Wall Street sell-off spreads, US stocks fall over 1% across the board, silver plunges nearly 20%, Bitcoin experiences a "bloodbath"

On Thursday, Eastern Time (February 5), risk aversion sentiment suddenly surged, and Wall Street’s AI panic began to spread. The U.S. stock market shifted from rotation to a broad decline, with all three major indices falling over 1%, and the Nasdaq dropping for three consecutive days. Precious metals experienced another sharp correction, with spot silver plunging nearly 20%, and Bitcoin being “bloodwashed,” soaring past $60,000. The hottest trading frenzy on Wall Street recently has all faded.

【US Stock Indices】

The sell-off on Wall Street was further amplified by AI software stocks, partly due to a softening U.S. labor market. U.S. December job openings fell to their lowest since 2020, and January layoffs hit a new high since 2009. These data weaken the foundation of the “economic resilience trade,” forcing markets to reassess the sustainability of corporate earnings and investment spending.

But this more resembles a “perfect storm” of a retreat from previously hot trades, with all bad news converging.

From last Friday’s hawkish Federal Reserve chair nomination to this week’s AI replacement panic outbreak, along with Google and Amazon’s massive guidance increases fueling investor worries, gold and silver valuations have corrected. When risks keep accumulating, markets will inevitably “explode” one day.

The software sector on Wall Street has experienced eight consecutive days of selling. UBS analyst Aaron Nordvik warned, “The sector is facing an existential threat that cannot be resolved.”

Bitcoin seems to be the most “innocent” victim of this sell-off, with a single-day drop of 12%, falling to about $64,000, nearly 50% below its October high, marking the most severe decline since the FTX incident. Over 300,000 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours. This decline has shifted from emotional adjustment to a typical deleveraging process, placing Bitcoin among the third-highest levels of oversold in history. Analysts believe that based on the Bitcoin-to-gold price ratio, Bitcoin has fallen near its support level.

Regarding the sharp correction in precious metals, analysts believe that after the previous crazy rally and last Friday’s epic plunge, liquidity crises and position adjustments within the metals market are still ongoing. Market panic has even overwhelmed traditional safe-haven logic.

For the recent overall market weakness and even free-fall-like crashes, some analysts suggest investors are shifting toward more defensive strategies. The fear and uncertainty across the entire market are evident. The recent pullback reflects concerns that the hottest stocks and assets like gold have risen too quickly and should undergo a “clearing” process. This is a reset. Momentum may have been overused.

【US Treasury Bonds】

As risk aversion intensifies, U.S. Treasury yields declined. The benchmark 10-year yield closed at 4.17%, and the 2-year yield sensitive to Federal Reserve policy was at 3.455%.

【Popular US Stocks】

Among popular stocks, Nvidia fell 1.37%, Apple fell 0.21%, Google C fell 0.60%, Google A fell 0.54%, Microsoft dropped 4.95%, Amazon declined 4.42%, TSMC rose 1.40%, Meta increased 0.18%, Tesla fell 2.17%, Super Micro Semiconductor dropped 3.84%, and Intel declined 0.74%.

In important news, Thursday’s latest reports indicate that due to limited available memory supplies, Nvidia management decided at the end of last year to delay the launch of the RTX 50 series Super graphics cards scheduled for CES in January, prioritizing AI chip production.

Amazon’s Q4 sales growth exceeded Wall Street expectations, and its aggressive AI investment plans this year surpass any other tech giant, surprising analysts.

【Global Indices】

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index in the UK slightly declined 0.90%, closing at 10,309 points. France’s CAC40 index fell 0.29%, closing at 8,238 points. Germany’s DAX index declined 0.46%, ending at 24,491 points.

In Asia, the Hang Seng Index rose slightly by 0.14%, closing at 26,885 points. The China Enterprises Index increased 0.50%, ending at 9,093 points. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.88%, closing at 53,818 points.

【China Indices】

On February 5, overnight, the Hang Seng Tech Index futures rose 0.76%, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index increased 0.90%, and the FTSE China A50 Index declined 0.08%.

【Chinese Concept Stocks】

In popular Chinese concept stocks, Tencent Holdings (HK) rose 0.09%, Alibaba fell 0.89%, Pinduoduo declined 0.60%, NetEase dropped 0.91%, Baidu increased 0.73%, Ctrip fell 0.07%, Li Auto rose 2.60%, Xpeng Motors increased 0.66%, and NIO surged 6.08%.

【Forex and Commodities】

On Thursday, the US dollar index remained steady, briefly approaching the 98 level, hitting a two-week high, and ultimately closed up 0.21% at 97.824.

Precious metals suffered heavy losses. Gold opened with a rapid decline, briefly falling below $4,800, then rebounded over $100, but during the US trading session, gold continued to fluctuate downward, breaking below $4,800 again. London gold closed down 4.66%, at $4,775.78 per ounce. Spot silver plunged $10 during the Asian session, then stabilized, but during the US session, it extended losses, falling near $70. London silver closed nearly unchanged, at $70.453 per ounce. Early in the Asian market, further selling pushed silver below $70.

