Gold, Silver Set for Weekly Losses

Gold and silver rose on Friday, even as they headed for a second week of declines after a global tech stock rout and a stronger U.S. dollar wiped out the precious metals’ gains made during a brief rebound earlier this week.

Spot gold rose 1.1% to $4,822.69 U.S. per ounce early Friday, down 1.2% for the week. U.S. gold futures for April delivery fell 1% to $4,840.40 per ounce.

Spot silver was up 0.4% at $71.50 U.S. an ounce after a 19.1% drop in the last session.

Friday’s session was a volatile one for silver with prices rising as much as 3% after having fallen 10% to below the $65-level, a more-than-one-and-half-month low.

The white metal was down almost 16% for the week. Last week it shed 18% in its biggest weekly fall since 2011.

Spot platinum fell 3.6% to $1,916.60 U.S. per ounce after hitting an all-time high of $2,918.80 on January 26, while palladium gained 1.4% to $1,639.18. Both were down for the week.

Duolingo Jumps on Announcing Q4 Earnings

Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL), the world's leading mobile learning platform, will announce its results for the fourth quarter and full year ending December 31, 2025, following the close of the U.S. market on Thursday, February 26, 2026. The Company will host a video webcast at 5:30 p.m. ET on that day.

The live video webcast will be accessible to the public through Duolingo’s Investor Relations website at https://investors.duolingo.com. A replay of the event will be available two hours after the live event and archived for one year.

Duolingo is the leading mobile learning platform globally. Its flagship app has organically become the world's most popular way to learn languages and the top-grossing app in the Education category on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. With technology at the core of everything it does, Duolingo has consistently invested to provide learners a fun, engaging, and effective learning experience while remaining committed to its mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available.

DUOL shares hiked $4.37, or 3.7%, to $121.27.

Canada’s unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage points to 6.5% in January of this year.

However, Statistics Canada said that employment across Canada decreased by 25,000 positions, or 0.1%, in January.

The unemployment rate declined during January because fewer people were searching for work, said the Ottawa-based statistical agency.

In January, employment fell by 27,000 positions among core-aged women (25 to 54 years old). There was little employment change among the other major demographic groups.

Across the economy, employment declines were broad based, with manufacturing positions falling 28,000, educational services losing 24,000 jobs, and public administration seeing 10,000 positions eliminated.

Those losses were offset by employment gains in information, culture, and recreation (up 17,000), business, building, and other support services (up 14,000), and agriculture (up 11,000).

Employment across Canada decreased by 67,000 jobs in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. However, employment rose in Alberta (up 20,000) and Newfoundland (up 3,800).

Employment was little changed elsewhere in the country.

Average hourly wages among employees rose 3.3% year-over-year in January to $37.17 following growth of 3.4% in December.

Asia Mostly Falls, Tracking N.A. Markets

Asia markets mostly saw a weak session Friday, after a tech-led rout on Wall Street.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 recovered 425.69 points, or 0.8%, to 54,253.68.

Shares of Japanese auto giant Toyota climbed 2% after the company released its third-quarter results, and announced that CEO Koji Sato was stepping down. Sato will be replaced by current Chief Financial Officer Kenta Kon.

Japanese pharmaceutical makers slumped on Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his website offering discounted prescription medicines. Sumitomo Pharma dropped almost 4%, while Takeda Pharmaceutical, Japan’s largest drugmaker, fell 1.34%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index shed 325.29 points, or 1.2%, to 26,559.85.

South Korea’s Kospi plunged as much as 5% at one point, but the index pared losses.

Index heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 0.44% and 0.36%, respectively, while Hyundai Motor was 4.3% lower.

Defense heavyweight Hanwha Aerospace was 3.75% down, while LG Energy Solution lost 2.53%.

South Korea’s market, which is heavily weighted in favor of companies in the chip and automotive industries, have seen sharp swings in the past week as sentiment over tech stocks sours.

Australia led losses in the region, ending at its lowest level in almost a month.

In other markets

The CSI 300 in Shanghai lost 28.26 points, or 0.6%, to 4,670.42.

In Korea, the Kospi dwindled 74.43 points, or 1.4%, to 5,089.14.

In Taiwan, the Taiex dropped 17.35 points, or 0.1%, to 31,782.92.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index faded 18.35 points, or 0.1%. to 4,034.41.

In Australia, the ASX fell 180.39 points, or 2%, to 8,708.83.

In New Zealand, markets were closed for holiday.

16:39 PM EST
Markets Climb to Near-Record Levels

Broadcom, Palantir Make Presence Felt

Markets across North America celebrated a glorious end of the week, with major gains. And stocks in Canada joined in the party, on the backs of gold and material shares.

