The Midday File — The Desk’s Report
Nvidia’s Board Accepts Mr. Huang’s Resignation, Moscow Promises Europe a Chair and Sets a New Meeting, and Spain Splits Its Decrees by One Vote Each Way
The news at midday: the week’s two silences ended, one in a three-paragraph filing that gives no reason and one in a two-hour meeting that gives a process and no numbers; the president took Iran off his vice president’s desk in a morning post and put the oil back up; Spain’s caretaker chamber split its housing decrees by a single vote in each direction; and the markets held their level while the bonds sold.
The Midday in Brief
Midday ended the week’s two waiting files and left the rest of the day’s questions standing: Nvidia announced that Mr. Huang has resigned, the Kremlin meeting ended with Europe promised a chair and a new meeting set, and the prisoner numbers that were due today have not been published. The company’s filing, in the filing account filed below, records that the board accepted Mr. Huang’s resignation on Wednesday as president, chief executive officer and director, effective immediately; Ms. Kress, the chief financial officer since 2013, is interim chief executive and keeps the finance job, Mr. Jones is the board’s first chair, and neither the filing nor the attached release gives a reason or mentions the independent investigation the board opened on November 8. In Moscow the envoys met President Putin for about two hours, in the Associated Press account filed below; Mr. Witkoff said on departure that progress was made and a new meeting set, and confirmed that European representatives would join the next talks, in the departure account filed below, and no delegation has published a prisoner figure. In Washington the president wrote in a morning post that the United States does not need a deal with Iran and directed Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on domestic matters, in the post account filed below; oil, down in the morning on the report that Mr. Vance was considering talks with Tehran, reversed and rose. In Madrid the standing deputation validated the broad housing decree by 35 votes to 34 and rejected the lease-renewal decree by one vote, in the vote account filed below. On Wall Street the indexes stood nearly level approaching midday while the Treasury market sold off, and Europe stood at a record. Alaska’s official totals posted in the night with Ms. Peltola’s margin at 3,975, still uncalled.
Nvidia at Noon: The Silence Ends in a Resignation, and the Filing Gives No Reason
The absence the overnight edition printed at its full size ended on Thursday morning in three paragraphs of filing. Nvidia’s Form 8-K, filed Thursday and read in the filing account above, records that on November 11 the board accepted the resignation of Mr. Huang as president, chief executive officer and member of the board, effective immediately. The board appointed Ms. Kress, 59, the chief financial officer since 2013, to serve as interim chief executive while it conducts a search that will consider internal and external candidates; she keeps the finance job in the meantime. The board also appointed Mr. Jones, 73, a director since 1993 and a former chief executive of Synopsys, as chair of the board, a position the company has never had before. The release attached to the filing carries the two statements of confidence the form allows: Mr. Jones said the board has full confidence in Ms. Kress and the leadership team and expects the company’s operations, customer commitments and product roadmap to continue without interruption, and Ms. Kress said she is committed to building on the foundation Mr. Huang created over the last 33 years. The company’s results stand where they stood: Tuesday, November 17, at about 1:20 p.m. Pacific, with the call at 2 p.m., now the first report the company will deliver with Ms. Kress holding both of the top jobs.
What the documents do not contain is the week. Neither the filing nor the release gives a reason for the resignation. Neither mentions the independent investigation the board announced on November 8, whether it continues now that Mr. Huang has left, or anything it has found. The verb is the file’s open seam: the company says he resigned, and the Journal’s account uses the same word against its own reporting that the board was preparing to remove him; Bloomberg’s news account said he had been ousted, in the market account filed below. The documents do not say whether he was asked to go. The allegations stand where they stood at midnight—two reported relationships, one of them with a woman American authorities are reported to have concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset, in the timeline account filed below—as allegations; no finding has been made by the board, by any committee or by any court, and no criminal charge against Mr. Huang stands in the release or in any account in the file. Mr. Huang holds about 3.61 percent of the company and is its fourth-largest investor, in the wire account filed below; the release does not say his shares are for sale.
