LONDON – Global stocks fell on Thursday as worries about exploding costs from the AI boom sparked technology concerns, Europe geared up for a busy day of central bank meetings and silver tumbled another 10% in unruly metals markets.
Europe’s main exchanges had a relatively easy start overall, with the region’s tech stocks rising 1.8% after falling 7% in the past two sessions, and yields on the euro and German Bundestags holding mostly steady.
Google’s parent company Alphabet surprised the market on Wednesday by announcing a $185 billion capex plan for this year, 55% higher than analysts expected.
The news sent the company’s stock price down more than 6% at one point, and combined with a 17% plunge in chipmaker AMD’s stock price, extended a brutal tech selloff that has already wiped out nearly $850 billion in market capitalization this month.
Craig Inches, head of rates and cash at Royal London Asset Management, said the market was currently at a delicate stage, with equity markets tight, credit spreads tight and geopolitical and government debt levels also a persistent concern.
If the stock market doesn’t start returning to its long-standing, tech-driven uptrend pattern over the next few months, “you see the wheels start to come off a little bit,” Inches said.
“And what is the market reaction? Will the market jump back into safe havens like sovereign debt, or has that correlation broken down?”
Amazon is scheduled to announce its financial results later, but attention in Europe has shifted to GMT1200.
bank of england
After determining the interest rate,
european central bank
1315GMT.
Both interest rates are expected to remain unchanged. The euro remained below $1.18, while the pound was under continued pressure with the 10-year and 30-year yields at $1.358.
gold production
It rose to its highest level since late November.
More than the looming problems with the Bank of England, the problem was the growing uncertainty surrounding the prime minister.
Keir Starmer’s future
. He has come under fresh criticism this week for appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
RLAM’s Inches said the perception among international investors that Britain could compete for leadership was not good.
silver slump again
Precious metals prices also fell sharply on Thursday, snapping two days of gains, after last week’s massive implosion sent them plummeting from all-time highs.
Silver fell as much as 14% and was still down 10% at $79.2 an ounce in London. Gold also fell 1.5% to $4,888 an ounce, while platinum also fell 5%.
Returning to foreign exchange markets, the US dollar index rose 0.2% to a two-week high, while the risk-sensitive Australian dollar and Kiwi dollar fell 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.
The fragile Japanese yen appeared stable at 156.82 yen to the dollar. Opinion polls show that support for the party has declined for four consecutive days ahead of Sunday’s general election.
decisive victory
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi backed her spending ambitions, which have raised concerns about strained public finances.
In the U.S. Treasury market, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell 1 basis point to 4.2656%. January’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report has been postponed from Friday’s scheduled release to Feb. 11 as the four-day partial government shutdown ends.
Oil prices fell 1.5% to $68.5 a barrel after the United States and Iran agreed to hold talks in Oman on Friday.
Bitcoin
It shows no signs of stopping as it approaches the critical $70,000 level, making it the lowest since late 2024.
“We believe this broad decline is primarily driven by large withdrawals from institutional ETFs, which have been outflowing billions of dollars every month since the October 2025 recession,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note to clients.
