Tonight, witness history! Global surge, positive news coming!

Global Market Rebound

Tonight, European stock markets surged across the board, with multiple indices hitting record highs; U.S. stock futures for the three major indices all strengthened, with large tech stocks rising pre-market, Nvidia up over 2%. On the news front, according to the latest signed cooperation agreement, Meta will deploy millions of Nvidia chips. Today during Asian trading hours, Japanese stocks rose sharply, with the Nikkei 225 and Tokyo Stock Exchange indices both up over 1%.

Analysts point out that concerns about the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in the U.S. stock market are easing. According to the latest report, JPMorgan believes that the previous extreme emotional outbursts are nearing their end, and its trading team is positioning inversely by buying undervalued software stocks and assets immune to AI interference to seize the upcoming rebound opportunity.

Global Rally

On the evening of February 18, Beijing time, European stock markets surged across the board. By 8:30 p.m., the FTSE 100 index in the UK rose nearly 1%, hitting a new all-time high; the STOXX 600 index in Europe rose nearly 1%, also reaching a record high; Germany’s DAX 30 index gained 0.81% intraday, France’s CAC 40 increased 0.45%, and Italy’s FTSE MIB and Spain’s IBEX 35 both rose over 1%.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures for the three major indices all strengthened, with Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.72%, S&P 500 futures up 0.54%, and Dow Jones futures up 0.38%.

In pre-market trading, large tech stocks mostly rose, with Nvidia up 2.3%, Amazon up 1.74%, Micron and Intel each up about 1%, and Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others rising slightly.

On the news front, Nvidia and Meta announced the establishment of a long-term strategic partnership. Under the agreement, Meta will deploy millions of Nvidia chips. The cooperation covers local deployment, cloud infrastructure, and AI infrastructure.

According to a statement released on Tuesday, Meta committed to using more AI processors and network equipment from Nvidia. Additionally, Meta will for the first time incorporate Nvidia’s Grace CPU into the core components of its standalone computers. This deployment will include products based on Nvidia’s current Blackwell architecture and the upcoming Vera Rubin-designed AI accelerators.

During Asian trading hours on the 18th, Japanese stocks rose sharply, with the Nikkei 225 index soaring over 700 points intraday. By the close, it gained 1.02%, stabilizing above 57,000 points; the Tokyo Stock Exchange index rose 1.21% to 3,807.25 points.

Additionally, the precious metals market, led by gold and silver, also rallied collectively. As of 8:30 p.m. Beijing time, spot gold increased 0.86% to $4,918.54 per ounce; spot silver rose 2.7% to $75.48 per ounce.

Looking ahead for gold, ANZ Bank forecasts that gold prices will reach $5,800 per ounce in the second quarter of this year. UBS’s more aggressive prediction suggests a peak of $6,200 per ounce mid-year, driven mainly by central bank and investment demand, expanding fiscal deficits, declining U.S. real interest rates, and geopolitical risks.

Jeffries has raised its 2026 gold price forecast from $4,200 to $5,000, noting that under inflation and dollar depreciation, investors and central banks “effectively have only one choice—hard assets.”

“U.S. Stock AI Selloff Nears End”

Meanwhile, concerns about the disruptive impact of AI in the U.S. stock market are easing.

In its latest report, JPMorgan states that the previous extreme emotional outbursts are nearing their end, and its trading desk is positioning inversely by buying undervalued software stocks and assets immune to AI interference to seize the upcoming rebound.

JPMorgan wrote, “Although the short-term market pattern remains unchanged, the narrative of ‘AI substitution’ is nearing its end, which means the bottom-fishing window for large tech stocks has opened.”

JPMorgan’s position intelligence team observed that in the current U.S. stock market, the semiconductor sector’s positioning is extremely crowded at +4 standard deviations (+4z), while the software sector is at a low of -3.5 standard deviations (-3.5z), with the gap reaching historic extremes.

JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy pointed out that although growth in the software industry has slowed due to macroeconomic slowdown, valuation declines have been significant. He recommends a “dumbbell strategy”: investing in top software companies with strong free cash flow (FCF) support while avoiding overvalued targets.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs also noted in its report that despite market worries about the disruptive impact of AI, Wall Street analysts are raising earnings expectations for the software industry, easing fears of AI-related shocks.

Additionally, to quell concerns about AI disruption, software companies including McAfee have pre-announced earnings data to demonstrate their resilience against AI impacts.

McAfee disclosed to bond investors that its preliminary revenue for Q4 last year was $626 million, roughly flat year-over-year. Rocket Software reported a 5.2% revenue increase in 2025 to approximately $1.4 billion.