Washington’s track is unchanged in form and changed in address. No subpoena has been issued in any account in the midday file. The three committees’ request for a closed-door briefing on November 18 was addressed to Mr. Huang personally; whether the briefing now happens, and who attends for Nvidia, is unstated in the filing account above. A second congressional paper entered the file on Wednesday: Senators Warren and Coons wrote to Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Rubio and Mr. Miller asking them to preserve documents related to Nvidia chip exports to China and to the reported intelligence matter, and requesting written confirmation by Tuesday, November 17 and a briefing, in the brief account filed below. On the sell side, Bernstein cut its price target on the shares in half on Thursday morning, from $400 to $200, in the market account above. Settled: the resignation, the interim chief, the chair, the earnings date. Open: the reason, the investigation, the search, and November 18.
Moscow at Noon: Two Hours in the Kremlin, a New Meeting Set, and the Numbers Still to Come
The meeting the overnight edition filed as the day’s first fact has been held, and its announced product is a process: the trilateral restarted, a new meeting set, and Europe promised the chair Abu Dhabi left empty. Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner went straight to the Kremlin and briefed President Putin in a meeting that lasted about two hours, in the Associated Press account above; Mr. Ushakov, Mr. Dmitriev and Mr. Medinsky sat on the Russian side, in the meeting account filed below. On departure Mr. Witkoff said, in the departure account above: “I think progress was made. I think it was made earlier today. People didn’t think that we were going to restart trilateral. We’ve restarted it. We’ve set a new meeting.” Mr. Kushner added that the discussions had been very fulsome and detailed on all the topics, and said in Moscow that the delegations had agreed on many of the principles and are still apart on some of the way to accomplish peace, in the Associated Press account above. No date or place for the new meeting stands in the midday file.
On Europe, the envoys carried the question in and carried an answer out, and the answer is printed beside the week’s contrary sentences, unjoined. Mr. Witkoff confirmed that European representatives would join the next talks—“They’re our partners, and it’s important for them to be involved”—in the departure account above. President Putin said Russia had never objected to pursuing dialogue with Europe, and said, in the same account: “You want this peace to be a durable and lasting one, and I confirm that I subscribe to that, and I’d say more. I want this peace to be eternal, for good.” Mr. Dmitriev said there is a growing consensus that working on European security is an important step. Against those sentences stand the ones the file already holds: Mr. Peskov said on Wednesday that no contacts with European representatives were planned in Abu Dhabi and none took place, and Minister Lavrov criticized the European presence there; the assessment filed below records that the Kremlin stated on November 11 that its officials currently have no vision of a negotiating format that includes European representatives, in the assessment account filed below. President Putin’s other sentences in the meeting, in the Associated Press account above, run the other way: any European troops sent to Ukraine after a ceasefire would be absolutely unacceptable and would be regarded as legitimate targets—in his words, the war would resume immediately—and Russia regards its prospective border with Ukraine as extending to the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed in 2022. The envoys fly to Dublin on Thursday evening to debrief President Zelenskyy, who is attending the European Political Community summit there.
The prisoner numbers were due today, on Mr. Kushner’s word at Abu Dhabi, and at 1200 no delegation has published a figure. President Zelenskyy said in Dublin on Wednesday that he was waiting for more information from the American team and expected Moscow to agree to the humanitarian release of up to 1,200 prisoners, in the envoys account filed below; he described a possibility to exchange 1,000 to 1,200 prisoners of war, in the Dublin account filed below. The Russian general’s figure in the assessment account above puts an exchange of 1,000 prisoners within the next two to three weeks. The ranges the week has carried—more than 1,000 a side on the Russian delegation’s figure, 1,000 or 1,500 on the president’s earlier announced plans—stand in the Cocked Hat against the new ones. Settled: the meeting, its length, the new meeting, and Europe’s promised place. Open: the numbers, the land, and the ceasefire—and now a date for the next round.
