U.S. stocks experienced an uptick during overnight trading, closing collectively higher. International gold and silver prices both fell. On February 17th, the three major U.S. stock indices posted modest gains: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.07%, the Nasdaq Composite increased by 0.14%, and the S&P 500 edged up 0.1%.

Regarding individual stocks, Apple surged over 3%, while NVIDIA and Amazon gained more than 1%. Netflix saw a slight increase. Conversely, Google, Tesla, Microsoft, and Intel each declined over 1%, with Meta posting a minor loss.

Reports indicate that Apple is accelerating development of three new wearable devices. Separately, NVIDIA and Meta Platforms announced a multi-year strategic partnership. Meta, already the second-largest buyer of NVIDIA chips, will deploy millions of NVIDIA units under the agreement, covering on-premise, cloud, and AI infrastructure.

A recent 13F filing revealed that Berkshire Hathaway reduced its stake in Apple by 4.3%, bringing its holdings to 227.9 million shares. In the final quarter of Warren Buffett's tenure as CEO, Berkshire Hathaway decreased its positions in Bank of America and Apple while increasing its stake in The New York Times.

Analysts noted that major indices regained footing after last week's declines, supported by gains in financial stocks. However, widespread weakness in software stocks limited the overall market advance.

Performance among popular U.S.-listed Chinese stocks was mixed, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closing slightly lower. Cha Panda rose over 2%, and Miniso gained more than 1%. In contrast, Kingsoft Cloud fell over 2%, and GDS Holdings declined nearly 2%.

On February 17th, international gold and silver prices dropped significantly. COMEX gold futures fell 2.93% to $4,897.80 per ounce, while COMEX silver futures plunged 5.74% to $73.525 per ounce. Spot gold opened slightly lower on February 18th, with spot silver down over 1% at the time of writing.

In related news, Iranian President Pezeshkian stated on February 17th that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons and is prepared to accept any form of verification regarding the peaceful nature of its nuclear industry. U.S. Vice President Vance commented on February 17th that U.S.-Iran negotiations are "progressing well in some areas," but Iran has not yet been willing to acknowledge certain "red lines" proposed by the Trump administration. Vance stated the desire to find a solution, "whether through diplomacy or other options."

Several Federal Reserve officials provided updated views on future interest rate cuts. Fed President Daly indicated the Fed has approximately 75 basis points of space before reaching a neutral rate, emphasizing the need to reduce inflation. She noted that most sectors of the U.S. economy, excluding healthcare and education, are experiencing job losses, highlighting the importance of preventing labor market vulnerabilities from turning into substantial weakness.

Fed Governor Barr stated that recent data suggests the job market is stabilizing, with the outlook implying the Fed will maintain current interest rates for some time. He still sees a "significant risk" of inflation persistently exceeding 2% and stated that evidence of sustainably declining goods price inflation is needed before further rate cuts. Barr also commented that the AI boom is unlikely to prompt Fed rate cuts and should, in the long term, enhance productivity and living standards.