Japanese and South Korean stock markets open lower, U.S. stocks and gold and silver face massive sell-offs, Trump claims he hopes to reach an agreement with Iran in "about a month"

【Market Review】

On February 13th, during trading hours, gold and silver continued their decline. London spot silver fell below $74 per ounce intraday, and London spot gold dropped to around $4,886 per ounce. On the previous trading day, gold and silver experienced a massive sell-off, with London spot silver plunging over 10% and London spot gold falling more than 3%.

Japanese and South Korean stock markets opened lower on the 13th. The Nikkei 225 index opened down 0.77%, and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) opened down 0.16%.

U.S. stocks faced a large-scale sell-off. As of the close on the 12th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 669.42 points, or 1.34%, to 49,451.98; the Nasdaq dropped 469.32 points, or 2.03%, to 22,597.15; the S&P 500 declined 108.71 points, or 1.57%, to 6,832.76.

Market panic in the U.S. stock market has clearly increased. During trading hours, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) surged over 20%.

【Stock News】

OpenAI released its first AI model based on semiconductor startup Cerebras Systems’ chips, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark.

AI startup Anthropic announced it raised $30 billion in its latest funding round, with a valuation reaching $380 billion. This round includes “partial” investments previously announced from Microsoft and Nvidia. Last November, both companies stated they planned to invest up to $5 billion and $10 billion respectively.

Google’s parent company Alphabet released an upgraded version of Gemini 3, called “Deep Think,” a reasoning mode available to Google AI ultra subscribers and some API users, aimed at applications in science and engineering fields.

【Global Macro】

According to CME’s “Fed Watch,” the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points by March is 7.8%, while the probability of holding rates steady is 92.2%. The probability of a cumulative 25 basis point cut by April is 25.3%, with a 73.1% chance of no change, and a 1.6% chance of a 50 basis point cut. By June, the chance of a 25 basis point cut is 49.9%.

U.S. President Trump on the 12th said he hopes the U.S. and Iran will reach an agreement in about “a month.”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on the 12th said that President Trump believes an agreement with Iran is possible, but he himself is skeptical.

The U.S. Senate on the 12th failed to advance a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. As temporary funding for the department is about to expire, it will soon face a “shutdown.”