The War at Noon: One Dead in Kyiv, 123 Drones in the Air Force’s Count, and a Colonel Killed in St. Petersburg
The night’s exchange of fire, which the overnight edition filed as explosions heard in one capital and five drones counted down toward the other, carries a Kyiv toll at midday. At least one person was killed in Kyiv and several others injured in a Russian drone attack on Thursday morning, local authorities said, in the departure account above. The Ukrainian Air Force’s count of the night, in the Associated Press account above, is missiles and 123 drones launched, 73 of them jet-powered, with hits recorded at 17 locations. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 71 Ukrainian drones overnight and that its forces struck a drone-manufacturing plant in Kyiv and three other facilities producing missile fuel and drone components in the area around the capital, in the same account. The five drones downed on the road to Moscow stand where the overnight edition printed them; no account of damage in Moscow stands in the midday file.
Kyiv’s second file of the morning is a satellite service, and the desk prints it as Kyiv’s account, confirmed by no American official in the file. President Zelenskyy said on Thursday that the Starshield system—the military-grade version of the Starlink service, critical to Ukraine’s operations—had faced significant disruptions in recent days, with speed restrictions limiting Ukrainian drones to 161 kilometres per hour, and that a military investigation established the restrictions were not random errors but systematic, in the Associated Press account above and the departure account above. He said Kyiv is trying to establish all the circumstances with the American side. The account in the departure file records that the broadcaster has sought comment from the White House, the Pentagon and the company that owns the service, and that in October Mr. Musk acknowledged the company had throttled the service in Ukraine for about a week. Separately, a Russian serviceman was killed in St. Petersburg early on Thursday when his vehicle exploded, Russia’s Investigative Committee said, without identifying the victim or saying who was behind the bombing; the Fontanka outlet said the victim was a colonel and that a bomb in his car exploded as he drove off, in the Associated Press account above.
Washington at Noon: The President Takes Iran off His Vice President’s Desk
The Journal’s report that stood in the overnight file—Vice President Vance considering face-to-face talks with a senior Iranian security official, the planning preliminary, the president having empowered him—was answered on Thursday morning by the president himself, in a post that assigns the vice president elsewhere. The post, in the post account above, reads in its operative sentences: “I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S.” and “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!” Mr. Vance already leads the administration’s task force on fraud, established in March, in the reassignment account filed below; the post leaves Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner as the primary negotiators with Iran, in the Washington account filed below. Tehran’s answer is not in the midday file. Its standing sentences stand: Mr. Rezaei’s, that no negotiations are under way and not a single particle of enriched material leaves the country, and Speaker Ghalibaf’s, that an answer was sent through Qatar. Against the president’s sentence about the strait, the file’s record stands as it stood: both blockades in place, no agreement on reopening, and the count of attacks on shipping printed in the oil section below. Settled: the post, and the vice president’s assignment as the president states it. Open: whether any channel to Tehran exists, and Tehran’s reply.
Oil at Noon: Down on the Talks in the Morning, up on the President’s Post by Midday, and the Official Count Due at the Hour
Oil traded the Iran file in both directions before noon and ended the morning where the president’s post put it. The morning’s fall—Brent at $91.29, down 1.58 percent, and West Texas Intermediate at $85.30, down 1.42 percent, in the futures account filed below—was priced on the report of possible Vance talks. After the post, West Texas Intermediate reversed its earlier losses and rose more than 1 percent to around $86.40, in the post account above, and the later Journal print, in the oil account filed below, has front-month Brent up 1.2 percent at $93.85 and West Texas Intermediate up 0.8 percent at $87.18; a mid-morning market print filed below has West Texas Intermediate at $86.49, down 0.05 percent on the day. The three prints stand in the Cocked Hat. The same oil account carries the water’s count, updated: the International Maritime Organization said on Wednesday that it had verified more than 130 attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz since the war began on February 28, with at least 25 seafarers killed and others missing or injured. The bank quoted in the account maintained its year-end Brent forecast at $100 a barrel.
