FILE: The New York Stock Exchange entrance in December 2018. Photo: Frostly / Wikimedia Commons, CC0; cropped and resized.
U.S. stocks opened lower Thursday after Nvidia announced Jensen Huang’s immediate resignation as chief executive and shares of the artificial-intelligence chipmaker fell sharply.
The Nasdaq Composite opened at 25,092.11, compared with the previous close of 25,466.19. The S&P 500 opened at 7,550.84, down from 7,619.38, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 52,427.94, down from 52,486.49. That left the Nasdaq Composite down 374.08 points, or 1.47%, at the open; the S&P 500 down 68.54 points, or 0.90%; and the Dow down 58.55 points, or 0.11%.
Stocks recovered some ground after the opening bell but remained lower in the first hour. The S&P 500 was down 0.36% at 7,591.85 at 10:17:19 a.m. Eastern, and the Nasdaq was down 0.56% at 25,322.73 at 10:17:20 a.m. The Dow was down 0.08% at 52,443.71 at 10:15:39 a.m.
Nvidia opened at $151.01 and traded at $163.91 at 10:20:15 a.m., still down 5.65% for the day. The company said Huang had resigned as president, CEO and a director, effective immediately. Finance chief Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while keeping her existing finance duties, as the board searches for a permanent successor. Nvidia did not give a reason for the resignation in its announcement.
The pressure extended to other AI-related shares, although not all chipmakers fell. Nebius traded down 19.75% at $124.15 at 10:05:36 a.m. Broadcom was up 4.60% at $361.10 at 9:57:02 a.m., while Advanced Micro Devices was up 0.96% at $558.23 at 10:08:14 a.m. These are separately timed early-trading readings, not a single synchronized snapshot.
The morning also brought a new reading on layoffs. The Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment benefits rose 9,000 to 200,000 in the week ended November 7. The previous week’s figure was revised to 191,000. Continuing claims fell 20,000 to 1,697,000 for the week ended October 31. Initial claims are new applications for benefits; continuing claims are ongoing claims. The figures alone do not show why someone stopped claiming benefits.
Oil was higher in early U.S. trading. December West Texas Intermediate crude futures were $86.99 a barrel, up 46 cents, or 0.53%, at 10:10:33 a.m. Eastern. That was a delayed futures quote, not a final settlement or the price of gasoline.
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