Huang’s Exit Shifts the AI Trade as Bitcoin Breaks Below $70,000

Friday, November 13, 2026 | Daily briefing on Jensen Huang’s exit, AI deal financing, a 19-month dollar high,and Bitcoin’s drop below $70,000.

Daily Summary

Our View: Jensen Huang has stepped down, and the impact will be felt less in Nvidia’s stock and more across the rest of the AI trade—particularly in chip financing and infrastructure deals where Nvidia served as a supplier, investor, and contractual backstop. We do not expect existing commitments to change, though new agreements may take longer to materialize. Meanwhile, uncertainty is driving investors toward alternatives,with AMD’s 44.73% weekly gain serving as the clearest example. On the crypto side, markets decoupled and sold off sharply; Bitcoin broke below $70,000, triggering $1.3 billion in liquidations over 24 hours. The issue here is not crypto-specific: the dollar sits at a 19-month high, and ETFs have seen $1.56 billion in year-to-date outflows. Next week’s Anthropic IPO will serve as a key test of this sentiment.

• Jensen Huang stepped down. The co-founder, who led Nvidia as CEO for over three decades, resigned on Thursday following allegations of relationships with two individuals, one of whom is suspected of being a Chinese spy. The stock fell an additional 3% in after-hours trading and sits 31.71% below its 52-week high.
• Rivals gained ground: AMD is up 44.73% for the week as leadership uncertainty pushes investors to seek alternatives; TSMC gained 14.84% and ASML rose 10.35% on the week.
• Washington steps in. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott sent subpoenas/summons to testify to Commerce Secretary Lutnick and Huang.
• Bitcoin dropped below $70,000: Trading at $68,880, its lowest level since August 19, marking a 17% quarterly loss. Over $1.3 billion in positions were liquidated within 24 hours.
• Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.56 billion in YTD outflows. The funds were up $1.01 billion YTD as recently as October 29. There have been 12 weeks with outflows exceeding $500 million so far this year,compared to 15 for all of 2025 and 4 in 2024.
• The dollar hit a 19-month high, while the two-year yield posted its steepest two-day surge in 3.5 years at 34 basis points. The probability of a 50-basis-point hike in December now stands at 14.5%, up from zero a week ago. The yen briefly breached 160.
• Anthropic IPO set for next week at a $1.4 trillion valuation. The company plans to raise $64.4 billion by selling 825 million shares at $70–$78 each, alongside an additional $26 billion via a private placement involving Google, Nvidia, and AMD.
• Today: France October inflation; Eurozone Q3 flash GDP and employment data; Fed officials speaking; US Producer Price Index (PPI).

Story of the Day

Huang is out, the real question is financing deals

A three-day crisis at Nvidia culminated on Thursday as Jensen Huang stepped down following allegations of two separate relationships, including one with an individual suspected of working for China. The departure of the co-founder who led the company for more than three decades carries far broader implications for the AI sector than a single corporate leadership change, largely due to the dual role Huang played: fighting to preserve access to the Chinese market while maintaining close ties with Trump. JPMorgan analysts noted that his exit leaves a void that will be difficult to fill; while they do not assume existing commitments will change,new deals could take longer or require greater compensation as investors seek reassurance regarding Nvidia’s role. The larger repercussions will play out across the broader AI trade, particularly in GPU financing and infrastructure deals where Nvidia acted as a supplier, investor, or contractual backstop.

The market priced this risk in an intriguing way: punishing Nvidia while rewarding its competitors. Due to the uncertainty surrounding potential leadership changes, investors are looking for alternatives, putting AMD,Arista, and Broadcom in a position to benefit. Weekly figures confirm this shift: AMD is up 44.73%, TSMC 14.84%, SpaceX 13.20%, and ASML 10.35%, whereas Nvidia is down 8.49% and sits 31.71% below its 52-week high. AMD turning positive on a monthly basis (+2.54%) indicates that this is not a sector-wide collapse,but rather a rotation in leadership.

The political front is also widening. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott sent letters on Thursday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Huang requesting their testimony regarding recent developments at the company; meanwhile, senior White House officials are debating whether Lutnick should be removed from his post. House Speaker Mike Johnson pointed to a hardening consensus in Congress around restricting chip exports to China. Thus, Huang’s departure may represent not just a corporate vacuum, but a turning point in US chip export policy, casting doubt on China’s future access to Nvidia chips. The fallout even spilled into metals markets: copper in London hit a four-month low on concerns over the durability of physical AI infrastructure demand, trading today at $6.17—9.60% below its 52-week high—while Australia-listed miner Capstone Copper dropped more than 5%.

