Nvidia lost the man whose leather jacket was most of the investment thesis, and that was still only the second most important thing on the tape. Good morning and welcome to today's market chronicle. It's Friday, November 13, 2026.
Jensen Huang resigned Thursday over reporting on his personal life, including an affair with a woman US intelligence officials considered a Chinese agent. Colette Kress is interim chief executive while remaining chief financial officer, which should bother you more than it apparently bothers anyone. Nvidia (NVDA) fell about four percent. The S&P closed down roughly a third of a percent near 7,592, the Nasdaq about the same, and the Russell 2000 dropped nearly two percent, which is where you look to find out what people actually believe. Earnings Tuesday, no permanent CEO.
And yet the index is on course for a gain of about three percent this week. Into what? The ten-year went back above five percent yesterday, up thirteen basis points in a session. Futures price a December move at a hundred percent, with roughly a one-in-eight chance it is fifty rather than twenty-five basis points, because Governor Waller said out loud he would consider the larger one if core inflation keeps printing three-tenths. Not a pause, a hike, priced at certainty, and equities rallied into it anyway. Someone here is wrong and it is not the bond market.
The part I keep turning over is gold, which made a one-year low this week, in the same week CPI ran hot. The World Gold Council's third quarter had central banks buying 321 tonnes and ETFs adding 211 tonnes to a record 4,256. Price went down anyway. Only 120 of those 321 tonnes were actually reported by the buyers, which tells you something about who is buying and how little they want you to know. In September I spent a long lunch telling a reader who wrote in that gold was his inflation hedge. It never was. It is a position on real rates, and real rates just went the other way, and I owe the man an email.
Today brings October PPI at 8:30, consensus near four-tenths after an ugly September, and Williams speaks in the afternoon. Nobody cares about either unless the print is hot, at which point everybody cares enormously for ninety minutes.
On the book, no single trade is worth your morning, which is itself worth saying. The Mosaic Mid-Horizon sleeve holds a bit over a third in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), then eight percent each in momentum, small-cap value and quality, six percent each in Israel equities, gold through the SPDR Gold MiniShares (GLDM) and developed international, and five percent each in semiconductors via the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), energy, international small value and Asia. Boring on purpose.
Levels, and my screens disagree this morning by more than I would like. Gold is near 3,890 an ounce, off the low, still down near four percent on the week. WTI around 87.45. Bitcoin about 68,500, its weakest since August after about a billion and a half of liquidations overnight. The ten-year near 5.10. S&P futures within a few points of flat, which is this market admitting it has not decided.
Nothing resolves today. It rarely does on a Friday.
Have a good one, Salomon