Wall Street slides as hot US inflation sparks rate fears and Nvidia takes another beating

Wall Street experienced a retreat on November 11, with Nvidia stock falling again amid concerns over rising US inflation and the potential for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. The dollar strengthened following a report indicating that US inflation slowed less than expected in October. Fed officials, including Christopher Waller and Lorie Logan, signaled strong support for prompt action to tackle inflation.

Tech-focused Nasdaq saw a 0.7 percent drop, leading the major indices to end lower. Positive developments, such as oil prices declining due to a possible US-Iran agreement and Anthropic disclosing plans for an upcoming initial public offering, provided some relief to equity markets. However, fears surrounding AI data center construction and the Nvidia scandal involving CEO Jensen Huang and a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy weighed on the tech sector.

Nvidia shares dropped another 5.5 percent following a 4.3 percent decline the previous day, temporarily falling below Microsoft in market valuation but ultimately ending as the world's second most valuable publicly traded company, behind Apple. Anthropic's IPO plans faced challenges as the company sought less than previously estimated US$100 billion in its upcoming listing, with revenue reaching US$17 billion in the third quarter, up from US$1.4 billion a year earlier.