U.S. equity futures opened mixed on Monday as a corporate governance crisis at Nvidia and lingering tech sector weakness competed with gains in broader indices ahead of inflation data.
Dow Jones futures climbed 0.8% to 51,789.0 points. S&P 500 futures rose 0.5% to 7,413 points. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.3% to 27,173 points.
Nvidia shares fell 4.6% in premarket trade after the chipmaker's board launched an independent investigation over the weekend. Chief Executive Jensen Huang apologized to employees and admitted to an affair with Alice Huang, a businesswoman suspected by U.S. intelligence agencies of acting as a Chinese spy.
The Nasdaq Composite bounced 1.1% on Friday but the technology sector remains under pressure. Last Thursday, the Nasdaq plunged 5.5% into technical correction territory, driven by fears that a Democratic sweep will prompt aggressive antitrust scrutiny and tighter environmental regulations on data centers.
The week ahead will test the AI sector's resilience through corporate earnings. CoreWeave is scheduled to report on Tuesday. Applied Materials and Cisco Systems report on Thursday. Trading desks will parse these reports for signs of cooling demand in AI infrastructure.
Fixed-income markets price in a nearly 80% probability the Fed will raise rates at its December 8-9 meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool. October's consumer price index releases Tuesday, followed by producer price index data Friday. An upside surprise in inflation prints could solidify the case for higher borrowing costs and cap equity multiples.
Investors watching the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Nvidia (NVDA) should monitor this week's inflation data and AI infrastructure earnings reports to assess whether last week's selloff was a temporary political repricing or the start of a broader deceleration.