On Thursday, the US stock market showed a clear divergence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose slightly by 0.55%, the S&P 500 index was essentially flat with a slight increase of 0.01%, but the Nasdaq declined by 0.44%, showing relatively weak performance. Large-cap technology stocks generally weakened, becoming the main reason for the drag on the Nasdaq, with overall investor trading sentiment being cautious.

Market focus is centered on two major events. The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the legality of President Trump's tariff increase policy on Friday, and economic data, specifically the non-farm employment figures for December 2025, will also be released on the same day. Both pieces of information could have significant impacts on subsequent market trends.

It is worth noting that Trump posted a speech on social media on Wednesday, suggesting that the U.S. defense budget should reach $1.5 trillion in 2027, a figure far higher than the 2026 level. Driven by this news, the U.S. defense sector performed strongly—Kratos Defense & Security Solutions' stock price rose over 13%, and Lockheed Martin's stock price increased over 4%.

In commodities, the scene was different. Gold prices slightly declined, while silver fell more significantly, dropping over 3%. Bloomberg's commodity index initiated its annual rebalancing, which is a key factor in suppressing precious metals: gold's weight was reduced from about 20% to 14.9%, and silver's weight was sharply cut from about 9% to 3.9%. The weight adjustments forced funds tracking the index to rebalance their positions. Coupled with the recent rebound of the US dollar index, many investors chose to take profits, ultimately leading to declines in both gold and silver prices.

In the Chinese concept stock sector, the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rose 1.09%. Individual stocks performed variably, with Bilibili up over 6%, Tencent Music and Alibaba up over 5%, and Xpeng Motors up over 3%; Baidu fell over 3%, and NIO declined over 1%.