MW U.S. stock futures fall, along with bitcoin and oil prices
By Mike Murphy
Ice floats along the Hudson River along the Manhattan shoreline over the weekend, following last week's winter storm.
U.S. stock futures fell Sunday, after a tumultuous start to the year on Wall Street and ahead of another busy week of tech earnings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM00) were down 140 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures (ES00) dropped about 0.6% and Nasdaq-100 futures (NQ00) slid 1%.
Gold (GC00) and silver futures (SI00) gained after a massive selloff on Friday that erased a combined $7.4 trillion in market value, as gold fell 11% and silver slid 31%, a sharp reversal from their record-setting gains over the past year.
Bitcoin (BTCUSD) continued its slide over the weekend, dipping below $80,000 for the first time since last April, and was recently trading around $77,000.
West Texas Intermediate crude (CL.1), the U.S. benchmark, fell about 2.7% on Sunday, after spiking to a six-month high in January. On Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies - the group of major oil producers known as OPEC+ - reaffirmed their decision late last year to continue to pause production hikes in March. The oil market has been on edge after the U.S. arrested Venezuela's president in early January and effectively took control of that nation's oil industry, and as President Donald Trump has threatened new military action against Iran. On Sunday, Iran's supreme leader warned that any attack by the U.S. would result in a "regional war." Brent crude (BRN00), the global benchmark, was also down around 2.7%.
U.S. stocks fell Friday, but all three major indexes ended the month with gains. The Dow DJIA ended January up 1.7%, its ninth consecutive month of gains and its longest winning streak since 2018, while the S&P 500 SPX rose 1.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq COMP advanced 0.9%.
Read more: The 'January barometer' for stocks comes with a big asterisk this year
Wall Street will be bracing for more tech earnings this week, following quarterly reports last week that saw Microsoft $(MSFT)$ and Tesla $(TSLA)$ fall, while Apple $(AAPL)$ stayed flat despite record-breaking results and Meta $(META)$ soared after beating analysts' estimates. This week, Google parent Alphabet $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$ will report, along with Amazon.com (AMZN), Advanced Micro Devices $(AMD)$, Palantir (PLTR) and Qualcomm $(QCOM)$, among others.
Investors will also be digesting Friday's announcement by President Donald Trump that he will nominate Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chief. Ongoing uncertainty about the Fed's independence and future monetary policy "is likely to lead to near-term consternation for the U.S. stock market, with better clarity - and likely positive reaction - to emerge soon after he assumes the seat in May," Wedbush analyst Seth Basham wrote in a note Sunday.
More: Warsh pick doesn't end talk that Powell could stay on to defend the Fed's independence
Basham also foresees the end of the "Fed put" under Warsh. "The Powell era's focus on suppressing volatility could give way to market discipline, where liquidity is no longer guaranteed outside of a crisis, but Fed credibility increases," he wrote. "A successful pivot would be positive for Treasuries and the U.S. dollar, but negative for gold and silver."
-Mike Murphy
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 01, 2026 18:23 ET (23:23 GMT)
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