Archive for February, 2026

• Morning News: February 17, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 17th, 2026 at 7:08 am

  Putin Doesn’t Want Peace. He Wants More Time

  Putin Swaps Cash for Crosses in Bid for African Influence

  The Five Best Books for Understanding Trump’s Dreams of Empire

  The Quiet Architect of Trump’s Global Trade War

  Cuba Suspends Annual Cigar Festival as U.S. Oil Blockade Deepens Energy Crisis

  Goldman, Nasdaq CEOs to Headline Mar-a-Lago Crypto ‘Forum’ Hosted by Don Jr. and Eric Trump

  Australia Shows Why Weak Productivity Is the New Inflation Problem

  Global Private Equity Firms Bowled Over by Indian Cricket League IPL

  Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital Raises $10 Billion in New Funding

  Activist Jana Builds Stake in Payments Business Fiserv

  I Chase Credit-Card Points. Bilt Changed My Mind.

  America Has a Terminal Case of Fiscal Paralysis

  The Affordability Crisis Can Now Add Wages to the Mix

  Warsh May Want a Smaller Fed Balance Sheet, But That’s Hard to Achieve

  Trump Sought Vast Budget Cuts. Congress Granted Few.

  A Case for Early Social Security Invested In Gold

  Rising Inequality Is Great. Its Downside Is Bigger Government

  Washington, Not Wall Street, Is the Real Housing Problem

  How Real Is a $1.6 Trillion AI Backlog?

  Many Consumer Electronics Manufacturers ‘Will Go Bankrupt or Exit Product Lines’ By the End Of 2026 Due to the AI Memory Crisis, Phison CEO Reportedly Says

  India Eyes $200 Billion in AI Investments Over Two Years

  India’s Solar Manufacturing Excesses Turn a Boom Into a Glut

  The US Is Beefing Up Its Nuclear Power Supply Chain

  Portland General to Buy PacifiCorp’s Washington Assets for $1.9 Billion

  Warner Reopens Talks With Paramount After Sweetened Offer

  Vaccine Makers Curtail Research and Cut Jobs

  Should Drug Companies Be Advertising to Consumers?

  Danaher Strikes $10 Billion Deal for Masimo

  Jeep’s Owner Has a $17 Billion Reliability Problem

  NAPA Owner Genuine Parts Plans to Split Into Two Companies

  Madison Avenue Is in Crisis. Midwestern Ad Agencies See an Opportunity.

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• Morning News: February 16, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 16th, 2026 at 7:07 am

  Diplomatic Feud With China Weighs on Japan’s Economy

  Europe’s Flagship Climate Tool Tests Political Limits

  Trump’s Coal Renaissance Comes at Cost for Taxpayers

  Trump Administration Ends Credit for Start-Stop Feature in Vehicles

  Trump’s Broad Use of Metals Tariffs Starts to Backfire, Requiring a Rethink

  One of Big Oil’s Biggest Defenses Is Getting Blown Up

  A Huge Bet on Supertankers Reverberates Through the Oil Market

  The Oil Market Is Trading on Bearish Vibes — for Now

  Visa’s Olympics Monopoly Highlights Europe’s Payment Headache

  Trump’s New World Order Is Pushing Sweden to Warm Up to the Euro

  A US Hedge Fund Has Made a Risky Bet on the London Stock Exchange

  America’s Statistical System Is Breaking Down

  Predicting Next Crash Made Harder as Private Markets Obscure Data

  Farmers Are Aging. Their Kids Don’t Want to Be in the Family Business.

  The Break Is Over. Companies Are Jacking Up Prices Again.

  From Hyatt to Holiday Inn, America’s Free Hotel Breakfast is Facing a K-shaped Economic Threat

  Want a Mortgage for Under 3% in 2026? Meet the ‘Assumable Mortgage’

  America’s Most Powerful CEOs Are Awfully Quiet Lately

  What C.E.O.s Are Worried About

  Companies Are Replacing CEOs in Record Numbers—and They’re Getting Younger

  Will 2026 Be the Year of the ‘Soonicorn’?

