At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.03% to 49,499.2 points, the S&P 500 fell 0.54% to 6,908.86 points, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.18% to 22,878.38 points.

 

Most large-cap tech stocks declined, with the Wind US Tech Seven Giants Index falling 1.87%. Among individual stocks: Tesla lost more than 2%, Google dropped over 1%, Amazon fell more than 1%, Apple declined 0.47%, Microsoft gained 0.28%, and Meta (Facebook) rose 0.51%.

 

NVIDIA’s stock slumped more than 5%, even though the chip giant reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter. Other chip stocks including Broadcom, Lam Research, Western Digital and Applied Materials all fell more than 5%; AMD dropped 3.4%.

 

Most bank stocks advanced: JPMorgan Chase rose nearly 1%, Goldman Sachs gained 0.82%, Citigroup climbed more than 1%, Morgan Stanley added over 2%, Bank of America rose more than 1%, while Wells Fargo fell 0.52%.

 

Most airline stocks traded higher: Boeing declined 0.43%, American Airlines jumped more than 4%, Delta Air Lines rose nearly 2%, Southwest Airlines gained more than 2%, and United Airlines advanced over 3%.

 

Chip stocks were broadly lower, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 3.19%. NVIDIA fell more than 5%, Applied Materials dropped nearly 5%, Lam Research lost more than 4%, ASML declined over 4%, AMD tumbled more than 3%, and Broadcom fell more than 3%.

 

Most US-listed Chinese stocks retreated: the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index dropped 1.78%, and the Wind US-listed Chinese Tech Leaders Index fell 2.28%.

 

Among popular Chinese stocks: ACM Research plunged more than 16%, BeiGene lost over 8%, GDS Holdings fell more than 7%, MINISO declined nearly 6%, Baidu dropped more than 5%, and KE Holdings lost more than 5%. On the upside: Great Health Smart Warehouse surged more than 33%, Yuchai International gained over 6%, Silvercorp Metals rose more than 4%, and Pony.ai added over 4%.

 

On the economic data front: US initial jobless claims came in at 212,000 last week, below expectations. The US Department of Labor reported on Thursday that new claims edged up but remained at historical levels, indicating employers continued to hold off on layoffs despite weak hiring.

 

International precious metals futures closed broadly lower: COMEX gold futures fell 0.47% to $5,201.50 an ounce, and COMEX silver futures dropped 3.02% to $88.86 an ounce. Market analysts noted that while long-term safe-haven demand expectations persist, cautious rate-cut signals from Federal Reserve officials and a decline in discount window loan balances weighed on gold’s safe-haven buying in the short term, pressuring prices.

 

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East supported oil prices: the US crude oil main contract rose 0.08% to $65.47 a barrel, and the Brent crude oil main contract gained 0.48% to $71.03 a barrel.