Hello pack, and welcome to the weekend update. US markets are closed today, Singapore is closed too, so this is a Friday recap plus a look ahead to Monday. Friday was a split day: the big tech names dragged the Nasdaq down, the Dow just managed to stay green, and the week as a whole still ended strongly. That tension — a bad Friday inside a good week — is the story to hold in mind.
The snapshot
On Friday, 13 November, the S&P 500 fell 30.73 points, or 0.4%, to 7,561.67, the Nasdaq Composite fell 229.82 points, or 0.9%, to 25,136.27, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 50.46 points, or 0.1%, to 52,347.55. The Russell 2000 slipped 0.31% to 2,790.49, the VIX rose 3.16% to 19.29, gold was at $3,878.70, down 0.17%, and WTI crude was at $89.01, up 0.30%.
For the week, the picture was very different. The S&P 500 rose 2.5%, the Nasdaq rose 2.3% and the Dow rose 2.1%. The Nasdaq also posted its best week since August, and its first weekly gain in five weeks, even after Friday's fall. More than 60% of S&P 500 stocks rose on Friday, which tells us the selling was concentrated, not broad. The market did not fall apart. It rotated, and it rotated away from the names that had led it higher.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index lost 1% on Friday, or 50.86 points, to finish at 5,231.84. For the week the STI actually gained 52 points to end at 5,231, so again, a soft Friday inside a firmer week. We will come back to Singapore in detail below, because the local story is not just a copy of the US story.
US: a mixed close, led by chips
The main driver on Friday was Nvidia, and the wider chip and AI trade around it. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday morning, and the board named longtime CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO. Nvidia shares finished 2% lower on Friday, and as of Friday's close they had fallen 12.75% since the start of the week, erasing roughly $573 billion in market value.
That matters far beyond one stock. Nvidia is one of the largest stocks in the S&P 500 — it comprises about 6% of the total value of the index — meaning its decline has broad implications for many people's investment and retirement accounts. When a 6% weight falls that fast, the index feels it, and the Nasdaq feels it even more.
The chip sell-off spread. AMD fell 8.75% to $534.06 and Broadcom fell 4.76% to $347.01 on Friday. Cisco fell 6.2% despite record revenue, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 3.4% on Friday while information technology lost 1.7%. The trade that defined Thursday ran backward on Friday, and the names that had bounced on relief or rotation gave those gains back.
There are two questions hanging over Nvidia now. First, leadership: who is the permanent successor, and what does the board want that person to do differently? The Financial Times reported that Nvidia's board has approached British chipmaker Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas in its search for a potential successor. Second, policy: Huang had pushed to preserve access to the Chinese market and had close ties with US President Donald Trump, and his resignation could have far-reaching consequences for US chip export policy and the broader AI industry and supply chain. Huang has been called to testify in a closed-door congressional hearing on December 1, and lawmakers have said they will subpoena him if he does not voluntarily agree to testify.
Nvidia is due to report quarterly results on Tuesday after the closing bell, with interim CEO Colette Kress facing big questions from investors and analysts. That Tuesday report is now the single biggest near-term test for the AI trade. It is not just about revenue and guidance. It is about whether the company can steady the story after a week of chaos, and whether buyers are willing to step back in at these levels.
SoftBank also sold its entire stake in Nvidia, approximately $5.8 billion, to fund its own AI investments, which added to the sense that capital was rotating away from expensive mega-cap AI equities into other sectors. That rotation helped the Dow on Friday. Industrials, healthcare and other value areas held up better than tech, which is why the Dow could rise while the Nasdaq fell almost 1%.
Inflation and the Fed: hotter, but not simple
Friday also brought US October Producer Price Index data. The PPI rose 0.3% month-over-month, below market expectations of 0.4%, and climbed 6.5% year-over-year, marking its largest increase since November 2022. Earlier in the week, US consumer prices in October rose 0.4% month-over-month, with core CPI up 0.3%, leading markets to price in an approximately 90% probability of an interest rate hike at the December 8–9 Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
That is a difficult mix for traders. A monthly PPI miss would normally be good news, but a 6.5% yearly rise is not. It keeps inflation pressure and the outlook for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes in focus, even as stocks had lifted in early trading on the softer monthly number. The Bank of England raised interest rates on November 5, and central banks are tilting toward tightening as inflation accelerates.
