Chips rally about 5% on CoreWeave, then a new Nvidia report hits after the bell

Wednesday, November 11 was the day the AI trade got its nerve back, at least for the companies that sell the hardware. CoreWeave jumped about 24.9% after its report, and its CEO told CNBC its build plans were not being delayed. The chip ETF rose about 4.9%, Micron about 12.0%, Arm about 12.1%, AMD about 7.3% and Nvidia about 2.9%. Oracle, another big data-center builder, rose about 8.8%, Intel about 7.5% and Broadcom about 4.1%, so the buying spread from chipmakers to the companies building the data centers. Posts also pointed to Anthropic's IPO drawing orders several times the shares on offer.

The index numbers looked strong. The Nasdaq proxy closed up about 2.3% and the S&P proxy about 1.3%, and the vol proxy fell about 6.4%. Both were higher around 1:30 PM ET, when posts showed the Nasdaq 100 up 3% and the S&P 500 up 1.6%, before fading into the close. Underneath, the gains were thin. The Dow proxy rose only about 0.5%, the equal-weight S&P about 0.8% and small caps about 0.9%. Microsoft fell about 2.2%, Meta about 2.0% and Amazon about 1.7%, so the companies paying for AI data centers lagged the ones supplying them.

Eight of the ten sector funds the desk tracks rose, led by tech at about +3.3% and energy at about +1.9%. With the bond market shut for Veterans Day, long Treasuries barely moved at about +0.1%. The dollar rose about 0.7%, gold fell about 1.1%, crude was flat and Bitcoin was up about 1.0%. The calendar had no releases.

The late turn came after the bell. Nvidia fell about 3.4% after hours as wires relayed a New York Times report of a second alleged relationship between its CEO and a company executive. Earlier, posts said a planned crackdown on Nvidia chips being diverted to China had stalled at the Commerce Department.

What X is saying

Posts say renewed AI optimism drove the day, pointing to CoreWeave, OpenAI's reported quarterly revenue of more than $10 billion and Anthropic's oversubscribed IPO. After the close, accounts shifted straight to Nvidia, and posts say prediction markets now give its CEO better-than-even odds of leaving by July 2027.

Insight

Tuesday's worry was rates, and Wednesday's answer was AI. The rally said buyers will pay up for chip suppliers again, but not yet for the cloud spenders or the average stock. Nvidia now carries a company-specific headline into Thursday. Whether the chip ETF can hold its gain without its largest name is the tell, with weekly jobless claims at 8:30 AM ET first.