On Monday, the three major U.S. stock indices closed higher. Cryptocurrencies, after a sharp plunge over the weekend, recovered some losses today, while precious metals continued their downward trend. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will not release the January non-farm payrolls report this Friday, and the December JOLTS report originally scheduled for Tuesday will also be rescheduled.
In the U.S. stock market, at the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 515.19 points, or 1.05%, to 49,407.66; the Nasdaq Composite gained 130.29 points, or 0.56%, to 23,592.11; and the S&P 500 index increased by 37.46 points, or 0.54%, to 6,976.49. Intel (INTC.US) and Micron Technology (MU.US) surged over 5%, while NVIDIA (NVDA.US) fell nearly 3%, and Apple (AAPL.US) rose 4%. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 0.65%, with XPeng (XPEV.US) falling 8% and Baidu (BIDU.US) declining 3%.
In European markets, Germany's DAX 30 index rose 284.73 points, or 1.16%, to 24,800.46; the UK's FTSE 100 index gained 118.90 points, or 1.16%, to 10,342.44; France's CAC 40 index increased by 54.64 points, or 0.67%, to 8,181.17; the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 59.74 points, or 1.00%, to 6,007.55; Spain's IBEX 35 index climbed 239.98 points, or 1.34%, to 18,120.88; and Italy's FTSE MIB index advanced 476.08 points, or 1.05%, to 46,003.50.
Following a "bloodbath" over the weekend, Bitcoin climbed above $78,000, rising over 2%; Ethereum increased more than 3% to $2,347.51.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.67% to settle at 97.635 in late forex trading. By the New York forex market close, 1 euro traded at $1.1783, down from $1.1865 the previous session; 1 pound traded at $1.3651, down from $1.3696. 1 dollar bought 155.71 Japanese yen, up from 154.56; 1 dollar bought 0.7809 Swiss francs, up from 0.7722; 1 dollar bought 1.3698 Canadian dollars, up from 1.3602; and 1 dollar bought 8.9780 Swedish krona, up from 8.8927.
Precious metals extended last week's decline, with spot gold falling 4.66% to $4,657.95 per ounce; spot silver broke below the $80 mark, trading at $79.186.
In the oil market, the March delivery light crude oil futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $3.07 to settle at $62.14 per barrel, a drop of 4.71%; the April delivery Brent crude futures contract in London declined $3.02 to settle at $66.30 per barrel, a decrease of 4.36%.
U.S. manufacturing activity returned to expansion territory after one year. American factory activity grew in January for the first time in a year, with new orders rebounding sharply, but the manufacturing sector is not yet completely out of trouble, as import tariffs have pushed up raw material prices and strained supply chains. The ISM Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.6 last month, crossing the 50 threshold for the first time in 12 months and reaching its highest level since August 2022, after having been in contraction for 10 consecutive months. However, manufacturing has not yet experienced the "renaissance" envisioned under the Trump administration's large-scale tariff policies. Manufacturing employment decreased by 68,000 jobs in 2025. The forward-looking new orders sub-index in the ISM survey jumped to 57.1 last month, the highest level since February 2022. The supplier deliveries sub-index rose to 54.4; a reading above 50 indicates slower delivery speeds, which may have contributed to the rise in the PMI. Typically, longer supplier delivery times are associated with strong economic activity and high demand, but they may also reflect supply chain bottlenecks related to tariffs. The prices paid sub-index increased from 58.5 in December to 59.0, suggesting that commodity prices still have room to rise further and may continue to push inflation higher for some time.
European stocks closed higher, with the Stoxx 600 index hitting a new closing high. European markets saw a notable rebound today, aligning with the gains in U.S. futures and stock markets. Although the previous pessimistic sentiment lingered into the day, it gradually eased. Ultimately, the Euro Stoxx 600 index closed at its highest level of the day, setting a new record high. Since bottoming out last April, the Stoxx index has surged 33%, with the momentum strengthening since the start of the year. Some analysts noted that European assets are flowing back to the region as core national governments shift towards higher deficit spending. Part of this capital flow may stem from safe-haven withdrawals triggered by the significant weakening of the U.S. dollar during the same period. Furthermore, while U.S. tech stocks have been the primary driver of the U.S. market's outperformance globally, concerns about the AI sector and high valuations are mounting. There is a strong argument that AI's productivity boost will have a greater impact in the real economy, which could lead to a re-rating of European stocks—many industries in Europe inherently enjoy government protection and face extremely low business disruption risks due to a lack of startups.
