Nasdaq Falls 0.74% as Sticky US October Inflation Stokes December Rate-Hike Bets, Nvidia Extends Drop Over 5%

Nvidia (NVDA) fell 5.53% to $168.78, becoming one of the main drags on major stock indexes. The stock extended the previous session's weakness as the company's independent directors move forward with an investigation into national security reports involving Jensen Huang. In addition, higher-than-expected inflation and rising interest rates prompted investors to continue scrutinizing tech company valuations and AI infrastructure financing costs.

The performance of large-cap tech stocks today is shown below:

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 0.35% to 9,998.33 points. Among the 30 constituent stocks, 11 rose and 19 fell.

Nvidia Independent Directors Hire Former Federal Prosecutor to Advance Jensen Huang Probe

Nvidia announced that its independent directors have retained Joon H. Kim, a partner at law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, along with his firm, to conduct a previously announced independent investigation. Kim previously served as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The investigation, announced on Sunday, concerns media reports that Jensen Huang may have been targeted by foreign intelligence operations. Huang previously acknowledged an extramarital affair and stated that he would cooperate with the investigation.

Anthropic Sets $70 to $78 IPO Price Range, with Total Deal Size Reaching up to About $90.4 Billion

A regulatory filing submitted by Anthropic on Tuesday showed an IPO price range of $70 to $78 per share, with the company and existing shareholders planning to sell a combined 825 million shares. Specifically, the company plans to issue approximately 801.4 million new shares, while existing shareholders intend to sell approximately 23.65 million shares. Based on the upper end of the price range, the total size of the public offering would be approximately $64.4 billion. In addition, Alphabet, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Micron, Microsoft, and TSMC intend to invest a total of $26 billion through concurrent private placements. Combined, the public offering and private placements bring the total deal size to up to approximately $90.4 billion; Anthropic will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by existing shareholders, and the private placements are subject to conditions including the completion of the IPO. Based on the upper end of the price range, the fully diluted valuation is approximately $1.4 trillion. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "ANT", with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading the underwriting.

Anthropic Launches Claude Sheets and Other Workplace Tools, Expanding Competition with Microsoft and Google

Anthropic has launched workplace tools including spreadsheet service Claude Sheets, a videoconferencing assistant, and data dashboards, expanding its services into more everyday office scenarios and competing more directly with Microsoft and Google. Some new features have been rolled out in beta to paid users, while the original Claude Dashboards has been upgraded to the officially released Claude Data. Product lead Nicholas Lin stated that Claude Sheets currently has relatively basic functionality and is not yet aimed at complex tasks such as financial modeling; such needs are better suited to using Anthropic's plugins within existing spreadsheet software.

U.S. October Headline and Core CPI Both Top Expectations, Fueling Debate on Faster Rate Hikes

U.S. CPI rose 0.4% month-over-month in October, topping market expectations of 0.3%, while core CPI, which excludes food and energy, gained 0.3% month-over-month, above the 0.2% forecast. Year-over-year figures were not published in this report because the 2025 government shutdown led to missing price data for October of last year. Ahead of the data release, Federal Reserve Governor Waller stated that he supported a 25-basis-point rate hike in December, noting that more forceful action might be needed if inflation came in significantly above expectations. Following the report, market discussion of a 50-basis-point hike intensified, and U.S. Treasury yields rose accordingly.

Logan Advocates at Least Two More Rate Hikes, Saying Pace Could Accelerate This Winter

Dallas Fed President Logan stated that the policy rate is currently at least 50 basis points below a moderately restrictive level, and the Fed still needs at least two 25-basis-point rate hikes before pausing to assess whether further action is required. She noted that energy disruptions and tariffs are not the sole drivers of price pressures, and broad-based price increases may persist. The pace of rate hikes will depend on near-term economic and financial conditions and could be faster this winter than previously, though gradual adjustments still help reduce the risk of an unnecessary, sharp deterioration in economic activity.

Bowman Warns Disappointing AI Returns Could Hit Stocks, Hints at Possible Support for December Rate Hike

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said on Tuesday that if returns on AI investments fall short of expectations, stock valuations could face a sharp correction, thereby undermining the resilience of consumer spending. A noticeable rise in long-term private-sector financing rates could also further depress housing and small-business investment. Bowman also pointed out that inflationary pressures persist while the labor market shows signs of firming, meaning there is still work to do to bring inflation back to 2%. She hinted at potential support for a December rate hike, stating that recent inflation has proved more stubborn than previously anticipated. She had previously supported keeping rates unchanged in October to observe economic developments and the impact of the September rate hike.

Morgan Stanley: AI Leveraged Financing Likely to Remain Subdued Through Year-End as Funding Hurdles Rise for New Projects

A Morgan Stanley report noted that AI-related leveraged finance issuance totaled just $5 billion in October, coming entirely from a term loan by Volta Infrastructure with a yield exceeding 11%. The bank expects high borrowing costs and potential construction delays to keep issuance in this market constrained through year-end. Morgan Stanley believes developers may need to offer higher yields, pay down more principal before refinancing, or bring in tenants with stronger credit to get deals done. Projects backed by lower-rated tenants, as well as emerging cloud service providers heavily reliant on external capital, could face tighter financing scrutiny. In the broader AI and data center debt market, year-to-date issuance in 2026 has reached $646 billion, roughly three times the $216 billion recorded for all of 2025. The bank maintained its forecast for combined 2027 capital expenditures among major cloud providers, projecting these companies will drive growth in AI-related financing demand next year.

This content was translated using AI and reviewed for clarity. It is for informational purposes only.