A sharp sell-off in gold and silver unnerved investors and U.S. stock futures tumbled on Monday, with technology stocks leading the decline as trade concerns over artificial intelligence intensified and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve deepened.
Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) fell 1% and S&P 500 futures (ES=F) fell about 0.7%. Contracts for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) fell 0.3%, led by fewer tech stocks. All three indexes pared deeper losses overnight after a sharp reversal on Wall Street on Friday.
Stocks remain under intense selling pressure as the precious metal continues its roller-coaster ride, with the precious metal having given back much of its strongest gains of 2026 in recent days. Gold briefly fell 10% on Monday, while silver (SI=F) fell more than 15% and plunged about 30% on Friday, its biggest one-day drop on record. At last check, both sides were cutting their losses.
Over the weekend, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell below the $80,000 mark for the first time since April, extending losses that ended last week’s volatility. The cryptocurrency last traded at about $77,000 per coin. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar (DX-Y.NYB) gained against major currencies, with the biggest gains against currencies sensitive to commodity prices.
Wall Street is heading into a new month digesting new uncertainty surrounding Nvidia (NVDA) and the broader artificial intelligence industry. Big tech companies led the market in early 2026, with growing interest in profit-leading companies.
Investors are also paying attention after President Trump announced Kevin Warsh’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve. The move opens the door to speculation about where interest rates will go in the coming months, with most traders still expecting two rate cuts before the end of the year.
The coming week will see a wave of corporate earnings reports, with more than 100 S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies reporting results. Disney (DIS) and Palantir (PLTR) are in the spotlight on Monday, with Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) set to release high-profile reports this week.
On the macro front, the latest data on manufacturing activity for January later on Monday will set the stage for Friday’s all-important monthly jobs report. Economists expect jobs to increase by 65,000 in January and the unemployment rate to remain at 4.4%.
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