US equity futures moved higher early Monday, with traders watching technology shares closely after last week's sharp swings and bracing for fresh inflation figures and earnings from major artificial intelligence companies, CNBC reported. S&P 500 futures gained 0.34%, Nasdaq 100 futures added roughly 0.5%, and contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average led the advance at 0.76%, according to the network.
The upbeat open follows a partial recovery on Friday, when chip stocks drew renewed buying after Thursday's severe AI-driven selloff. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.09% to 24,579.42 and the S&P 500 added 0.31% to 7,376.86, while the Dow slipped 237.33 points, or 0.46%, to 51,285.73, CNBC reported.
Why it matters
The week's trading will test whether last week's retreat was a brief shakeout or the start of a deeper reassessment of the AI trade that has driven major indexes. Two forces are pulling in opposite directions: a rebound in semiconductors and a governance shock at Nvidia, the most valuable name in the sector.
Nvidia's board of directors said Sunday it is opening an investigation into co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with a businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence agencies describe as a Chinese spy, according to CNBC. The company's shares fell about 5% in premarket trading Monday, and a proxy for the stock was down 2% over 24 hours on the Hyperliquid trading platform. Nvidia's Frankfurt-listed shares dropped more than 6% in early European trading.
Dan Ives, senior managing director at Yorkville Ives & Co., said in a Sunday note that the central question for investors is whether Huang stays in the top job. He called the situation "a black eye moment for Jensen" that will prompt congressional scrutiny at a minimum and weigh on the stock for multiple reasons, CNBC reported.
Cautious mood after jobs data and midterms
Sentiment remains guarded after a round of jobs figures that came in above expectations. Investors are also weighing the Democrats' strong midterm results, with concern that stricter rules on data center construction, energy consumption and development costs could temper the buildout of AI infrastructure, according to CNBC.
Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, told CNBC's "Fast Money" on Friday that the Nasdaq and Nasdaq-100 look oversold after heavy de-risking by traders. Thursday marked the largest single day of retail selling since the Covid pandemic, according to Vanda Research.
"Retail has not proven to be the dip buyers that they have been in the past," Sonders said, adding that the selling may not be fully exhausted and that it remains to be seen whether retail traders return. She pointed to companies' revisions to capital spending plans and their outlook for profit margins as the next short-term signals to watch.
Earnings and inflation on the calendar
This week brings results from several AI-linked names — CoreWeave, Cisco and Applied Materials — that investors will use to gauge the sector's prospects and whether the recent pullback has further to run, CNBC reported.
On the data side, the consumer price index is due Tuesday and the producer price index Friday, both watched for hints about the Federal Reserve's next move. Monday's schedule includes September wholesale inventories at 10 a.m. ET, along with quarterly reports from Take-Two Interactive Software, Occidental Petroleum, KKR, Constellation Energy and Skydance.
Asia rallies, Europe mixed
Asia-Pacific markets closed mostly higher Monday, led by Taiwan. The Taiwan Weighted Index finished up 4.94% at 41,664.7, its biggest one-day gain since 31 July, powered by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.33% to 58,775.5 and the Topix gained 2.97% to 3,818.16. South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.81% to 5,018.85, mainland China's CSI 300 edged up to 4,056.11 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat in late trading.
Investors in the region also digested October inflation figures from China: producer prices rose 5.7%, the fastest pace in more than four years, while consumer inflation came in below forecasts at 0.7%, CNBC reported.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 opened lower before turning to a 0.4% gain by 8:20 a.m. in London. Mining shares rose 1.7% as gold and copper prices recovered from last week's decline. Italy's UniCredit was the top performer, up 4.7%, after third-quarter net profit rose a record 24% year on year ahead of its move to take control of Germany's Commerzbank. Luxury names including LVMH, Moncler, Hermes, Kering, Burberry, Richemont and Christian Dior traded slightly lower as risk appetite stayed weak and Chinese inflation data pointed to persistent domestic price pressure. German construction firm Hochtief fell 5.3% after Spain's ACS said it had not considered a tender offer for shares in its subsidiary, following a Bloomberg report that ACS was weighing a buyout of the stake it does not own or a possible merger.
Separately, Crédit Agricole proposed combining its Italian operations with Banco BPM in a friendly deal that would form Italy's third-largest banking group, the French lender said Monday.
The coming days will show whether chip stocks can hold their rebound while Nvidia absorbs the investigation, with Tuesday's CPI reading and this week's AI earnings likely to set the tone.
