Europe Hits Records, US Futures Jump as CoreWeave Lifts AI Stocks

Updated 17:44 UTC: The tech rebound held into the New York session. The Nasdaq 100 tracker QQQ traded at 694.23 dollars in the Orbit Post wire snapshot, up 2.19 percent from 679.35 dollars. Reuters reported the S&P 500 up 0.76 percent and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.16 percent in morning trade, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor index up 3 percent, Micron up 6.8 percent and Marvell up 5.5 percent, as CoreWeave results kept calming fears about AI spending. Tesla rose to 393.49 dollars, up 4.08 percent from 378.05 dollars in the snapshot. Finland gave Tesla a separate lift. Reuters reported that transport authority Traficom has permitted Tesla's Assisted Driving system on Finnish roads and that Tesla can offer it to customers in Finland at once. The agency recognised the provisional approval first granted in the Netherlands, and an EU wide decision is still pending. Microsoft moved the other way, falling to 521.68 dollars, down 4.31 percent from 545.18 dollars in the snapshot and about 2.2 percent on the day. Inc. and CoinCentral reported that the slide began on Tuesday after Anthropic launched Claude Sheets and Claude Whiteboards, tools that compete with Microsoft Office, on the day Anthropic started its IPO roadshow. In Asia, Taiwan's Taiex closed up 3.62 percent at 44,257.15, a gain of 1,545.23 points and its third straight rise. TSMC, the biggest stock in the index, rose 4.81 percent to 2,395 Taiwan dollars after October revenue hit a record 586.89 billion Taiwan dollars, up 59.7 percent from a year earlier, AsiaToday reported. The dollar extended its gains on the hot inflation report and hawkish Fed talk. The euro fell 1.12 percent to 1.1096 dollars, the pound fell 1.23 percent to 1.3276 dollars, the dollar rose 1.18 percent to 159.843 yen and rose 0.91 percent to 1.4247 Canadian dollars in the snapshot. Reuters reported the dollar index near a two week high as traders priced a December rate hike. This is not financial advice. Do your own due diligence before buying or selling anything.

Updated 15:40 UTC: Bitcoin held near 73,700 dollars on Wednesday as traders weighed the hot October inflation report. Bitcoin fell to about 72,700 dollars on Tuesday, its lowest level since August, and CoinGlass counted about 723 million dollars of crypto liquidations in 24 hours, about 570 million of it from long positions. CoinDesk reported that selling from US spot bitcoin funds slowed, with outflows of 95 million dollars on Tuesday, a fourth straight day of outflows but down from 201 million on Monday, 412 million on Friday and 430 million on Thursday. Ether traded near 2,050 dollars. In India, stocks closed at fresh nine month highs. The Sensex rose 772.75 points, or 0.95 percent, to 81,879.40 and the Nifty rose 210.40 points, or 0.84 percent, to 25,255.05, with bank shares leading and Moody's raising its India growth forecast to 7 percent, The Hindu BusinessLine and CNBC TV18 reported. This is not financial advice. Do your own due diligence before buying or selling anything.

Europe opened at record levels on Wednesday and US stock futures climbed before the bell, as strong results from CoreWeave calmed fears about artificial intelligence spending and investors looked past a hot inflation report.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.66 percent to about 662 points in early trade, a record high, with technology and bank shares leading. Germany's DAX gained about 1.0 percent and also hit a record. London's FTSE 100 opened up 81.57 points, or 0.8 percent, at 10,833.16, helped by miners, with copper producer Antofagasta up 4.1 percent. The CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.7 percent.

Why Europe moved

German inflation gave the open an early lift. Final figures from the Federal Statistical Office put October inflation at 2.8 percent year on year, down from 3.3 percent in September and below forecasts of about 3.0 to 3.1 percent, as a new fuel discount eased energy prices. Oil also steadied after a two day slide. Brent crude rose 0.78 percent to about $92.20 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate gained 0.57 percent to $86.53, as traders weighed hopes of calmer shipping through the Strait of Hormuz against continued threats to tankers.

Asia close

Asia closed mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.3 percent to 61,248.59. The Shanghai Composite ended up 0.5 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.0 percent.

US pre-market

Wall Street pointed higher after closing lower on Tuesday. At 5:04 a.m. ET, S&P 500 futures rose 55.75 points, or 0.74 percent, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 465.25 points, or 1.67 percent. Dow futures inched up 15 points, or 0.03 percent.

CoreWeave drove the mood. The cloud computing firm jumped more than 10 percent in pre-market trade after it beat third quarter revenue estimates, raised its full year outlook and said it expects to become profitable on an adjusted basis in the first half of 2028. Nvidia rebounded about 4 percent before the bell after losing about $480 billion in market value over two sessions. GoPro fell more than 10 percent after it delayed its earnings release and flagged risks to a planned merger.

Why it matters

Tuesday's inflation data still hangs over the session. US consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in October from the month before, above the 0.3 percent forecast, with food and accommodation costs up. Traders now see a Federal Reserve rate hike next month as a certainty, with an 11.5 percent chance of a half point move, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The US bond market is closed on Wednesday for the Veterans Day holiday, so stocks carry the full reaction on their own. The next test is the producer price index for October, due Friday.