World shares log modest losses as investors assess impact on AI sector from the Nvidia scandal
Global markets posted modest declines Friday as investors assessed the impact of Jensen Huang's resignation as Nvidia CEO and a Microsoft outage.
European and Asian shares mostly declined Friday, though losses remained modest as investors evaluated how Jensen Huang's resignation as Nvidia CEO might affect the artificial intelligence industry. A global outage affecting Microsoft web services disrupted email accounts and some applications worldwide but had minimal direct market impact.
Microsoft reported that the outage affected numerous Microsoft 365 services interacting with Exchange Online and email platforms. Users reported issues with Outlook, Teams, and the AI assistant Copilot. U.S. futures showed little movement as the trading day progressed.
Regional Market Movements
In early European trading, Germany's DAX fell 0.1% to 26,748.60, while France's CAC 40 also declined 0.1% to 8,353.98. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.1% to 10,856.66. Japan's Nikkei 225 bucked the trend, rising 0.5% to 61,142.35.
Asian tech stocks showed mixed performance. Tokyo Electron gained 1.7%, while Kioxia Holdings fell 2.3%. SoftBank Group, an OpenAI investor, dropped 5.1%. South Korea's Kospi declined 1%, with Samsung Electronics down 1% and SK Hynix falling 3%. Taiwan's Taiex rose 1.4%, with TSMC adding 0.4%.
Other Asian markets also saw declines, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng giving up 1.6%, Shanghai Composite sliding 0.6%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipping 0.7%, and India's Sensex falling 0.6%.
Nvidia Leadership Change
The departure of Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and was instrumental in its central role in the AI boom, has raised questions about the company's future direction. Nvidia shares fell 4% following the announcement of his resignation.
Huang had been the face of Nvidia and was deemed by some in the industry as bigger than Nvidia itself.
Huang stepped down after his affair with a Chinese tech executive raised U.S. national security concerns. Nvidia's longtime CFO, Colette Kress, will serve as interim CEO. As a lynchpin of the AI boom, Nvidia trades with Apple as Wall Street's most valuable company and has invested heavily in other AI firms.
Market watchers will closely monitor how Nvidia's leadership change might affect pending public debuts of AI companies, including Anthropic's IPO valued at $1.3 trillion. Shares of some Nvidia rivals rose, with AMD gaining 5.9%.
Broader Market Pressures
Stocks faced broader pressure as oil prices climbed after President Trump stated the U.S. didn't "need a deal with Iran" amid ongoing Middle East conflicts. Early Friday, Brent crude rose 0.3% to $96.07 per barrel, significantly higher than $72 in late February before the Iran war began.
The U.S. dollar strengthened to 159.92 Japanese yen, while the euro traded at $1.1066. On Thursday, Wall Street's S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq all declined 0.4% as markets reacted to these developments.
Related
