U.S. stocks plunge, storage concepts defy the trend and strengthen, SanDisk rises over 9%, popular Chinese concept stocks mostly decline, Trump speaks out

On Wednesday Eastern Time, boosted by U.S. non-farm payroll data, the three major U.S. stock indices opened higher collectively, but all turned green after a midday plunge. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index widened its decline, falling over 1% as of around 11:15 p.m. Beijing time.

Large-cap tech stocks mostly declined, with Nvidia and Apple rising over 1%, Tesla slightly up, while Google and Microsoft fell over 1%. Intel opened up 5%, reaching a high of $49.55 at one point. As of the latest update, it sharply dropped and turned red. On the news front, Intel and SoftBank’s collaborative next-generation AI memory technology Z-Angle Memory (ZAM) made its global debut.

Storage concept stocks rebounded strongly, with Micron Technology up over 6%. According to Cailian Press, Morgan Stanley significantly raised Micron’s target price from $350 to $450. SanDisk surged over 9%, Western Digital rose over 4%.

AI application software stocks showed mixed performance. Cloudflare surged over 10% after earnings, Spotify rose over 4%. Unity plummeted over 30% after earnings, Figma fell nearly 5%, Shopify turned red with a nearly 4% decline, after initially rising over 8% in early trading.

According to 21st Century Business Herald, market opinions on recent software stock trends have become divided. On Tuesday, UBS downgraded U.S. IT stocks, citing ongoing uncertainty in the software industry and a sharp increase in capital expenditures. JPMorgan believes that the concerns about AI replacing software applications will not occur on a large scale and recommends buying on dips. However, experts interviewed see AI not as the end of the software industry but as a force of reshaping—software companies closer to AI could take off again, while others might be squeezed out of the market. (Details)

Popular Chinese concept stocks mostly declined, with the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index down over 1%. New energy stocks led the decline, with Canadian Solar and Jinko Solar falling over 6%. Zhihu, Alibaba, Baidu, and NetEase dropped over 2%. Kingsoft Cloud defied the trend, rising over 9%, and Century Internet gained over 4%.

Gold and silver prices surged then pulled back. As of 11:10 p.m. Beijing time, spot gold was up 1%, surpassing $5,070, after reaching a high of $5,100 earlier. Spot silver rose over 4%, trading at $84.1 per ounce.

Major cryptocurrencies all declined, with Bitcoin falling to $65,964, down over 4% in the past 24 hours. Ethereum dropped to $1,914.97, down over 5% in the past 24 hours. In the last 24 hours, over 120,000 traders were liquidated globally, with total liquidation amounting to $380 million.

On the evening of February 11 Beijing time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data showing that non-farm employment increased by 130,000 in January, significantly above market expectations and the largest increase since April 2025; the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell slightly to 4.3%.

According to reports from E Company, U.S. President Trump posted on social media, “Job data is excellent, far exceeding expectations! The U.S. should pay much less interest on borrowing costs (bonds)! This will save at least one trillion dollars annually in interest payments—budget can not only be balanced but also run a large surplus.”

Following the data release, traders pushed back the expected timing of the next Fed rate cut from June to July. According to CME’s “FedWatch,” the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut by the Fed in March dropped from 19.6% to 6%, with the chance of holding rates steady rising to 94%. Some analysts pointed out that, given the unexpectedly strong employment data, the Fed’s focus will shift to inflation trends.

According to data from the London Stock Exchange Group, the market currently prices in a 50 basis point rate cut in 2026, down from about 60 basis points before the data was released.