  Rampant AI Demand for Memory Is Fueling a Growing Chip Crisis

  Fund Beating 99% of Peers Sees Few Software Firms Surviving AI

  Working in A.I. Lifted Their Compensation. Now They Want Prenups

  Meta Is Wrong to Try to Sneak Into Privacy Intrusion

  Musk Is Beating China’s 203,000 Paper Satellites

  Musk Merger Puts New Twist on X as Everything App

  Warner Bros. Weighs Reopening Sale Negotiations With Paramount

  I Trusted Jeff Bezos. The Joke’s on Me.

  How a Trump Tax Break Rescued Horse Racing

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• Morning News: February 13, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 13th, 2026 at 7:03 am

  Europe Rethinks Nuclear Weapons After US Delivers Reality Check

  Europe Worries Trump Poses Threat to Its Financial and Tech Sovereignty

  Americans Are Paying the Bill for Tariffs, Despite Trump’s Claims

  Trump Trade Team Working to Narrow Scope of Metals Tariffs

  SALT Cap Boost in Trump Tax Bill Supersizes New Yorkers’ Refunds

  Why China Is Retreating Further From US Treasuries

  A 10% Rate Cap Would Force AI Reckoning for Banks

  Goldman’s Kathryn Ruemmler Wore Out Her Welcome

  Krugman: Making America Stagnate Again

  Nosebleed Home Prices Are a Brilliant Signal, Not a Call for Policy

  Meet the Former Karaoke Company That Sank Trucking Stocks

  Crab Heist Puts Spotlight on Surge of Cargo Thefts

  Detroit Automakers Take $50 Billion Hit as EV Bubble Bursts

  Amtrak Is Revamping Its Run-Down Fleet. Check Out the New Trains.

  Cuba Is Struggling to Keep Lights On Amid Trump’s Oil Blockade

  Venezuela’s Natural Gas, Not Oil, Might Be a Big Early Prize

  Iran Turns to Digital Surveillance Tools to Track Down Protesters

  El Paso Incident Highlights Gaps in America’s Drone Defense Industry

  Trump’s Actions Test the Fragile World of Air Travel

  China’s Rising AI Billionaires

  Nvidia’s Upstart Rivals See Cracks in AI Chip Market Leader’s Dominance

  Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

  Tesla Is the Odd Man Out in the Magnificent Seven

  Grok Fakes Are Digital Assault. Make It a Crime

  Kennedy Allies Target States to Overturn Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren

  Failure to Limit Healthcare Costs Will Lead To Tough Decisions

  The Happy Death of Manipulative Marketing

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• Morning News: February 12, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 12th, 2026 at 7:09 am

  Europe’s Depleted Natural Gas Tanks Spur Energy Security Worries

  Coal Power Will Need More Than the Army to Pull Off a US Revival

  A Nuclear-Power Startup Says It Can Rouse the Slow-Moving Industry

  Global Trade Is Leaving the US Behind

  Trump’s Trade Deal With India Has Become a Headache for Modi

  Trump Rebuked Over Canada Tariffs as Midterm Anxieties Grow

  States Say No Thanks to Trump Tax Cuts, Drawing Republican Fire

  Who’s Watching Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Watchdog?

  ‘A Big, Beautiful Deal’

  Emerging Market Stocks Rally for Fourth Day, Led by Korean Tech

  The Unsung Economic Boost Brought by Full Expensing

  Warsh May Not Be the Hawk Wall Street Expects

  Bank CEOs Oppose the CLARITY Act, But Savers Shouldn’t

  The Trump Administration Wants White Men to Claim Discrimination. This Is What Happens When They Do

