#OneGate见证计划 Global Asset “Mass Exodus”: U.S. and European Stocks, Gold, Silver, and Cryptocurrencies Plunge Together—What Happened?

Overnight, from Wall Street to the City of London, and from gold to Bitcoin, nearly all assets fell.
From October 7 to 8 Beijing time, global financial markets experienced a rare “collective plunge.” All three major U.S. stock indexes closed lower, major European stock indexes fell across the board, gold and silver prices plunged sharply, and the cryptocurrency market was even more devastated—more than 124,000 people were liquidated, with total liquidations exceeding $700 million.
This was no longer an isolated move in any single asset class, but a systemic decline spanning markets and asset types.
What exactly happened? Was it short-term panic or a trend reversal? Let’s break it down one by one.

I. How bad was the market?
Let’s start with the data
In U.S. stocks, at the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.66% to 51179.87, the S&P 500 fell 0.22% to 7801.77, and the Nasdaq fell 0.22% to 27538.69. The S&P 500 and Dow ended four consecutive trading days of gains, while the Nasdaq fell for the first time in six trading days.
European stocks suffered an even sharper decline. Germany’s DAX 30 fell 1.35%, France’s CAC 40 fell 1.22%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 1.47%. Italy’s FTSE MIB plunged 2.51%.
Gold and silver also plunged in tandem. Spot gold fell below the $4,100 per ounce level, hitting a new low since August 5, with its intraday decline reaching 2.26%; spot silver fell below $60 per ounce, down 3.50%.
The cryptocurrency market was even more brutal. Bitcoin plunged more than 3% in a straight line to a nearly one-week low, trading at $83,511; Ethereum fell nearly 5%, XRP dropped more than 6%, and Solana fell more than 4%. According to CoinGlass data, 124,000 people were liquidated globally over the past 24 hours, with total liquidations exceeding $700 million, more than 90% of which were long positions.
Asia-Pacific markets were also unable to escape. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.01%, while South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.56%.

II. Who was the culprit?
The Fed meeting minutes strike a hawkish tone
The direct trigger for the collective decline in global assets was the Federal Reserve’s release of the minutes from its September monetary policy meeting.
The minutes showed that all 19 Fed policymakers broadly agreed to raise the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4%, marking the Fed’s first rate hike since July 2023. More importantly, most participants believed that “another increase in the target range for the federal funds rate by year-end may be appropriate.”
According to CME FedWatch, the probability of the Fed cumulatively raising rates by 25 basis points by December has reached 64.1%.
But what truly caused the market to “break down” was not the rate-hike expectations themselves, but the sharp rise in long-term U.S. Treasury yields.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose as high as 5.364% intraday, reaching its highest level since 2002; the 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.732%, also setting a new high since May 2002. A survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed that the median U.S. consumer inflation expectation for the next 12 months rose 0.3 percentage points to 3.9% in September, the highest level since May 2023.
As Mike Dixon, head of investment research at Horizon, put it: “Given the current level of interest rates and this upcycle, it is fair to say that the margin for error in corporate earnings has narrowed.”
U.S. Treasuries are the anchor for global asset pricing, and their steadily rising yields are triggering a chain reaction ranging from pullbacks in highly valued technology stocks to tighter corporate financing costs. Assets across the globe are facing a systemic repricing.

III. A few more “straws” have broken the camel’s back
In addition to the Fed’s hawkish signals, several major factors are piling on the pressure:
First, tensions in the Middle East remain high. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that a few “illegal waterways” in the Strait of Hormuz would soon be closed. Iran reiterated that the strait would remain closed unless its “legitimate” demands were met. The world’s most important oil transit route faces the risk of disruption, and Brent crude at one point broke above $100 per barrel, reigniting inflation concerns in the market.
Second, global bond markets have fallen into a “vicious cycle.” The $32 trillion U.S. Treasury market has entered a “vicious cycle” of forced selling, with no marginal buyers stepping in so far. As the war in the Middle East pushes up energy inflation expectations, strong U.S. economic data have also extinguished market hopes for rate cuts, sending global bond markets into a rare selling storm.
Third, France’s fiscal problems have intensified market anxiety. Markets fear that France’s fiscal predicament could drag the European Central Bank into a direct confrontation with financial markets, and some analysts have even begun comparing the current situation with the eurozone debt crisis of the early 2010s. The CAC 40’s decline of more than 1% was a direct reflection of this concern.
Fourth, the high leverage risk of macro hedge funds. Some macro hedge funds have warned that leverage levels among hedge funds are currently far higher than during the previous period of high interest rates, with the situation evolving into a vicious cycle in which “falling prices trigger forced liquidations, and forced liquidations accelerate the decline.”

IV. A tale of two markets: These sectors rose against the trend
Although the broader market was bleak, the market was not entirely uniform.
Memory chip stocks followed a trend of their own. Micron Technology rose 4.06% against the trend, SanDisk gained 1.92%, and Super Micro Computer rose more than 3%. Against the backdrop of pressure on the semiconductor sector overall, memory chips benefited from strong demand driven by AI infrastructure construction and became a safe haven for capital.
The healthcare sector rose 1.06% against the market, with weight-loss drugs and vaccine concept stocks leading the gains. Roche, Eli Lilly, and Amgen rose more than 2%, while Novo Nordisk and Pfizer gained nearly 2%.
Popular Chinese concept stocks also strengthened against the trend. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index turned positive late in the session, rising slightly by 0.12%; JD.com rose more than 2%, while Zhihu, NIO, and NetEase gained more than 1%. More notably, a new Bank of America report showed that global active long-only funds’ allocations to Chinese stocks had risen from “underweight” to “benchmark neutral,” ending a four-year period of underweight positions.
In addition, technology giants showed divergent performance. Amazon led the gains, rising more than 1%; Google and Apple rose more than 0.8%, while Meta fell more than 2%, and Tesla also declined.

V. What is the outlook?
In the short term, the market remains in a “news vacuum,” with the direction of U.S. Treasury yields serving as the core variable.
Guy Miller of Zurich Insurance Group said: “We are now in the quiet period before earnings season, and the market lacks clear catalysts, so it is easily affected by various pieces of news.”
Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett warned that investors may continue to avoid high-risk trades until clear signs emerge that the dollar’s current rally has peaked. He recommended that investors gradually increase their bond allocations, describing the strategy as “buying humiliation.”

In short, the Fed’s hawkish signals + surging Treasury yields + the Middle East powder keg = global assets collectively “surviving a tribulation.” Next, the market will remain focused on one question: When will bond yields peak? Until the answer becomes clear, volatility will likely remain the norm.