Stocks find firmer ground but Nvidia woes pose fresh test, oil prices down

World stocks nudged up from six-month lows on Monday, recovering slightly from last week's tech-led rout, though a sharp fall in AI bellwether Nvidia ‌was already shaping up as a fresh test of sentiment.

Nvidia shares fell just over 4% in pre-market trading after an internal investigation into whether CEO ​Jensen Huang had been targeted ⁠by a foreign intelligence effort put his future at the AI chipmaker under scrutiny.

Oil prices, meanwhile, fell over 3% ‌with President Donald Trump set to meet the ‌prime minister of key mediator Qatar on Monday as efforts to end the Iran war gather pace following last week's midterm elections in the United States.

US stock futures recovered from early falls in a positive sign for the Wall Street open. European shares rallied as bank stocks rose after Credit Agricole proposed merging its Italian subsidiary with Banco ‌BPM , a move that would create Italy's third-largest bank.

The oil price fall supported sentiment, and Asian shares also rebounded as last week's hefty selloff attracted buyers.

Global ⁠stocks have been under pressure in recent weeks with the AI trade crumbling amid rising interest rates, and sweeping Democratic wins in the US midterm elections deepening worries about increased regulation of AI and data centres.

Analysts said the outlook remained cautious with the selloff in Nvidia shares the latest test of investor sentiment.

"Markets are trying to figure out what this means for arguably the world's most important company right now," said Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo.

"If Huang is forced to leave, what happens to Nvidia? As others have said, Huang is kind of irreplaceable for US leadership in AI."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ​outside Japan rose 1.25% after sliding 4.6% last week. Taiwan's benchmark rose almost 5% after notching up its steepest weekly drop in two decades last ‌week.

MSCI's World Stock Index rose 0.5%, holding above six-month lows hit last week.

Earnings reports due this week from tech companies including CoreWeave, Applied Materials and Cisco Systems are set to put the profitability of AI ambitions to the test amid the massive costs of the build-out.

CoreWeave has become a barometer of investor anxiety over AI, and ⁠the cost of insuring its debt has spiked into distressed territory recently.

"The only fundamental this week that matters is price," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone.

"You could easily see a lot of people going, 'You know what, now's the time to buy - blood on the streets. It's not as bad as everyone thinks,'" he said. "It will ​be driven by ‌flow, and fundamentals will mean very little."

Brent crude fell 3% to $95 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate tumbled almost 3% to around $88.37.

This helped ‌push down government borrowing costs in Europe and the United States. The 10-year US Treasury yield was a touch lower on the day at 4.84%.

Elevated oil prices sparked by the Iran war have weighed on economies across the globe this year.

China's factory-gate inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in more than four years while consumer inflation cooled in October, ‌reflecting persistent cost pressures ‌from higher oil prices despite weak domestic demand.

Market attention turned to US CPI numbers ⁠on Tuesday, with bets for a December Federal Reserve rate hike rising after Friday's blowout jobs report showed US employers added 165,000 jobs ‌last month.

Traders price in a roughly 80% chance of a quarter-point Fed rate hike in December. That pricing had briefly pulled back last week as the slide in tech shares raised economic growth worries.

The dollar was broadly soft after Friday's strong gains.

The dollar ⁠index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, slipped 0.4% to 101.81, having notched up its biggest one-day ​gain since June on Friday.

The euro rose almost 0.5% to $1.11, holding above its lowest level in roughly 1-1/2 years, which it hit last month.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin rose 0.7% to $74,559, after touching its lowest levels in over two months as investors fretted that a Democratic-controlled US Congress would toughen regulation ⁠on digital assets.

The pound rose against the dollar on Monday, reversing most of Friday's decline, as the concerns over AI stocks that gave the dollar a boost ‌at the end of last week eased and oil prices fell.

The somewhat ​more positive ⁠market backdrop meant demand for safe-haven assets like the dollar ‌cooled on Monday. Sterling was ‌last up just over 0.5% at $1.3421, having fallen more than 0.7% on Friday.

The pound was at 83.41 pence per euro, steady on the day and not far ‌off last week's 20-month high, hit after the Bank of England raised interest rates ⁠and hinted that additional tightening is likely unless the Iran war were to de-escalate, pushing oil prices lower.

Brent crude futures were last down 3.2% on the day at $95.16 a barrel after US President Donald Trump downplayed the likelihood of renewed strikes on Iran, though attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz kept ​supply concerns in focus.

Oil prices have eased in recent weeks as ‌markets have become more optimistic about the conflict in the Middle East being resolved, but are still far higher than before the war broke out.

Central bank policymakers and investors alike have been closely assessing the economic impact of the conflict and the energy price spike it has brought on.

British gross ​domestic product ‌data is due later this week, and a Reuters survey of economists ‌is expecting it to reflect 0.7% growth in the third quarter, which would be an uptick from the previous period.

"The UK GDP story has been one of more than ‌just resilience in 2026," ‌Deutsche Bank economists said in a ⁠note.

"Early signs of stronger productivity growth have pushed activity higher. ‌Capex growth has also lifted output, with AI spending, defence spending, and industrial policy all boosting GDP."

"Consumers have also been out in force - ⁠despite the energy shock. And businesses have remained fairly confident regardless of ​still-elevated geopolitical uncertainty."

However, the economists said that eventually "economic tailwinds will likely be met by equally strong headwinds, as the energy shock continues to squeeze ⁠household disposable incomes".

Agencies