  Unaffordable Housing Impacts How Americans Consume, Work and Invest

  Maybe America Needs Some New Cities

  What Sweeping Revisions and a Blowout Month Tell Us About the U.S. Job Market

  Healthcare Jobs Have Become the Engine of America’s Labor Market

  Without Reform, Healthcare Will Swallow the Federal Budget

  In Kentucky, People Blame Ford More Than Trump for Lost Factory Job

  Stuck With an Empty Factory, Ford Seeks a New Market

  CarMax Taps Hotel Veteran to Lead Turnaround

  Nuveen to Buy UK Asset Manager Schroders in £10 Billion Deal

  The Fortune 500 CEO Who Puts a Premium on Pain and Suffering

  Anthropic Pledges $20 Million to Candidates Who Favor AI Safety

  Founders Fund, D.E. Shaw, Dragoneer Among Co-Lead Investors in Anthropic Deal

  AI Can Be Transformational and Still Be a Bubble

  Salesforce and Friends Deserve This AI Squeeze

  US Decides SpaceX Is Like an Airline, Exempting It from Labor Relations Act

  Dr. Oz Is Not the Retirement Guru America Needs

  The Making of MAHA’s Biohacking King

  Novo Set to Make Wegovy Pill in Ireland for Markets Outside US

  Sales at McDonald’s Rise, Driven by Value Meals and Grinch Socks

  The Legal Weed Business Is Booming. Bank Access Isn’t

  It’s a Grocery Store, but Selling Food Isn’t the Point

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• Morning News: February 11, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 11th, 2026 at 7:05 am

  What It’s Like to Be a Banker in Russia During Wartime

  NATO Launches Arctic Mission After Trump’s Greenland Threats

  I Just Returned From China. We Are Not Winning.

  Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy Hands China a $55 Trillion Economic Edge

  Trump Wants to Revive Shipping. Investors Are Slow to Back Him.

  Trump’s Racist Post Was Harmful. His Policies Are, Too

  The US Government’s Brain Drain Has Reached Alarming Levels

  Trump Privately Weighs Quitting USMCA Trade Pact He Negotiated

  Europe Needs to Learn Its Lesson: Stop Relying on Imported Energy

  Elliott Takes Stake in London Stock Exchange Owner

  Will Bessent or Warsh Be the Scapegoat If the Dollar Falls?

  What a Weaker US Dollar Means for the Economy

  The U.S. Bond Market is Suddenly Flashing a Warning Sign About the Economy

  US 10-Year Yield Touches Five-Week Low Before Delayed Jobs Data

  Unemployment Rate in Focus as Fed Considers When to Restart Rate Cuts

  Big Revisions Could Alter Jobs Picture

  Sahm: A Year With No Jobs—But No Recession

  Thousands of Amateur Gamblers Are Beating Wall Street Ph.D.s

  Drug Cartels Are Shifting Their Money Laundering to Crypto. Cops Can’t Keep Up

  Private Equity Wants In On Your 401(k). This Lawyer Is Ready to Fight

  New York Fed: Consumer Delinquencies Hit Highest Level in Nearly a Decade

  Debit and Credit Card Price Controls Unfairly Hurt Minorities

  Trump Decries a ‘Nation of Renters’ but His New Policy Promotes One

  Who’s On the Other Side of the Big AI Selloff?

  Amazon and Google Crush the ‘Quarterly Capitalism’ Myth

  American Airlines Is Struggling, and Its Crew Members Have Lost Patience

  Ford Says Electric Vehicle Losses Will Continue for 3 More Years

  Hands-Free Driving Systems Confuse Drivers, but Carmakers Push for More

  Uber Pushes Back on the Robotaxi Skeptics With a Loud Advocate at the Top

  New Kraft Heinz CEO Pauses Split to First Improve Results

  Fibermaxxing Is a Diet Trend Even Nutritionists Can Love

  The Whiskey World Is Reeling, but This Company Has Bigger Troubles

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• CWS Market Review – February 10, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 10th, 2026 at 6:17 pm

  (This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

  On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 50,000 for the first time in its history. This comes almost 70 years to the day from when the Dow first breeched 500. In other words, the Dow has risen 100-fold in nearly 70 years. That works out to an average gain of 6.8% per year, or 1% every eight weeks, and that doesn’t include dividends.

