Asian stocks fragile, Nvidia plummets as board to decide CEO’s fate

Asian stocks faced uncertainty at the start of their trading sessions on Thursday, while Nvidia's shares experienced a significant drop in the after-hours market following news that its board may remove CEO Jensen Huang. The board convened late Wednesday to deliberate on the matter, with sources revealing the possibility of ousting Huang due to allegations of an affair with a suspected Chinese spy and another with a company executive.

Industry expert Jake Dollarhide expressed concern, stating that the board would likely retain Huang until a proven, high-profile replacement was found. Nvidia's chips are pivotal to the AI landscape, and the stock's decline of over 8% after the market closed negatively impacted the S&P 500 e-mini futures, which fell by 0.4%. Regional indexes, however, exhibited more resilience, with South Korea's Kospi, Taiwanese shares, and Japan's Nikkei 225 posting slight gains.

Meanwhile, US stocks had a solid day on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 seeing a rise of 1.3% and nearly recovering from the losses incurred since recent US midterm elections. Optimism surrounding AI contributed to the market's buoyancy, as announcements from CoreWeave and Anthropic bolstered investor confidence. The dollar index remained stable during Asian trading hours, maintaining its level of 102.87, which is the highest since April 9 last year following President Trump's tariff announcement.

The greenback's strength was attributed to expectations of a potential interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Cryptocurrency markets also saw minor fluctuations, with Bitcoin dropping 0.9% to $73,617.58 and Ethereum falling 0.9% to $2,049.44.