U.S. stocks fluctuate wildly, with huge intraday swings in the silver market. Microsoft plummeted 10%, losing over $350 billion in market value overnight.

US Eastern Time Thursday (January 29), US stocks showed mixed performance. In the early trading session, due to a sharp decline in Microsoft, the market briefly dipped but then the decline gradually narrowed. Concerns over Microsoft’s AI spending triggered a market sell-off, with its market capitalization evaporating by $357.4 billion overnight, and during the session, a $430 billion loss set a second-largest single-day market cap decline in US stock history. Apple’s Q4 revenue and iPhone sales both hit new highs, with revenue in Greater China surging by 40%. After-hours, the stock initially rose 2% but then gave back most of the gains. Gold and silver experienced significant volatility during the session, with silver dropping over 8% at one point, and gold retracting by up to $500 before the decline narrowed.

【US Stock Indices】

At the close, the S&P 500 fell 0.13% to 6969.01 points; the Dow Jones rose 0.11% to 49071.56 points; the Nasdaq declined 0.72% to 23685.12 points.

Microsoft’s stock price dropped over 12 intraday on Wednesday, dragging the broader market lower. Ultimately, Microsoft closed down 9.99% at $433.50, marking its largest closing decline since March 2020. The company previously disclosed a 66% year-over-year increase in data center spending, bringing its capital expenditure for the three months ending December to $37.5 billion. Microsoft also reported that cloud business growth was below market expectations, but adjusted net profit and revenue both exceeded analyst forecasts.

This sell-off occurred amid growing investor doubts about whether the massive investments by big tech companies in AI—amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars—will ultimately generate returns. Venu Krishna, Head of US Equity Strategy at Barclays, said, “With such large expenditures, the market will naturally focus heavily on how these investments will be monetized.”

Matthew Maley, Chief Market Strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., stated, “It’s increasingly clear that Microsoft is unlikely to achieve strong investment returns from its huge AI investments, and its stock price needs to be re-priced to a level more consistent with its historical valuation.”

Apple announced its latest earnings after the market close. For the fiscal first quarter ending December 27 (“Q4”), revenue grew 16% year-over-year, and iPhone sales increased 23%, both surpassing analyst expectations by nearly 4% and 9%, respectively, and exceeding the company’s guidance of 10%-12%. EPS also hit a record high, exceeding forecasts by over 6%. Service revenue continued to set quarterly records for three consecutive years.

In China, the world’s largest smartphone market, Apple’s sales rebounded sharply. Revenue in Greater China shifted from a year-over-year decline in Q3 to nearly 40% growth, nearly 20% above analyst expectations. After the earnings report, Apple’s stock initially fell nearly 3% in after-hours trading but then rose over 2%, before giving back more than half of the gains. Analysts noted that the earnings call did not reveal any major announcements or highlights.

Overall, the market views Apple’s financial results positively, but investors are looking for clearer strategies and timelines for monetization in AI, especially in large models, edge inference, and Siri reshaping. Additionally, fluctuations in key component costs like memory and geopolitical risks in the supply chain remain potential variables affecting Apple’s mid-term gross margins.

Precious metals experienced extreme volatility, with spot gold fluctuating nearly $500 intraday. Driven by a rebound in the dollar, gold prices plunged by over 5.7% during the session, the largest intraday decline since October 21, then partially recovered. Silver fell as much as 8.4%. As of the time of writing, gold and silver prices have mostly recovered their losses.

The short-term plunge in gold and silver is attributed to profit-taking after prices hit new highs. David Meger, Head of Metals Trading at High Ridge Futures, said, “After recent record highs in precious metals prices, we saw a wave of intense selling.”

【US Treasury Bonds】

US Treasury yields fluctuated slightly, with the benchmark 10-year yield closing at 4.239%, and the 2-year yield, sensitive to Federal Reserve policy, closing at 3.567%.

【Popular US Stocks】

Among popular US stocks, Nvidia rose 0.52%, Google C increased 0.71%, Google A gained 0.67%, Apple rose 0.72%, Microsoft fell 9.99%, Amazon declined 0.53%, Meta surged 10.41%, TSMC dropped 1.01%, Tesla fell 3.45%, Super Micro Semiconductor declined 0.22%, Intel fell 0.25%.

In major news, Jensen Huang’s visit to China was described as “very successful,” and he revealed that demand for the next-generation AI chip Rubin is “extremely strong.”

SpaceX is considering a potential merger with Tesla, while also evaluating another plan—integrating with AI company xAI.

Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI. Earlier reports indicated that Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon discussed investing $60 billion in OpenAI, with a pre-investment valuation of $730 billion.

【Global Indices】

In Europe, the FTSE 100 rose slightly by 0.17% to 10,172 points. France’s CAC40 increased 0.06% to 8,071 points. Germany’s DAX plunged 2.07% to 24,309 points.

In Asia, the Hang Seng Index rose 0.51% to 27,968 points. The China Enterprises Index increased 0.42% to 9,553 points. The Nikkei 225 approached flat.

【China Indices】

On January 29, the overnight Hang Seng Tech Index futures fell 1.03%, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 0.35%, and the FTSE China A50 Index increased 1.41%.

