U.S. stocks opened mixed on Tuesday evening, Beijing time. Palantir's stock surged following the release of strong earnings, leading technology shares higher. Gold and silver prices staged a significant rebound. This week, investors will digest earnings reports from over one hundred S&P 500 component companies. Affected by a partial government shutdown, the January jobs report originally scheduled for Friday will not be released as planned.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41.19 points, or 0.08%, to 49,366.47; the Nasdaq Composite rose 93.81 points, or 0.40%, to 23,685.92; and the S&P 500 index gained 9.58 points, or 0.14%, to 6,986.02. Shares of Palantir surged after the company reported robust fourth-quarter financial results and provided optimistic guidance. Robotics-related stock Teradyne saw its stock price skyrocket after issuing a better-than-expected revenue outlook for the first quarter. Among other technology stocks, Alphabet's share price rose over 1% ahead of its earnings report scheduled for Wednesday. Following the positive reception of Palantir's earnings, investors on Tuesday will turn their attention to Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) earnings report after the close, watching for any signs that it might challenge Nvidia's dominance in the AI accelerator market. Since October, AMD's stock has climbed more than 50%, while Nvidia's overall trend has been relatively sideways. As traders increasingly shift their focus beyond the "Magnificent Seven" to a wider array of targets, the next phase of AI trade positioning is spilling over. Jimmy Muchechetere, an equity analyst at Investec Wealth & Investment, stated, "Money is flowing into the semiconductor sector, into memory chip stocks—the opportunity for short-term outperformance lies in these areas." Spot gold and spot silver prices rebounded on Tuesday after closing lower on Monday, gaining 5% and 9% intraday, respectively. Previously, these precious metals, along with Bitcoin, had faced pressure, with Bitcoin falling to its lowest level since April, indicating a decline in investor risk appetite. Gold and silver also experienced significant selling last Friday. U.S. stocks closed higher across the board on Monday. The Dow rose 1.05%, the S&P 500 gained 0.5%, and the Nasdaq closed up 0.6%. Popular artificial intelligence infrastructure stocks SanDisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology all closed higher. However, Nvidia fell nearly 3% due to weekend reports suggesting the chipmaker's investment plans in OpenAI had stalled. This week, investors will digest earnings reports from over one hundred S&P 500 component companies. Besides Alphabet, another member of the "Magnificent Seven," Amazon, is also scheduled to report earnings this week. As investors search for signs of AI-driven efficiency and profit growth, technology earnings will be in focus—especially after the market's "ruthless" reaction to Microsoft's results last week. Dan Greenhaus, a strategist at Solus Alternative Asset Management, said, "The core logic driving risk assets higher remains intact—the Fed clearly won't hike rates, further rate cuts are likely this year, the economic and earnings backdrop is strong, and tariff issues haven't worsened... these tailwinds are still there. The AI narrative continues to drive the market." Greenhaus added, "Overall, market volatility could increase in February, but the core drivers of the market haven't disappeared." U.S. policy uncertainty remains high. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that the nonfarm payrolls report originally scheduled for Friday would be delayed due to the partial shutdown. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed on Monday that the January jobs report, originally scheduled for release on Friday, would not be published as planned due to the partial government shutdown. Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Emily Liddell, said in a statement, "The Employment Situation report for January 2026 will not be released as originally scheduled on Friday, February 6, 2026. The report will be rescheduled for release after government funding is restored." It is currently unclear whether the Commerce Department will face report delays due to the impasse in Washington. This decision comes during a week packed with economic data releases, which was originally set to culminate with the nonfarm payrolls report, also known as the unemployment situation report. The market had previously expected the report to show an addition of 55,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.4%.
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