President Trump said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told him he didn’t know that an industry executive with whom Huang had an intimate relationship was suspected of working for Chinese intelligence. “I asked him about that, and he said he had absolutely no idea that the person in question was a spy,” Trump told reporters Monday at the White House. Trump defended Huang, calling him an “amazing guy” and an “honorable man.” The president declined to provide a detailed explanation of when he learned about the federal government’s concerns that Chinese citizen Alice Huang, then a top executive at Megaspeed International, was suspected of being a Chinese spy. Nvidia’s board said it is launching an investigation into reports that Huang has been the target of a foreign espionage effort. The Nvidia CEO confirmed in a Sunday note to staff that he had an extramarital affair and apologized for being unfaithful to his wife, to whom he has been married for more than 40 years. The company’s board said in a statement Sunday it has no reason to believe either the company’s secrets or national security were compromised and expressed confidence in the CEO’s leadership. Nvidia stock closed down 4%.

The Swiss market closed on a firm note on Monday, in line with markets across Europe, as a sharp drop in oil prices and softening bond yields helped underpin sentiment. The benchmark SMI, which edged down slightly at the start, swiftly emerged in positive territory and kept edging higher and higher as the day progressed to eventually settle with a gain of 149.65 points or 1.01% at 14,946.15, slightly off the day's high. Julius Baer rallied 3.6%. Sika climbed about 3.3%, while Roche, VAT Group and ABB moved up 2.77%, 2.67% and 2.4%, respectively. Holcim gained nearly 2%. Geberit, UBS Group, Lindt & Spruengli, Helvetia Baloise Holding, Amrize, Swiss Life Holding and Straumann Holding gained 0.9%-1.2%. Sandoz Group, Richemont, Partners Group and Zurich Insurance posted modest gains. Kuehne + Nagel dropped 2.59%. Swisscom and Swiss Re ended lower by 1.25% and 1.1%, respectively. Sonova, Lonza Group and Galderma Group shed 0.6%-0.8%.

Europe
European markets closed on a firm note on Monday as a drop in oil prices and softening bond yields helped underpin sentiment. Higher precious metals prices lifted mining stocks, and some rating upgrades contributed as well to the move up north. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended up by 1.26%. Germany's DAX climbed 1.72%, France's CAC 40 ended higher by 1.16% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 1.02%. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye all closed higher, posting sharp to moderate gains. Russia, down modestly, was the only market to end on the negative side today. In the UK market, miners led the charge. Antofagasta, Anglo American Plc and Fresnillo moved up 6.17%, 5.21% and 4.97%, respectively. Endeavour Mining climbed 4.7%, Glencore rallied 4.1% and Rio Tinto gained 2.15%. Babcock International and Rolls-Royce Holdings both ended higher by about 4.8%. Lion Finance, IAG, Prudential, BAE Systems, Airtel Africa, Melrose Industries, Standard Chartered, Polar Capital Technology Trust and Investec gained 3%-4%. Informa, Balfour Beatty, Games Workshop, Halma, HSBC Holdings, Aberdeen Group, Metlen Energy & Metals, Diploma, Barclays, IMI, Lloyds Banking Group, IMI and Smiths Group gained 2%-3%. Imperial Brands, Haleon, Whitbread, British American Tobacco, Relx, BT Group, Smith & Nephew, Pearson, Experian and Croda International ended notably lower. In the German market, Infineon moved up nearly 6%. Siemens Energy gained 5.1%. Commerzbank jumped 4% thanks to UniCredit raising the stock's target. Rheinmetall gained 3.75%, rebounding strongly from recent weakness. Heidelberg Materials, Daimler Truck Holding, Continental, Gea Group, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, MTU Aero Engines, Vonovia, RWE, Adidas, Bayer, Allianz and Deutsche Post gained 1%-3.6%. In the French market, STMicroElectronics climbed 5.6%. Airbus moved up 4.7% after launching a multi-year share buyback program of up to €5 billion through July 2029.

United States
U.S. stocks surged as investors regained confidence that the midterm election results will be positive for the economy following a sharp selloff last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1104.02 points, or 2.15%, to 52389.75. The S&P 500 gained 173.08 points, or 2.35%, to 7549.94. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 673.71 points, or 2.74%, to 25253.14. Investors' positivity Monday was enough to withstand bad news for tech heavyweight Nvidia. Nvidia shares dropped 4.3% to $178.67 after the company said it was investigating whether Chief Executive Jensen Huang was the target of a Chinese spy operation. The probe stems from the chief executive's romantic relationship with an executive suspected of working for Chinese intelligence. However, Nvidia's troubles didn't drag down peer artificial intelligence and software stocks. Nvidia was the only stock to move lower in the PHLX Semiconductor Index. All the other Magnificent 7 stocks closed higher. Boeing said it plans to cut about 5% of workers in its core commercial business, equal to about 2,500 positions. The plane maker's plans to ramp production of its 737 Max jets hasn't been going as smoothly as planned, executives said last month. PepsiCo is also reducing its workforce. The company plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs across its food and beverage division, after weakness in its North American business. Children's Place filed for Chapter 11 after an effort by a wealthy Saudi family to turn around the business failed to keep it out of bankruptcy court. Shares closed down 42%.

Asia
East Asian stock markets continued their recovery on Tuesday, driven by the technology sector. Gains were particularly strong in Japan and South Korea. The South Korean stock market had turned negative in late trading the previous day and is therefore likely to have some catching up to do.

Bonds
The yield on the two-year U.S. Treasury rose 0.025 percentage point to 4.545%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 0.004 percentage point to 4.863%, while the yield on the 30-year bond declined 0.004 percentage point to 5.255%.

Analysis
JPMorgan cuts Auto1 target to EUR 29 (34) – Overweight
Bank of America cuts IAG target to 540 (550) GBp – Buy
Bank of America cuts Rolls-Royce target to 1,625 (1,850) GBp – Buy

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