Global assets under pressure! US stocks, precious metals, and Japanese and Korean stock markets all decline

The sell-off in the US stock market is intensifying, evolving from sector rotation to a widespread decline. On Thursday, Eastern Time, the three major US indices all fell. By the close, the S&P 500 dropped 1.23% to 6,798.4 points; the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.59% to 22,540.59 points, marking the most severe three-day consecutive decline since April last year; the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2% to 48,908.72 points.

After hours, due to capital expenditure plans that exceeded market expectations, global cloud computing leader Amazon’s stock plunged over 10%.

International precious metals prices fell sharply. Spot gold dropped nearly 4% on Thursday and continued to decline in early trading on February 6 Beijing time; spot silver fell below $70 per ounce, with a 20.06% decline on Thursday, and also extended its decline in early trading on the 6th. As of press time, the declines in spot gold and silver have narrowed.

In the morning, the stock markets in Japan and South Korea opened lower and then plunged sharply. The KOSPI index in South Korea once fell over 5%, and the Nikkei 225 index once dropped over 1.6%. As of press time, their declines have slightly narrowed, with the KOSPI down 3.79% and the Nikkei 225 down 0.73%.

All three major US indices close lower

On Thursday, Eastern Time, the three major US indices all declined. By the close, the S&P 500 fell 1.23% to 6,798.4 points; the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.59% to 22,540.59 points, marking the most severe three-day sell-off since April last year; the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2% to 48,908.72 points.

In the previous trading days, the decline in US stocks was limited to AI and software-related sectors, but on Thursday, the sell-off expanded further.

On the news front, the latest US employment data was weak. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that job openings in December 2025 fell to the lowest level since September 2020.

Additionally, the number of layoffs announced by Challenger, Gray & Christmas hit a record high since the most severe recession in 2009. Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, said, “It’s noteworthy that these layoffs are occurring while GDP is still growing at about 4%, which has accelerated the decoupling of employment and economic growth—if this trend continues, it will have profound economic, political, and social impacts.”

Most popular tech stocks declined, with Nvidia down 1.33%, Apple down 0.21%, Google-A down 0.54%, Microsoft down 4.95%, TSMC up 1.53%, Meta up 0.18%, Tesla down 2.17%, Broadcom up 0.8%, Berkshire Hathaway-A down 0.12%, Walmart down 0.83%, and Qualcomm plummeting 8.46%.

The US AI star company Anthropic, which triggered this week’s software stock sell-off, announced a new flagship model on Thursday, advancing AI capabilities in financial research, legal, and enterprise services. Market concerns about software companies losing their “moats” grew. By the close, FaceSet fell 7.21%, hitting a new low since March 2020; Thomson Reuters dropped over 5%, reaching a new low since 2021.

HSBC China believes that although the AI era is still in its early stages, the boundaries of AI tools are continuously expanding, gradually encroaching on the market for traditional data analysis tools. The development of the software industry is uncertain and shows a trend of divergence. The key judgment is whether companies can prove through performance that AI is a growth driver rather than facing resistance under “displacement” pressure.

Chinese concept stocks defied the trend and strengthened, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rising 0.9%. By the close, Alibaba fell 0.87%, JD.com fell 0.83%, Baidu rose 0.73%, Pinduoduo fell 0.6%, Bilibili rose 1.51%, NIO rose 5.86%, NetEase fell 0.91%, Futu Holdings fell 2.21%, Li Auto rose 2.6%, Xpeng Motors rose 0.66%, Yum China rose 4.76%, Huazhu rose 5.12%, and Atour Hotels rose 5.13%. After the announcement of acquisition news, Dingdong Maicai fell 14.37% on Thursday.

Risk aversion sentiment drove US Treasury yields significantly lower. The 10-year US Treasury yield fell more than 9 basis points, the largest single-day drop since November 2025. The 2-year US Treasury yield also declined 9 basis points to 3.46%, the lowest level in nearly a month.

International precious metals prices fell sharply again. Spot gold dropped nearly 4% on Thursday and continued to decline in early trading on February 6 Beijing time; spot silver fell below $70 per ounce, with a 20.06% decline on Thursday, and extended its decline in early trading on the 6th. As of press time, the declines in spot gold and silver have narrowed.

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

CME Group raised the initial margin for its COMEX 100 gold futures from 8% to 9%, and for its COMEX 5000 silver futures from 15% to 18%.

Amazon plunges over 10% after hours

After the US stock market closed on Thursday, global cloud computing leader Amazon released its earnings report. The company’s core retail business showed steady growth, and AWS revenue exceeded expectations. However, the market did not respond positively. Amazon’s stock, which had already fallen over 4% during the day, plunged further after hours, with the decline rapidly expanding to over 10%, once dropping more than 14%.

The reason is that the company announced capital expenditures of a staggering $200 billion this year. Amazon’s sales growth in Q4 last year exceeded market expectations, and its aggressive investment in AI this year surpasses any other tech giant, surprising the market.

Amazon’s total revenue for Q4 2025 and its highly anticipated AWS cloud revenue both exceeded expectations. Amazon also forecasted capital expenditures of about $200 billion in 2026, a 50% increase over 2025, and about 36.9% higher than Wall Street’s expected expenditure level of $146.1 billion. Due to the unexpected surge in spending, Amazon’s operating profit guidance for this year is about 14% lower than analyst expectations.

This guidance is about 11% higher than Google’s midpoint expenditure forecast of approximately $1800 billion for this year, far exceeding Meta’s planned maximum expenditure of $1350 billion. For the fiscal year ending June 2026, Microsoft’s full-year capital expenditure is expected to be less than $100 billion.

Cloud growth was originally seen as a funding source for generative AI development, but with rising costs for new data centers and chips, investors are beginning to question whether such high investments can yield the expected returns.

“This sell-off highlights the internal divergence within tech stocks, as investors are eager to distinguish potential winners and losers under AI impact,” HSBC China said.

Zelensky: Next round of US-Ukraine-Russia trilateral talks may be held in the US

According to Xinhua News Agency, Ukrainian President Zelensky posted on social media on the 5th that the Ukrainian negotiating team has reported to him on the two-day trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi with the US and Russia. The next round of talks is planned to be held soon, likely in the United States.

Zelensky said he is waiting for the Ukrainian delegation to give him a comprehensive report on the talks, “many aspects are not suitable for discussion over the phone.”

The US-Ukraine-Russia trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, UAE, concluded after two days on the 5th. The talks did not make substantive progress on core issues such as territory and ceasefire, nor did they issue a joint statement on related political and security topics.