At the start of a week full of quarterly reports and US data, international markets are volatile and nervous, dominated by the heavy fall in gold and silver which dragged Asian stock markets also fell, while futures also indicate heavy losses at the opening of the European and US stock markets. The trigger of the sale of precious items It was the news that US President Donald Trump he has appointed Kevin Warsh to the Fed leadership, which made the rise dollar and weakened investor sentiment. The entire market is also under pressure. technological sector due to concerns about high valuations. Oil goes down following the air of de-escalation between the US and Iran.
Precious metals sink: gold -8%, silver -15%
After reaching unexplored heights that no one had predicted, precious metals are reversing their trend and doing so in a decidedly abrupt way. this morning it extended its losses after having already seen the biggest collapse in the last ten years in the previous session, while thesilver sank further, reversing a record-breaking rally. The yellow metal fell as much as 8,1%, briefly dropping under $4.500 an ounce, after a rally that had brought him to almost dollars 5.600 in January. Thesilver has fallen as much as 15%, following Friday's record 26% plunge.
The extent to which the Chinese investors will purchase during the rebates will play a key role in determining the direction of the market, analysts say. Although the reference price of Shanghai continued to decline after the market opened, it continued to trade at a premium to the international price. Over the weekend, buyers flocked to the country's largest gold bullion market in Shenzhen to stock up on jewelry and bars ahead of the Lunar New Year. China's domestic markets will be closed for just over a week starting February 16 for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Trump's Pick for Warsh at the Fed
The trigger for Friday's powerful sell-off was the news that US President Donald Trump would nominate Kevin Warsh at the helm of the Fed, which he did the dollar rises This weakened sentiment among investors who had bet on Trump's willingness to let the currency weaken. Traders consider Warsh the most tenacious fighter against inflation among the final candidates, fueling expectations of a tighter monetary policy that would support the dollar and weaken dollar-denominated bullion.
With the selection of Warsh, an economist known as much for his fierce criticism of the central bank as for his views on monetary policy, the debate has abruptly shifted from short-term rates to the Fed's $6,6 trillion balance sheet and its role in markets.
If confirmed by the Senate, the former Fed chairman will succeed Jerome Powell when his term ends in May. Warsh, 55, aligned himself with Trump in 2025 by publicly advocating lower rates, going against his reputation as an inflation hawk. On Friday, the US president said he had not asked Warsh to commit to cuts.
Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Jensen Huang said the company’s proposed $100 billion investment in OpenAI “was never a commitment” and that the company would consider any funding rounds “one at a time.”
Wall Street heads for high-profile quarterly results
Another huge batch of earnings, including those of megacaps Alphabet and Amazon will test the US stock market this week after a disappointing report from heavyweight Microsoft weighed on stock indexes. Wall Street will also focus on monthly employment report in the United States, scheduled for February 6. This week, the Federal Reserve showed signs of stabilization in the labor market, as the U.S. central bank suspended its cycle of interest rate cuts.
As the stock market enters its fourth year of a bull market, investors are wary of rising valuations, especially for fast-rising names benefiting from optimism about AI profits. ecosystem, which has invested heavily in infrastructure to support artificial intelligence applications, saw its shares plummet on Thursday after its cloud business failed to impress. About a quarter of the S&P 500 index is expected to report quarterly results this week. Of the 166 S&P 500 companies that reported financial results on Friday, 76,5% reported earnings that beat analysts' expectations, nearly in line with the 78% reported in the previous four quarters, according to LSEG IBES. Fourth-quarter earnings are expected to have increased 10,9% from a year earlier, and overall S&P 500 companies are expected to have risen 10.9% from a year earlier. will increase profits by 15% in 2026, putting their financial prospects under scrutiny. Wall Street indexes all closed lower on Friday: Dow at -0,36%, S & P 500 at -0,43%, Nasdaq at -0,94%
Among other companies that will publish their results this week is the maker of weight-loss drugs Eli Lilly, thechipmaker Advanced Micro Devices and media giant Walt Disney.
Despite the decline seen at the end of the week, the benchmark S&P 500 index remained up more than 1% year-over-year, not far from its all-time highs. Early last week, the index surpassed the 7.000-point threshold for the first time, before retracing its steps.
Oracle infrastructures Waymo, the company's cloud-capable vehicle division, has said it plans to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 to develop additional capacity for its cloud infrastructure through a combination of debt and equity sales. According to people familiar with the matter, Waymo, the company's cloud-capable vehicle division, A Inc., a self-driving car company, aims to raise about $16 billion in a financing round that would value the unit at nearly $110 billion.
The U.S. government entered a partial shutdown on Saturday as it waited for the House to approve a funding deal Trump worked out with Democrats following the national uproar over the killing of a U.S. citizen by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.
Asia plunges sharply. The Kospi also collapses.
The MSCI All Country World Index, one of the broadest gauges of stock markets, fell 0,5%, while the Asian benchmark slipped by 2,3%. Kospi of South Korea, a gauge of the artificial intelligence sector, fell 4,8%, and Nasdaq 100 index futures fell more than 1,5% on concerns about high valuations. Even the Nikkei failed to maintain initial gains, when opinion polls indicated a majority victory for the LDP in the upcoming lower house elections.
La BYD Co. said sales fell 30% in January, underscoring the challenges the electric vehicle maker faces in boosting sales, just as subsidy cuts are hurting demand in China. Alibaba Alibaba announced this morning that it will invest 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to attract users to its Qwen AI app during the Lunar New Year holidays, igniting competition among China's largest tech companies. Alibaba's effort, which triples the spending previously pledged by rivals Tencent and Baidu, is expected to begin on February 6. It includes incentives for dining, drinking, entertainment, and leisure, with "large red envelopes distributed continuously," Alibaba said in a statement.
As risk sentiment worsens, Bitcoin briefly fell below $75.000. The Bloomberg Index Dollar Spot extended the gains it made on Friday. Prices of Petroleum They fell nearly 5%, heading for their steepest single-session decline in over six months, after U.S. President Donald Trump said that Iran, an OPEC member, was "seriously talking" with Washington, signaling a de-escalation. Brent crude futures fell $3,30, or 4,8%, to $66,02 a barrel by 05:28 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell $3,23, or nearly 5%, to $61,98 a barrel.