For options traders, the practical read is straightforward. The Fed meeting on December 8–9 is now the primary market variable, and the market is leaning toward a hike, most likely 25 basis points, with a larger 50-basis-point increase seen as introducing unnecessary risks to the fragile broader economy. Until that meeting, every inflation print, every Fed speaker, and every jobs number will be read through the same lens: does this make a December hike more or less likely, and does it change the path after December? Volatility around those prints is likely to stay elevated, and the VIX at 19.29, up on Friday, reflects that nervousness rather than panic.
Shutdown over, data coming back
One piece of good news this week was the end of the 43-day US federal government shutdown. The longest shutdown in history, which began on October 1, ended after the Senate passed the spending package 60 to 40 on November 10, followed by House passage and presidential signing on November 12, with funding continuing through January 30 of next year. Expectations of government resumption supported risk assets, and with the shutdown over, delayed economic data releases are scheduled to resume.
That matters because traders have been flying partly blind. When official data is delayed, the market leans more on private surveys, company comments and price action itself, which can exaggerate moves. The return of normal data should help, but it also means a catch-up of releases in the coming weeks, and each one could move rates and equities.
FAA ground stop, airlines, and Microsoft
Late on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop of US departures at about 3:54 p.m. ET, minutes before the closing bell. Airline shares dropped in the final minutes of the regular US session, and the NYSE Arca airline index closed down 1.4%. United Airlines shares declined 1.2%, JetBlue fell 2.4% and American Airlines lost 1.7% in after-hours trading, while an ETF tracking the S&P 500 briefly fell 0.5% and a Nasdaq-100 ETF dropped as much as 0.8%.
The FAA issued the nationwide stop after a failure in air traffic control communication frequencies, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assessed the outage was not caused by a cyberattack or criminal conduct, with investigators examining whether the problem was linked to a software update. The ground stop is expected to end soon, easing flight restrictions imposed across the country. For traders, this was a reminder that a single operational shock, even a temporary one, can hit a whole sector in minutes, and that airline options can move fast on headlines that have nothing to do with earnings or fuel.
Microsoft also faced a global outage of Outlook and Teams that was easing on Friday after more than 24 hours of disruption, though the company said it still had no timeline for full recovery of services. That outage crippled online communications across businesses and governments, and it added to the day's risk-off tone in tech, even though Microsoft is not a chip name.
World news: Europe, China, oil, the dollar and Bitcoin
Global stocks mostly eased on Friday with tech and Nvidia concerns, while the dollar was at a 19-month high. The dollar index rose 0.17% to 103.40, gaining for a fourth straight day, and US two-year yields had their largest weekly rise in over two years. The benchmark 10-year yield was hovering above 5.1%, which also dampened risk appetite as traders priced in tighter Federal Reserve
monetary policy.
Europe was more resilient. The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended up just 0.02% on Friday, but recorded its best week since late June as strong earnings and a rotation out of tech globally helped investors look past geopolitical risks and the volatility involving AI stocks. European and Japanese equities reached record highs during the week, while the yen weakened. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 4.15 points, or 0.37%, to 1,112.12 on Friday.
China's exports expanded significantly in October, driving the annual trade surplus above $1 trillion for the second time this year. That is a strong headline for Chinese trade, but it also keeps trade tensions in focus, especially for chip and tech supply chains. Sanctions targeting Rosneft and Lukoil are scheduled to take effect on November 21, which is another date to watch for energy markets.
Oil was little changed on Friday, but declined for a second straight week. Washington's focus on blockading Iran and ramping up other economic pressures allayed fears of renewed direct conflict, and international benchmark Brent crude traded near $96.35 per barrel, while US benchmark WTI stood around $89.2 per barrel. A day earlier, US President Donald Trump said Washington no longer needs an agreement with Iran, which was read as a shift in tone on that front.
Bitcoin fell below $70,000, and was down about 4% to around US$68,300, roughly 15% lower than a month prior, according to the weekend briefing. That slide fits the broader risk-off move in high-beta assets, and it is worth watching alongside the Nasdaq, because both have been sensitive to the same rate and liquidity expectations.
