Asian stocks rise as traders weigh Huang’s Nvidia exit

Asian stocks rose Friday, November 13, as investors weighed what Nvidia's ↘ 4.34% leadership upheaval means for the broader artificial-intelligence trade. South Korea led the region. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3%, and US equity futures advanced after Wall Street's Thursday decline, Bloomberg reported via The Economic Times. Oil and Treasury yields held their gains, and traders watched the yen after it weakened past 160 per dollar for the first time since September.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Seoul leads the rebound

The Kospi led regional gains. The small-cap Kosdaq also climbed, and Japan's Nikkei 225 and the Topix rose, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped, according to CNBC. In Seoul, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix ↘ 3.19% opened higher despite Nvidia's slide, Chosun Ilbo reported. Kiwoom Securities analyst Han Ji-young said the market had "already priced in some of the related bad news," so bargain hunting was limiting losses, MoneyToday reported.cnbc.com+2

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.6% and S&P 500 ↘ 0.35% futures gained 0.4%. That followed a regular session in which the S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell about 0.4%, CNBC said.cnbc.com

Fallout from Huang's exit

Nvidia shares fell 4.3% on Thursday after Jensen Huang stepped down as chief executive following reports of extramarital affairs, including one with a woman US officials suspect of being a Chinese spy. Chief financial officer Colette Kress was named interim CEO, AFP reported. Rivals Broadcom ↗ 5.54% and Advanced Micro Devices ↗ 5.86% each rallied more than 5%. A related probe into efforts to smuggle Super Micro Computer ↘ 11.30% products to China sent that company's stock down as much as 16%, according to Bloomberg Línea.bloomberglinea.com+1

"This is going to be a more differentiated story," said Mike Pyle of BlackRock ↘ 0.79%. Investors are now looking to Nvidia's earnings, due on November 17, and to Anthropic's planned IPO next week, The Economic Times reported.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Oil, yields and the yen

US crude traded near $88.70 a barrel after President Donald Trump said the US could forgo a deal with Iran. Brent settled above $95 on Thursday after his post saying, "We don't need a deal with Iran," CNBC reported. Two-year Treasury yields climbed 14 basis points and 10-year yields rose 13 basis points as traders priced in faster Federal Reserve rate hikes. October producer price data is due Friday.cnbc.com

The weaker yen has revived talk that Japan could intervene to support it. Vice Finance Minister Atsushi Mimura warned this week that the currency's moves had been "too fast," CNBC-TV18 reported. "Markets are jittery about potential FX intervention whenever we approach the 160 area," said Win Thin of Bank of Nassau 1982, according to Bloomberg.tradingview.com+1