Crypto decouples: $70,000 breaks, ETFs turn negative YTD

While equities rebounded, crypto went the other way, suffering a sharp sell-off on Friday morning. Bitcoin fell 6.44% to $68,880, hitting its lowest level since August 19; its quarterly loss stands at 17%, erasing a substantial portion of the rally seen over the prior three months. Ether dropped 5.51% to $1,935, slipping below $2,000 for the first time since August; XRP is at $1.02, nearing the $1 threshold, and Solana sits below $80 at $79.77. The damage in derivatives was heavy: over $1.3 billion in crypto futures positions were liquidated in 24 hours, with roughly $500 million wiped out the exact moment Bitcoin broke below $70,000,underscoring how crowded the market had become with leveraged positions.

The primary driver of the sell-off lies not within crypto itself, but in two external factors. First is the dollar: the index is above 103, its highest level since April 2025, having gained roughly 2% since early October on strengthening Fed rate-hike bets—a direct headwind for liquidity-sensitive risk assets. Second, and more structural, are fund flows. US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs have swung to $1.56 billion in net year-to-date outflows,and the reversal was swift: funds were up $1.01 billion YTD on October 29 before shedding $643.3 million in a single day on October 30, dropping the balance to $368 million. Through Thursday of this week, outflows totaled $643.6 million, following $1.28 billion the prior week and $202.6 million the week before that. Historical comparisons clarify the picture: there have been 12 weeks of net outflows exceeding $500 million this year,versus 15 in all of 2025 and 4 in 2024. Four more such weeks in the remaining six weeks of the year would set a record for 2026, marking a sharp reversal from 2025 and 2024, when the funds attracted $21.37 billion and $35.24 billion in net inflows, respectively.

Geopolitical tensions are also escalating. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain in retaliation for an airstrike on a telecom tower in Sirik, describing the move in a statement to the semi-official Tasnim news agency as a “serious warning to the aggressive enemy” and demanding an end to repeated aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz. On the corporate crypto front, merger talks between SpaceX and Tesla could be announced as early as December, which would consolidate roughly 30,220 bitcoins—worth $2.1 billion at current prices—held by the two companies under one roof; Tesla’s annual general meeting is scheduled for December 3.

Market Wrap

Equities and Bonds

Wall Street closed slightly lower on Thursday: the S&P 500 dipped 0.35% to 7,592, the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.30% to 28,289, and the Dow slipped 0.36% to 52,297, while the Russell 2000 lagged with a 1.66% drop. The VIX rose 6.92% to 18.70 but continues to cool off, down 33.64% on the week. On a weekly basis, the broader recovery remains clear: the Nasdaq 100 is up 6.23%, the S&P 500 is up 3.25%, and the Russell 2000 has gained 2.53%. Among individual stocks, AMD climbed 5.86% to $585.30, standing as the strongest performer of the period with a 44.73% weekly gain; Tesla rose 1.69% to $397.45 (+15.64% weekly), and Alphabet gained 1.79% to $298.70. Energy stocks advanced alongside oil, with Exxon up 1.84% to $169.78 and Chevron up 1.44% to $216.35. On the downside, Nvidia fell 4.34% to $166.19, ASML dropped 2.43% to $1,497.12, and TSMC declined 1.90% to $405.49. Asia rebounded on Friday: South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 2.35%, the Nikkei rose 1.4%, and the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index added 0.26%, though Nvidia customer Naver fell 2.75% in Korea. European futures are pointing lower: Euro Stoxx 50 futures are down 0.37%; on Thursday, the DAX rose 0.41% to 26,772, closing just 0.85% below its 52-week high, while the CAC 40 gained 0.34% to 8,361.The BIST 100 rose 1.24% to 11,811, bringing its weekly gain to 4.22%, though the index remains 22.32% below its peak. In fixed income, the US 2-year yield climbed to 4.892% during the Asian session and the 10-year reached a three-week high of 5.1433%; the 2-year has gained 34 basis points over the past two sessions,its steepest two-day jump in three and a half years.