Singapore: STI down Friday, but the week held
Singapore stocks ended lower on Friday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index losing 1% to finish at 5,231.84, after Genting Singapore hit a one-year low. The worst performer among STI constituents was Genting Singapore, which fell 5.7% to S$0.575, a day after the integrated resort operator reported a 42.2% fall in net profit to S$54.7 million for its third quarter ended September 30. Across the broader market, losers beat gainers 343 to 240, after 1.1 billion securities worth S$1.9 billion changed hands.
The weekly leaderboard tells a more mixed story. SATS led with a +9.1% weekly gain, while Genting Singapore trailed at -5.7%, with other notable entries including ST Engineering at +4.4%, Keppel at +3.9%, and SIA at +3.0%. CityDev was also weak, down about 8.0% on the week. The STI gained 52 points during the week of November 9-13 to end at 5,231, but the week-on-week rebound did little to change a bearish looking chart, with the 50- and 100-day moving averages making a negative cross at 5,540 in the first week of November.
Technically, the STI is in a corrective phase. An intra-day low of 5,138 on November 6 provides initial support, and in the near term the STI could head towards 5,000, with resistance established at 5,620, the neckline of a minor top formation. Based on previous cycles, the STI may remain in a corrective phase till mid-December, with a possible recovery after Christmas. Short-term RSI is hovering around its oversold line, but it could stay there for another two weeks.
The longer view is also important. The STI fell 5.24% in October, and the SPDR STI ETF now shows a distribution yield of 3.39% as at November 6, up from 3.27% a week earlier, because the unit price fell. For the year to October 31, the benchmark was still up 19.90%, so this correction is coming after a strong year, not after a weak one. Ten Singapore blue chips have now fallen more than 10% in the last three months, ranging from Wilmar International, down 25.2% after third-quarter core net profit fell to US$267.3 million, to CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, UOB, Keppel and Singapore Exchange. Rising bond yields make bank dividends and REIT distributions less attractive, and Citi cut OCBC to sell and kept a sell on UOB, while DBS downgraded SGX to hold and HSBC moved its Singapore equities call to neutral, citing stretched valuations.
For Singapore traders, the link to the US is clear. A sharp drop in US technology stocks in early November spread to Asia, and Singapore opened lower on Friday tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as concerns surrounding Nvidia's leadership transition and the outlook for US interest rates weighed on investor sentiment. When US yields rise and the dollar strengthens, Singapore banks and REITs feel it, and when US chips fall, Singapore tech and industrial names often follow, even if their own earnings are steady.
What Options Puppy is watching next
First, Nvidia earnings on Tuesday, November 17. That is the event that can either calm the AI trade or extend the sell-off. Watch guidance, data-centre demand, China comments, and what interim CEO Colette Kress says about leadership and strategy. Second, the Anthropic IPO, which is looming as another test for AI valuations, with institutional investors from mainland China and Hong Kong excluded from the offering, reflecting heightened sensitivity toward strategic industries.
Third, the Fed. The December 8–9 meeting is the next big macro date, and the market is already pricing a high chance of a hike. Any Fed speaker, inflation update or jobs data before then will be traded as a Fed signal. Fourth, energy and geopolitics: Russian oil sanctions on November 21, Iran policy, and oil prices around $89 for WTI. Fifth, Singapore: Genting's next update after its profit drop, bank earnings and guidance, and whether the STI can hold 5,138 support or tests 5,000.
For options, the lesson from Friday is about concentration and event risk. A single name, Nvidia, moved the Nasdaq, the S&P, the chip index and sentiment in Singapore. A single headline, the FAA ground stop, moved airlines in minutes. A single data print, PPI, moved rate expectations. That is why position sizing, defined risk, and knowing your event calendar matter more than picking a direction. The VIX at 19.29 is not extreme, but it is higher, and premiums are reflecting that uncertainty. If you are trading options around Nvidia earnings on Tuesday, remember that implied volatility is likely to be elevated, and that a big move in either direction can happen even if the headline numbers look fine.
This is not financial advice, and this update is for sharing and discussion only. Do your own checks, read the primary sources, and trade within your own risk limits. Markets can move fast on a headline, as Friday showed, and a weekend can change the tone before Monday opens.
Have a good weekend, pack. I will be back with the next update, and we will watch Monday's open together. Stay patient, stay small when you are unsure, and let the news come to you instead of chasing it.
— Options Puppy 🐾
$Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$ @Shernice軒嬣 2000 @AI_FocusedTrader @MillionaireTiger @InverseCramer @TigerEvents
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