New York, January 18, 2026, 09:32 (EST) — Market closed.
- Nvidia shares closed down 0.41% at $186.23 on Friday.
- A report said Chinese customs blocked H200 chip shipments into China, prompting parts suppliers to pause output.
- Focus shifts to Tuesday’s reopen after the holiday and Nvidia’s Feb. 25 results.
Chinese customs officials have blocked shipments of NVIDIA Corporation’s H200 artificial-intelligence processors from entering China, prompting suppliers of parts for the chip to pause production, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Reuters could not immediately verify the report and Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. Nvidia shares closed down 0.41% at $186.23 on Friday. 1
With the market shut for the weekend, the China headline hits after a choppy first stretch of 2026 that has kept investors quick to fade swings in megacap tech. The Dow fell 0.17% on Friday while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped 0.06% each, and Ameriprise strategist Anthony Saglimbene said one reason markets were “flat-lining” was the wait for more earnings. 2
Some desks are still leaning into Nvidia ahead of the next session. Wolfe Research added the chip designer to its Alpha List and named it its top AI pick for 2026, pointing to Blackwell ramping and the next “Rubin” chips staying on schedule. “Blackwell is now ramping fully, and Rubin is on time for 2H26 ramp,” analyst Chris Caso wrote, saying Nvidia’s outlook implied at least $40 billion of upside to consensus calendar-year 2026 revenue estimates; he called Google’s TPU — its in-house AI chip — the main competitive threat. 3
Nvidia is also a heavy options name, and traders just came through January’s monthly options expiration — contracts that give investors the right to buy or sell stock at set prices by a set date. Friday’s expiry could clear the way for larger swings, Brent Kochuba at SpotGamma said: “I think this options expiration will allow the S&P 500 to start moving around a bit more.” For Nvidia and Tesla, about a quarter of open contracts were set to expire, Reuters reported. 4
In the semiconductor sector, the PHLX Semiconductor Index ended Friday up 1.15% at 7,927.41, showing chips held up even as the broader market stayed rangebound. 5
But the China question is still the hinge. If the customs block turns into a formal ban — or just drags out — it could delay shipments of a chip near the top of Nvidia’s lineup and leave customers scrambling for alternatives or timing changes. Any sign the pause is temporary could cut the other way.
The calendar is tight, too. U.S. stock markets are closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and earnings pick up after that with Netflix due on Tuesday, Reuters said. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth, said “it is literally an imperative that earnings actually carry the news cycle,” as investors juggle policy noise and geopolitics. 6
For rate-sensitive growth stocks like Nvidia, the next Federal Reserve policy meeting on Jan. 27-28 is a looming macro check as traders size up the path for rates. 7
Nvidia’s next scheduled company catalyst is its fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Feb. 25. Traders will look for detail on demand for Blackwell systems, margins as supply ramps, and whether China shipments re-enter guidance. 8