Due to the U.S. and Iran agreeing to hold talks in Oman on Friday, market concerns over Iran’s oil supply eased, and crude oil prices fell over 2%. WTI crude oscillated downward, ending down 3.25% at $63.02 per barrel; Brent crude declined 3.08%, closing at $67.32 per barrel.

【Market Highlights】

Panic spreading, selling pressure triggering more selling

The anxiety in tech stocks has triggered a chain of sell-offs, shifting market sentiment from optimism to caution regarding AI narratives. Software and chip stocks have plummeted, affecting global assets and creating a negative feedback loop. The core of this sentiment shift is that AI is viewed as a threat to business models rather than just a growth driver, causing nearly one trillion dollars in market value to evaporate from the software sector in a week. Meanwhile, Alphabet doubled its capital expenditure plan to about $180 billion, intensifying concerns over whether high investments will pay off.

U.S. December JOLTS job openings hit five-year low, well below expectations

U.S. job openings in December fell to their lowest in over five years, significantly below expectations, and the previous month’s data was revised downward, indicating that the U.S. labor market is softening toward the end of 2025. Other indicators in the JOLTS report show that while the U.S. labor market is cooling, it has not collapsed.

U.S. Challenger layoffs in January hit a new high since 2009, surging 205% month-over-month

The U.S. employment market experienced its most severe start since the financial crisis: in January, companies announced 108,435 layoffs, a 118% increase year-over-year, the highest since January 2009. Companies announced only 5,306 new jobs, the lowest January since the agency began tracking such data in 2009.

Due to storage chip shortages, Nvidia delays new gaming chip release

Affected by the global AI boom and resulting storage chip shortages, Nvidia announced it will delay the release of new gaming graphics cards, marking the first time in nearly 30 years it will not launch new gaming chips in a year. The company has prioritized scarce storage chip capacity for more profitable AI business, significantly reducing gaming GPU production.

Bitcoin plunges 12% to $63,000, over 400,000 liquidated! Market falls into “confidence crisis”

Bitcoin tumbled 12% on Thursday, hitting a 16-month low, as a global risk asset sell-off pushed this largest cryptocurrency into a new downtrend. According to Coinglass, in the past 24 hours, liquidations of long positions across various tokens reached $1.703 billion, with over 400,000 traders liquidated worldwide. Some market analysts believe that with the $70,000 level broken, a larger-scale sell-off could be triggered in the short term, possibly falling back to the lows after the early 2024 rebound.

Amazon outspends Google in AI, with 2023 guidance exceeding $200 billion, after-hours plunge over 10%

Amazon’s Q4 revenue increased 14% year-over-year, with AWS cloud revenue surpassing expectations with a 24% increase, the highest in over three years. Free cash flow shrank over 70% year-over-year, and property and equipment expenses surged nearly 59%. Revenue from chips Trainium and Graviton exceeded $10 billion annually. Capital expenditure is expected to grow 50% in 2026, nearly 40% above analyst expectations and 11% above Google’s guidance median, reflecting investments in AI, chips, robotics, and low-earth orbit satellites. Q1 revenue is forecasted to grow up to 15%, with operating profit increasing nearly 17% or decreasing by 10%, partly due to $1 billion increased costs for low-earth orbit satellites.

Anthropic releases financial research AI model, Reuters drops over 8.5%, FactSet down 10% at one point

Anthropic launched ClaudeOpus4.6, an AI model specialized in financial research, capable of quickly analyzing company data, regulatory documents, and market information, with significant upgrades in programming and multitasking. After the release, financial information service stocks plummeted, with FactSet dropping as much as 10% and Thomson Reuters over 8.5%, hitting a new low since March 2020, reigniting fears of AI replacing traditional software.

OpenAI launches GPT-5.3-Codex

Claimed to be the most powerful coding assistant to date, launched almost simultaneously with Anthropic’s flagship upgrade Claude Opus 4.6. The new model significantly outperforms in multiple benchmarks and is participating in its own training and deployment for the first time. Industry experts see this as the official start of the AI coding war centered on enterprise software development.

Apple plans to release a “budget” MacBook with iPhone chips, likely under $799

Although the “budget” MacBook will have lower memory specs, its operational smoothness may not be significantly affected, and it will support Apple Intelligence, maintaining competitiveness in entry-level products. Industry sources say Apple expects to ship 5 to 8 million units annually, accounting for about 20% to 30% of last year’s Mac sales.

Global largest mining merger collapses

The proposed merger between Rio Tinto and Glencore to form the world’s largest mining group was announced to have fallen apart on Thursday. Glencore stated that in the proposed merger offer, Rio Tinto demanded that its chairman and CEO continue to hold leadership roles in the new company, while offering a minority stake to Glencore, severely undervaluing Glencore’s intrinsic contribution to the combined entity, and not even offering a premium for control acquisition.