Morning Bid: Anthropic IPO: Please try again

Nov 10 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Ankur Banerjee

A drop in oil prices has helped perk up risk appetite, sending stocks higher as investors shrug off the controversy around AI bellwether Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang, although a botched IPO filing from Anthropic may soon sour the mood.

Details of Anthropic’s blockbuster IPO, including plans by the AI company to raise nearly $70 billion, were briefly circulated to banks before being retracted late on Monday, according to emails seen by Reuters. Markets have so far taken the news in stride with little impact on broader markets.

A successful IPO for Claude-owner Anthropic is seen as critical for an AI boom already rattled by the Democrats’ sweeping victory in the US midterm elections that has fed concerns that new regulations could dent the durability of the debt-fuelled AI trade.

Anthropic is expected to formally launch the roadshow later on Tuesday, with pricing expected in the following week.

US President Donald Trump said the FBI was looking into Nvidia CEO Huang’s affair with a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing. Shares of the world’s second-most-valued company closed down 4% on Monday after its board launched an internal investigation into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign intelligence effort.

The rest of the market, though, took cues from sliding oil prices as Trump indicated he may not attack Iran "at this point". Asian stocks are set for their biggest two-day surge in three months after a brutal rout last week, while Brent crude futures loitered near 10-week lows and were last down 1% at $91.45 a barrel. [O/R]

Beyond the AI world, investor attention will be on US inflation data later in the day, which is likely to show inflation remaining stubbornly high, leaving the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates next month. The CPI likely increased 0.3% last month after accelerating by 0.6% in September, a Reuters survey of economists predicted.

Traders are pricing in an 84% chance of a rate hike next month versus 74% a week earlier, the CME FedWatch tool showed, after a blowout October jobs report on Friday.

Key developments that could influence markets on Tuesday:

- Earnings from Vodafone, French unemployment rate for Q3, US inflation

(By Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Saad Sayeed)