Market Snapshot

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📉 Banana Bits

• Nvidia fell as much as 8% after hours Wednesday following a New York Times report alleging another relationship involving CEO Jensen Huang.

• Costco declared a record $30-per-share special dividend, totaling approximately $13.3 billion.

• Fed Governor Waller raised the possibility of a half-point December hike if inflation remains elevated, while the two-year Treasury yield surged Tuesday.

• Apple rose 2% to a record $355.63 close, lifting its market capitalization to approximately $5.2 trillion.

• CoreWeave surged 24.7% Wednesday after stronger-than-expected earnings and raised revenue guidance helped fuel a broader AI-stock rebound.

Market News

The Bond Market Took the Day Off, So Stocks Threw a Party

On Tuesday, Wall Street looked ready for another rough stretch. Inflation came in hotter than expected, a Fed governor raised the possibility of a half-point rate hike, and the 10-year Treasury yield briefly punched through 5%. Then Wednesday rolled around, the bond market shut down for Veterans Day, and stocks staged a comeback. The Nasdaq ripped 1.60% to 25,466.19 and the S&P 500 climbed 1.31% to 7,619.38, while the Dow tacked on a quieter 254.60 points (0.49%) to settle at 52,486.49.

CoreWeave helped spark the rally. Ahead of Tuesday night's earnings, the AI cloud provider had lost roughly 40% of its value over the past month, while its borrowing costs remained elevated, with one of its most actively traded bonds yielding around 15%. Then the company reported $3.66 billion in quarterly revenue (up 168%), raised its full-year outlook, and said it expects roughly $9 billion in customer prepayments and deposits over the next three months. Management also projected adjusted profitability in the first half of 2028. Those commitments offer another source of funding for its massive data-center expansion, easing some financing concerns. Shares skyrocketed 24.71%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged 5.7%, with every component finishing higher. Memory stocks led the charge, as Sandisk jumped 13.69% and Micron gained 11.89%. Even Oracle, which has faced questions about its own massive data-center spending, climbed 8.8%.

Nvidia also caught a bid during regular trading despite a downgrade from Baird, which cut its rating to neutral and slashed its price target from $500 to $200. The firm cited uncertainty surrounding CEO Jensen Huang's future, potential restrictions on chip sales to China, and concerns about slowing AI spending. Shares still gained 2.87% to close at $173.73, their first positive session in three days. But the recovery didn't last long. After the closing bell, a Wall Street Journal report that Nvidia's board was considering Huang's future sent shares down as much as 8% after hours.

Not everything joined the rally. Airbnb fell 3.09% as OpenAI's acquisition of an AI travel startup renewed concerns about competition in online bookings. Microsoft dropped 2.26% as Anthropic's new workplace tools, including an Excel rival, raised questions about competition in traditional software. Meanwhile, the dollar climbed to a 19-month high as rate-hike expectations strengthened, while gold slipped below $4,000 an ounce.

Now comes another test, because the bond market is back at its desk this morning. The 10-year Treasury yield last closed near 4.98%, and the government has a $25 billion 30-year bond auction scheduled for today. Several Fed officials are also due to speak. Meanwhile, interest-rate futures are pricing in a December hike, with roughly a 10% chance of a larger 50-basis-point move.

Peel Take: Wednesday's rally brought some much-needed relief to the AI trade, but look at what actually worked. Some of the biggest winners were the same names that had been hit hardest over the past month. CoreWeave's earnings helped restore confidence, and semiconductor stocks followed. The question now is whether that momentum can hold as Treasury trading resumes and investors get another look at borrowing costs.

💼 Career Watch

Jefferies has opened applications for its 2028 Investment Banking Summer Analyst program, with opportunities across several New York teams. If you're graduating in 2029, now is a good time to start preparing your resume, technical skills, and interviews to stay ahead in the recruiting process.

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What's Ripe

CoreWeave ($CRWV) 24.71% 

• Shares surged 24.71% to $60.77, their biggest one-day gain in at least a year, after third-quarter revenue jumped 168% to $3.66 billion, beating Wall Street's $3.55 billion estimate.

• The bigger story was financing. CoreWeave expects roughly $9 billion in customer prepayments and deposits over the next three months and projects needing less than $5 billion in additional parent-level capital through 2027.

