Wall Street loses ground in mixed trading as gold and silver prices bounce back

Several influential Big Tech stocks weighed on the market, including drops of 3.3% for Nvidia and 2.9% for Microsoft. They helped drown out a 6.5% climb for Palantir Technologies, which reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its forecast for 61% growth in revenue this year also topped analysts’ expectations.

The action was stronger, again, in metals markets. Gold’s price climbed 6.8% to $4,970.40 per ounce in its latest swing since its jaw-dropping rally suddenly halted last week. Silver’s price, which has been whipping through even wilder moves, leaped 11.6%.

Gold and silver prices had been climbing for more than a year as investors looked for safer places to park their cash amid worries about everything from tariffs to a weaker U.S. dollar to heavy debt loads for governments worldwide. Their prices took off in particular last month, and gold’s price at one point had roughly doubled over 12 months.

But those rallies suddenly gave out last week, and gold’s price dropped from close to $5,600 to less than $4,500 on Monday. Silver plunged 31.4% on Friday alone.

Many traders say expectations that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates high to fight inflation were what turned the momentum initially, though some disagree. Most agree that simple gravity took over afterward.

After gold and silver prices had shot up so much, so quickly, they were bound to fall back at some point, particularly with so many investors piling in to use gold as a way to bet on continued weakness for the U.S. dollar.

“The move underscored how stretched anti-USD positioning had become,” according to volatility strategists at Barclays.

On Wall Street, PayPal dropped 19.7% after reporting weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also named a new CEO after it said “the pace of change and execution” over the last two years “was not in line” with the board of directors’ expectations.

Pfizer fell 3.5% even though it reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The pharmaceutical company gave a forecasted range for profit in 2026 whose midpoint was below analysts’ expectations.

The Walt Disney Co. slipped 0.6% after it said Josh D’Amaro, head of the company’s parks business, will become its next CEO in March.

On the winning side of the market was PepsiCo, which rose 3.2% after the snack and beverage giant’s profit and revenue for the latest quarter nudged past analysts’ expectations. It also said it would cut prices this year on Lay’s, Doritos and other snacks to try and win back inflation-weary customers.

DaVita rallied 20.3% after the provider of dialysis and other health care services likewise delivered a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.29%, where it was late Monday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes bounced back in Asia from sharp losses the prior day.

South Korea’s Kospi surged 6.8% for its best day since the wild days of the COVID crash and recovery in early 2020. Just a day earlier, it had tumbled 5.3% from its record for its worst day in almost 10 months. The Kospi is home to many tech stocks, including Samsung Electronics, which surged 11.4%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 3.9%, while stocks rose 1.3% in Shanghai and 0.2% in Hong Kong.

Indexes were mixed in Europe.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.