Tech stocks pull Wall Street lower as gold and silver prices bounce back
[February 04, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market sank in mixed trading on Tuesday,
while gold and silver bounced higher after their latest sell-off.
The S&P 500 fell 0.8% and pulled further from its all-time high set last
week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 166 points, or 0.3%, and
the Nasdaq composite sank 1.4%.
Several influential Big Tech stocks weighed on the market, including
drops of 2.8% for Nvidia and 2.9% for Microsoft. Such giants have been
hampered by worries that their stock prices shot too high and became too
expensive following their yearslong dominance of the market.
Stocks of software companies and others seen as potential losers to
competitors powered by artificial intelligence also slumped. ServiceNow
fell 7% to bring its loss for the young year so far to 28.3%.
Such declines dragged the S&P 500 to its fourth loss in the last five
days, even though the majority of stocks in the index rose. That
included a 6.8% climb for Palantir Technologies, which reported a bigger
profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its forecast for
61% growth in revenue this year also topped analysts’ expectations.
Some of the day’s strongest action remained in the metals markets.
Gold’s price climbed 6.1% to settle at $4,935.00 per ounce in the latest
swing since its jaw-dropping rally suddenly halted last week. Silver’s
price, which has been whipping through even wilder moves, rallied 8.2%.
Gold and silver prices had been climbing for more than a year as
investors looked for safer places to park their cash amid worries about
everything from tariffs to a weaker U.S. dollar to heavy debt loads for
governments worldwide. Their prices took off in particular last month,
and gold’s price at one point had roughly doubled over 12 months.
But those rallies suddenly gave out last week, and gold’s price dropped
from close to $5,600 to less than $4,500 on Monday. Silver plunged 31.4%
on Friday alone.
Many traders say that what turned the momentum was expectations that
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve will keep
interest rates high to fight inflation, though some disagree. Most agree
that simple gravity took over afterward.
After gold and silver prices had shot up so much, so quickly, they were
bound to fall back at some point, particularly with so many investors
piling in to gold as a way to bet on continued weakness for the U.S.
dollar.
“The move underscored how stretched anti-USD positioning had become,”
according to strategists at Barclays.
On Wall Street, PayPal dropped 20.3% after reporting weaker results for
the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also named a new CEO after
it said “the pace of change and execution” over the last two years “was
not in line” with the board of directors’ expectations.
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Specialist Joseph Maguire works at his post on the floor of the New
York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
 Pfizer fell 3.3% even though it
reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts
expected. The pharmaceutical company gave a forecasted range for
profit in 2026 whose midpoint was below analysts’ expectations.
Shares of Banco Santander, the Spanish bank, that trade in the
United States fell 6.4% after it said it will buy Webster Financial
in a cash-and-stock deal valued at roughly $12.3 billion. The parent
company of Webster Bank rallied 9%.
On the winning side of the market was PepsiCo, which rose 4.9% after
the snack and beverage giant’s profit and revenue for the latest
quarter nudged past analysts’ expectations. It also said it would
cut prices this year on Lay’s, Doritos and other snacks to try and
win back inflation-weary customers.
DaVita rallied 21.2% after the provider of dialysis and other health
care services likewise delivered a better profit for the latest
quarter than analysts expected.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 58.63 points to 6,917.81. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dipped 166.67 to 49,240.99, and the Nasdaq
composite sank 336.92 to 23,255.19.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.26%
from 4.29% late Monday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes bounced back in Asia from sharp
losses the prior day.
South Korea’s Kospi surged 6.8% for its best performance since the
wild days of the COVID crash and recovery in early 2020. Just a day
earlier, it had tumbled 5.3% from its record for its worst day in
almost 10 months. The Kospi is home to many tech stocks, including
Samsung Electronics, which surged 11.4%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 3.9%, while stocks rose 1.3% in Shanghai
and 0.2% in Hong Kong.
Indexes nudged lower in Europe, with France’s CAC 40 edging down by
less than 0.1%.
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AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
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