The official American count that the week has been waiting for was due at the hour this edition collects, and at 1200 it had not entered the file. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly petroleum report, delayed a day by the Veterans Day holiday, was scheduled for release at noon Eastern; the desk prints the expectation split the morning carried instead of a figure it does not hold. Economists expect crude inventories to decline by 0.6 million barrels in the week ended November 6, in the data account filed below. The industry institute’s estimate for the same week is a build of 9.0 million barrels, with 2.7 million barrels released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 279.5 million, gasoline stocks up 4,000 barrels on a corrected figure, distillate stocks up 1.5 million barrels, and stocks at Cushing up 182,000 barrels, in the industry account filed below. The last official figures stand at a decline of 0.9 million barrels to 409.8 million, the lowest end-of-October level since 2014. The International Energy Agency’s monthly report is scheduled for Friday. The figure itself is the evening file’s first fact.
The Markets’ Reading at Noon: The Indexes Hold, the Bonds Sell, and Europe Stands at a Record
Wall Street’s midday reading is a market that absorbed the largest company’s change of chief without giving back Wednesday. Wednesday’s closes stand confirmed: the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.5 percent, or 254.60 points, to 52,486.49, the S&P 500 up 1.3 percent to 7,619.38, and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.6 percent to 25,466.19, with the volatility index down 10.1 percent to 17.49, in the closing account filed below. Nvidia’s path through the morning ran in three prints: down 10.4 percent in the premarket at 8:59 a.m. Eastern, in the market account above; down more than 12 percent in early trading, on course to lose about $500 billion in market value, in the wire account above; and at $164.49 at 10:54 a.m., down 5.32 percent from Wednesday’s close of $173.73, having traded as low as $148.80, in the market data page filed below. The indexes at 10:56 a.m. stood nearly level: the S&P 500 down 0.02 percent at 7,617.99, the Nasdaq down 0.14 percent at 25,430.03, and the Dow up 0.16 percent at 52,570.33, with five of eleven sectors higher, energy leading up 0.97 percent, technology down 0.27 percent, and the small-company index down 1.13 percent, in the market pulse account filed below; the same account’s 10:31 print, with the S&P down 0.29 percent and the Nasdaq down 0.56 percent, stands in the Cocked Hat.
The bond market, back from its holiday, sold, and the accounts name the president’s post as the accelerant. The selloff in Treasurys accelerated in early American trade on Thursday after the president dashed hopes for an Iran peace deal, the comments causing oil to rise and supporting the prospect of further rate increases, in the Treasury account filed below: the two-year yield rose 9 basis points to 4.814 percent and the 10-year rose almost 6 basis points to 5.046 percent on the Tradeweb figures at 9:41 a.m.; the market pulse account’s prints put the 10-year at 5.07 percent at 10:31 and 5.06 percent at 10:56. December’s pricing in the Treasury account puts the quarter-point increase at 88 percent and the half-point at 12 percent, against 87.3 and 12.7 in the overnight file’s early print and 90.8 and 9.2 in its updated one. The Treasury auctions $25 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday, six Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to speak during the day, in the data account above, and Friday’s producer price report is the next inflation fact. The morning’s one economic release ran against the rate story’s labour leg: initial claims for unemployment benefits rose 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 200,000 for the week ended November 7, against a forecast of 195,000, and the number receiving benefits after an initial week fell 20,000 to 1.697 million for the week ended October 31, in the claims account filed below; claims have stayed at or below 200,000 since mid-September.
