Monday, February 2, 2026
HomeStock MarketS&P 500, Nasdaq futures slide as AI doubts swirl, precious metals whipsaw
Stock Market

S&P 500, Nasdaq futures slide as AI doubts swirl, precious metals whipsaw


US stock futures slid on Monday after a dramatic sell-off in gold and silver unnerved investors, with tech leading the way lower as AI trade worries swirled and Federal Reserve uncertainty deepened.

Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) dropped 0.6%, while those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) fell about 0.3%. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F), which includes fewer tech names, hovered just below the flat line. All three indexes pared steeper overnight losses that followed a sharp reversal on Wall Street on Friday.

Wall Street is heading into a new month digesting fresh uncertainty around Nvidia (NVDA) and the broader artificial intelligence trade. CEO Jensen Huang played down the chipmaker’s pledge to invest $100 billion in OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) after The Wall Street Journal reported the plan was on ice.

Big Tech has led market moves throughout the start of 2026, with earnings leading companies in oppositional directions. Quarterly reports from Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lie ahead on the docket this week in a wave of corporate earnings, with Disney (DIS) and Palantir (PLTR) also reporting on Monday.

Stocks are under pressure as precious metals continue a rollercoaster ride that has seen them unwind much of 2026’s most rip-roaring rally in recent days. Gold (GC=F) and silver (SI=F) swung back to gains early on Monday after tumbling in Asia hours, on the heels of a Friday wipeout that saw silver post its biggest single-day drop on record.

Over the weekend, bitcoin (BTC-USD) sank below the $80,000 mark for the first time since April, extending losses after a volatile end to last week. The cryptocurrency was last trading below $78,000 per token. At the same time, the dollar (DX-Y.NYB) gained against major peers, rising most against currencies sensitive to commodity prices.

Investors are also wondering what comes next after President Trump chose Kevin Warsh as his nominee to lead the Federal Reserve. That move is seen as reviving efforts to reduce the Fed’s $6.6 trillion balance sheet, even as it opened the door to speculation on the path of interest rates. Most traders are still pricing in two rate cuts by the end of the year.

On the macro front, January updates on manufacturing activity due later Monday will start to set the stage for Friday’s all-important monthly jobs report. Economists expect payrolls to have added 65,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate to hold at 4.4%.

LIVE 13 updates

  • Jake Conley

    Devon Energy and Coterra Energy sign $58 billion merger, biggest O&G deal in years

    US shale gas giant Devon Energy (DVN) will merge with rival producer Coterra Energy (CTRA) in an all-stock deal valued at $58 billion, the companies said on Monday, marking one of the biggest M&A deals in the oil and gas sector in years.

    Shares in Devon and Coterra lost over 2% and 3%, respectively, in premarket trading on Monday.

    As crude oil prices have dropped over the past year and legacy shale plays throughout the US have begun to flatline, the deal buys Devon complementary shale acreage to add to the company’s portfolio, especially in the oil-rich Delaware Basin throughout West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

    The merger of the two operators “will create one of the world’s leading shale producers,” Devon’s announcement said, with pro forma production for the third quarter of 2025 “exceeding 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, including over 550 thousand barrels of oil per day and 4.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day.”

    The $58 billion merger — which has an equity value of roughly $21.4 billion, according to Reuters — is the largest merger in the US shale industry since Diamondback Energy’s $26 billion acquisition of Endeavor Energy in 2024.

    Under the terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter, Coterra shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.7 shares of Devon common stock for each share of Coterra common stock. Devon shareholders will own approximately 54% of the combined entity, while Coterra shareholders will own approximately 46% on a fully diluted basis.

    “This transformative merger combines two companies with proud histories and cultures of operational excellence, creating a premier shale operator,” Clay Gaspar, Devon’s President and CEO, said in the deal announcement.

  • Disney parks business shines as CEO search narrows

    Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma reports:

    Read more here.

  • Strategy and other crypto-related stocks follow bitcoin lower

    Strategy (MSTR) and other crypto stocks sank on Monday morning in the wake of bitcoin’s recent rout, which has sent the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency below $78,000.

