US Stock Market Today: Wall Street’s main indexes opened lower on Monday, Feb. 2, after a violent selloff in precious metals unsettled investors at the start of a week packed with corporate earnings and major economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back 143 points, or 0.3%. Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 for the first time since April, a sign investors were taking more risk off the table following Friday’s sharp declines in gold and silver.

Commodities markets slumped on Monday, led by deep losses in gold, silver, oil and industrial metals, as a selloff unleashed by President Donald Trump’s choice of Kevin Warsh for the next US Fed chair sent precious metals tumbling for a second session. Gold and silver had jumped 30% and 71% to record highs in January before they started dropping.

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Wall Street also turned its attention to Nvidia on questions over artificial intelligence loomed. According to the Wall Street Journal, Nvidia’s plans to pour $100 billion into OpenAI had stalled, with chipmaker executives expressing doubt about the deal. Nvidia shares were down more than 2%. On Monday, Disney reported earnings that beat analyst expectations. However, the stock still fell 8%. 

More than 100 S&P 500 companies are due to report this week, including Amazon and Alphabet. The overall reporting season has been strong thus far, but there have been some high-profile post-earnings sell-offs, including Microsoft. Metals continued to see heightened volatility Monday after a violent sell-off at the end of last week.

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Gold futures hit a low of $4423.2 Monday, its lowest level since Jan. 8 before. The contract last traded 0.5% lower to $4,720.20. The bullion traded below the 50-day moving average level of $4,480.4 on an intraday basis for the first time since Aug. 22. Silver futures gained nearly 3% to trade around $80.68 after reaching a low of $71.20, its lowest level since Jan. 2. Silver briefly traded below the 50-day moving average level of 73.916 on an intraday basis for the first time since Nov. 21.

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The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq dropped on Monday (January 27, 2025), as the surging popularity of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model knocked shares of chipmaker Nvidia and other companies benefiting from investments into the technology.

Chinese startup DeepSeek has rolled out a free assistant it says uses cheaper chips and less data, seemingly challenging a widespread bet in financial markets that AI will drive demand along a supply chain from chipmakers to data centers.

DeepSeek’s AI Assistant on Monday overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple’s App Store in the United States.

Explained | What is DeepSeek, and why is it disrupting the AI sector?

“It’s clearly not good for ChatGPT to have an aggressive competitor, but we don’t buy the thesis that this is going to tank the demand for high-end GPUs,” said Infrastructure Capital Advisors CEO Jay Hatfield, referring to the advanced semiconductors needed to run AI applications.

AI chip leader Nvidia’s shares slumped 15.1%, while a gauge of semiconductor stocks slid 8.2%, heading for its worst single-day drop since March 2020.

Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet fell 3.8% and 2.8%, respectively, while AI server makers Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer skid 8.6% and 11.1%.

Power companies, which are expected to see a surge in demand from energy-intensive data centers needed to develop AI technology, also came under pressure. Vistra and GE Vernova tumbled 27.9% and 19.7%, respectively.

Data center operators also tanked, with Digital Realty sliding 12.9%.

At 11:21 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 43.01 points, or 0.10%, to 44,381.24, the S&P 500 lost 107.59 points, or 1.76%, to 5,993.65 and the Nasdaq Composite declined 589.56 points, or 2.95%, to 19,364.74.

The Cboe Volatility Index, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, hit its highest since Dec. 20, last up 4.2 points at 19.05.

Bucking the wider trend, AT&T rose 5.3% to an over three-year high after its fourth-quarter wireless subscriber growth surpassed expectations.

Defensive sectors such as health care and consumer staples also escaped the gloom, up more than 1.5% each.

Big Tech will remain in focus, as Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Tesla – four out of the “Magnificent 7” companies that powered the bulk of last year’s gains – are set to report quarterly numbers later this week.

Global markets were also on edge as the U.S. and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the South American nation had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants.

Also Read | Chinese AI firm DeepSeek unveils open-source reasoning model DeepSeek-R1; beats OpenAI’s o1

On the economic radar, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold its lending rate steady in its first interest-rate decision of the year due on Wednesday, while the December reading of the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is scheduled for Friday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.06-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 24 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 48 new highs and 64 new lows.