  

  As impressive as that sounds, the Dow has actually been the laggard in recent years. The Dow’s holding of mega-cap tech isn’t quite as hefty as the overall market’s weighting. The Dow currently holds Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple.

  An important fact here is that the Dow is price-weighted which means the index is calculated by adding up the prices of the 30 stocks and adjusting by a divisor. Roughly speaking, each dollar move in a Dow stock is worth about 6.16 points in the Dow. How large the company is doesn’t matter. Of the four mega-cap stocks I just mentioned, only Microsoft is ranked among the top 12 in the Dow going by price weighting.

  In the chart below, you can really see how badly the Dow (in blue) has lagged the S&P 500 (red). If the Dow had merely kept pace with the S&P 500 over the last eight years, the index would be around 63,000 today instead of 50,000.

  

  Right about the time the Dow was breaking 500, the index made its first change in 17 years. In 1956, International Paper was added and Loews Theaters was dropped. Before that, we’d have to go back to 1939 when Nash Motors and IBM were dropped.

  The dropping of IBM was a huge mistake, and it completely altered the Dow’s history. All the major milestones would have come years earlier. IBM was added back to the Dow in 1979. Over those 40 years, shares of IBM soared 22,000%.

  The Market’s Inflation-Adjusted Peak

  Speaking of Wall Street history, yesterday was an important, and largely overlooked, anniversary for Wall Street. Yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the stock market’s inflation-adjusted peak.

  Some explanation is needed. On February 9, 1966, the S&P 500 closed at 94.06. Going by nominal terms, the S&P 500 passed that high as early as 1967. By 1968, the S&P 500 traded over 100, but after adjusting for inflation, the market was in a tailspin that lasted for several years.

  Here’s a look at the inflation-adjusted S&P for nearly the entire 20th century. I got this data from Robert Shiller’s data library. To make it easier to read, I set February 1966 to 100.

  

  By 1982, the S&P 500 was down more than 60% from its peak sixteen years prior. Think about that! As late as October 1992, the market was still trading below its inflation-adjusted peak from 26 years before.

  The key lesson from this data is how dangerous inflation is to the stock market. Inflation is a tax on capital. When inflation appears, bonds quickly lose value, and stocks fall as well to keep pace with fixed-income investments. From 1966 to 1982, inflation in the United States tripled. That took a huge toll on financial markets.

  Inflation was finally cured by the Fed in the 1980s, but it took a brutal recession to slay the beast. Once that was out of the way, the stock market soared. From a long-term perspective, stocks weren’t really climbing as much as they were making back a lot of lost ground.

  Here’s a chart looking at stocks and inflation from the early part of this decade. Notice that a sharp rise in inflation (the red line, left scale) sparked a big loss in stocks (the blue line, right scale). Again, stocks hate inflation.

  

  IES Teaches Us a Good Investing Lesson

  One of the lessons I stress to investors, especially newer investors, is how irrational the stock market can be. Warren Buffett once said, “If markets were rational, I’d be waiting tables for a living.”

  From a distance, the stock market can appear to be rational. It has all these numbers, and all these experts giving their expertise on all sorts of things. But in the short-term, it’s pure chaos. No one likes to admit that, but it’s true.

  We got a good lesson in the market’s behavior recently with one of our Buy List stocks.

  On January 30, IES Holdings, Inc. (IESC) released its fiscal-Q1 earnings report. This was for the three months ending in December. IES has been a great stock for us. I added it to the Buy List last year, and it gained over 90% for us in 2025. I especially like IES because it’s virtually unfollowed by any Wall Street analysts.

  I decided to keep the stock on the 2026 Buy List as well. IES is having another solid year for us. By January 30, IES was a 22% winner for us. That’s not bad for less than one month’s work.

  According to the earnings report, IES’s quarterly revenues rose 16% to $871 million, and operating income was up 31% to $97.7 million. Diluted adjusted EPS attributable to common stockholders was up 40% to $3.71. With so little analyst coverage, there’s no real consensus to speak of.