【Chinese Concept Stocks】

Among popular Chinese concept stocks, Tencent Holdings (HK) rose 0.16%, Alibaba declined 0.77%, Pinduoduo fell 0.11%, NetEase dropped 1.26%, Baidu declined 0.10%, Ctrip fell 0.61%, Li Auto rose 0.64%, Xpeng declined 0.35%, NIO gained 4.14%.

In major news, ByteDance and Alibaba plan to release their respective new AI models (such as Doubao 2.0 and Qwen 3.5) around the Spring Festival, marking an intense phase in their competition for dominance in China’s AI application market. This battle is not only about creating the most popular consumer AI super-app but will also profoundly influence the future structure of China’s nearly $90 billion AI cloud market.

【Forex and Commodities】

On Thursday, despite the Federal Reserve signaling a slightly hawkish stance that supported the dollar, investor doubts about US policy outlook persisted. The dollar index briefly hit a high of 96.66 during US trading hours but then sharply declined, giving back all intraday gains, ending down 0.19% at 96.15.

Spot gold fluctuated nearly $500 intraday. It approached $5,600 again during Asian trading but failed to break above this level, then sharply declined during US trading, dropping $400 from its high, but later rebounded with a V-shaped recovery, recovering over $200, and finally closed down 0.85% at $5,370.87 per ounce. Spot silver also experienced intense volatility, dropping over $10 during the session, and ending down 1.12% at $115.46 per ounce.

Due to concerns that US attacks on Iran could impact global supply, oil prices surged by 3%. WTI crude oil rose throughout the session and hit a nearly 5-month high during US trading, closing up 3.77% at $65.59 per barrel. Brent crude gained 3.47%, closing at $69.71 per barrel.

【Market Highlights】

US Senate votes fail to advance funding bill; Trump says an agreement is close to avoiding a government shutdown

If the two parties fail to reach an agreement before Saturday midnight Eastern Time and Congress does not pass related legislation, key federal departments such as Defense, Treasury, State, and Labor will face funding interruptions. Reports indicate that the White House and Democrats are closer to the latter’s demands, which include separating DHS funding from planned expenditures and providing short-term funding for DHS and most federal agencies through the end of this fiscal year.

Microsoft drops 12% intraday, largest daily decline since the pandemic, evaporating $430 billion—second-largest single-day market cap loss in US stock history!

After disclosing a surge in data center and AI infrastructure spending, Microsoft triggered a market sell-off. The stock fell over 12% intraday and closed nearly 10% lower, marking its largest closing decline since March 2020. Its market cap once evaporated about $430 billion, making it the second-largest single-day market cap loss in US stock history, after Nvidia’s $593 billion plunge last year following the launch of low-cost AI models on DeepSeek. This decline reignited concerns about the return on huge AI investments in Silicon Valley and dragged down the entire tech sector.

Apple’s earnings beat expectations; record revenue and iPhone sales last quarter; China revenue surged nearly 40%

Apple’s Q4 revenue doubled to 16% YoY, EPS increased 18%, R&D spending exceeded forecasts by 32%, and iPhone revenue grew 23%, all surpassing analyst estimates. Service revenue rose 14%, setting a quarterly record for three consecutive years. Mac and wearables revenue declined 6.7% and over 2%, respectively. Revenue in Greater China exceeded analyst expectations by 17%. Q1 revenue is expected to grow 13%-16%. Tim Cook stated that due to “unprecedented demand,” iPhone sales in all regions hit record highs this quarter. Active devices exceeded 2.5 billion. After-hours, Apple’s stock halted its decline and turned higher, rising over 2% at one point.

Jensen Huang: China visit “very successful,” Nvidia expects significant growth this year

Huang’s visit to China was described as “very successful,” and he revealed that demand for the next-generation AI chip Rubin is “extremely strong.” Nvidia is collaborating with Intel to develop custom x86 processors, expecting substantial growth this year. He also warned that TSMC’s capacity expansion over the next decade will face serious energy challenges.

SpaceX reportedly plans to merge with xAI aiming for a super IPO

According to leaked documents, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and AI company xAI are discussing a merger, planning to go public later this year. If finalized, Musk’s rockets, social media platform X, and AI chatbot Grok will be integrated into the same company. This move could inject new momentum into SpaceX’s “sending data centers into space” strategy, and Musk aims to compete with giants like Google, Meta, and OpenAI in the rapidly evolving AI race.

Reports: ByteDance and Alibaba to launch new AI models around Spring Festival

ByteDance and Alibaba plan to release their respective new AI models (such as Doubao 2.0 and Qwen 3.5) around the Spring Festival, marking an intense phase in their competition for dominance in China’s AI application market. This battle is not only about creating the most popular consumer AI super-app but will also deeply influence the future structure of China’s nearly $90 billion AI cloud market.

AI drives storage demand surge; SanDisk’s earnings far exceed expectations; stock up nearly 15% after hours

SanDisk reported its fiscal second quarter results for FY2026, showing significant profit and revenue growth, surpassing Wall Street estimates and previous guidance, which led to a nearly 15% increase in after-hours trading. Analysts attribute this strong performance to expanding AI applications increasing demand for data storage.