The precious metals roller coaster 🎢

Welcome back to the the Day Trading newsletter 📈 

Markets shrugged off the precious metals mayhem and pushed higher to start February. The Dow added 515 points while the S&P flirted with record territory. Investors seem more interested in AI momentum than gold's meltdown.

Let’s get into it 👇️ 

🔻 Nvidia's $100 billion OpenAI investment has stalled. CEO Jensen Huang called it "never a commitment" and said the company would evaluate funding rounds "one at a time" — shares dropped 3% on the news (CNBC)

🇮🇳 Trump announced a trade deal with India slashing U.S. tariffs to 18% from 50%. In exchange, India will stop buying Russian oil and committed to over $500 billion in U.S. energy and tech purchases (Reuters)

💰️ Disney beat estimates with $26 billion in quarterly revenue, lifted by its experiences segment topping $10 billion for the first time. The company expects to repurchase $7 billion in stock this year (CNBC)

🌐 Ray Dalio warned the world is "on the brink" of a capital war at the World Governments Summit. He pointed to fears among European holders of U.S. assets that they could be sanctioned amid escalating tensions over Greenland (CNBC)

📈 Palantir reported Q4 earnings after the bell with revenue guidance of +61% for 2026. Shares jumped 8% after hours on the beat-and-raise, recovering some of the 29% decline from November's peak (24/7 Wall St)

Precious metals got absolutely destroyed last week. Gold dropped from a record $5,600 to around $4,665 per ounce (its steepest fall since 1983). Silver had it worse: a 31% single-day plunge on Friday, the worst since the Hunt Brothers collapsed the market in 1980.

What triggered it? Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair. Markets saw Warsh — a former Fed governor and Wall Street veteran — as a credible, safe pick who (wouldn't just do Trump's bidding on rates). That eased fears about Fed independence being compromised, which had been a major tailwind for gold.

Then CME Group piled on, hiking margin requirements on precious metals futures effective Monday. That forced leveraged traders to either post more collateral or liquidate positions (and many chose to liquidate). Chinese speculators who had piled into the rally reportedly unwound en masse.

Despite the carnage, analysts at Deutsche Bank cautioned against reading this as a sustained reversal. "The conditions do not appear primed for a sustained downturn in gold prices," wrote Michael Hsueh. Ray Dalio echoed that sentiment Tuesday, calling gold the best place to store money amid rising geopolitical tensions. "Gold is up 65% from a year ago and down 16% from its high," he noted. "It's an effective diversifier."

For traders, the action isn't over. Gold and silver are rebounding Tuesday morning as dip-buyers step in.

The question now: was this a healthy reset, or just the first leg down?

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⚠️ Disclaimer: Not financial advice. Do your research before making any trades.