Late-night U.S. stocks surged across the board, chip stocks led the gains, Micron Technology rose 5%, gold rebounded to $5000, and talks between Russia, the U.S., and Ukraine stalled.

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, according to Securities Times, Western Digital announced it will sell all its common 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 Ares Gold up 2.4%. Newman Mining and Pan American Silver both rose over 2%, while Ginto and Harmoni Gold increased by 1.2%. On the news side, gold and silver prices surged sharply in the evening, with spot gold rising over 2.6%, regaining the $5,000 level, and spot silver jumping to a 6% increase, trading at $78 per ounce.

In the Chinese concept stocks sector, the NASDAQ China Golden Dragon Index increased 0.49%. Canadian Solar rose nearly 3%, Baidu Group and Alibaba both gained over 1%, while Wenyuan Zhi Xing 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 in Alibaba and Pinduoduo last year, while reducing positions in NetEase, Futu Holdings, and others. Its holdings are increasingly concentrated in e-commerce giants, biopharmaceuticals, and technology sectors.

Additionally, international oil prices rose strongly, with U.S. and Brent crude futures up 3%, trading at $64.13 and $69.44 per barrel, respectively. According to CCTV News, Slovakia’s government announced a state of emergency in the 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 reserve 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 across the market.

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. Coupled with ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations, the Russia-Ukraine peace talks still uncertain, and safe-haven demand is supporting precious metal 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.