Stocks Shrug off the Silver Panic – S&P Edges up as Traders Look Past Metal and Bitcoin Swings

CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Market Watch, AP, and Investor’s Business Daily contributed to this report.

Wall Street kicked off February on a cautiously upbeat note Monday: the S&P 500 nudged higher (about +0.4%), the Nasdaq climbed roughly 0.5% and the Dow added roughly 259 points (around +0.5%). Traders seemed willing to look past last week’s violent sell-off in precious metals and a bitcoin wobble – at least for now.

Bitcoin slipped under $80,000 for the first time since April, a sign investors were dialing back risk after gold and silver suffered heavy losses on Friday. Silver – which had more than doubled over the past year – plunged roughly 30% in a single day, its worst one-day fall since 1980. Gold plunged about 10%. By Monday the panic had eased a bit: bitcoin recovered to above $77,000, spot gold was off about 3% and spot silver was down about 6% from recent levels, trimming the market’s risk-off mood.

Nvidia was back in the headlines after a Wall Street Journal report said a rumored $100 billion plan to sink cash into OpenAI had stalled. Nvidia shares slid around 2% as traders digested the headlines and what they could mean for AI-driven revenue expectations. At the same time, data-storage and AI-beneficiaries helped keep a bid under the market – SanDisk’s strong results, for example, helped offset some of the tech weakness.

This week is jam-packed: more than 100 S&P 500 companies are set to report, including Amazon and Alphabet, and investors are watching closely after a generally solid reporting season so far (though some big names have seen post-earnings sell-offs). Deutsche Bank strategists say earnings growth looks to be the strongest in four years. Disney beat estimates on Monday but its stock still slid about 6% – a reminder that a beat doesn’t guarantee a pop.

All eyes are also on Friday’s January jobs report; economists surveyed expect about 55,000 payrolls added – a number that could sway Fed expectations and market positioning.

Other market movers

• Oracle jumped more than 3% after unveiling plans to raise up to $50 billion to bulk up its cloud and AI capacity.
• Rare-earth and critical minerals names rallied on a Bloomberg report that Washington plans a $12 billion minerals stockpile.
• Oil fell more than 4% after comments suggesting improved talks with Iran, which eased supply-disruption fears.
• The 10-year Treasury yield nudged up to about 4.27% after a surprise beat in US manufacturing data.

Volatility hasn’t disappeared – the VIX popped toward a two-week high – and metals are still jittery after margin hikes and forced selling. International markets were mixed: European shares gained, while Asia felt the heat (Japan’s Nikkei was lower and Hong Kong and Shanghai each logged notable declines).

Monday was a day of damage control: stocks steadied as metals and crypto pared their worst moves, and investors shifted focus to the heavy slate of earnings and key economic data ahead. The market’s mood looks fragile – calm for now, but one surprise (or a fresh round of metals liquidations) could flip sentiment fast.