Europe’s midday was the mirror of Asia’s morning: a record, set on earnings and on rotation out of the artificial-intelligence shares. The pan-European STOXX 600 gained 0.4 percent to 665.61 by 0926 GMT, after closing at record levels in the previous session, with Germany’s DAX up 1.1 percent to a new high and the index’s companies on track for quarterly profit growth of 25 percent, the strongest in four years on the compiled data, in the Europe account filed below. A market wrap filed below puts the DAX above 27,000 for the first time; the wire’s early snapshot put it at 26,939.92, up 1.0 percent—both prints stand in the Cocked Hat. In the European midday briefing filed below, the continent’s technology sector was the worst performing while healthcare rallied, and the FTSE 100, the CAC 40 and the DAX were all gaining approaching midday, in the briefing account filed below. Britain’s economy grew 0.7 percent in the three months through September, the strongest quarterly expansion since the first quarter of 2024 and in line with the consensus forecast, and the market pricing in the Treasury account above puts a Bank of England increase of a quarter point in December at 74 percent.
Spain at Noon: One Decree Stands by One Vote, the Other Falls by One Vote
Thursday’s Spanish fact is settled, and it is the count the overnight edition published, run in both directions. The standing body of 69 caretaker deputies passed the broad housing decree by a one-vote margin, 35 to 34 on the count in the decree account filed below, and rejected the second measure, also by one vote, in the vote account above. The decree that stands—in force since October 8 and now validated—includes rent caps, a temporary ban on evictions and limits on corporate purchases of residential property, in the vote account above; the decree account’s detail adds a cap on annual increases of 2 percent through the end of 2027 and none where rent stands above the official reference index, extensions of up to two years for leases ending before the end of 2028, suspension of evictions of vulnerable households without an alternative to the end of 2030, room rentals brought under the main tenancy law, seasonal contracts of one to twelve months requiring a provable temporary reason, and a 10 percent value-added tax on tourist rentals. The rejected decree would have renewed rental contracts automatically—automatic five-year renewals for leases past their minimum term, due to start on November 15, in the decree account above. The midday accounts describe the second decree in those terms; the overnight edition described it as compensation for tenants whose owners decline to renew, and the desk prints the midday description as the file’s corrected one, the overnight edition standing unrevised as a log stands. The PNV voted with the government on the first text and against it on the second, beside the PP, Vox and Junts. Mr. Feijóo’s pledge of Wednesday, to repeal the decrees if he governs, stands. The official campaign for the November 29 election opens on Friday, and the housing deficit behind the week stands at about 750,000 homes on the central bank’s figures.
The Count at Noon: Alaska’s Official Totals Post, a Judge Rules, and Mississippi Waits for Friday
Alaska’s file acquired its official page in the night, and the official page confirms the wire’s totals the overnight edition printed. The Division of Elections’ summary report, timestamped November 11 at 5:47 p.m. and filed below, stands at Ms. Peltola 121,487 votes, 48.73 percent; Senator Sullivan 117,512, 47.13 percent; Mr. Daniel Sullivan 4,100, 1.64 percent; Mr. Heikes 5,426, 2.18 percent; and 800 write-ins, on 249,325 votes in the race and all 401 precincts reported, in the official report filed below. The margin on those totals is 3,975. A decision-desk snapshot at 12:14 a.m. Eastern puts the same race at 121,489 to 117,513, a margin of 3,976 with 82 percent of the expected vote reported, in the snapshot account filed below; the two-vote difference stands in the Cocked Hat. On Wednesday a Superior Court judge denied the Peltola campaign’s request for a list of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, calling the request not reasonable at the height of the count, in the ruling account filed below. The calendar stands: ballots mailed from inside the United States must arrive by Friday, November 13, overseas ballots may arrive through November 18, the next count is expected Friday, the ranked-choice tabulation runs November 18, and the target certification date is November 25. Mississippi’s file did not move at midday: counties certify by Friday and the state on December 3. The Democratic caucus stands at 55, and Alaska decides 55 or 56.
Jerusalem at Noon: The Committees Are Approved
Jerusalem’s midday addition is the approval of the names the week announced. The Knesset Arrangements Committee approved Mr. Liberman and Ms. Avishar Ben-Horin to lead the defense and finance panels, in the live account filed below, whose headline records the vote as a Knesset defeat for Mr. Netanyahu and a taking of control of the key committees by Mr. Eisenkot’s bloc. Mr. Folkman chairs the Arrangements Committee itself. The speaker vote stands for Tuesday, November 17, with Mr. Kahana the bloc’s candidate on the 67 signatures and the Arab lists’ announced votes; Mr. Eisenkot’s mandate runs to December 6, with a two-week extension available; Mr. Netanyahu remains prime minister and the government unformed. Settled: the committees. Open: the government.