    Shares of Strategy, which pioneered the bitcoin treasury model, dropped more than 7% to $138 per share. Over the past year, the stock is down 55%.

    Brokerages and exchanges tied up in the crypto ecosystem also fell. Robinhood (HOOD) declined by 3%, while Coinbase (COIN) shed 4%. Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) slid 5%.

    Ether (ETH-USD) and other digital tokens also declined as pressure on the crypto space grew following the announcement of President Trump’s Fed chair pick.

  • Jenny McCall

    Goldman: US earnings forecasts are looking healthy

    Strategists at Goldman Sachs said on Monday that earnings outlooks from US companies appear strong, easing concerns. Strategist Ben Snider said that more than half of earnings released have been above analyst expectations, beating the historical average of 40%.

    Bloomberg News reports:

    Read more here.

  • Jenny McCall

    Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.

  • Oracle to raise up to $50 billion in 2026 for cloud buildup

    From Bloomberg:

    Read more here.

  • Oil plunges as Iran risks ease after Trump comments

    From Bloomberg:

    Oil plunged as geopolitical risk premiums faded after US President Donald Trump said Washington is talking with Iran, while a broader commodities sell-off exacerbated the slide.

    Brent (BZ=F) plummeted more than 5% at one point and was trading near $66 a barrel, while US crude futures (CL=F) also nosedived. Trump downplayed Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s threats of a regional war over the weekend, reiterating he’s hopeful they’ll make a deal.

    The Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry said it hopes diplomatic efforts will avert a war. The Tasnim news agency said talks between the US and Iran are likely in the coming days.

    “The move lower looks more like a positioning reset than a fundamental shift,” said Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer at Karobaar Capital LP. “With no new supply shock, oil is giving back some risk premium as the market recalibrates after pricing in near-term disruption that just didn’t materialize.”

    Read more here.

  • January jobs data, Alphabet and Amazon earnings, more Warsh fallout: What to watch this week

    Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley lays out the potential catalysts ahead as markets enter the week braced for more turbulence.

    He reports:

    Read more here.

  • Nvidia stock falls as Huang caveats pledge to invest big in OpenAI

    Nvidia’s (NVDA) proposed $100 billion investment in OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) was “never a commitment,” its CEO Jensen Huang said after a Wall Street Journal report that the megadeal has been put on ice.

    Shares in the AI chipmaker fell nearly 2% before the bell on Monday.

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

  • Jenny McCall

    Premarket trending tickers: Estee Lauder, GameStop and Newmont

    Estée Lauder (EL) stock rose 6% before the bell on Monday. The cosmetics and beauty company said it has entered into a partnership with SalonCentric to distribute its products across more than 850 US stores.

    GameStop (GME) stock continued to rise on Monday after climbing 4% on Friday, following the news that CEO Ryan Cohen wants to expand the company through acquisitions.

    Newmont (NEM) stock fell more than 3% during premarket hours on Monday. The gold mining company’s shares edged lower after gold fell 2% below $5,000.

  • Dollar gains as gold, silver slide hurts commodity currencies

    Bloomberg reports:

    The dollar (DX-Y.NYB) strengthened again Monday, advancing the most against currencies sensitive to commodity prices, as a plunge in gold (GC=F) and silver (SIL=F) rippled across markets.

    The greenback rallied the most against the currencies of Australia, New Zealand and Norway in early London trading, as gold extended losses after its biggest plunge in more than a decade on Friday. Silver sank as much as 16% Monday after its intraday loss on Friday was the steepest on record.

    … The dollar’s gain of about 1% over Friday and Monday comes after the world’s reserve currency slumped in the second half of January.

    The bounceback may have caught some investors off guard, given shorting the greenback was one of the most popular macro trades last month. Until the end of last week, US threats against Greenland and President Donald Trump’s apparent embrace of the currency’s selloff had only fueled debate around the greenback’s long-term decline.

    Read more here.

  • Bitcoin extends losses heading to $73,000 support level

    Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:

    Read more here.

  • Gold and silver continue to fall after record drop

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.



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Tags :Artificial IntelligenceFederal ReserveNasdaq 100US stock futuresWall Street Journal
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