Associated Press AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.
