Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Nvidia Off Lows After CEO Exit, Washington Probe Ahead • 11/12/26

0:00See NBC Business News Update Market Midday. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Green on the screen this afternoon on Wall Street. The Nasdaq turning positive. Traders shaking off. And the NVIDIA CEO exit. AMD shares are gaining. Here's a look at the major averages. The Dow is now up 182 points. Led higher by shares of Google parent Alphabet. They're up more than 2%. The S &P 500 index up 11 points. The Nasdaq in the green by three points. It's precarious, but it's in the green. NVIDIA shares recovering a bit. They're down 5 % this afternoon. As some investors have been buying the morning sell-off, shares had plunged 13 % at the open.

0:44Embattled CEO Jensen Wong resigning today after admitting an affair with a woman the government alleges is a Chinese asset or spy. CNBC's Seema Modi with the latest. We've been working the phones here, and here's what we know at this point. After a report of a second alleged affair involving former CEO Jensen Wong and a direct report, I'm told by a source familiar that sentiment internally turned. And NVIDIA's board called a meeting on Wednesday afternoon that ran into the night. But consensus on Jensen Wong's resignation was made last night. The team at NVIDIA then moved quickly to put together their communication strategy.

1:19That message was then delivered this morning. Jensen Wong was out. The board also appointed its first chairman, Harvey Jones. CFO Colette Kress was named interim CEO. Colette Kress is communicating with employees today as acting CEO. The former CEO, Wong, has agreed to testify before Congress. And with the Democrats about to control Congress, here come the Washington investigations. Washington is really just gearing up to start investigating the administration's role in all of this, what they knew and when. And I just got a copy of a letter that will be sent later today to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

1:54or maybe has already been sent, but it will be publicly released shortly. It's to Howard Lutnick from the top Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. And they're informing the Commerce Department that they say, and I quote, they're beginning an investigation into the Trump administration's scheme to approve and tax exports of advanced NVIDIA AI chips to Chinese companies with concerning links to the Chinese government, military and sanctioned entities. And they're asking Secretary Lutnick and the Commerce Department to preserve all records and any communications within the department with and regarding Jensen Huang or NVIDIA.

2:28CNBC's Megan Casella in Washington. Here's the author of The Thinking Machine, Stephen Witt with CNBC's Sarah Eisen. You wrote the definitive book on Jensen Huang. Is NVIDIA, NVIDIA without Jensen? No, it's like the Bulls without Jordan. I mean, I don't know how they're going to replace this guy. Jensen was NVIDIA. He understood every part of it. He was a terrific world-class computer scientist. He was the guy who could close a deal with a mega customer. And he was the guy who could get on the phone and scream at Taiwan when the chips were late. All in one guy. All in one person, right? It's very hard to find that combination of people.

3:08Colette, I think, is an excellent executive, but she's not a world-class computer scientist. She comes from a finance background. Jensen could take a diagram of NVIDIA equipment, an exploded diagram, and draw it by hand from memory. It's going to be very hard to replace it. Apple shares hit another all-time high today intraday. Investors excited about some of the demand for new iPhones, especially the folding iPhone Duo. It's now back-ordered to be available to new customers in January after the holidays. The post office will charge you more to ship something, adding an 11 % fuel surcharge. As diesel prices have soared since President Trump sent U.S.

3:48missiles into Iran in February, the USPS joins FedEx and UPS with those new added surcharges. Eli Lilly shares ticked higher after becoming the first drug maker to secure Chinese approval for an oral GLP-1 weight loss treatment, giving it a head start in that competitive market. Yeti shares are on pace for their worst day today since August. The drinkware maker is warning consumers are being cautious with their spending, and that's going to impact this current holiday quarter. I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Traders don't need a prettier app. They need a better angle. Schwab's thinkorswim trading platforms were built for real traders like you.

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