Trump stated that he is working with House Speaker Johnson to advance the funding bill. Trump posted, stating he is working with U.S. House Speaker Johnson to ensure the funding agreement passed by the Senate last week successfully passes the House and reaches his desk, at which point he will sign it into law immediately! He emphasized the need to get the government running again and expressed hope that all Republicans and Democrats would join him in supporting the bill and delivering it to his desk promptly, without delay. He insisted there can be no changes at this time, and they will work in good faith to address raised concerns, but another prolonged, meaningless, and highly damaging shutdown that severely harms the country—which benefits neither Republicans nor Democrats—must be avoided, urging everyone to vote in favor.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the January jobs report will be delayed due to the government shutdown. Due to the partial government shutdown, the BLS will not release the January employment report on Friday as originally planned. BLS Deputy Commissioner Emily Liddel stated in a release that the release schedule will be reassigned once government funding is restored, and data collection, processing, and dissemination will be suspended during the partial federal government shutdown. Additionally, the "December Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey" (JOLTS), originally scheduled for Tuesday, will also be rescheduled.
Trump announced a trade agreement with India, reducing tariffs on India to 18%. U.S. President Trump stated on social media that he had the privilege of speaking with Indian Prime Minister Modi this morning, whom he described as one of his best friends and a highly influential and respected leader of his country. They discussed many topics, including trade and ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil and increase imports from the U.S., and possibly Venezuela, which Trump said would help end the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, where thousands are dying every week! Out of friendship and respect for Prime Minister Modi, and at his request, they agreed to establish a U.S.-India trade agreement effective immediately. Under the agreement, the U.S. will reduce reciprocal tariffs on India from 25% to 18%. India will also gradually eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers on U.S. goods until they are completely removed. Prime Minister Modi also committed to "Buy American," pledging to purchase over $500 billion worth of U.S. energy, technology, agricultural products, coal, and various other categories. Trump stated their amazing partnership with India will grow even stronger in the future, noting that both he and Modi are doers, something most people cannot achieve.
France passed the 2026 budget bill, with the Prime Minister surviving two no-confidence votes. Reports indicated that the French parliament passed the 2026 budget bill on Monday, after Prime Minister Le Cornu successfully survived two no-confidence votes. This marks the end of political turmoil that had lasted for months and had shaken investor confidence in the French economy. A censure motion from far-left lawmakers in the National Assembly received 260 votes in favor but fell short of the 289 required to topple the minority government and veto the budget. Another motion from the far-right also failed, garnering only 135 votes. The Prime Minister and his government secured victory after making a series of concessions; the new budget involves smaller spending cuts and tax increases compared to the previous proposal. This means the fiscal deficit for the year (projected at 5%) will be larger than initially planned. However, Le Cornu avoided the fate of his predecessors, who were forced to resign due to disagreements with the National Assembly over austerity measures.
Oracle initiated a U.S. dollar bond issuance to raise up to $50 billion for expanding its cloud business. Oracle (ORCL.US) has launched a U.S. dollar bond offering to raise $45 to $50 billion for building more cloud infrastructure capacity. Informed sources revealed that the bond deal is expected to be sized around $20 to $25 billion. Oracle stated that the company plans to raise debt funding through a single bond issuance to cover half of its planned financing for the year and does not anticipate issuing additional bonds until 2026. The remaining funds will be raised through equity-linked bonds and common stock offerings. Sources indicated that the bonds could be issued in up to eight tranches with maturities ranging from 3 to 40 years. Preliminary pricing discussions for the 40-year bond were around a spread of approximately 2.25 percentage points over U.S. Treasuries. Oracle last tapped the U.S. bond market in September last year, issuing $18 billion in bonds, one of the largest offerings that year. Concerns over its rising debt burden have led to weaker secondary market performance for those bonds and increased the cost of insuring against an Oracle default.
Reports indicated that Musk's SpaceX confirmed a merger with xAI. Media reported that Tesla (TSLA.US) CEO Elon Musk plans to merge his space exploration company SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup xAI. The deal encompasses the billionaire's increasingly expensive ambitions to dominate both artificial intelligence and space exploration. The report stated the merged company is expected to be priced at around $527 per share, with a valuation reaching $1.25 trillion. Previous reports suggested SpaceX was planning an initial public offering that could raise up to $50 billion and value the company at around $1.5 trillion. The company had also discussed the possibility of a merger with Tesla. According to a prior Bloomberg report, xAI raised funds at a $230 billion valuation in January, while SpaceX had planned a share sale in December at an approximate $80 billion valuation and was exploring a public listing. This collaboration could enable Musk's vision of building data centers in space to perform complex computations for AI. Filings submitted on Friday show SpaceX is applying to launch up to one million satellites into Earth's orbit to realize this plan.
Reports indicated that OpenAI is dissatisfied with some of NVIDIA's latest AI chips and has begun seeking alternatives. Media reported that OpenAI is dissatisfied with some of NVIDIA's (NVDA.US) latest artificial intelligence chips. The company has determined that it needs alternatives to NVIDIA's newest AI chips in certain scenarios and began seeking options last year. This strategic shift by the creator of ChatGPT centers on its increasing focus on chips specifically used for the inference stage of AI execution. Inference refers to the process where AI models, like those powering ChatGPT, respond to user queries and requests. While NVIDIA still dominates the market for chips used in training large AI models, inference chips have become a new battleground for industry competition.
UBS Group lowered its price target on Oracle (ORCL.US) from $280 to $250.
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