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

Eastern Time Thursday (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 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】

At the close, the S&P 500 fell 1.23% to 6,798.40; the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.20% to 48,908.72; the Nasdaq dropped 1.59% to 22,540.59, marking the most severe three-day sell-off since April last year.

The sell-off on Wall Street was further amplified by AI software stocks, partly due to softening US labor market data. US December job openings fell to their lowest since 2020, and January layoffs hit a new high since 2009. These figures undermined 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 explosion, along with Google and Amazon’s massive guidance updates fueling investor worries, gold and silver valuations have corrected. When risks keep accumulating, markets will inevitably have an “explosion” day.

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

Bitcoin appears to be the most “innocent” victim in this sell-off, with a single-day plunge of 12%, dropping to about $64,000, nearly 50% below last October’s high, marking the most intense 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 most oversold assets in history. Analysis suggests 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 think investors are shifting toward more defensive strategies. The entire market’s fear and uncertainty are evident. The recent pullback reflects concerns that the hottest stocks and assets like gold have risen too quickly and should undergo a “clearing.” This is a reset. Momentum may have been overextended.

【US Treasury Bonds】

As risk aversion intensifies, US Treasury yields decline. The benchmark 10-year yield closed at 4.17%, and the 2-year yield sensitive to Fed policy stood at 3.455%.

【Popular US Stocks】

Among popular stocks, Nvidia fell 1.37%, Apple down 0.21%, Google Class C down 0.60%, Class A down 0.54%, Microsoft dropped 4.95%, Amazon declined 4.42%, TSMC rose 1.40%, Meta increased 0.18%, Tesla fell 2.17%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) down 3.84%, Intel declined 0.74%.

In terms of 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 those of any other tech giant, surprising analysts.

【Global Indices】

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index in the UK declined slightly by 0.90%, closing at 10,309 points. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.29% to 8,238 points. Germany’s DAX declined 0.46% to 24,491 points.

In Asia, the Hang Seng Index rose slightly by 0.14% to 26,885 points. The China Enterprises Index increased 0.50% to 9,093 points. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.88% to 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 fell 0.08%.

【Chinese Concept Stocks】

Popular Chinese concept stocks: Tencent Holdings (HK) up 0.09%, Alibaba down 0.89%, Pinduoduo down 0.60%, NetEase down 0.91%, Baidu up 0.73%, Ctrip down 0.07%, Li Auto up 2.60%, Xpeng Motors up 0.66%, NIO up 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 US trading hours, 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 Asian trading, then stabilized, but during US hours, it extended losses, falling near $70. London silver closed nearly unchanged, at $70.453 per ounce. Early Asian trading saw further selling, breaking below $70.

Due to the US 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 settled down 3.25% at $63.02 per barrel; Brent crude declined 3.08% to $67.32 per barrel.

【Market Highlights】

Panic Spreading, Selling Pressure Triggering More Selling

Tech stock anxiety has triggered a chain sell-off, shifting market sentiment from optimism to caution regarding AI narratives. Software and chip stocks plunged, affecting global assets and creating a negative feedback loop. The core of this sentiment shift is that AI is seen as a threat to business models rather than just growth drivers, causing nearly $1 trillion 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.

US December JOLTS Job Openings Hit Five-Year Low, Well Below Expectations

December job openings fell to their lowest in over five years, significantly below expectations, with previous month data also revised downward, indicating that the US labor market is softening by the end of 2025. Other indicators in the JOLTS report show that while the US labor market is cooling, it has not collapsed.

US Challenger Job Cuts Hit 2009 High in January, Surging 205% MoM

The US employment market faced its toughest start since the financial crisis: in January, companies announced 108,435 layoffs, a 118% year-over-year increase, the highest since January 2009. Companies planned to add 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 Launch

Affected by global AI-driven 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 Faces “Confidence Crisis”

Bitcoin plummeted 12% on Thursday, hitting a 16-month low, as a global risk asset sell-off pushed this largest cryptocurrency into a new downward phase. According to Coinglass, over 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 seen after the early 2024 rebound.

Amazon Outspends Google in AI, Surprises with $20 Billion Guidance, Shares Drop Over 10% After Hours

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%. Annualized revenue from chips Trainium and Graviton exceeded $10 billion. Capital expenditure is expected to grow 50% in 2026, well above analyst expectations and 11% higher than Google’s guidance, reflecting investments in AI, chips, robotics, and low-earth orbit satellites. Q1 revenue is projected to grow up to 15%, with operating profit increasing nearly 17% or decreasing by 10%, partly due to $1 billion higher costs for low-earth orbit satellites.

Anthropic Launches Financial Research AI Model, Reuters Down Over 8.5%, FactSet Dips 10%

On Thursday, Anthropic released 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 falling over 8.5%, hitting a new low since March 2020. Concerns about AI replacing traditional software have reignited.

OpenAI Launches GPT-5.3-Codex

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

Apple Plans to Launch “Budget” MacBook with iPhone Chips, Price May Be Below $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.

Major Mining Merger Deal Falls Through

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