Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 4, 2026
5 min readLast updated: February 4, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleAsian stocks fluctuate as oil prices rise and gold recovers amid AI advancements and geopolitical tensions affecting global markets.
By Sinéad Carew and Amanda Cooper
NEW YORK/LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - MSCI's global equities gauge lost ground on Wednesday with technology stocks leading losses on Wall Street, while the dollar rose against Japan's yen and silver outperformed gold following their recent plunge.
Oil prices rose sharply for a second consecutive day as the U.S. and Iran appeared to disagree on some elements of their plan for nuclear talks expected to take place on Friday.
Crude prices had already spiked on Tuesday after the U.S. shot down an Iranian drone and armed boats approached a U.S.-flagged vessel in a key waterway.
U.S. Treasury yields were a mixed bag as investors assessed economic data. Earlier on Wednesday, ADP's national employment report showed slower-than-expected growth in January. The Institute for Supply Management said the U.S. services sector held steady in January but businesses paid more for inputs, suggesting that services inflation could pick up after a slowing trend in recent months.
After the data, traders were still betting that the Federal Reserve's next rate cut would not come before June, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
"The data this morning are not too hot, not too cold and (it) doesn't really change the outlook as it relates to the Fed or the direction of the economy," said Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife John Hancock Investments. She pointed to a healthy "broadening of participation" in the stock market, which often depends on technology stocks for support.
Value stocks were outperforming growth stocks on Wall Street, where market action has been dominated in recent days by a selloff in global providers of data analytics, professional services and software following Anthropic's launch of plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent on Friday. That raised worries about AI-fuelled disruption to those industries.
Losses in the U.S. software and services index <.SPLRCIS> slowed to a 0.4% decline on Wednesday after a drop of more than 12% over the last five days.
"A week ago the markets had a clear vision what the year was going to look like. Since then, so much of that has been called into question," said Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, Texas. He cited concerns about AI disruption as well as the nomination last Friday by U.S. President Donald Trump of Kevin Warsh as his less-dovish-than-expected pick to lead the Federal Reserve.
"In some regards, the stock market was a bug in search of a windshield. Something was going to knock it down from the euphoric perspective. Warsh was a fine nomination but that was part of the windshield. Agentic AI was another big part of it," said Phipps, pointing to a "significant shift from growth stocks to values, from large cap to small and mid caps."
The S&P 500 value index finished up 0.9% while the growth index ended down 1.8%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 260.31 points, or 0.53%, to 49,501.30, the S&P 500 fell 35.09 points, or 0.51%, to 6,882.72 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 350.61 points, or 1.51%, to 22,904.58.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 4.21 points, or 0.40%, to 1,039.77.
EUROPEAN EQUITIES AT RECORD HIGHS
Earlier, the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 0.03%, barely managing its third record closing high in a row as strength in telecom and consumer stocks was countered by weakness in software companies and a selloff in healthcare company Novo Nordisk after a disappointing outlook.
In commodities, gold prices were close to flat while silver gained ground, with both below their session highs, as the dollar firmed and attention remained focused on geopolitical developments.
Both precious metals had rallied on Tuesday after a vicious two-day meltdown triggered by Warsh's nomination, as the former Fed governor is expected to look to shrink the Fed's balance sheet. That would put pressure on non-yielding precious metals.
Spot gold rose 0.11% to $4,943.79 an ounce while spot silver rose 2.58% to $87.29 an ounce.
In currencies, the dollar rose against the yen, pushing the Japanese currency towards its fourth consecutive daily decline ahead of elections expected to boost Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's fiscal and defence-spending ambitions.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.26% to 97.66, with the euro down 0.13% at $1.1803.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.76% to 156.91.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 3.64% to $73,374.92, on track for its sixth decline out of the last seven sessions.
In the government bond market, traders were assessing the data from private providers while they waited on delayed economic releases from the government and continued to evaluate the impact that Warsh might have on monetary policy.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.3 basis point to 4.276%, from 4.273% late on Tuesday while the 30-year bond yield rose 1 basis point to 4.9159%.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 1.5 basis points to 3.557%, from 3.572% late on Tuesday.
In energy markets, U.S. crude oil futures settled up nearly $2 as traders watched the to-and-fro between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that meaningful talks between the United States and Iran will have to include Tehran's missile arsenal and other issues while Tehran said it would only discuss its nuclear programme, not its missiles.
U.S. crude settled up 3.05%, or $1.93, at $65.14 a barrel and Brent rose to $69.46 per barrel, up 3.16%, or $2.13 on the day.
(Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Amanda Cooper in London, Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by Nia Williams, Nick Zieminski and Edmund Klamann)
Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies that use cryptography for security and operate on decentralized networks based on blockchain technology.
Gold recovery refers to the process of reclaiming gold from various sources, including mining, recycling, and market trading, often influenced by market demand and economic conditions.
Market volatility is the degree of variation in trading prices over time, often indicating uncertainty or risk in financial markets.
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