Reset
Palantir posts a massive earnings beat, Nvidia’s US$100B OpenAI deal stalls and silver joins the meme-stock ranks. Reality checks were the trade of the week.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is one way to tell if an asset is in ‘overbought’ territory. Another way is when it appears with unusual frequency on subreddits like r/wallstreetbets. Silver ticked both boxes last week, with its 14-day RSI breaching 82 as it dominated retail investor forums.
The iShares Silver Trust ($SLV) recorded over US$80B in weekly volume – more than what it typically does in a year. But $SLV outflows far outpaced inflows this week after silver saw its worst day since 1980, dropping 30% last Friday.
Industry watchers are divided on what drove the move. Some think Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair signalled a more hawkish central bank, which lifted the U.S. dollar and made non-yielding assets like silver less attractive. Others suggest it was a simple case of deleveraging after an overcrowded trade: one analyst called silver the GameStop ($GME) of 2026.
Gold wasn’t immune to the precious metal selloff either, dropping to US$4,400/oz. But both gold and silver saw a strong rebound on Tuesday, as investors decided the selloff was less structural shift, more reset in positioning.
Resets extended to the tech sector too. The S&P 500 pulled back 1% and the Nasdaq dropped 1.8% on the day as more software stocks headed to the graveyard. One outlier was Palantir ($PLTR), which ended the day in green after a big Q4 earnings report.
The firm’s revenue rose 70% YoY to US$1.4B, driven by strong sales to the U.S. government. When questioned about the threat of AI disruption on the earnings call, CEO Alex Karp said Palantir was a ‘different species of company’ after investing in the tech years ago. Despite $PLTR trading at 169x PE, analysts are still pricing in more upside: investment bank William Blair just shared a revised price target of US$200 per share.
But AI bellwether Nvidia ($NVDA) wasn't immune to the rotation out of tech. $NVDA fell to November lows on reports its US$100B OpenAI investment had stalled. CEO Jensen Huang played down the concerns, saying the deal was ‘never a commitment’ and later insisting ‘there’s no drama involved’.
At least some of those tech outflows might have made their way to space stocks after Elon Musk announced SpaceX’s merger with xAI at a US$1.25T valuation. Shares in Rocket Lab ($RKLB) and AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) surged, trading like stand-ins for the private deal as investors rushed to capture a slice of the AI-space hype.
As the dust settles on the week’s volatility, markets look less stretched and more balanced – the kind of reset necessary for a leg higher.
This is not financial advice nor a recommendation to invest in the securities listed. The information presented is intended to be of a factual nature only. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. The author of this article and other employees of Stakeshop Pty Ltd may hold positions or have financial interests in the company (or companies) discussed above. As always, do your own research and consider seeking financial, legal and taxation advice before investing.
