Nvidia (NVDA) stock went into free fall Thursday as CEO Jensen Huang stepped down, and retail investors were there to catch it. The question now is whether they bought the bottom or just the first leg down.
Huang resigned as Nvidia’s CEO after reports of two affairs, and CFO Colette Kress is stepping in as interim CEO. The stock fell as much as 14% at the open to its lowest level since June 2025, then clawed back more than half of that drop. Nvidia reports earnings Tuesday with no permanent CEO in sight.
Small investors bought a net $111 million of Nvidia stock in the first 30 minutes of trading. According to Vanda Research, that was the stock’s biggest opening on record and more than 40 times a normal start. Nvidia has soaked up 61% of all retail buying in US stocks and ETFs this week. Money also poured into leveraged funds betting on Nvidia gains, while funds betting against it drew nothing.
“This is very much a one-way flow story for retail,” Vanda wrote.
Mike Zaccardi, a CFA and CMT, called it “one of the more epic ‘buy the news’ events in history” on X.
What the chart says
The stock briefly slipped below $153, the level that capped it from late 2024 until last June. Then it snapped back on its heaviest trading in more than a year. An old ceiling turning into a floor is a classic sign that buyers are stepping in, and it gives traders a clear line in the sand. A break below Thursday’s low would undo the setup.
The stock also looks beaten down. Its readings on momentum — a gauge of how fast it’s moving — are deeply oversold on a daily chart and nearly so on a weekly one. Nvidia stock is on track for its worst month since September 2022.
“Getting close to capitulation in $NVDA,” Brian Shannon, founder of Alphatrends, posted on X. Shannon’s rule of thumb is to wait for a close back above the stock’s five-day moving average, around $175, before trusting a rebound.
What history says
At its low, Nvidia was down 38% from its October record, nearly as deep as its COVID and tariff crashes. Both of those bounced back to new records within three months. The 2018 and 2022 slides ran deeper and took seven to 14 months.
Days like Thursday have mostly paid off. Since 2010, Nvidia has had six sessions where it fell at least 10% and won back half or more of the drop by the close, and the stock was higher a year later after five of them. The exception was January 2022, the start of a much deeper slide.
Wall Street isn’t bailing either. Rosenblatt’s Kevin Cassidy kept his Buy rating, writing that “we expect employees, suppliers and customers to rally around the company.” Goldman Sachs’ James Schneider also stuck with a Buy, calling Huang’s exit a “meaningful, but measured…
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