Bitcoin and Asian Stocks Brace for CPI as Nvidia Lawsuit Rattles Chips

South Korea's KOSPI charged up 4.5% in morning trading, pulling Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Singapore's Straits Times Index along for the ride. Samsung Electronics climbed 5.1% and SK Hynix jumped 6.8%, leading the chip-heavy rebound. Bitcoin, though, stayed parked below $75,000 — trading around $74,600 — with the US inflation print still hours away.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to drop October CPI at 8:30 a.m. ET on November 10. Economists expect headline inflation to rise 0.3% month-over-month, cooling from September's 0.6% gain, while core CPI — food and energy stripped out — is forecast at 0.2% versus 0.3% before. Last year's government shutdown stopped the BLS from collecting October 2025 data at all, though economists figure headline inflation would have hit 3.9% annually.

The pressure is real: traders have assigned an 84% to 85% probability to a December Fed rate hike after strong employment data, with the benchmark rate sitting at 3.75% to 4%. A hot print would harden the case for tighter policy, lifting Treasury yields and the dollar — bad news for tech names whose valuations hang on financing costs. Korea's chipmakers carry the most exposure, given Samsung and SK Hynix sit at the center of the global semiconductor supply chain.

Nvidia piled on its own trouble. Investor Mark Kistenmacher filed a proposed shareholder class action in California alleging the company and CEO Jensen Huang misled investors about Huang's relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based data center firm Megaspeed. The complaint claims the tie created reputational and national security risks shareholders should have known about. Nvidia's board had already announced an independent investigation, and the company hadn't immediately commented. Shares fell 4.3% Monday, erasing $190 billion in market cap.

For crypto, the technical line is drawn at $73,000 — a sustained break there could expose $70,000. US spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $1.28 billion in outflows last week as institutional demand faded. A soft CPI could spark a relief rally, but a real reversal needs stronger ETF inflows and better liquidity to hold.