HAPPY MONDAY TO THE STREET
Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang admitted to an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. But Wall Street's real worry isn't the scandal. It's succession.
Huang famously has no number two, and analysts had penciled him in for another decade. If the supposed honeypot proves sticky, Nvidia could find its stock stuck in quicksand.
Nevertheless, today's biggest options trade was a $57M bet that NVDA will run back toward record highs by February. You know what they say: one man’s trashy spy thriller is another man’s treasure.
🟩 | US stocks surged today, as major indexes and the tech sector in particular bounced back sharply from last week’s slump.
📈 | One Notable Gainer: Coherent (COHR) surged as AI infrastructure names rebounded from last week's selloff.
📉 | One Notable Decliner: Nvidia was the exception to the rule, shedding some $200B in market value after its board opened an investigation into Huang.
— Brooks & The Street Sheet Team
MARKET SNAPSHOT
S&P 500 Heatmap. Credit: Unusual Whales
Market Movers
AMD, PDD, AST
📈 | Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) jumped after Oppenheimer (OPY) upgraded it to Outperform with a $600 price target.
📈 | AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) popped on a Rakuten joint venture backed by about $1B from Japan's government.
📉 | Monday.com (MNDY) dropped on weaker-than-expected Q4 and full-year revenue guidance.
Tomorrow's Trade Idea, Today
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Light Metal Heavyweight
Barclays analyst Richard Garchitorena launched coverage of Alcoa. Ironically, the analyst believes the light metal manufacturer is, in fact, Overweight.
His core claim is that lower aluminum prices are already baked into the stock. Shares trade at roughly 6x projected 2026 earnings, less than half what mining peers fetch.
Solid State, Solid Profit
Alcoa is North America's leading aluminum producer, with operations spanning bauxite mining, alumina refining, and smelting.
Aluminum has slipped about 15% from its June high to $3,100 per metric ton, but production costs near $2,500 keep the company solidly profitable.
It generated about $600M in free cash flow through the first nine months of 2026. Kindred Capital's Steve Galbraith calls the selloff excessive, citing no major earnings cuts and restrained global capacity.
Can Do
The swing factor is the $4B AliGroup purchase from South32, due to close by mid-2027. It lifts output by more than 30% but is financed mostly with debt, leaving investors in wait-and-see mode.
Garchitorena views the deal as a 2027 catalyst, with $900M in projected synergies. Jefferies (JEF) also holds a positive view of the stock, arguing the M&A activity means a simpler, better Alcoa is taking shape.
Shares currently sit near their 52-week low. Copper gets the hype. Aluminum gets the discount.
Do you own shares of Alcoa Corp (AA)?
OVERHEARD ON THE STREET
💊 | Eli Lilly's (LLY) obesity pill Foundayo eased sleep apnea in a late-stage trial, teeing up an FDA filing.
🤖 | Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 ahead of a $1T-plus IPO that could come next week.
🏠 | Home listings piled up in October, up 7.4% year over year, yet only 20% of sellers cut prices.
✈️ | Boeing (BA) will cut 5% of its commercial airplane workforce as its 737 Max production ramp lags.
🦸 | Skydance (SKYD) ousted James Gunn and Peter Safran as heads of DC Studios, naming Marvel veteran Jeremy Latcham, ahead of its earnings due today after the bell.
FRIDAY'S POLL RESULTS
Do you own shares of Adobe (ADBE)?
▇▇▇▇▇▇ 🐂 Yup, I’m holding
▇▇▇▇▇▇ 🐻 Nope, not interested
▇▇▇▇▇▇ 👀 No, but I’m interested
And, in response, you said:
🐻 Nope, not interested — “It's not looking like a pretty picture for them; and unfortunately I don't believe there's a 'special filter' to help adjust the 'image' quality.”
