{"id":59033,"date":"2026-02-24T10:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/nasdaq-braces-for-deepseek-ai-launch-as-gold-slumps-and-credit-delinquencies-hit-9-year-high\/59033\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T10:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:08:27","slug":"nasdaq-braces-for-deepseek-ai-launch-as-gold-slumps-and-credit-delinquencies-hit-9-year-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/nasdaq-braces-for-deepseek-ai-launch-as-gold-slumps-and-credit-delinquencies-hit-9-year-high\/59033\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasdaq Braces for DeepSeek AI Launch as Gold Slumps and Credit Delinquencies Hit 9-Year High"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DeepSeek\u2019s imminent V4 AI model release<\/strong> is triggering warnings of a &quot;rough period&quot; for <strong>Nasdaq-listed AI equities<\/strong>, specifically targeting high-valuation leaders like Nvidia (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVDA\">NVDA<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Spot <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/metal\/gold-price.aspx\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"gold price today\">gold prices<\/a> plummeted nearly 2%<\/strong> to settle at <strong>$5,130.09<\/strong>, reflecting a sharp intraday reversal in safe-haven demand.<\/li>\n<li><strong>U.S. loan delinquencies hit 4.8%<\/strong>, the highest level since <strong>2017<\/strong>, as rising defaults among low-income and young borrowers signal growing credit stress.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Geopolitical tensions escalated<\/strong> as the Kremlin warned that Ukraine\u2019s potential pursuit of <strong>nuclear weapons<\/strong> would fundamentally alter Russia\u2019s military posture.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A partial government shutdown<\/strong> of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entered its 10th day, with President <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a> labeling the impasse a <strong>&quot;Democrat shutdown&quot;<\/strong> killing blue states.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>Nasdaq Composite<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/IXIC\">IXIC<\/a>) is facing renewed pressure as Chinese AI start-up <strong>DeepSeek<\/strong> prepares to launch its new <strong>V4 AI model<\/strong>. Analysts at <strong>CNBC<\/strong> warn that a competitive performance from the model could weaken market sentiment for U.S. tech giants, reminiscent of last year when a DeepSeek release triggered a <strong>17%<\/strong> single-day drop in Nvidia (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVDA\">NVDA<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Investors are closely monitoring the potential for DeepSeek to demonstrate high-efficiency &quot;inference-time compute&quot; at a fraction of the cost of U.S. rivals. This could challenge the massive capital expenditure strategies of firms like Microsoft (<a href=\"\/stock\/MSFT\">MSFT<\/a>), Alphabet (<a href=\"\/stock\/GOOGL\">GOOGL<\/a>), and Amazon (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMZN\">AMZN<\/a>), which are projected to spend a combined <strong>$650 billion<\/strong> on AI infrastructure in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>In the commodities market, <strong>spot gold<\/strong> saw a significant retreat, falling nearly <strong>2%<\/strong> to <strong>$5,130.09<\/strong> per ounce. Despite the metal&#39;s strong performance over the last two years, this latest dip suggests a temporary cooling of the safe-haven rally as traders react to shifting economic data and a stronger dollar.<\/p>\n<p>The domestic economic outlook was further clouded by a <strong>Bloomberg<\/strong> report revealing that the share of <strong>U.S. loans in delinquency<\/strong> has reached its highest level since <strong>2017<\/strong>. According to the <strong>Federal Reserve Bank of New York<\/strong>, total household debt has climbed to <strong>$18.8 trillion<\/strong>, with aggregate delinquency rates worsening to <strong>4.8%<\/strong> in the most recent quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Political friction in Washington reached a boiling point as President <strong>Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a><\/strong> intensified his rhetoric regarding the ongoing <strong>Department of Homeland Security (DHS)<\/strong> shutdown. Trump claimed the &quot;Democrat shutdown&quot; is &quot;killing the blue states,&quot; as agencies like the <strong>TSA<\/strong> and <strong>FEMA<\/strong> operate without appropriated funding due to a standoff over immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>On the international front, a top aide to <strong>Vladimir Putin<\/strong> told the <strong>Interfax<\/strong> and <strong>RIA<\/strong> news agencies that any attempt by Kyiv to obtain <strong>nuclear weapons<\/strong> would &quot;affect Russia&#39;s position on Ukraine.&quot; The Kremlin also indicated it would inform the U.S. about the potential appearance of such weapons, further straining relations following the recent expiration of the <strong>New START<\/strong> nuclear treaty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways DeepSeek\u2019s imminent V4 AI model release is triggering warnings of a &quot;rough period&quot; for Nasdaq-listed AI equities, specifically [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[33,633,1684,3703,3768,4180,4824,6833,15423],"class_list":["post-59033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-msft","tag-nvda","tag-gold","tag-ai","tag-googl","tag-trump","tag-geopolitics","tag-dhs","tag-credit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}