GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks fall with tech, Nvidia concerns; US dollar climbs

Stock indexes ​were mostly lower on Friday as technology shares sold off amid ‌fresh concerns ​about US chipmaker Nvidia, while the dollar climbed to a fresh 19-month high. The Nasdaq fell more than 1%, leading declines on Wall Street, with the Philadelphia semiconductor index down 4% and shares of Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom sharply lower. Nvidia shares were down 3%.

Jensen Huang's resignation ‌on Thursday as Nvidia CEO could have far-reaching consequences for US chip export policy and the broader AI industry and supply chain given his push to preserve access to the Chinese market and close ties with US President Donald Trump. The US Justice Department said it does not know whether the Chinese businesswoman at the center of the scandal was a spy.

Inflation worries remained in focus. Investors absorbed a report ‌showing the US October Producer Price Index for final demand was slightly softer than expected, but still shot up 6.5% year over year. It followed a hotter-than-expected US consumer prices reading ‌earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 120.15 points, or 0.23%, to 52,176.94, the S&P 500 fell 63.99 points, or 0.84%, to 7,528.41 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 356.51 points, or 1.40%, to 25,009.58.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 7.66 points, or 0.69%, to 1,108.61. The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended up 0.02%, registering a gain for the week. AI-related shares in China dropped after Huang's exit, but indexes in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea gained overnight ⁠as traders played down ​concerns about its impact on the AI boom.

A ⁠more than 12-hour outage of Microsoft Outlook and Teams was still affecting communications for businesses and governments globally on Friday, forcing some to revert to fax machines and halting at least one bond repurchase in Europe. US 2-YEAR YIELDS HEAD ⁠FOR LARGEST WEEKLY RISE IN OVER TWO YEARS

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.13% to 103.35, and hit its highest level since April 2025. It ​was also on track for a fourth straight day of gains. The euro was down 0.17% at $1.1034. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.03% to 159.9.

Treasury yields ⁠briefly dipped after the PPI data, but interest-rate-sensitive 2-year Treasury yields were on track for the largest weekly increase in over two years. Traders this week have been ramping up bets on faster interest rate increases following the consumer price data and hawkish ⁠Federal ​Reserve official commentary.

"Inflation is stubbornly high and the Fed's going to need to act a little bit quicker and a little bit more aggressively," said Molly Brooks, US rates strategist at TD Securities. Fed funds futures traders are pricing in an 11% chance of a 50-basis-point hike at the Fed’s December 8-9 meeting, which was seen as having zero probability a week ago, according ⁠to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

The 2-year note yield was last down 0.94 basis point at 4.855%. It earlier reached 4.892%, the highest since October 14, and is headed for the biggest ⁠weekly increase since the first week of October 2024. Oil ⁠prices edged lower and were set for a second straight weekly decline as Washington's focus on blockading Iran and ramping up other economic pressures allayed fears of renewed direct conflict. US crude fell 0.34% to $88.44 a barrel and Brent fell to $95.70 per barrel, down 0.14% on the day.