• Peel Take: CoreWeave delivered impressive revenue growth, but the costs of scaling remain enormous. The company posted a $709 million quarterly net loss and $846 million in net interest expense, equivalent to roughly 23% of revenue. It's also planning $37 billion to $39 billion in capital spending this year against expected revenue of $13 billion to $13.3 billion. Customer prepayments provide another way to fund expansion and could ease immediate financing concerns, although the business remains highly capital-intensive.

Sandisk ($SNDK) 13.69% 

• Memory and storage stocks led Wednesday's semiconductor rebound, with Sandisk gaining $117.70 per share to close at $977.69. Micron jumped 11.89%, while Seagate climbed roughly 10%.

• Morgan Stanley highlighted improving risk-reward across memory stocks following their sharp pullback, naming Sandisk and Micron among its preferred opportunities as AI infrastructure demand remains strong.

• Peel Take: Even after Wednesday's rally, Sandisk remains roughly 58% below its $2,354.39 high. The company also has an 8-for-1 stock split scheduled, with additional shares distributed November 19 and split-adjusted trading beginning November 20. At roughly 8x trailing earnings, the valuation looks low, although memory stocks can appear cheapest when profits are near cyclical highs.

What's Rotten

Airbnb ($ABNB) 3.09%

• Shares fell 3.09% to $181.13, marking a second consecutive decline, as OpenAI's acquisition of AI travel startup Odessia raised fresh concerns about competition in online travel bookings.

• Founded by former Sonder co-founder Francis Davidson, Odessia raised $6 million and developed an AI travel agent before its standalone product was discontinued. Davidson is joining OpenAI, although financial terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed.

• Peel Take: Airbnb has lost roughly $5 billion in market value over two sessions as the latest AI development puts the future of travel bookings back in focus. The longer-term question is whether AI assistants could become the primary place consumers discover and book trips, changing the role of platforms like Airbnb. OpenAI hasn't announced a new travel-booking product, so the potential impact remains uncertain.

Microsoft ($MSFT) 2.26%

• Microsoft missed Wednesday's tech rally, falling 2.26% to $521.13 while the Nasdaq gained 1.6%. Following Tuesday's 2.20% decline, shares are now roughly 7% below their November 4 intraday record.

• The weakness followed Anthropic's launch of Claude Sheets and Whiteboards in beta, introducing AI-powered spreadsheet and collaboration tools that could compete with parts of Microsoft's Office business. Separate concerns over potential restrictions on Chinese-made data-center components added another issue for the company to navigate.

• Peel Take: Anthropic's latest tools introduce another potential source of competition for Microsoft's productivity software business. There's an interesting twist: Microsoft is slated to invest $1 billion in Anthropic's planned $26 billion pre-IPO placement, while Anthropic has committed to spending at least $47.2 billion on Microsoft computing through 2033. Claude Sheets is still in beta, and its ability to challenge Excel's established enterprise position remains to be seen.

🧠 Technical Trip

Interview Q&A from Evercore

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🦈 Deal Dispatch

M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions

• Anthropic set a $70–$78 IPO price range for 825 million shares, targeting an offering worth up to $64.35 billion and a $1.4 trillion valuation.

• easyJet shareholders approved Apollo's £5.7 billion takeover, with 97% of shares voted in favor. Completion is expected by March 2027.

• AI chip startup Fractile raised $720 million in a funding round valuing the company at $7 billion.

• UK regulators gave McCormick and Unilever until November 18 to address concerns over their $44.8 billion food deal or face an in-depth investigation.

• Biotech Rezera is targeting a Nasdaq debut Thursday, with plans to raise approximately $200 million through its IPO.

📊The Daily Poll

Previous Poll:

Where do you see the S&P 500 heading by year-end?

New all-time highs: 23.3% // Sideways, with more volatility: 56.7% // Another major selloff: 20.0%

Student Success Corner

Banana Brain Teaser

Previous

You have 100 coins on a table, exactly 20 showing heads. You're blindfolded and cannot distinguish heads from tails by touch. How can you divide the coins into two groups containing exactly the same number of heads?

Answer: Take any 20 coins and flip all of them. The remaining 80 form the second group.

Today

An investment has a 50% chance of gaining 80% and a 50% chance of losing 50% each year, independently. If you hold it for two years, what is the probability of finishing with more money than you started with?

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Happy Investing,
Elie, Fernanda, Nick, & Patrick

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