Major indexes on the New York Stock Exchange exhibited a surge on the 28th (local time) to conclude transactions. Market observers noted that technology stocks, which had previously declined due to the influence of the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) 'DeepSeek', regained some of their losses thanks to bargain hunters.
On this day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 44,850.35, up 136.77 points (0.31%) compared to the previous transaction day on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index rose 55.42 points (0.92%) to 6,067.70, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index finished at 19,733.59, up 391.75 points (2.03%).
The New York Stock Exchange showed signs of recovery from the shock received the previous day (27th) when news broke that DeepSeek had launched a service capable of responding to U.S. AI at a low expense. The Nasdaq had dropped 3.07% compared to the previous transaction day, and the S&P 500 index also fell by 1.46%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by only 0.65%.
Market interpretations suggest that the rise in major stock indexes on that day was due to the spread of the recognition that the emergence of DeepSeek is not entirely detrimental to the U.S. AI industry. Analysts indicated that although DeepSeek possesses performance comparable to that of U.S. big tech AI systems, the AI semiconductor market is unlikely to be suppressed, particularly concerning companies like Nvidia.
Alexander Wang, CEO of Scale AI, claimed in an interview with CNBC, "DeepSeek has around 50,000 Nvidia H100 (high-performance chips), but they cannot speak about that due to U.S. export controls." Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, shared an agreement by posting related content on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
The newly reported orders from U.S. durable goods manufacturers continued to decline since December of last year. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that last month's durable goods orders totaled $276.1 billion, which is a 2.2% decrease from the previous month, seasonally adjusted. This figure recorded consecutive declines following November of last year.
Excluding non-defense aircraft, capital goods orders increased by 0.5% from the previous month, surpassing expectations (+0.3%). Revised figures showed an increase from 0.4% to 0.9% in the previous month. This indicator, dubbed 'core capital goods' orders, which excludes volatile items, serves as a leading indicator for U.S. equipment investment.
Meanwhile, the White House stated that tariffs scheduled for February 1 on Canada, Mexico, China, and others will remain in place, and according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the probability of the federal funds rate futures market reducing the benchmark rate by 25 basis points (1 basis point = 0.01 percentage point) by March recorded 31.1%. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index (VIX) closed at 16.41, down 1.49 points (8.32%) from the previous session.