Currencies and Commodities

The US Dollar Index is trading around the 103.20 band, hovering near its highest level since April 2025, with a 0.9% weekly gain marking its largest advance since September. Two drivers are behind the move: hot inflation data and remarks from Trump stating that the US does not need a deal with Iran, which pushed oil prices and inflation expectations higher. The odds of a 50-basis-point rate hike in December have risen to 14.5%, up from zero a week ago. Markets are now effectively pricing in three Fed hikes over the next 12 months; the latest inflation print came in hotter than expected, and if similar data persists, three more hikes are certainly within the realm of possibility. While further steep sell-offs in equities could weigh on the dollar, it is likely to maintain strong momentum in the near term—especially as Fed officials speak next week—and greater support for a 50-basis-point move would open the door to further upside.

The yen is at 159.89 after briefly breaching the 160 threshold on Thursday, posting a 0.9% weekly loss—its biggest since September. Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama reiterated on Friday that the government will respond appropriately to currency volatility. The New York Fed disclosed on Thursday that it purchased 79.4 billion yen ($497.37 million) in the spot market on July 31 by selling euros from the Exchange Stabilization Fund as part of a joint US-Japan summer intervention; Japan had spent 15.4 trillion yen ($96.47 billion) to support its currency after the yen hit a four-decade low of 163.99 in late July. Hawkish Fed repricing has widened the US yield advantage, outweighing support from BOJ normalization expectations for now,though the risk-reward of chasing the pair higher becomes less attractive as the dollar approaches 160 yen.The euro is at 1.1062, down 1.54% on the week, with its RSI nearing oversold territory at 36.3; sterling is at 1.3227. The Australian dollar, at 0.6789, has lost roughly 2.5% over the past month, making it the weakest G10 currency and the only one with rate cuts priced in for next year. USD/TRY hit a fresh record high at 50.31.

Oil is heading for its second consecutive weekly loss despite surging sharply on Thursday: Brent is at $96.14,down 2.19% on the week, while WTI is at $88.64. Thursday’s spike was driven by escalating attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz threatening global oil flows. Precious metals are weak: gold is at $3,899.70, down 5.20% on the week and 30.19% below its 52-week high, with an RSI of 35.8; silver fell to $49.90, slipping below the $50 mark and sitting 58.86% off its peak; palladium is testing the $1,000 threshold at $1,000.50; and platinum is at $1,521.80. The simultaneous weakness across all four metals is a direct consequence of a strong dollar and rising real yields. Natural gas, at $3.30, remains the strongest performer in commodities with a 12.08% weekly gain.

Levels to Watch

• Anthropic IPO, next week: $1.4 trillion valuation, 825 million shares, $70–$78 price range. Swissquote’s Ozkardeskaya views the timing as critical, with many investors seeing it as a litmus test for appetite in AI investments.
• Bitcoin, $70,000: Broken, triggering $500 million in liquidations on its own. August lows lie below, while reclaiming this level would serve as the first sign of confirmation to the upside.
• ETF flows: YTD balance stands at -$1.56 billion. Four more weeks of outflows exceeding $500 million in the remaining six weeks of the year would make 2026 a record year; a sustained recovery is difficult until these flows reverse.
• December 50 bps hike odds, 14.5%: Up from zero a week ago. According to Kong, if support for a 50 bps move grows during next week’s Fed speeches, the dollar has room for further upside.
• USD/JPY, 160: Briefly breached on Thursday. According to MUFG, the risk-reward of chasing the pair higher diminishes near this level; Japan spent $96.47 billion defending the currency over the summer.
• AMD vs. Nvidia spread: AMD is up 44.73% on the week while Nvidia is down 8.49%. Continued divergence would confirm that the market views the issue as company-specific rather than sector-wide.

Week Ahead Calendar

Date	Day	Event
November 13	Friday	France October inflation; Eurozone Q3 flash GDP and employment data; US Producer Price Index (PPI); Fed officials speak; Nvidia developments
November 16–30	—	Zcash treasury vote (proposal to remove 50,000 ZEC from circulation)
Next week	—	Anthropic IPO ($1.4 trillion valuation; index inclusions within 5–15 days post-listing); Fed officials speak
November 18	Wednesday	Fed October meeting minutes
November 25	Wednesday	US PCE inflation data; November 27 Deribit monthly crypto options expiry
December 3	Thursday	Tesla annual general meeting; SpaceX merger talks may be announced in December
December 9	Wednesday	FOMC decision; 25 bps priced in, 14.5% probability of 50 bps