Asia's Stock Rebound Fades as Nvidia Uncertainty Lingers — Update

By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa and Farah Elias

The tentative rebound in Asia's bruised technology stocks faded Friday afternoon as bearish sentiment overpowered the initial lift and uncertainty over the fallout of Jensen Huang's exit from Nvidia lingered.

Tech-heavy indexes got off to a positive start as U.S. futures turned higher, signaling some relief that Huang's resignation and the stepping in of Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress as interim CEO offers some clarity on the leadership transition at the company at the core of the global AI economy.

But the momentum was fleeting.

U.S. stock futures tipped into the red by the afternoon in Asia, led by a 0.4% decline in Nasdaq 100 futures, and much of Asia's earlier gains evaporated.

South Korea's Kospi ended 1.0% lower, reversing early gains of as much as 3%, dragged by chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, both major Nvidia suppliers. Samsung fell 1.0% and Hynix shed 3.0%.

The semiconductor boost that had buoyed Japan's Nikkei Stock Average faded too, though the benchmark held on to a 0.5% gain. Kioxia Holdings closed 2.2% lower, while Advantest pared gains of more than 7% to end 2.1% higher.

Taiwan's benchmark Taiex cooled but managed to stay in the green with a 1.35% rise, helped by index heavyweight TSMC's 0.4% gain.

The U-turn was sharp in China and Hong Kong, where even stellar earnings couldn't keep chip maker SMIC above water. Shares fell 1.9% in Shanghai and 0.4% and Hong Kong.

Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor was among the Hang Seng Index's worst performers, slumping 6.8%. Shares of Chinese AI model developers Z.AI and MiniMax led losses on Hong Kong's Nasdaq-like tech gauge, declining 12% and 9.3%, respectively.

Worries that investigations into the controversy that led to Huang's resignation will lead to tighter oversight over chip exports continue to dominate market sentiment as the situation unfolds.

While the underlying earnings story for Asia tech remains relatively strong, especially in memory and advanced chips, higher bond yields, concentration risks and the possibility of tighter U.S. technology restrictions mean the recovery is unlikely to be a straight line, said Charu Chanana at Saxo Markets.

"I see this as a period of reassessing leadership within AI rather than abandoning the theme altogether," she said.

It's still too early to say what longer-term impact the Nvidia shakeup will have on Asian supply chains.

Asia has enormous depth across the semiconductor value chain, said Chris Hampden, senior vice president at Proxima, a Bain & Co. company.

"That provides the industry with some ability to adjust if demand moves between different chip designers," Hampden said. "The potential impact will depend on whether we subsequently see changes to orders, capacity commitments, distribution channels or the regulatory environment."

The downturn in sentiment was echoed in cryptocurrencies--a barometer of risk appetite.

Bitcoin crashed past $70,000 while Ethereum slid below the $2,000 mark.

Elsewhere, oil was mixed after rebounding overnight following President Trump's remarks that the U.S. no longer needs a deal with Iran. Front-month Brent was last up 0.2% at $96.03 a barrel, while WTI narrowed losses to 0.2% at $88.54 a barrel.

Gold gained ground, rising 0.7% to $3,902 an ounce, but pulling further away from the closely watched $4,000 level.

The DXY index remained at around 19-month highs, continuing to pressure Asian currencies.

Write to Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com and Farah Elias at farah.elias@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2026 02:11 ET (07:11 GMT)