What began as a calm trading session across global financial centers on Thursday, November 12, 2026, swiftly unraveled into a sweeping technology sell-off after explosive corporate news from the United States rattled investor confidence. On Dalal Street in Mumbai, Indian benchmark indices had initially shaken off sluggish morning cues to climb toward intraday peaks, mirroring early stability overseas. However, a sharp downturn triggered by reports surrounding American semiconductor leader Nvidia rippled across time zones, erasing roughly $1.7 trillion—or nearly ₹159.8 lakh crore—in global equity market value. As Nvidia shares tumbled more than 8 percent in extended US trading, Wall Street index futures turned negative, major Asian technology benchmarks retreated, and Indian IT stocks came under heavy selling pressure. By afternoon trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Nifty IT index had fallen roughly 2 percent and the benchmark Nifty 50 slipped nearly 240 to 250 points from its intraday high, though resilient domestic banking counters helped cushion the broader Indian market from deeper losses.

Wall Street Shockwaves: Nvidia CEO Ouster Buzz Triggers $1.7 Trillion Wipeout

The immediate catalyst behind Thursday’s global market jitters was an intensifying leadership and governance crisis at Nvidia, the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence chipmaker. Investor anxiety mounted over the past several sessions amid growing debate over whether massive corporate capital expenditures on AI data centers are generating sustainable financial returns. That unease turned into an aggressive sell-off after The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s board of directors is preparing to consider removing co-founder and longtime Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang amid personal conduct controversies and federal scrutiny over AI chip shipments to China. Following the report, Nvidia shares plunged more than 8 percent in after-hours US trading, while Bloomberg reported that directors had engaged an external executive search firm to evaluate potential replacements.

Because Nvidia sits at the center of global artificial intelligence infrastructure spending, its sharp reversal reverberated immediately across US equity derivatives. Ahead of regular Thursday trading in New York, Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 0.97 percent and S&P 500 futures declined 0.37 percent, reflecting heavy technology weightings within benchmark indices. Even as rival chipmakers such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Broadcom edged higher in extended deals on speculation of potential market-share shifts, institutional fund managers began reassessing stretched valuations across the entire generative AI ecosystem.

Asian Markets Slide as Samsung and SK Hynix Feel the Heat

The wave of technology risk aversion spilled rapidly onto Asia-Pacific trading floors on Thursday morning, dragging regional equity benchmarks into the red. In Tokyo, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index retreated 0.82 percent as semiconductor equipment makers and technology conglomerates tracked overnight Nasdaq futures lower. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi suffered an even steeper decline of 1.26 percent, weighed down by sharp losses in domestic memory and chipmaking heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix—both critical supply-chain partners providing high-bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia.

Selling pressure extended across Greater China and Oceania as regional portfolio managers trimmed exposure to export-oriented technology and growth equities. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.82 percent during the session, while mainland China’s CSI 300 Index dipped 0.19 percent amid lingering caution over global semiconductor trade friction. In Sydney, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed marginally lower by 0.07 percent, underscoring a cautious mood across Pacific financial hubs as traders awaited clearer signals from Wall Street’s regular opening bell.

Dalal Street Reaction: Indian IT Stocks Drop 2% While Banks Hold Firm

In India, the global tech tremor translated into sharp intraday volatility across Mumbai’s Dalal Street and major technology hubs including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi-NCR. After climbing to an intraday high of 25,384.80 during early morning deals, the NSE Nifty 50 surrendered its gains and slipped roughly 240 to 250 points toward the 25,142.95 zone as afternoon selling intensified. Analysts noted that an intraday retreat of 240 points from peak levels highlights rapid profit-booking at higher resistance zones rather than a structural breakdown, yet the sectoral divergence on the NSE was unmistakable.

The Nifty IT index tumbled nearly 2 percent as institutional and retail investors offloaded frontline software exporters, worried that turmoil in US AI leadership and tighter corporate technology budgets could delay discretionary client spending in North America. Despite the drag from information technology counters, India’s broader equity market avoided a steeper slide thanks to steady buying in domestic banking and financial stocks. Strong balance-sheet fundamentals and resilient domestic credit demand kept Bank Nifty supported, providing a vital counterbalance for investors in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow navigating global cross-currents.

Macro Warnings: Wells Fargo and BofA Flag Inflation, Rates, and AI Regulation

Beyond single-stock headlines surrounding Nvidia, senior Wall Street strategists warned that macroeconomic and regulatory headwinds are converging to test equity valuations worldwide. Sameer Samana, Head of Global Equities and Real Assets at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, cautioned that while investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence remains strong, downside risks across global markets have increased markedly. Samana pointed to stubborn inflation readings, the renewed possibility of further interest rate increases by the US Federal Reserve, and upward pressure on long-term bond yields as key vulnerabilities capable of compressing high-multiple technology stocks.

Samana also emphasized that evolving policy debates in Washington, D.C., alongside growing calls for stricter government regulations governing artificial intelligence deployment and energy-intensive data centers, represent critical operational risks that investors must monitor closely, as compliance mandates could raise operating costs for major tech firms. Reinforcing that cautionary outlook, economists at Bank of America (BofA) noted that hotter-than-expected US inflation data for October has substantially raised the likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates at its December policy meeting—with BofA warning that policymakers could opt for a half-percentage-point (50 basis point) rate increase. Together, the prospect of tighter US monetary policy and sudden leadership uncertainty at the heart of the AI boom have left global markets bracing for heightened volatility through the remainder of November.