The TSX popped 476.38 points, or 1.5%, to conclude Friday at 32,470.98. On the week, the index gained 547 points, or 1.7%.

The Canadian dollar climbed 0.3 cents to 73.23 cents U.S.

In corporate news, Saputo reported third-quarter revenue after the bell on Thursday that missed analysts' estimates, while energy firm Arc Resources' fourth-quarter revenue beat estimates.

Saputo shares gained 22 cents to $42.74.

Capstone Copper said on Friday that full operations have resumed at Chile's Mantoverde mine following an end to a labour strike. Capstone shares regained 79 cents, or 5.3%, to $15.72.

Gold issues proved the kings, with New Gold jumping $1.55, or 12%, to $14.48, while Novagold captured $1.18, or 10.4%, to $12.56.

In materials, Discovery Silver picked up 85 cents, or 19.5%, to $9.76, while Endeavour Silver soared $1.21, or 8.5%, to $15.52.

In health-care plays, Curaleaf improved 29 cents, or 9.7%, to $3.27, while Bausch Health Companies gained 19 cents, or 2.4%, to $8.03.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada says Employment edged down in January by 0.1% and the unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage points to 6.5%, as fewer people searched for work.

Ivey Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data fell to 50.9 in January from rose to 51.9 last month. January 2025's reading was 47.1.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange spiked 45.69 points, or 4.7%, to 1,015.34. The Venture struggled during the week, and is 34.74 points, or 3.3%, below last Friday’s close.

All 12 TSX subgroups were higher, with gold brighter by 4.8%, materials up 3.9%, and health-care better by 2.4%.

ON WALLSTREET

Stocks surged on Friday as technology stocks recovered following several days of heavy selling in the sector and bitcoin rebounded following
a rout that took the popular cryptocurrency down more than 50% at one point.

The Dow Jones Industrials charged ahead 1,206.95 points, or 2.5%, to 50,115.67, exceeding the 50,000 level for the first time ever and turning positive for the week.

The S&P 500 index triumphed 133.90 points, or 2%, to 6,932.30. With those moves, the S&P 500 climbed slightly back into the green for 2026.

The NASDAQ popped 490.63 points, or 2.2%, to 23,031.73.

Even with Friday’s pop, the S&P 500 was still on pace for a 0.1% decline for the week, while the NASDAQ is down almost 2% on the week.

The 30-stock Dow, meanwhile, is sitting up 2.5% week to date, benefitting from some rotation into some economically cyclical stocks even as the overall market was weighed down by tech selling.

Nvidia and Broadcom were two of the key winners Friday, with the former increasing by 8% and the latter growing 7% following big declines earlier in the week. Other stocks such as Oracle and Palantir Technologies also bounced back as investors reconsidered some of the names at cheaper levels. Oracle and Palantir each rose 4%. Some key software stocks like ServiceNow — which has been the epicenter of the tech selloff because of an artificial intelligence disruption fear of software — remained weak on Friday, however.

Amazon was an outlier Friday, as shares sank 6% after the e-commerce giant posted earnings per share slightly under analyst expectations and told investors to expect $200 billion in capital expenditures this year.

Prices for the 10-year Treasury dipped slightly, raising yields to 4.21% from Thursday’s 4.20%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices recovered 16 cents to $63.45 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices recovered $85.20 to $4,974.70 U.S. an ounce.

12:10 PM EST - Harvest Portfolios Group Inc : Announced that the Harvest Healthcare Leaders Income ETF (HHL:TSX) “HHL” has been named a 2025 FundGrade A+® Award winner by Fundata Canada Inc. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc (T.HHL ) shares were up $0.09 at 7.62.

Why Amazon Stock Dropped By 8%

Amazon (AMZN), among the Magnificent Seven, posted quarterly results that sent shares down this morning. AMZN stock lost 8% after setting a capital expenditure that rivals that of Microsoft (MSFT).
Amazon earned $1.95 per share as revenue increased by 13.6% Y/Y to $213.4 billion. Despite net sales of up to $178.5 billion expected in the first quarter of 2025, operating income will dip. It is expecting operating income to come in between $16.5 billion and $21.5 billion, compared to the $18.4 billion reported in Q1/2025.
Amazon plans to spend $200 billion this year in capital expenditures. Investors assumed that artificial intelligence investments were adding to those costs. However, the expenditure is predominantly in AWS for core and AI workloads. Since it is monetizing capacity as fast as the company installs the hardware, the firm should grow AWS revenue as long as AI demand continues.
Amazon is expecting that AWS will have a 35% operating margin through the fourth quarter, up by 40 bps Y/Y. Still, risks are rising that depreciation costs might grow faster than margin growth. As competition rises from more AI data center supply for Oracle (ORCL) and other middleware firms, AMZN stock could face more selling pressure.