The S&P 500 closed down 0.4% Thursday after Nvidia shares fell following CEO Jensen Huang’s resignation and oil prices rose.
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The U.S. stock market finished Thursday with relatively modest losses, even as Nvidia shares initially plunged and oil prices swung.
After dropping nearly 1% early, the S&P 500 recovered and ended down 26.98 points, or 0.4%, at 7,592.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 189.40 points, or 0.4%, to 52,297.09, while the Nasdaq composite sank 100.10 points, or 0.4%, to 25,366.09.
The biggest pressure came from Nvidia. Its stock plunged 14% at the start of trading after Jensen Huang, the company’s CEO, co-founder and face of the brand, resigned. Nvidia’s shares had been falling since the company’s board announced an investigation into Huang for a relationship with a woman suspected of being a Chinese government agent.
In a move announced Thursday morning, Nvidia’s board said Huang resigned and named Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO. Analysts said Nvidia remained the industry’s leader in AI chips, and the stock later pared losses to close down 4.3%.
Uncertainty also rippled across companies tied to the AI supply chain. CoreWeave, which buys Nvidia chips and rents access over the cloud, fell 6.9%, while Micron Technology sank 1.6%. By contrast, Broadcom rose 5.5%, and Advanced Micro Devices gained 5.9%.
Oil prices were another factor behind market moves. Brent crude climbed 3.3% to $95.82 a barrel. The price for the most actively traded Brent contract had been veering sharply since the U.S. and Israel began the war with Iran in late February, bouncing between roughly $70 and nearly $120 per barrel.
Higher oil prices added to inflation concerns, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 5.12% from 4.98% late Tuesday, after trading in the bond market had been closed Wednesday for Veterans Day.
The housing market also reflected higher borrowing costs, with a separate report saying sales of previously occupied U.S. homes in October fell to their slowest pace in more than 16 years.
A separate report also said slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, though the number remained relatively low compared with history.
In markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3%.
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