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postUS stocks found a foothold on Monday after a dramatic sell-off in gold and silver unnerved investors, shaking off AI trade worries as earnings flooded in and Federal Reserve uncertainty swirled.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose around 0.7%%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) added roughly 0.5%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) moved up 0.7%, shaking off the premarket maliaise for techs. All three indexes suffered a sharp reversal on Friday as precious metals skidded.
Wall Street is heading into a new month digesting fresh uncertainty around Nvidia (NVDA) and the broader artificial intelligence trade. CEO Jensen Huang played down the chipmaker’s pledge to invest $100 billion in OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) after The Wall Street Journal reported the plan was on ice. Shares dipped.
Big Tech has led market moves throughout the start of 2026, with earnings leading companies in oppositional directions. Quarterly reports from Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lie ahead on the docket this week in a wave of corporate earnings, with Disney (DIS) and Palantir (PLTR) reporting on Monday.
Pressure is easing on stocks amid a rollercoaster ride for precious metals that has unwound much of 2026’s most rip-roaring rally. Gold (GC=F) and silver (SI=F) swung back to gains early on Monday after rising — then tumbling — in Asia hours. That action followed a Friday wipeout that saw silver post its biggest single-day drop on record.
Over the weekend, bitcoin (BTC-USD) sank below the $80,000 mark for the first time since April, extending losses after a volatile end to last week. The cryptocurrency was last trading above $78,000 per token. At the same time, the dollar (DX-Y.NYB) gained against major peers, rising most against currencies sensitive to commodity prices.
Investors are also wondering what comes next after President Trump chose Kevin Warsh as his nominee to lead the Fed. That move is seen as reviving efforts to reduce the Fed’s $6.6 trillion balance sheet, even as it opened the door to speculation on the path of interest rates. Most traders are still pricing in two rate cuts by the end of the year.
On the macro front, the week’s highlight is Friday’s all-important monthly jobs report. Economists expect payrolls to have added 65,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate to hold at 4.4%.
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Target, Walmart start February with new CEOs
Two major retailers are entering a new era after their new CEOs took over at the same time.
At Walmart (WMT), the US’s largest private-sector employer, John Furner stepped into the CEO role following Doug McMillon’s retirement on Jan. 31 after more than a decade helming the company. Furner is a longtime Walmart employee who started as an hourly associate in 1993 and served in various roles in the Sam’s Club division before taking over US operations.
Meanwhile, at Target (TGT), former COO Michael Fiddelke succeeded Brian Cornell as CEO after Cornell stepped down after more than a decade running the company. Fiddelke faces a series of challenges at the beginning of his tenure, ranging from flagging sales to a crisis in Minneapolis near Target’s downtown headquarters.
While once considered close big box store rivals, the two retailers’ fortunes have diverged in recent years.
Target’s stock is down 42% over the past five years after seeing a major boost during the pandemic. Walmart’s stock is up more than 150% over the past five years as it has leaned into staples like grocery, e-commerce, and delivery.
Target’s market cap stands near $48 billion, while Walmart’s market cap of $970 billion is nearing the $1 trillion mark.
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Manufacturing sector unexpectedly picks up in January, PMIs show
Activity in the US manufacturing sector grew for the first time in a year, signaling unexpected improvement and resilience as companies built up inventory.
The Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) expanded to 52.6% in January, above estimates of 48.3% and last month’s reading of 47.9%. Another reading of PMI from S&P Global recorded 52.4 in January, up from 51.8 in the previous month.
Manufacturing PMI is considered a leading indicator for broader US economic activity. Readings above 50% indicate an expansion in activity, while readings below 50% signal contraction.
ISM’s New Orders Index grew for the first time since August, increasing 9.7 percentage points to 57.1% from December’s reading. The Production Index rose 5.2 percentage points to 55.9%, while the Prices Index also moderately climbed.
Tariffs and elevated prices (often linked by survey respondents to tariffs) remained key themes among purchasing managers, S&P Global’s Chris Williamson said. Although businesses are hopeful demand will pick up later this year and expectations have held up, political uncertainty has continued to drag on sentiment in the near term.
“Over the past three months, the survey indicates that factories have typically produced more goods than they have sold to a degree we have not previously seen since the global financial crisis back in early 2009,” Williamson said. “This highly unusual situation is clearly unsustainable, hinting at risks of a production slowdown and a potential knock-on effect on employment, unless demand improves markedly in the coming months.”
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Dollar recovers after Fed announcement, ahead of jobs report later this week
The US dollar index (DX-Y.NYB) continued to recover after Friday’s announcement that President Trump would nominate Kevin Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chair.
The index, which measures the dollar against several currencies, including the euro, Japanese yen, and British pound, rose 0.4% to 97.41 on Monday morning after the markets opened.
The dollar’s stabilization comes after the currency declined in the back half of January amid geopolitical concerns around Greenland. But some viewed the sell-off as potentially having gone too far, too fast.
“We’re certainly going to see bouts of dollar strength, especially if the Federal Reserve would have to go on to an extended pause or if inflation were to turn around later,” Madison Investments chief investment strategist Patrick Ryan told Yahoo Finance. “But right now, we’re positioning portfolios to take advantage of dollar weakness. … [The] dollar should be a tailwind for kind of investing overseas and looking for other kind of weak dollar dollar plays, and we’ve been taking advantage of that in our portfolios.”
A strong jobs report on Friday could provide additional support for the dollar’s stabilization.
