GLOBAL MARKETS-European stocks near record highs, dollar gains on rate hike bets

By Elizabeth Howcroft

PARIS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - European stocks held near record highs on Friday, after a week dominated by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's affair with a suspected Chinese spy, while the dollar was close to a 19-month high on the possibility of a bigger-than-expected rate hike by the Federal Reserve next month.

Huang resigned as chief executive of the American chipmaker on Thursday. His departure could have far-reaching consequences for US chip export policy and the broader AI industry and supply chain, given Huang's push to preserve access to the Chinese market and his close ties with US President Donald Trump.

The US Justice Department said it does not know whether the Chinese businesswoman at the centre of the scandal was a spy.

AI-related shares in China dropped after Huang's resignation, but indexes in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea gained overnight as traders shrugged off concerns about the scandal's impact on the global AI boom.

"Jensen Huang clearly has been a very high profile CEO and he is associated with the massive success that Nvidia has had. What we can't be sure of is the role of that one key individual to the plans at Nvidia," said Tristan Hanson, multi-asset fund manager at M&G.

"It's important news and we're going to have to watch to see how the situation develops, but the AI theme is much bigger than Jensen Huang...The AI technology boom is not about one individual.”

Europe's STOXX 600 .STOXX, which hit a record high in the previous session, was up by less than 0.1% on the day at 1015 GMT and on track for a weekly gain. London's FTSE 100 was up 0.2% .FTSE while Germany's DAX was up by less than 0.1% .GDAXI.

The MSCI World Equity Index was down by less than 0.1% .MIWD00000PUS.

Microsoft said its Outlook, Teams and Copilot were down, causing disruptions at trading firms and delays to companies publishing their results.

DOLLAR UP, TRADERS BET ON RATE HIKES

The dollar index was at 103.19, having earlier hit its highest since April 2025, as traders increased their bets that the US Federal Reserve could do a larger-than-expected 50-basis point rate hike next month. US inflation data on Tuesday showed a third consecutive month of food and accommodation getting more expensive, and remarks by some Fed officials were seen as hawkish.

Investors now see a 12% chance of a jumbo 50 bp Fed hike in December, up from zero a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

US Treasury yields rose, with the 2-year yield hitting a one-month high .

European government bond yields were up, with the German 10-year yield at 3.3668% . The euro was flat at $1.1054 .

M&G's Hanson said that more rate hikes "might look a bit hasty", as he expects some of the factors causing inflation — including the oil shock — to lessen in future.

Oil prices were headed for a second weekly decline, after a volatile week in which earlier hopes for a rapprochement in the US-Israeli war on Iran were offset by strikes on Saudi Arabian infrastructure by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and attacks on tankers shipping crude out of the Gulf.

Brent crude futures were down 0.4% at $95.45 a barrel while US crude eased 0.8% to $88.04 per barrel.

Spot gold gained 0.5% to $3,897.36 an ounce. GOL/