Futures Sit Flat Ahead of CPI as Nvidia Slips 4% on Huang Spy Drama

U.S. stock futures hugged the flatline Monday night, with traders parked ahead of Tuesday's October consumer price index report. S&P 500 futures edged slightly higher and Nasdaq-100 futures added 0.1%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures barely budged.

The calm follows a big Monday session on Wall Street. The Dow climbed 1,104 points, or 2.2%, the S&P 500 jumped about 2.4% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.7%, a bounce back from a rough week when traders fretted about a slowdown in data center buildouts after Democrats racked up major midterm election wins.

Nvidia skipped the party. The chipmaker's shares dropped 4% after CEO Jensen Huang admitted Sunday to an affair with a woman U.S. intelligence officials say is a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, according to The New York Times. Nvidia's board has opened an independent internal investigation, citing reporting that Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.

Oil lent the market a hand, too: U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures settled down more than 4%, and Brent crude slid more than 5%. Now all eyes turn to Tuesday's CPI print, where economists polled by Dow Jones expect headline inflation of 0.3% and core inflation of 0.2% for the month. That would cool off September, when headline CPI ran at 0.6% and core at 0.3%.

Natixis CIB Americas chief U.S. economist Christopher Hodge credits shelter costs for the expected deceleration. He pointed to a reversion in owners' equivalent rents and lodging away from home, adding that stabilizing diesel prices should ease pressure on energy-intensive goods. One wrinkle: the government shutdown in 2025 left the Bureau of Labor Statistics unable to collect some data, so no annual figures will be published with Tuesday's report.