Late-night U.S. stocks surged across the board, with chip stocks leading the gains

On the evening of February 18, U.S. stocks opened higher across the board. As of 11:25 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58%, the Nasdaq increased 1.16%, and the S&P 500 index gained 0.77%.

Large-cap technology stocks mostly rose, with Nvidia up over 2%. According to Caixin, Meta is increasing its investment in Nvidia, planning to deploy millions of chips over the next few years, and will be the first to adopt the Grace CPU.

Chip stocks broadly advanced, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 1.72%. Micron Technology rose over 5%, ASML and Applied Materials both gained over 2%, and storage chip giant Western Digital surged 4%. On the news front, Securities Times reported that Western Digital announced it will sell all its ordinary shares of SanDisk, with a transaction value of approximately $3.09 billion (about 21.3 billion RMB).

Gold-related stocks surged, with Coeur Mining up 3.5%, Vista Gold up 2.8%, First Majestic Silver and Endeavour Silver both up 2.6%, and Hecla Mining up 2.4%. Newman Mining and Pan American Silver rose over 2%, while Gold Fields and Harmony Gold gained 1.2%. According to reports, gold and silver prices surged sharply in the evening, with spot gold rising over 2.6%, reclaiming the $5,000 level, and spot silver increasing by 6% to $78 per ounce.

In the Chinese concept stock sector, the NASDAQ China Golden Dragon Index rose 0.49%. Canadian Solar gained nearly 3%, Baidu Group and Alibaba both increased over 1%, while WeRide fell over 2%, and iQiyi declined over 1%.

According to Shanghai Securities News, on February 18, HHLR Advisors, a fund management platform under Hillhouse focused on secondary market investments, announced its U.S. stock holdings as of the end of Q4 2025. Data shows that by the end of 2025, HHLR held 33 listed U.S. companies, with Chinese concept stocks remaining its core assets. In terms of portfolio adjustments, HHLR significantly increased its holdings of Alibaba and Pinduoduo last year, while reducing positions in NetEase, Futu Holdings, and others, further concentrating its holdings in e-commerce giants, biopharmaceuticals, and technology sectors.

Additionally, international oil prices rose strongly, with U.S. and Brent crude futures up by 3%, trading at $64.13 and $69.44 per barrel, respectively. According to CCTV News, the Slovak government declared a state of emergency in the national oil sector starting February 19 due to Ukraine halting transit of Russian oil. The government approved borrowing up to 250,000 tons of oil from the national emergency reserves for Slovak refineries, enough for about a month’s supply, to ensure market stability.

Major cryptocurrencies turned from decline to rise, with Bitcoin back above $67,000. Over the past 24 hours, more than 80,000 traders were liquidated.

According to CCTV Finance, the market is awaiting the upcoming release of the Federal Reserve’s January monetary policy meeting minutes and key U.S. inflation data to gauge the Fed’s policy direction. Currently, CME’s FedWatch tool indicates a high probability that the Fed will start cutting rates in June. Additionally, gold and silver prices have rebounded technically after sharp declines, and with ongoing US-Iran negotiations and uncertainties in Russia-Ukraine talks, safe-haven demand is supporting precious metals prices to some extent.

Latest reports from CCTV News state that, on February 18, Russia, the U.S., and Ukraine did not sign any documents during their two-day Geneva trilateral talks. Due to conflicting positions, political discussions stalled on the 17th. According to Xinhua News Agency, Ukrainian President Zelensky said on the 18th that during the two-day Geneva trilateral talks, Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia showed constructive attitudes on military issues, but disagreements remain on political matters. Zelensky noted that political topics involve sensitive issues such as territory and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.