The Rest of the File: Two Surgeons in Kraków, an Unnamed Threat, and Tuesday’s Absences Argued over
In Kraków, the midday file’s one new item is a pair of names from the square itself: two surgeons lunching near the Main Market Square treated victims in the street, and Professor Pędziwiatr said his colleague, Dr. Wierdak, undoubtedly saved the life of a gravely injured police officer by stemming the bleeding with his hand until an ambulance arrived, in the surgeons account filed below, which names the two officers shot while subduing the attacker as senior constables Kulik and Morański and records that six Dublin Civil Defence volunteers also assisted. No forensic opinion on the nine victims has been published; the detailed opinions may take weeks, and the prosecutors’ two sentences stand unjoined. At RAF Mildenhall no official has named the threat on any day of the file; a Thursday analysis filed in the morning’s searches adds the trackers’ detail that ten tankers were counted leaving on Monday, inside the range the midnight edition printed. In Washington, the eight articles against Secretary Hegseth rest in the Judiciary Committee, and the week’s running argument is about Tuesday’s absences: Ms. Strickland missed the referral vote by one minute, held behind a motorcade, and Ms. Stansbury reached the chamber just after the gavel fell, in the absence account filed below. The desk fills none of the space where those findings will go.
The Cocked Hat
Three bearings never give a point; they give a small triangle, and this paper prints the triangle. On Nvidia’s fall, down 10.4 percent in the premarket at 8:59 a.m., down more than 12 percent in early trading, and down 5.32 percent at $164.49 at 10:54 a.m. after a low of $148.80—one stock at three hours of one morning. On the verb, resigned in the company’s filing and the Journal’s account, ousted in Bloomberg’s. On Brent, $91.29 in the morning futures print, $93.85 in the Journal’s later one, and West Texas Intermediate at $86.40, $87.18 and $86.49 in three prints across the same hours. On the S&P 500, down 0.29 percent at 10:31 and down 0.02 percent at 10:56 in the same account’s two prints. On the December half-point, 12 percent in the midday pricing against 12.7 and 9.2 in the overnight file’s two. On the prisoners, 1,000 within two to three weeks in the Russian general’s figure, up to 1,200 in President Zelenskyy’s Dublin expectation, 1,000 to 1,200 in his possibility, more than 1,000 a side in the Russian delegation’s Abu Dhabi figure and 1,000 or 1,500 in his earlier announced plans—five sizes for one exchange, and no figure published by any delegation on the day the numbers were due. On Alaska, a margin of 3,975 on the Division’s official totals against 3,976 on the decision desk’s snapshot, the two files two votes apart. On the STOXX 600, 665.38 at 0806 GMT and 665.61 at 0926 GMT; on the DAX, 26,939.92 in the wire’s early snapshot against above 27,000 for the first time in a market wrap; on Europe’s earnings growth, 25 percent on the compiled data against 28 percent on a bank’s. On Kraków’s injured, 15 in the surgeons account against 17 in another. On the claims forecast, 195,000 in the polled figure the claims account carries against 194,000 in one summary of it. Against the triangle, the midday’s single-valued facts are these: Mr. Huang has resigned and Ms. Kress is interim chief executive, and the filing gives no reason; the Kremlin meeting ran about two hours, a new meeting is set, and European representatives are promised in the next round; at least one person was killed in Kyiv; the president’s post stands, and the vice president’s assignment with it; Spain validated one decree 35 to 34 and rejected the other by one vote; initial claims stand at 200,000; Europe stands at a record; the committees in Jerusalem are approved; and the official crude figures due at noon had not entered the file at collection. The log proceeds to the evening.