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By Mike Murphy

A worker shovels snow outside the New York Stock Exchange on Sunday.

U.S. stock futures slumped and gold hit a record high Sunday as investors look ahead to a Fed interest-rate decision and Big Tech earnings this week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM00) fell more than 200 points, or 0.4%, late Sunday. S&P 500 futures (ES00) dropped 0.6 and Nasdaq-100 futures (NQ00) fell 0.8%, after Intel’s 17% plunge Friday.

Gold futures (GC00) topped $5,000 an ounce for the first time, rising as high as $5,029 on Sunday. Gold is up 15% year to date, and has surged 79% over the past year. Silver futures (SI00), which last week hit $100 an ounce for the first time, continued to surge Sunday. Silver has rallied more than 45% in 2026, and is up more than 230% over the past year.

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) slumped over the weekend, and was last trading around $86,400. West Texas crude (CL.1), the U.S. benchmark, dipped, and the ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, which compares the buck against a basket of rival currencies, declined 0.5% after the dollar lost 1.7% against the Japanese yen USDJPY on Friday

Stocks mostly gained Friday, but ended the week lower. The S&P 500 SPX dipped 0.4% on the week, while the Dow DJIA declined 0.5% and the Nasdaq COMP slipped 0.1%. All three benchmarks suffered their second straight weekly declines, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate-setting committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell expected to speak after its conclusion. Most economists and investors are expecting the Fed to keep rates unchanged, with perhaps no more rate cuts until summer – or even later. While inflation remains sticky and the job market is stagnant, Fed officials reportedly worry that more rate cuts could drive up inflation.

Read more: The Fed is expected to stand pat this week. The big question is for how long?

Wednesday will also bring quarterly earnings reports for three of the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants: Microsoft (MSFT), Facebook parent Meta (META) and Tesla (TSLA). Apple (AAPL) will report earnings Thursday.

Big Tech weighs heavily on the S&P 500, and has helped drive strong gains for the overall market in recent years. But as AI infrastructure spending continues to rise sharply without showing big results – yet – investors are getting wary, and broadening their investments to non-tech sectors. That could be good news for the wider market, giving it more durability and making it less reliant on a handful of stocks.

The upcoming “Magnificent Seven” companies’ earnings will show how those industry leaders are faring amid that cyclical trading, with eyes particularly on Apple and Google parent Alphabet, which reports Feb. 4.

More: These 5 tech stocks could be big winners this earnings season

Last week, markets were roiled by tariff threats – and their subsequent retraction – from President Donald Trump against eight of America’s European allies who oppose his desire to acquire Greenland.

On Saturday, Trump again raised the specter of tariffs against a close ally, threatening Canada with new 100% levies if it goes ahead with a trade deal with China. “We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

But Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no plans for a free-trade agreement with China, and said a recent deal with China merely resolved some tariff-quota issues between the two countries.

Furthermore, a little over a week ago, Trump said it was “OK” for Carney to sign a trade deal with China. “That’s what he should be doing. I mean, it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, he should do that,” Trump told White House reporters on Jan. 15.

-Mike Murphy

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  01-25-26 1837ET
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