U.S. stocks spent Thursday on the back foot, and the day's defining move happened in a boardroom, not on a chart. Buyers showed up for individual stories all afternoon, but the session never found a reason to chase the index. Everyone was too busy chasing the Jensen Huang resignation story.

The S&P 500 eased less than 1% and the Dow slipped less than 1%. $QQQ dipped less than 1% to $688, and $IWM fell 2% to $278. One of the 11 sectors finished green. Energy led, up 2%, and Materials lagged, down 1%.

Reuters reported that four tankers were struck by explosions in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran acknowledged, and crude rose 3% while bitcoin fell 4% to below $72,000. Existing home sales hit a 16-year low in October at a 3.75M annual pace, down 9% from a year ago, with mortgage rates at record highs.

Nvidia rebounded slightly before the morning news seemed to hit the tape: Jensen Huang is out and the Nvidia board is looking into a replacement. His successor, Nebius grew 571% and got sold for the size of its spending bill, while Cisco and Cerebras both raised their years after the bell, Cerebras with a new Microsoft deal in hand. Tesla's five-day run says the market is already pricing a SpaceX combination that neither company will confirm.

Today's Briefing:

Nvidia disclosed Thursday that its board accepted Jensen Huang's resignation as president, chief executive officer, and board member, effective immediately. Huang co-founded the company in 1993 and ran it for 33 years. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress, 59, will step in as interim CEO, and Harvey C. Jones, a director since 1993, becomes the board's first chair.

The change up came just in time, as far as embarrassment goes: later in the day, yet another mistress rumor was reported by Reuters. Huang apparently really had some energy to spare.

The RIP: $NVDA ( ▼ 4.34% ) fell 4% to $166 in the regular session on 735M shares, more than double the usual pace, and now sits more than 30% below its October 6 record close. The filing gives no reason for the exit and no severance terms. Kiss and don’t tell. Earnings are on the way Tuesday, with analysts expecting revenue up 92% and net profit above $60B. But after such a giant loss, who knows.

The exit caps days of drama. What the market has to price now is a founder-less Nvidia at the top of its powers, trading near 12 times forward earnings, its lowest multiple since 2012, one month after it was the world's most valuable company. Wedbush wrote, hours before the resignation landed, that AMD and Cerebras stand to gain if customers go looking for a second source of AI chips. The leather jacket is officially retired. 🧥

$NVDA's one-month slide is the picture: the community is buying it ->

Speaking of, Cerebras Systems reported its third quarter after Thursday's close and raised its 2026 outlook for its cloud business. Core revenue rose 70% to $231M against $215M expected.

The RIP: $CBRS ( ▼ 3.29% ) fell 3% to $98 in the regular session, then jumped 15% after hours to $113. The quarterly loss widened to $161M, or $0.67 a share, from $0.41 a share a year ago. The full-year adjusted revenue outlook rose to $940M to $960M, from $880M to $890M.

Cloud and services core revenue rose 272% to $145M while hardware slipped to $86M from $97M, a lumpiness Chief Executive Andrew Feldman waved off in an interview: 'The business is cooking with gas.' Cerebras also said it signed Microsoft as a new customer, alongside Oracle and its $20B multi-year OpenAI agreement. 🧠

Fourth-quarter guidance really punched above its weight: core revenue of $310M to $330M against $275M expected, at margins of 47% to 49%, and a promise to triple revenue in 2027. 🚀

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Cisco also reported its fiscal first quarter after Thursday's close, an internet of things economic bellwether. It posted record revenue of $18.5B, up 24% from a year ago, with product revenue up 32% and services up 1%. It is the company's fastest growth in more than 15 years, and it arrived with a bigger year attached.

The RIP: $CSCO ( ▲ 1.24% ) rose 3% after hours. Non-GAAP earnings of $1.40 a share beat the $1.33 expected, and the filing raised fiscal 2027 guidance to $74.8B to $75.8B of revenue and $5.47 to $5.53 of earnings a share.

The raise has a specific engine. Cisco now expects $9B of AI infrastructure revenue from the big cloud builders in fiscal 2027, more than double what it booked in fiscal 2026. The old bellwether is selling gear into the same buildout that sank Nebius on spending worries, and getting paid for it. 📈

$CSCO's raised guide is the picture: traders split over the AI bill ->

Nebius Group reported its third quarter on Thursday and grew revenue 571% from a year ago to $981M, ahead of the $908M analysts expected. Adjusted earnings came in at $0.31 a share against an expected loss of $0.69. By any normal scorecard, a blowout.

The RIP: $NBIS ( ▼ 16.84% ) fell 17% to $129 on more than double the usual volume. The filing pointed the other way: heavier infrastructure spending, a 2026 outlook tracking to the low end of its range, and capacity delays pushing some revenue into 2027.

Chief Executive Arkady Volozh told Dow Jones that customer prepayments are becoming the standard way these builds get financed, which is another way of saying the spending is not optional. The market is not doubting the demand. It is doubting who pays for the supply, and on Thursday it sent the bill back. ☁️💸

$NBIS's post-earnings cliff is the picture: traders split over the spending bill ->

Bloomberg reported Thursday that merger talks between SpaceX and Tesla are progressing, with a deal that could be announced as early as December or slip into early 2027. Neither company commented, and no terms were reported.

The RIP: $TSLA ( ▲ 1.69% ) rose 2% to $397 on a down day for the market, capping a run worth 16% over five sessions. The community sits split down the middle, which is exactly where a rumor this size leaves it.

The split has a clean shape. One side sees one Musk empire with shared rockets, cars, robots, and capital. The other sees Tesla holders handed a bill for a private rocket company at a price nobody gets to negotiate. 🚀

A merger of the two biggest Musk assets is not a rumor to price gently, and the stock is pricing it like December is real. 🛰️

Intuitive Machines ran higher on its record $269M revenue quarter and a $1.9B backlog, numbers the bulls have been quoting since the print landed. Community is bullish.

Applied Materials fell with the chip complex in the regular session, then posted a record fourth quarter after the close, with $10.41B of revenue and $4.16 of earnings against $4.06 expected. Community is mixed.

Novavax slid after its results as holders vented over another unprofitable quarter and the math on the Sanofi deal. Community is mixed.

SELLAS eased lower ahead of next week's GPS topline data, the binary readout the whole float is positioned around. Community is bullish.

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🤖 Nebius Crashes 20% as Jensen Huang Shock Rocks AI Stocks: One ETF Is Having a Field Day

₿ Would a Tesla–SpaceX Merger Be Bullish for Bitcoin? Careful What You Wish For

📊 TSLA Stock Climbs Amid Reports Of SpaceX Tie-Up As Early As December

💾 Applied Materials Reports Q4 Earnings, Raises Guidance as AI Drives Strong Chip Demand

🗽 2 children among the 8 dead in New York City building collapse, officials say

💵 Home sales hit 16-year low in October amid record-high mortgage rates

🧠 AI Debt Binge Hits a Wall As Global Bond Markets Reach Saturation Point, Wells Fargo Warns

🪙 The crypto move you missed today, explained before you wake up to it

Want to see some change? Respond to this email and reach me, Kevin Travers, with feedback. Follow me on Stocktwits. Send me charts and ideas! Refer a friend for this quarter’s edition of The RIP Forecast 😎

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