U.S. tech stocks rally, with Google up over 4%. Precious metals surge late at night, with silver soaring 8%. Trump hints that the illegal tariffs will not be refunded.

On Friday, February 20, U.S. and European stock markets closed higher across the board, with the Dow up 0.47%, the S&P 500 up 0.69%, and the Nasdaq up 0.9%.

Most large U.S. tech stocks rose, with the Wind U.S. Tech Seven Giants Index up 1.57%, and Google gaining over 4%. In the news, on February 19 local time, Google released its latest foundational large model Gemini 3.1 Pro. Compared to Gemini 3 Pro released last November, the new model’s reasoning performance has doubled. Netflix and Amazon rose over 2%, while Apple, Nvidia, and Meta gained over 1%.

Most chip stocks increased, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 1.07%, Lam Research up over 3%, TSMC nearly 3%, Micron Technology over 2%, and Qualcomm up more than 1%. Meanwhile, Ouster Semiconductor fell over 1%, Intel declined more than 1%, and ARM dropped over 1%.

The drone concept declined, with Ondas dropping nearly 12%, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions down over 9%, and AeroVironment down over 6%.

Cybersecurity stocks plummeted, with SailPoint down 9.4%, Okta down 9.18%, Cloudflare dropping 8%, and the Global X Cybersecurity ETF falling 4.9%, hitting a new 2023 closing low.

Chinese concept stocks had mixed performances, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index down 0.05%. China Telecom fell nearly 5%, Bilibili dropped over 2%, Yum China declined nearly 2%, Pony.ai fell over 1%, NIO rose over 3%, and iQiyi gained nearly 3%.

In commodities, late in New York trading, precious metals surged. Spot gold rose 2.2% to $5,111.125 per ounce, up 1.32% for the week; COMEX gold futures increased by 2.51%. Spot silver jumped 7.96% to $84.625 per ounce, up 9.46% for the week; COMEX silver futures rose 8.61%.

Oil prices sharply dropped late at night. By the close, WTI main futures fell 0.14% to $66.31 per barrel, and Brent crude fell 0.1% to $71.2 per barrel. Both WTI and Brent crude have gained over 5% this week. According to CCTV News, on February 20 local time, Iran’s oil minister stated that cooperation between Iran and the U.S. on oil is not impossible.

The cryptocurrency market was active, with Bitcoin up 1.76% to $67,940, and Ethereum up 1.55%. In the past 24 hours, a total of 79,357 traders were liquidated globally, with a total liquidation amount of $182 million.

In the news, tensions in the Middle East have increased again.

According to Xinhua News Agency, U.S. President Trump confirmed on the 20th that he is considering a “limited preliminary military strike” on Iran to pressure Iran to accept U.S. demands regarding the nuclear deal. Iran’s Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian said on the 20th in an interview with U.S. media that Iran will complete drafting the nuclear agreement within 2 to 3 days and will submit it to the U.S. after final approval from Iran’s leadership.

According to CCTV International, on February 20 local time, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, and other countries urged their citizens in Iran to evacuate as soon as possible. The day before, Polish Prime Minister Tusk also issued a similar call.

CCTV International reported that U.S. President Trump, during a hastily convened White House press conference on February 20, said he would sign an executive order imposing a 10% import tariff on global goods to replace the large tariffs previously imposed under the U.S. International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the Supreme Court recently ruled illegal. When asked whether the approximately $175 billion in tariffs collected so far would be refunded, Trump said the Supreme Court’s ruling was flawed and did not mention “retaining this money” or “not retaining this money”—he guessed that “over the next two or even five years, this will go to court.”

On the evening of February 20, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut outlook also drew market attention. According to CCTV News, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released data showing that the Fed’s preferred inflation indicator—the U.S. December core PCE price index—rose 3.0% year-over-year and 0.4% month-over-month, both above expectations. The U.S. real GDP growth is projected at 2.2% in 2025, lower than 2.8% in 2024. Traders currently expect the Fed to delay rate cuts until July this year.

According to Cailian News, Fed Board Governor Bostic stated that if inflation trends “go in the wrong direction” and start rising, the Fed will have to consider raising interest rates again.