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 sharply increased, 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 significant pullback, with spot silver plunging nearly 20%, and Bitcoin being “bloodwashed,” surging past the $60,000 mark. The hottest trading activity 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 dropped 1.20% to 48,908.72; the Nasdaq declined 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 U.S. labor market data. 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 profits and investment spending.

But this seems more like 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, along with Google and Amazon’s massive guidance increases fueling investor worries, gold and silver valuations have corrected. As risks accumulate, markets are inevitably headed for an “explosion.”

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

Bitcoin appears 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 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-highest levels of oversold conditions 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 frenzy 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.

The overall market weakness and even free-fall crashes reflect investor shifts toward more defensive strategies, with fear and uncertainty becoming evident. The recent pullback indicates concerns that the most popular stocks and assets like gold have risen too quickly and may need a “clearing out.” This is a reset. Momentum may have been overextended.

【US Bonds】

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

【Popular US Stocks】

Among popular stocks, Nvidia fell 1.37%, Apple down 0.21%, Google C down 0.60%, Google A down 0.54%, Microsoft down 4.95%, Amazon down 4.42%, TSMC up 1.40%, Meta up 0.18%, Tesla down 2.17%, Super Micro Semiconductor down 3.84%, Intel down 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 other tech giants, surprising analysts.

【Global Indices】

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index in the UK declined slightly by 0.90% to 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 declined 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 closing up 0.21% at 97.824.

Precious metals suffered heavy losses. Spot gold opened with a rapid decline, briefly falling below $4,800, then rebounded over $100, but continued to fluctuate downward during US trading hours, 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, the decline widened, falling near $70. London silver closed down nearly 1%, 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, easing concerns over Iranian oil supply, crude oil prices fell over 2%. WTI crude declined 3.25% to $63.02 per barrel; Brent crude fell 3.08% to $67.32 per barrel.

【Key Highlights】

Panic Spreading, Selling Begets More Selling

Tech stocks’ anxiety triggered a chain reaction of selling, 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 shift is that AI is now viewed as a threat to business models rather than just growth drivers, 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.

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

December job openings fell to their lowest in over five years, significantly below expectations, with previous month’s data also revised downward. This indicates that the US labor market is softening as 2025 approaches. Other indicators in the JOLTS report show that, despite cooling, the labor market has not collapsed.

US Challenger Layoffs Hit 108,000 in January, Highest Since 2009, Surge of 205% MoM

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

Nvidia Delays New Gaming Chips Due to Storage Chip Shortage

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 higher-margin AI products, significantly reducing gaming GPU output.

Bitcoin Plunges 12% to $63,000, Over 400,000 Liquidated! Market Faces “Confidence Crisis”

On Thursday, Bitcoin plummeted 12%, hitting a 16-month low, as a wave of risk asset sell-offs pushed this largest global cryptocurrency into a new downward phase. According to Coinglass, in the past 24 hours, liquidations across various tokens reached $1.703 billion, with over 400,000 traders wiped out. Some analysts believe that breaking below $70,000 could trigger larger-scale sell-offs, possibly retesting early 2024 lows.

AI Spending Surpasses Google, Amazon’s Guidance Surges to $200 Billion, After-Hours Drop Over 10%

Amazon’s Q4 revenue increased 14% YoY, 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 capital expenditures surged nearly 59%. Revenue from Trainium and Graviton chips exceeded $10 billion annually. Capital spending in 2026 is projected to grow 50%, nearly 40% above analyst estimates and 11% above Google’s median guidance, reflecting investments in AI, chips, robotics, and low-earth orbit satellites. Q1 revenue is expected to grow up to 15%, with operating profit potentially increasing nearly 17% or decreasing 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 ClaudeOpus 4.6, an AI model specialized in financial research capable of quickly analyzing corporate data, regulatory documents, and market information, with significant upgrades in programming and multitasking. Following the release, financial information service stocks plummeted, with FactSet dropping as much as 10% and Thomson Reuters over 8.5%, hitting lows not seen since March 2020. Concerns about AI replacing traditional software have intensified.

OpenAI Launches GPT-5.3-Codex

Claimed to be the most powerful coding assistant to date, it was released 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 is expected to remain unaffected, 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 20-30% of last year’s Mac sales.

Largest 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 Rio Tinto’s offer required its chairman and CEO to continue leading the new company and included its shareholding rights, severely undervaluing Glencore’s intrinsic contribution to the merged entity, and offering no premium for control acquisition.