Gold extends gains, breaking past $5,000; Asia stocks mostly track Wall Street losses on tech pullback

Gold extends gains, breaking past $5,000; Asia stocks mostly track Wall Street losses on tech pullback

Published Tue, Feb 3 2026

7:00 PM EST

Updated 22 Min Ago

Key Points

• Asia markets mostly fell after U.S. tech shares dragged Wall Street down.
• Software stocks continued their 2026 tumble.

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• NOW
• NVDA
• AAPL
• META
• MSFT
• .IXIC
• .DJI
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Low angle view of tall buildings in Tokyo, Japan, showcasing diverse architectural styles

George Pachantouris | Moment | Getty Images

Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Wednesday, tracking Wall Street losses after a sell-off in U.S. technology stocks weighed on sentiment, while gold extended gains for a second day.

Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1.2%, dragged by tech stocks. Among the biggest losers on the index were chip equipment maker Lasertec, which plunged 7%, and game maker Konami Group, which lost 5.8%. Japanese semiconductor equipment powerhouse Tokyo Electron also declined 3.2%.

The Topix declined 0.39%.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 reversed course and rose 0.45%.

South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.4%, while the small-cap Kosdaq added 1.01%.

Nintendo shares dropped more than 9%, despite maintaining its full-year sales forecast for the Switch 2 console, as investors assessed several potential headwinds for the gaming giant, including whether the company will be impacted by an unprecedented surge in memory prices — a key component in its consoles.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index declined 0.1%, while the CSI 300 fell 0.28%.

Spot gold prices added more than 1% to $5,002 per ounce, while spot silver added 0.69% to $85.70 per ounce.

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 pulled back as investors dumped technology stocks and moved into shares more broadly linked to improvements in the economy.

The broad market index fell 0.84% and closed at 6,917.81. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 166.67 points, or 0.34%, to end at 49,240.99. Earlier, the 30-stock index rose as much as 0.5% to touch 49,653.13, a new record. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.43%, settling at 23,255.19.

Most tech shares were in the red, including most of the "Magnificent Seven" names that have reported earnings so far — Microsoft and Meta Platforms were both down more than 2%, while Apple was marginally lower. Nvidia also slumped, with the artificial intelligence bellwether's nearly 3% drop adding to its losses for the year. Meanwhile, software stocks continued their 2026 tumble, with shares of ServiceNow and Salesforce falling by nearly 7% each.

— CNBC's Arjun Kharpal, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.

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