NVIDIA Probe Pressures Tech as Falling Oil Lifts Small Caps

By Elena Vasquez

The Nasdaq-100 proxy fell 13% over the past month as investors weighed possible data-center restrictions and NVIDIA’s board investigation into CEO Jensen Huang, according to 24/7 Wall St.

At 7:31 a.m. ET on November 9, 2026, delayed premarket trading showed small caps taking the lead while technology lagged, according to 24/7 Wall St. Its table showed:

• S&P 500 ETF proxy: $740, up 0.65%.
• Nasdaq-100 ETF proxy: $660, up 0.53%.
• Dow ETF proxy: $517, up 0.97%, or about 1%.
• Russell 2000 ETF proxy: $277, up 1.28%.
• VIX: 28.18 at Thursday’s close, up 11.57 points.

24/7 Wall St. had no premarket reading for the Nasdaq Composite, so its table used the Nasdaq-100 proxy instead. The figures gave the session a mixed message: equity proxies were higher, but the Nasdaq-100 had fallen 13% over the past month. The source treated technology’s lagging performance as the central counterweight to the rebound.

What is driving Monday’s rebound?

24/7 Wall St. tied the early rise to falling oil prices. CNBC reported that West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures both fell sharply overnight. The latest WTI spot reading was $99.64 on November 3, already below the $110 peak from October 19.

The report said cheaper energy was giving investors some relief after last week’s AI-driven selloff. Lower oil eased inflation fears, and bond yields were falling too. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.84%, down from 5.21% in mid-October.

According to 24/7 Wall St., small caps benefit most from that mix because many carry floating-rate debt. That helps explain why the Russell 2000 proxy led every index in the morning snapshot.

In 24/7 Wall St.’s account: The combination of lower energy costs and lower yields helped smaller companies outperform, while technology remained exposed to separate company-specific and policy concerns on Monday.

For investors, the immediate stake was whether an energy-driven easing of inflation fears could keep yields and small-company financing costs lower without drawing buyers back into technology. 24/7 Wall St. put oil, rates and AI risk into the same market frame.

Why did NVIDIA keep technology under pressure?

24/7 Wall St. said last week’s technology selloff started with worries that a strong Democratic showing in the midterms could lead to tighter rules on data-center construction. The Nasdaq-100 proxy then fell 13% over the past month.

CNBC reported that NVIDIA’s board said over the weekend that it had opened an investigation into CEO Jensen Huang. 24/7 Wall St. said the probe kept technology under pressure as broader indexes tried to maintain their rebound.

For AI investors, the report placed two distinct pressures beside the earnings cycle: possible limits on data-center construction and scrutiny of NVIDIA’s chief executive through a board probe.

24/7 Wall St. treated those as separate pressures on a sector already trying to recover from last week’s selloff. The first centered on the rules governing AI infrastructure. The second centered on the governance of the company whose chips sit at the center of the market’s AI infrastructure spending chain.

Schwab’s Liz Ann Sonders said Friday that retail selling had been heavy: “Retail has not proven to be the dip buyers that they have been in the past.” Her assessment matched the report’s account of limited dip-buying support during the selloff. With the Nasdaq-100 proxy still 13% lower over the past month, that support remained important to any AI-led recovery.

Can the rally fade quickly?

24/7 Wall St. said today’s gains depend on oil, and oil depends on Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that peace talks appear stalled. The report described the market as high-fear territory with the VIX near 28.

It also said options traders were still paying for protection against large swings. That pricing matters because the rebound’s main support came from a commodity move exposed to the same geopolitical uncertainty.

With the Dow and small caps leading while technology lagged, 24/7 Wall St. said the morning looked like a rotation out of tech rather than a uniform recovery across stocks.

24/7 Wall St.’s warning was straightforward: A rally led by cheaper energy can therefore reverse if the oil path changes, while technology remains vulnerable to its own investigation and policy debate.

Stalled talks left the oil path uncertain. Investors therefore had two near-term checks before the AI earnings: whether energy prices kept falling and whether geopolitical news altered the inflation-and-yield backdrop supporting the rebound.

What economic data arrives this week?

September wholesale inventories were scheduled for release at 10 a.m. ET, according to 24/7 Wall St. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) reports today. Its results will show how producers are handling the drop in oil, according to the source.

The consumer price index arrives Tuesday, and the producer price index arrives Friday, according to the same report. Those releases follow the inventory data and Occidental Petroleum’s results, putting inflation and energy at the front of the market’s test.

Together, the releases put Monday’s inflation narrative under a near-term test, because the source linked lower oil, reduced inflation fears and falling yields to the rebound.

For investors, the sequence matters because a continued drop in energy prices would reinforce the relief behind lower yields, while a reversal would challenge the premise supporting small caps. The report’s market setup therefore depended on both the commodity move and the data that could confirm or weaken its inflation consequences.

What can AI earnings reveal?

CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) all report this week, according to 24/7 Wall St. The source said their AI earnings will show whether the technology selloff has further to go.

The report advised investors to watch for changes to capital-expenditure plans. It said every dollar of that spending goes to power, cooling and networking suppliers, extending the market impact beyond the three companies reporting.

That spending chain gives investors a wider way to read the results, because any capex change can affect power, cooling and networking suppliers beyond the three reporting companies.

24/7 Wall St. also published a free report on seven AI infrastructure names that are not chipmakers. Its focus extended the analysis from three earnings reporters to the wider group of companies receiving AI infrastructure spending.

For the broader market, the earnings would test whether corporate spending still supports the AI buildout after a month in which the Nasdaq-100 proxy lost 13%. The probe at NVIDIA added a separate question about the sector’s leadership, while the oil move shifted attention toward inflation, yields and smaller companies.

The next checkpoints are Tuesday’s consumer price index, Friday’s producer price index and the three AI earnings reports. 24/7 Wall St. framed the week around two tests: whether the oil-driven decline in inflation fears and bond yields can hold, and whether AI capex can steady technology shares.