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Stocks dip at the market open
Stocks nudged lower at the market open amid a sell-off in precious metals, AI trade fears, and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve.
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped 0.2%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell about 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) hovered just below the flat line before reversing direction to trade up 0.2%.
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Obesity market sales potential tightens as Novo and Lilly enter new era
Wall Street’s expectation that the obesity market will reach $150 billion in the next 10 years is no longer a certainty. With US prices for GLP-1 treatments from Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO) dropping, and competition rising, the market sales potential is tightening.
As new drugs and generic medicines enter the market, analysts are starting to re-examine initial forecasts for the sector and whether those numbers can be reached.
Reuters reports:
Read more here.
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Devon Energy and Coterra Energy sign $58 billion merger, biggest O&G deal in years
US shale gas giant Devon Energy (DVN) will merge with rival producer Coterra Energy (CTRA) in an all-stock deal valued at $58 billion, the companies said on Monday, marking one of the biggest M&A deals in the oil and gas sector in years.
Shares in Devon and Coterra lost over 2% and 3%, respectively, in premarket trading on Monday.
As crude oil prices have dropped over the past year and legacy shale plays throughout the US have begun to flatline, the deal buys Devon complementary shale acreage to add to the company’s portfolio, especially in the oil-rich Delaware Basin throughout West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
The merger of the two operators “will create one of the world’s leading shale producers,” Devon’s announcement said, with pro forma production for the third quarter of 2025 “exceeding 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, including over 550 thousand barrels of oil per day and 4.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day.”
The $58 billion merger — which has an equity value of roughly $21.4 billion, according to Reuters — is the largest merger in the US shale industry since Diamondback Energy’s $26 billion acquisition of Endeavor Energy in 2024.
Under the terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter, Coterra shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.7 shares of Devon common stock for each share of Coterra common stock. Devon shareholders will own approximately 54% of the combined entity, while Coterra shareholders will own approximately 46% on a fully diluted basis.
“This transformative merger combines two companies with proud histories and cultures of operational excellence, creating a premier shale operator,” Clay Gaspar, Devon’s president and CEO, said in the deal announcement.
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Disney parks business shines as CEO search narrows
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Strategy and other crypto-related stocks follow bitcoin lower
Strategy (MSTR) and other crypto stocks sank on Monday morning in the wake of bitcoin’s recent rout, which has sent the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency below $78,000.
Shares of Strategy, which pioneered the bitcoin treasury model, dropped more than 7% to $138 per share. Over the past year, the stock is down 55%.
Brokerages and exchanges tied up in the crypto ecosystem also fell. Robinhood (HOOD) declined by 3%, while Coinbase (COIN) shed 4%. Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) slid 5%.
Ether (ETH-USD) and other digital tokens also declined as pressure on the crypto space grew following the announcement of President Trump’s Fed chair pick.
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Goldman: US earnings forecasts are looking healthy
Strategists at Goldman Sachs said on Monday that earnings outlooks from US companies appear strong, easing concerns. Strategist Ben Snider said that more than half of earnings released have been above analyst expectations, beating the historical average of 40%.
Bloomberg News reports:
Read more here.
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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.
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Oracle aims to raise up to $50 billion in 2026 for cloud buildout
From Bloomberg:
Read more here.
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Oil plunges as Iran risks ease after Trump comments
From Bloomberg:
Oil plunged as geopolitical risk premiums faded after US President Donald Trump said Washington is talking with Iran, while a broader commodities sell-off exacerbated the slide.
Brent (BZ=F) plummeted more than 5% at one point and was trading near $66 a barrel, while US crude futures (CL=F) also nosedived. Trump downplayed Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s threats of a regional war over the weekend, reiterating he’s hopeful they’ll make a deal.
The Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry said it hopes diplomatic efforts will avert a war. The Tasnim news agency said talks between the US and Iran are likely in the coming days.
“The move lower looks more like a positioning reset than a fundamental shift,” said Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer at Karobaar Capital LP. “With no new supply shock, oil is giving back some risk premium as the market recalibrates after pricing in near-term disruption that just didn’t materialize.”
Read more here.
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January jobs data, Alphabet and Amazon earnings, more Warsh fallout: What to watch this week
Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley lays out the potential catalysts ahead as markets enter the week braced for more turbulence.
He reports:
Read more here.
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Nvidia stock falls as Huang caveats pledge to invest big in OpenAI
Nvidia’s (NVDA) proposed $100 billion investment in OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) was “never a commitment,” its CEO Jensen Huang said after a Wall Street Journal report that the megadeal has been put on ice.
Shares in the AI chipmaker fell nearly 2% before the bell on Monday.
Bloomberg reports:
Read more here.
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Premarket trending tickers: Estee Lauder, GameStop and Newmont
Estée Lauder (EL) stock rose 6% before the bell on Monday. The cosmetics and beauty company said it has entered into a partnership with SalonCentric to distribute its products across more than 850 US stores.
GameStop (GME) stock continued to rise on Monday after climbing 4% on Friday, following the news that CEO Ryan Cohen wants to expand the company through acquisitions.
Newmont (NEM) stock fell more than 3% during premarket hours on Monday. The gold mining company’s shares edged lower after gold fell 2% below $5,000.
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Dollar gains as gold, silver slide hurts commodity currencies
Bloomberg reports:
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Bitcoin extends losses heading to $73,000 support level
Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:
Read more here.
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Gold and silver continue to fall after record drop
Bloomberg reports:
Read more here.
