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

The sell-off in U.S. stocks is intensifying, evolving from sector rotation to a broad market decline. On Thursday Eastern Time, the three major U.S. stock 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, Amazon’s stock plunged over 10% due to capital expenditure plans that exceeded market expectations.

International precious metals prices fell sharply, with spot gold dropping nearly 4% on Thursday and continuing 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 continued to decline in early trading on the 6th. As of the time of writing, the declines in spot gold and silver have narrowed.

In the morning, Japanese and South Korean markets opened lower and then fell sharply, with the KOSPI index in South Korea dropping over 5% at one point, and the Nikkei 225 index falling more than 1.6%. As of the time of writing, their declines have slightly narrowed, with the KOSPI down 3.79% and the Nikkei 225 down 0.73%.

All three major U.S. stock indices close lower

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

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

On the news front, the latest U.S. employment data was weak. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that job openings in December 2025 fell to their 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, stated, “It’s noteworthy that these layoffs are occurring while GDP is still growing at about 4%, accelerating the decoupling of employment and economic growth—if this trend continues, it will have profound economic, political, and social impacts.”

Most major 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 plunging 8.46%.

The AI star company Anthropic, which triggered this week’s software stock sell-off, released a new flagship model on Thursday, advancing AI capabilities in finance, 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 signs of divergence. The key judgment is whether companies can demonstrate through performance that AI is a growth driver rather than facing resistance under “displacement” pressures.

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

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

International precious metals prices fell sharply again, with spot gold dropping nearly 4% on Thursday and continuing 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 continued to decline in early trading on the 6th. As of the time of writing, 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, and market panic has even overwhelmed traditional safe-haven logic.

CME Group has increased 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

On Thursday after the U.S. stock market close, Amazon, the global leader in cloud computing, released earnings showing steady growth in core retail and better-than-expected AWS revenue in Q4, but 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 quickly 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 Q4 sales growth exceeded market expectations, and its aggressive investment in AI this year surpasses that of any other tech giant, according to market consensus.

Amazon’s revenue for Q4 2025 and its highly anticipated AWS cloud business both exceeded expectations. The company forecasted capital expenditures of about $200 billion for 2026, a 50% increase over 2025, and about 36.9% higher than Wall Street’s expected spending level of $146.1 billion. Due to the unexpectedly high spending, Amazon’s operating profit guidance for this year was about 14% below analyst expectations.

This guidance is about 11% higher than Google’s midpoint expenditure forecast of approximately $180 billion announced this Wednesday, and far exceeds Meta’s planned maximum expenditure of $135 billion for this year. For the fiscal year ending June 2026, Microsoft’s total capital expenditure is expected to be less than $100 billion.

Cloud growth was initially 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 adequate returns.

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

Zelensky: Next round of Ukraine-U.S.-Russia trilateral talks may be held in the U.S.

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

Zelensky said he is awaiting a comprehensive report from Ukraine’s delegation on the talks, “many aspects of which are not suitable for discussion over the phone.”

The Ukraine-U.S.-Russia trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi 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.