Silver plunges! The "Big Seven" U.S. stocks decline

On February 12th local time, the three major U.S. stock indices all closed lower, with popular tech stocks broadly declining, and the Nasdaq index falling over 2%.

In commodities, gold and silver prices both plummeted, with spot silver prices dropping sharply during the session, with a decline of over 11% at one point.

Popular Tech Stocks Decline Broadly

On February 12th local time, data showed that by the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 669.42 points, or 1.34%, to 49,451.98; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 469.32 points, or 2.03%, to 22,597.15; and the S&P 500 declined 108.71 points, or 1.57%, to 6,832.76.

All seven major U.S. tech giants declined, with the U.S. Tech 7 Index down 2.20%. Apple fell sharply by 5%, the largest single-day drop since April 2025. Meta, Tesla, and Amazon each declined over 2%, Nvidia dropped 1.64%, and Alphabet-C (Google’s parent company) and Microsoft both fell 0.63%.

Broad declines in popular tech stocks led to a 2.50% drop in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Among its components, ASTERA LABS fell nearly 12%, while Intel, Super Micro Semiconductor, and Broadcom each declined over 3%.

Chinese concept stocks saw mixed performance, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index down 3%. Among popular Chinese stocks, China Suxuantang Pharmaceutical rose over 5%, Century Internet and Agora rose over 3%, Qimengdao and Kingsoft Cloud gained over 2%; Tencent Music and Huya dropped over 10%, Xinyong dropped 6.76%, and KE Holdings and iQiyi declined over 5%.

Gold and Silver Prices Both Fall

In precious metals, on February 12th local time, spot and futures prices for gold and silver all declined. London Gold spot prices fell 3.17% to $4,921.7 per ounce; London Silver spot prices plunged 10.73% to $75.224 per ounce; COMEX gold futures dropped 3.08% to $4,941.4 per ounce; and COMEX silver futures fell 10.62% to $75.010 per ounce.

Regarding crude oil, according to Xinhua News Agency, as of the close on February 12th local time, light crude oil futures for March delivery on the NYMEX fell $1.79 to settle at $62.84 per barrel, a decline of 2.77%; Brent crude oil futures for April delivery on the London ICE fell $1.88 to settle at $67.52 per barrel, down 2.71%.