Week in review: Apple past Nvidia, Tesla SpaceX talk, and sector funds

Apple overtakes Nvidia in market value on a data-center rules bet

Breadth. 73.9% of the 870 most heavily traded U.S.-listed stocks rose this week.

The S&P 500, day by day

• Mon · Best day +2.35%
• Tue −0.38%
• Wed +1.31%
• Thu −0.35%
• Fri · Worst day −0.40%

Sectors this week

• Energy +5.42%
• Industrials +3.76%
• Communication services +3.72%
• Consumer discretionary +2.04%
• Real estate +0.84%
• Materials +0.54%

Biggest gains

• Cerebras Systems CBRS +21.23%. Cerebras raised its revenue outlook with its third-quarter results and announced a Microsoft cloud deal.

• Broadcom AVGO +18.16% (+$254.53B in market value). Traders shifted money from Nvidia toward rival chipmakers like Broadcom after Jensen Huang's exit from Nvidia.

Biggest declines

• Strategy MSTR −13.43%. Shares fell on concern that index provider MSCI could drop Strategy from its indexes, forcing fund selling.

• Nvidia NVDA −12.75% (−$573.34B in market value). Shares fell on questions over whether Nvidia's board might remove Chief Executive Jensen Huang.

• Index funds: An S&P 500 fund holds Nvidia in proportion to its size, and the Nvidia slide above was the week's largest loss in market value among large U.S.-listed companies. Even so, $100,000 in an S&P 500 fund added $2,510 on the week, though the index has edged down 0.2% for November. The question is whether gains elsewhere may keep outweighing Nvidia's losses.

• Bond fund prices move opposite to yields, and the 10-year Treasury yield surged 29 basis points this week to 5.15%. That climb pushed down the value of bonds already in your fund, with longer-dated funds typically hit hardest. The upside is that newly bought bonds now pay more, which may lift a fund's income over time. The question is whether yields hold near this level or keep climbing.

• Sector funds finished the week higher across the board: even the weakest, the materials fund, rose 0.5%. Energy led, as the energy fund surged 5.4%. On $100,000, the energy fund added $5,420, against $540 for the materials fund. For anyone holding a single sector, the question is whether that gap lasts; a one-week spread this wide may narrow as quickly as it opened.

1. 1

   Mon · BRK.B · +0.76% Berkshire Hathaway insurance profits shrink even as revenue grows. Berkshire Hathaway reported lower third-quarter operating earnings as profits from its insurance businesses fell sharply, even though revenue grew. Its Class B shares still rose 0.8% on Monday. Operating earnings leave out swings in the value of Berkshire's stock portfolio, so they show how its own businesses performed. The question is whether insurance profits recover; Berkshire's next quarterly report could show it.

2. 2

   Tue · TLT · −1.32% Long-term Treasury fund tumbles for the week after inflation surprise. October consumer prices, and core prices that strip out food and energy, rose more than forecast on Tuesday. Fed Governor Christopher Waller had said beforehand that a core reading at that level could put a larger-than-usual rate hike on the table. The long-term Treasury fund TLT slid 1.3% that day and tumbled 3.1% for the week. Bond prices fall when rates rise, and long-dated bonds move most.

3. 3

   Wed · NVDA · +2.87% Nvidia tumbles for the week on Times report board may oust Huang. Nvidia shares fell this week on questions over whether its board might remove Chief Executive Jensen Huang. Those questions follow allegations that Huang had an affair with Kimberly Powell, a vice president who reports to him. The shares tumbled 4.3% on Thursday, slid 2.0% on Friday and tumbled 12.7% for the week. The question is whether the board acts; any statement from Nvidia could settle it.

4. 4

   Wed · JNJ · −0.13% Johnson & Johnson bipolar drug clears another late-stage trial. Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday that another late-stage trial of Caplyta in bipolar disorder met its main goals. The company plans to use the data in a U.S. regulatory filing. Its shares edged down 0.1% that day but surged 3.5% for the week, helped by Monday's upbeat trial data for Icotyde, its psoriatic arthritis pill. A U.S. regulatory review could decide whether Caplyta reaches more patients.

5. 5

   Thu · TSLA · +1.69% Tesla and SpaceX merger talk lifts both stocks. Talk of a merger between SpaceX and Tesla moved both stocks on Thursday. A deal could be announced as early as December, around Tesla's Dec. 3 annual shareholder meeting, though the timing could slip into early 2027. Tesla shares jumped 1.7% that day, and SpaceX edged up 0.1%. SpaceX surged 3.6% for the week. The question is whether a deal comes at that meeting.

• Topics: Startups, Security

  OpenAI launches ChatGPT Wallet so its AI agents can pay for you

  OpenAI said ChatGPT Wallet lets its dots AI agents complete purchases without seeing users' actual card details, and that it built the wallet with American Express. That could give American Express, a common holding in financial funds, a role in AI-driven shopping.

• Topics: Models, Startups

  Anthropic adds spreadsheet and dashboard tools to its Claude assistant

  Anthropic launched Claude Sheets, Claude Whiteboards and Claude Data, which let its assistant draft spreadsheets and dashboards alongside coworkers, the company said. Tools like these could compete with listed software makers such as ServiceNow, which many tech funds hold.

1. 1. What does a company's market cap measure?

   • A. Share price times shares outstanding
   • B. The company's revenue over the past year
   • C. The cash the company holds on its balance sheet

2. 2. Why does a bigger market cap give a company more pull in a size-weighted index fund?

   • A. The fund buys equal amounts of every company
   • B. The fund holds only companies that pay dividends
   • C. The fund gives the biggest companies the largest slices

3. 3. Which upcoming economic release may show whether shoppers kept spending in October?

   • A. The monthly jobs report
   • B. October retail sales
   • C. Federal Reserve meeting minutes

4. 4. Why could the retail sales reading matter more for Apple than for Nvidia?

   • A. Apple sells more directly to shoppers than Nvidia does
   • B. Apple is about to replace its chief executive
   • C. Nvidia sells most of its products directly to shoppers

Why Apple passing Nvidia changes what your index fund holds. Market cap is share price times shares outstanding: the price tag on a whole company at today's quote. Apple jumped 2.4% on Monday and passed Nvidia by that measure this week. Size-weighted funds give the biggest companies the most pull. Apple now makes up 5.8% of the combined value of the 500 largest U.S. companies, the slice a fund spread across them by size would hold.

Market cap in the glossary

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The big picture. The week's gains were wide and its damage narrow. Of the stocks tracked, 73.9% rose for the week, and industrials surged 3.8%, while the losses gathered in Nvidia. The S&P 500 sits slightly below where November began, as noted above, yet is up 10.5% for the year. Rising rates ran beneath it all. The 10-year Treasury yield has surged 97 basis points this year. The gold fund GLD tumbled 4.6% for the week, and Bitcoin 9.1%.

Question of the week. It came in hot: October consumer and core prices rose more than forecast, hours after Fed Governor Waller said such a core reading would put a bigger rate hike on the table. Long-term bond funds took the hit: the Treasury fund TLT slid.

Tomorrow: The Week Ahead, on October retail sales, the Fed's meeting minutes and housing starts.