On February 5 local time, the three major U.S. stock indices closed lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 592.58 points, a decline of 1.20%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.59%, while the S&P 500 index decreased by 1.23%.
Leading technology stocks generally declined. Super Micro Computer and Qualcomm fell by more than 8%. Amazon.com dropped over 4%, AMD declined more than 3%, Tesla decreased over 2%, and Nvidia fell more than 1%. Microsoft saw a 4.95% drop, erasing $152.4 billion in market value in a single session, equivalent to approximately 1.0573 trillion yuan.
Amazon.com reported fourth-quarter net sales of $213.39 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%, surpassing the estimated $211.49 billion. Net income for the quarter was $21.19 billion, up 6% compared to the previous year. Earnings per share stood at $1.95, slightly below the estimated $1.96. The company announced plans to invest approximately $200 billion in capital expenditures by 2026 and projected first-quarter revenue between $173.5 billion and $178.5 billion. Following the earnings report, Amazon.com shares dropped over 11% in after-hours trading.
U.S. chip giant Qualcomm fell nearly 9%. The company's latest financial results indicated that its performance guidance fell short of market expectations, partly due to global memory supply shortages. Qualcomm executives explained that tight supply and rising prices for memory chips worldwide, coupled with increased demand from AI data centers, have squeezed supply and cost margins for smartphone OEMs. Some customers have reduced inventory levels, leading to a short-term decline in chip orders.
Chinese assets performed strongly. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed up 0.90%. Most popular Chinese concept stocks advanced, with Nio rising over 5%, Li Auto increasing more than 2%, and Bilibili gaining over 1%. UTime and Flash Express surged more than 38% and 14%, respectively.
Precious metals accelerated their decline late in the session. Spot silver extended losses to nearly 20%, falling below $71 per ounce. Spot gold was down nearly 4%, trading at $4,774.48 per ounce.
Bitcoin experienced a significant drop, falling over 14% to $62,912.45 as of February 6.
According to CoinGlass data, over the past 24 hours, a total of 430,667 traders globally faced liquidations, with total liquidation amounts reaching $2.06 billion, equivalent to approximately 14.3 billion yuan.
Market sentiment toward investments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin has turned pessimistic. Prominent investor Michael Burry noted that Bitcoin has declined 40% since its peak last October, revealing its nature as a purely speculative asset that has failed to serve as a hedge against currency devaluation like precious metals. He suggested that if Bitcoin's price continues to fall, it could trigger a "death spiral," leading to a massive collapse in value.
Crypto analyst Carmelo Alemán from CryptoQuant also stated that Bitcoin has entered a bear market. Both the spot and futures trading markets for Bitcoin are in a "capitulation" phase, where the majority of market participants are likely to incur losses.
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