Late-night gold plunge, silver crashes 26%, US stocks fall across the board, Yipeng Energy soars over 3000%, the US announces new sanctions on Iran

On January 31, the three major US stock indices closed lower,
Dow Jones down 0.36%, with a 1.73% increase in January;
Nasdaq down 0.94%, with a 0.95% increase in January;
S&P 500 index closed down 29.98 points, a 0.43% decline.

In the early hours of January 31, panic selling swept across the global precious metals market, with spot silver plunging over 36% intraday. Gold prices fell below the $5000 mark, with spot gold intraday decline expanding to 12.41%, dropping from $5400 per ounce to $4709.68 per ounce.

The gold sector closed sharply lower across the board,
Royal Gold fell nearly 10%,
Franco-Nevada dropped 10.51%,
NEWMONT declined 11.52%,
Eagle Mine fell 11.65%,
Barrick Gold dropped 12.09%,
AngloGold Ashanti fell 13.28%,
Goldros Gold declined 13.85%.

Cryptocurrency markets experienced mixed movements; as of press time,
Bitcoin fell below the $85,000 threshold, with slight gains,
Ethereum hovered around $2700, up over 4%.
In the past 24 hours, over 200,000 traders were liquidated, with total liquidation amounting to $1.406 billion.

According to CCTV News, US President Trump nominated former Federal Reserve Board member Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve Chair on January 30, pending Senate approval.

Analysts pointed out that the sharp plunge in precious metals is related to investors taking profits after record gains this year, and also influenced by the rebound of the US dollar. Additionally, news that Trump may nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair also weighed on gold and silver prices. Warsh has long criticized ultra-loose monetary policy, so the market may be pricing in how his appointment could influence future policy paths.
According to 21st Century Business Herald, Warsh joined the Federal Reserve in 2006, becoming the youngest Fed governor at that time. During his tenure, Warsh held hawkish views on monetary policy.

It is worth noting that Warsh is a staunch supporter of the Fed's balance sheet reduction. In multiple speeches over the past year, Warsh repeatedly stated that the Fed’s aggressive bond-buying programs over the years have gone too far and could drag the economy into fiscal policy chaos.

Wilson Asset Management warned that Warsh tends to favor accelerating balance sheet reduction at the expense of rate cuts, and this proactive liquidity tightening could trigger panic selling of assets such as gold, cryptocurrencies, and bonds.

On the macroeconomic front, US economic data presents complex signals. According to Xinhua Finance, December PPI rose 3.0% year-on-year, exceeding expectations, indicating persistent inflationary pressures, which echoes Fed Governor Bostic’s view that “two rate cuts are not the baseline scenario.” The January Chicago PMI rebounded sharply to 54, far exceeding expectations, indicating an unexpected expansion in manufacturing activity.

International news, according to CCTV News, the US Treasury Department issued a new round of sanctions against Iran on January 30 local time, involving Iran’s Interior Minister Iskander Momeni and several senior officials of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury’s website updated the sanctions list that day, adding 7 individuals and 2 entities. Besides Momeni, the list includes Majid Hadi, a commander of the IRGC Intelligence Department, and commanders of the IRGC in Tehran Province, Gilan Province, and Hamadan Province.