U.S. stocks advanced in early trading on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a new all-time high and approaching the 50,000-point milestone. A rebound in technology stocks and stabilization in Bitcoin helped the S&P 500 recover after three consecutive days of declines. However, concerns over artificial intelligence-related spending persisted.

The Dow rose by 739.99 points, or 1.51%, to 49,648.71; the Nasdaq gained 176.61 points, or 0.78%, to 22,717.20; and the S&P 500 increased by 63.26 points, or 0.93%, to 6,861.66. During Friday's early session, the Dow reached an intraday record high of 49,709.54.

Investors continued to monitor corporate earnings reports. E-commerce giant Amazon.com reported earnings per share slightly below analyst expectations and indicated it expects capital expenditures to reach $200 billion this year, leading to a sharp decline in its stock price.

Social media platform Reddit posted better-than-expected results, issued strong guidance, and announced a share buyback program.

Despite Amazon's weak performance, other technology stocks rebounded: NVIDIA rose 2%, and Microsoft gained more than 1%. Both companies had seen declines approaching double-digit percentages earlier in the week.

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, fell sharply overnight, dropping 16% and briefly falling below $61,000. However, on Friday morning, it climbed 4%, recovering to above $66,000 and partially offsetting Thursday's losses.

U.S. stocks were sluggish on Thursday, with major indexes again weighed down by technology shares. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell about 1.6%, with Qualcomm plunging 8.5% after its earnings report, significantly dragging down the index.

Software stocks continued to decline on Thursday, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF dropping another 5%. The software sector fund has fallen more than 11% this week, heading for its worst weekly performance since 2008, as concerns grow over the threat artificial intelligence poses to the industry.

Analysts noted that a new model launched by AI startup Anthropic could render numerous software services "redundant," potentially threatening profits for related companies. Meanwhile, massive capital expenditure plans from tech firms like Google have raised investor anxiety about the profitability of AI investments.

Fiona Cincotta, Senior Market Analyst at City Index, commented, "It's almost been a two-part story this week. Early on, it was worries about AI software, and by the weekend, it shifted to concerns over AI spending." She added, "Together, they show the market is highly sensitive and nervous about the broader AI narrative."

Venu Krishna, Equity Strategist at Barclays, stated, "The reassessment of AI sentiment does not fundamentally alter our constructive view on the fundamentals of large tech companies at the center of the AI capital expenditure cycle. Their valuations remain attractive, and even if the market temporarily steps back from the AI-driven narrative, we believe their earnings resilience remains intact."

Both the Dow and S&P 500 fell 1.2% in Thursday's session, pushing the S&P 500 and Nasdaq into negative territory for the year.

The Dow is largely flat for the week, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down about 2% and 4%, respectively. The Nasdaq is on track for its worst week since early April, when market turmoil was triggered by import tariff concerns.

The decline in U.S. stocks, alongside losses in other asset classes, suggests a broader risk-off sentiment among traders.

Silver, a high-volatility asset favored by retail investors recently, faced another sell-off on Thursday. On Friday morning, silver futures extended losses, while spot silver prices rose. At the time of writing, spot silver broke above $76 per ounce, up 7.51% for the day.

Due to the earlier U.S. government shutdown, the release of the January non-farm payrolls report, originally scheduled for Friday, has been postponed to February 11 at 21:30, and the January CPI report will be released on February 13 at 21:30. These two key economic indicators may trigger another round of market volatility.