London, 11 November 2026 — EBM Newsdesk Analysis — By Amr Shabana
On Wednesday 11 November, chip stocks rebounded sharply after CoreWeave, the Nvidia-backed AI cloud provider, reported third-quarter revenue of $3.7bn, up 168%. Its shares jumped about 17% overnight, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF rose 5.2% in early trading. The surprising detail is that the relief rally came from one of the sector’s most troubled names. CoreWeave is still down 22% this year and around 70% below its peak in June last year, yet its results were enough to pull investors back into AI stocks after weeks of selling.
For European investors, the rally comes with a warning attached. The same day, the US Federal Reserve signalled it is almost certain to raise interest rates again in December, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield back to 5%. Higher US rates strengthen the dollar and tighten financial conditions worldwide, at a time when Britain and the eurozone are far less able to cope with them.
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SubscribeAI Stocks Find Some Relief
CoreWeave’s figures, and its forecast that it will turn a profit in the first half of 2028, gave investors a reason to buy back into a sector that had been falling hard. The rally spread to Asia. South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.6%, with memory makers SK Hynix and Samsung up 5.4% and 3.6%. In Tokyo, Kioxia added 5.6% after a 9% rise the day before.
SoftBank had a rougher start. It reported a quarterly loss of about $7bn, largely because of the cost of its US AI infrastructure, and opened sharply lower before buyers stepped in. It closed down just 0.4%, a sign of how quickly sentiment has shifted since last week’s slide in SoftBank and Kioxia.
Nvidia rose about 5% before the US open, although it has still lost more than 27% in little over a month and remains under the cloud of the board’s investigation into its chief executive.
Anthropic Takes a Lower Price
Anthropic also released details of its planned listing, scaling back the offering to a valuation of around $1.4tn rather than the $2tn previously suggested. That is a big cut, but markets took it as good news. The leading AI lab chose to accept a lower price rather than delay its listing, a sign of confidence that investor demand is still there.
The Fed Turns More Hawkish
The bigger worry is interest rates. Fed governor Christopher Waller said he favoured raising rates in December and could back a half-point rise if price pressures keep building. Hours later, US consumer inflation came in hotter than expected. Other Fed officials, including Dallas Fed president Lorie Logan and Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee, warned of a real inflation problem.
Markets now see a December rise as certain, with a 13% chance of a half-point move and a near 90% chance of another rise in March, according to CME’s FedWatch tool. That follows the Fed’s first rise in three years. The dollar index climbed to about 102.2, its strongest level in nearly a month.
For Europe, this is uncomfortable. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England face their own inflation pressures, with eurozone inflation at 4%, but weaker economies. Higher global yields also add to the strain on indebted governments, as France has found to its cost now that it pays more than Italy to borrow.
Oil Steadies, Gold Holds
Oil prices stabilised after falling more than 20% since the end of October on hopes of an end to the war with Iran. Risks remain. Tehran says no peace talks are taking place and has set out seven conditions for ending the war, while ships are still being attacked around the Strait of Hormuz. Gold held above $4,000 an ounce despite the stronger dollar, and silver rose about 2.5%.
Where This Goes
One strong quarter does not settle the AI debate. CoreWeave is still far below its peak and years from profit, and Anthropic’s lower valuation shows investors are now negotiating harder. The real test for markets is not AI but interest rates. If the Fed raises rates in December and again in March, the cost of funding expensive AI projects will rise further, and the rebound may prove short-lived.
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