The Week Wall Street Wants to Forget (It's Not Over Yet)

😎 Market Vibes

The Biggest Whiplash Week Since the Pandemic

If you weren't watching markets this week, lucky you - your stress levels probably thanked you. For everyone else, February kicked off with the kind of volatility that makes veteran traders reach for the antacids. Gold and silver staged what analysts are calling an "unprecedented" collapse, Bitcoin slid below $80,000 for the first time since April, and even the stock market couldn't decide if it wanted to panic or party.

The precious metals meltdown was particularly jaw-dropping. Gold plunged 21% from its all-time high near $5,600 per ounce, while silver crashed 41% from its record above $121. Friday's sell-off marked silver's worst daily decline on record. The catalyst? President Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, which eased fears about central bank independence and strengthened the dollar. Since hitting Monday's lows, gold has recovered to around $4,930-5,000 while silver has bounced back to approximately $90-91 per ounce.

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🛝 Crypto's Brutal Slide Continues

Bitcoin's rough week shows no signs of letting up. The flagship cryptocurrency briefly broke below $73,000 on Tuesday, hitting its lowest level since November 2024, before recovering slightly. As of Wednesday, Bitcoin is trading around $76,000, down roughly 3-4% on the day and extending its losses for the week. Ethereum continues struggling as well, trading around $2,250-2,300.

What's more concerning is the institutional retreat happening simultaneously. Over $1 billion has flowed out of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in recent weeks. Over the weekend, liquidations across cryptocurrencies totaled $2.56 billion, making it the 10th-biggest single-day liquidation event on record. Year-to-date, Bitcoin has fallen about 16% as investors rotate out of risk assets.

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📉 AMD Earnings Miss Accelerates Tech Sell-Off

The tech sector's brutal week intensified Wednesday after Advanced Micro Devices plunged 16-17% following disappointing guidance. While AMD's Q4 revenue of $10.27 billion beat expectations, the company's Q1 forecast of $9.8 billion (plus or minus $300 million) fell short of the $9.67 billion analysts were expecting. The miss rippled through the chip sector, dragging down Nvidia, Broadcom, and Micron.

The Nasdaq 100 slid 2.4% on Wednesday, its worst day since November, while the S&P 500 fell about 0.9%. The Dow, meanwhile, held up better and closed roughly flat, highlighting the ongoing rotation away from mega-cap tech. Software stocks remain under particular pressure amid concerns that AI automation tools could disrupt their core businesses.

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☀️ Manufacturing's Brief Moment in the Sun

While crypto crashed and tech stocks tumbled, one corner of the economy delivered genuinely good news earlier this week. U.S. factory activity expanded in January for the first time in a year, with the ISM manufacturing index surging to 52.6 from 47.9 in December. That massive 4.7-point jump blew past the consensus estimate of 48.4.

The details were even more impressive. New orders rocketed 9.7 points to 57.1, while production jumped 5.2 points to 55.9 - both hitting their highest levels since February 2022. But there's a catch: over the past three months, factories have typically produced more goods than they've sold to a degree not seen since the 2009 financial crisis. On Wednesday, the ISM services index came in at 53.8, matching December's revised reading and slightly above consensus.

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🔄 The Great Tech Rotation Accelerates

The dominance of mega-cap tech stocks that defined 2023-2024 is facing its first serious challenge. While the S&P 500 remains up about 1.4% through February, it's the broader "S&P 493" keeping the index afloat as the Magnificent Seven find themselves in selloff mode. Energy jumped 3.3% on Tuesday while technology sank nearly 2.5%.

Wednesday's action emphasized this rotation. The Nasdaq dropped about 2%, while the Dow gained nearly 0.5%. Consumer Staples gained 5.7% in February while Consumer Discretionary dropped 9.3%, suggesting traders are gravitating toward defensive positioning. Software stocks remain particularly vulnerable, with the iShares Software ETF down 20% year-to-date.

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📈 Precious Metals: The Bounce-Back Begins

After Monday's historic carnage, gold and silver are showing signs of life. Gold rebounded about 5-6% on Tuesday to around $4,930, while silver surged over 6-10% to approximately $84-88. By Wednesday, silver was trading around $90-91 per ounce, recovering further ground from Friday's devastating selloff.

Most analysts are maintaining their bullish long-term views. Deutsche Bank reiterated its forecast of gold climbing to $6,000 per ounce by year-end, while JPMorgan maintained its projection of $6,300 gold for 2026. But trading exchanges in both the U.S. and China raised margin requirements multiple times this week, a sign they're worried about systemic risks from excessive leverage.

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📌 Bottom Line

This week served as a brutal reminder that when multiple market narratives converge, volatility spikes harder and faster than most participants expect. The precious metals collapse, crypto correction, government shutdown data delay, and tech sector rotation all happened simultaneously, creating the kind of cross-asset chaos that tests even experienced portfolios.

The partial good news is that some assets are showing resilience. Gold and silver have recovered meaningfully from Monday's lows. The broader stock market has held up reasonably well despite tech weakness. And the government shutdown appears to be resolving, which should hopefully allow delayed economic data to be released soon.

🔥 What’s Heating Up This Week

Markets are moving - here's whats heating up with our partners:

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✌️ Thanks for vibing with us.

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