Wall Street opened on a muted note Monday as big tech stocks weighed on U.S. indexes even as gold and silver prices recovered some of their recent losses, according to AP.The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, on track for its fourth modest decline in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 173 points, while the Nasdaq Composite also fell 0.2% in early trading. Nvidia and other big tech stocks pressured the market as their chips remain critical to the global expansion of artificial intelligence.The moves followed global volatility overnight. U.S. futures had weakened earlier, with S&P 500 futures falling 0.7%, Dow futures falling 0.4% and Nasdaq futures falling 0.7%, amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s nominee for the next Federal Reserve chair and renewed concerns about a possible bubble in the AI market.Precious metals recovered some of last week’s heavy losses. Gold rose 1.3% to around $4,800 an ounce, while silver jumped 5.9% to $83.19, although both remained below recent highs following Friday’s sharp correction.Bitcoin stabilized after a sharp decline, rising around 1.5% to just over $78,000, although cryptocurrency-linked stocks remained under pressure. Coinbase fell 3.7% in early trading, while bitcoin holder Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, fell 7.6%.Oil prices fell sharply after falling more than 5% overnight. Benchmark U.S. crude fell $3.19, or 4.9%, to $62.02 per barrel, while Brent crude fell $3.16 to $66.16 per barrel. Natural gas prices fell 17% after recent weather-driven gains.Investors are also tracking a busy week of corporate earnings and U.S. labor market data, including the January jobs report due later in the week.Shares of Walt Disney Co rose less than 1% after the company reported strong first-quarter results, supported by the box office results of “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Disney Entertainment revenue increased 7%, while Experiences division revenue grew 6%.Markets are also weighing the possible political stance of Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve chairman, whose nomination requires Senate approval. Concerns that the Federal Reserve’s independence could be tested have helped support gold prices and weaken the US dollar over the past year.In global markets, Asian indices saw steeper declines earlier in the session. South Korea’s Kospi closed down 5.3% at 4,949.67, with Samsung Electronics falling 6.3% and SK Hynix falling 8.7%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2.2% and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 2.5%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.4%.European markets were trading higher at midday, with Germany’s DAX up 0.8%, France’s CAC 40 up 0.6% and the UK’s FTSE 100 gaining 0.7%.Separately, geopolitical tensions remained the focus after Trump said Iran should negotiate a “satisfactory” deal to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons, adding that talks were ongoing. The comments helped ease concerns about potential oil supply disruptions, analysts said.
