Tech investors buy the dip — but debt remains a concern

Hello, this is Hui Jie writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

After a bruising week for the tech trade, investors seem to have came back into the sector, with the Nasdaq Composite rallying overnight.

The optimism is cautious, with debt concerns still a key worry for a sector that has seen record bond issuance this year.

The Nasdaq Composite rebounded more than 1% on Monday, after sliding 4.5% last week and snapping a four-week winning streak.

Intel advanced 2% after JPMorgan analysts upgraded their rating on the chipmaker. Advanced Micro Devices added 1.8%, and Micron Technology jumped about 3%.

It was not a wholesale embrace of the sector, however. Funding concerns still loom, especially over neocloud companies.

Shares of neocloud mainstay CoreWeave reversed course from earlier gains, falling 0.4%, even after receiving Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to buy from neutral.

CoreWeave shares plunged more than 25% last week — their biggest one-week drop since November 2025 — over debt concerns.

Another company that is also facing credit stress is Oracle. It risks a credit rating downgrade that could tip its debt into junk territory. Oracle’s rating at S&P Credit Ratings is BBB-, the lowest level in the investment-grade spectrum.

While the bonds are still investment grade, the shift in sentiment can be seen in the spread of Oracle’s five-year credit default swaps, which are insurance against default.

Oracle’s five-year CDS spread, or premium, is currently at 295 basis points, after briefly hitting 300 basis points on Thursday. It is up 287% in one year.

The range is more in line with BB and B credit, which is high yield, said Gavan Nolan, executive director of fixed income pricing at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

On the geopolitical front, the tensions between Washington and Kyiv continue to rise with President Donald Trump saying Monday he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss how to end the Ukraine war.

That comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that Putin in an Oct. 9 phone call with Trump had floated the idea of a trilateral summit with Xi next month, although the meeting is envisioned to exclude Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody’s there or not,” Trump told reporters when asked about the potential meeting as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in Kansas.

Trump also doubled down on his criticism of the Ukrainian leader when he was asked about Zelenskyy’s remarks that Trump is on the wrong…