  At the end of the quarter, IES had a backlog of $2.6 billion. The company ended the quarter with $88.8 million in cash, no debt, and $169.9 million in marketable securities.

  IESC has four reporting segments. Communications’ revenue grew 51% to $351 million. Residential was down 11% to $284 million. Infrastructure Solutions had 30% revenue growth to $140 million. Commercial & Industrial was up 7% to $95 million.

  You would think this was good news. Not so. Once trading opened on Friday, January 30, shares of IES got absolutely clobbered. Whatever the expectations were, IES quite obviously didn’t meet them. By the end of trading, shares of IES were down 20% on the day. Ouch!

  I thought the drop was extreme, but it’s hard to argue with a mob. Did they even look at the earnings report? It said nothing that should have been a surprise.

  Now here’s the odd part. Since IES reached its low, the stock has been in a blistering rally. Over the last seven trading days, IESC has gained more than 31%. It’s made up everything it lost and then some. IESC is now a 28% winner on the year. The stock reached another new all-time high in today’s trading.

  I don’t get it. We made a tidy profit, and we didn’t do anything except not panic. This is a good reminder of why it pays to ignore the market’s short-term bumps and bruises.

  

  Tomorrow’s Jobs Report

  Earlier today we got the delayed retail sales report for December. The Commerce Department said that retail sales were flat during the month of December. Economists had expected an increase of 0.4%. Excluding autos, sales also were unchanged compared to the estimate for a 0.3% increase. That comes on top of a 0.6% increase for November.

  We’re getting several excuses for the poor report including inflation, tariffs and the weather. For the year, retail sales were up by 2.4%. That’s a little bit below the rate of inflation. Not including autos, sales were up 3.3% over the last 12 months.

  Miscellaneous retailers and furniture stores posted declines of 0.9%, while clothing and accessories stores were off 0.7%, and electronics and appliances saw a drop of 0.4%. Online outlets sales rose just 0.1%, while building materials and garden centers saw the strongest gain, up 1.2%.

  I need to apologize for an error. In last week’s issue, I said the January jobs report was coming out on Friday. That was incorrect. The report is due out tomorrow. My apologies. In my defense, the government shutdown screwed up many of these reporting dates.

  For tomorrow, Wall Street expects to see a gain of 55,000 new jobs for January. The last few reports haven’t been that strong. I think a disappointing report could upset the market. Wall Street expects the unemployment rate to stay at 4.4%.

  My biggest concern is average hourly earnings. For January, Wall Street expects to see a gain of 0.3%. Wage growth is running ahead of inflation but not by much.

  A big question for tomorrow’s jobs report is that the annual revisions are also due out. There’s a good chance that the numbers will show that the labor market is doing a lot worse than originally thought.

  As it looks right now, the Fed under Jerome Powell won’t touch interest rates again. We may have to wait until June, and a new Fed chair, for the central bank to cut rates again.

  That’s all for now. Expect more earnings news this week. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

  – Eddy

• Morning News: February 10, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 10th, 2026 at 7:03 am

  U.S. Frackers Explore New Frontier: Shale Abroad

  BP Suspends Share Buybacks as Profit Slumps

  The US Needs More Missiles, Not Defense Stock Buybacks

  Macron’s Golden Chance to Shield France’s Central Bank

  Trump’s Grip on Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Loosened by Courts

  Billionaires Fleeing California Wealth Tax Snap Up Miami Mansions

  Being Black on Wall Street Has Gotten Tougher as DEI Disappears

  Bitcoin’s Slide Isn’t a Market Panic. It’s a Legitimacy Test

  National Debt Solutions That Don’t Address Why There’s Debt

  Barclays Sets New Midterm Targets Alongside Profit Beat

  Blackstone Founder Steve Schwarzman Aims to Build a Top 10 Private Foundation

  How Trump Squandered His Most Potent Political Asset

  The Big Money in Today’s Economy Is Going to Capital, Not Labor

  What Replaces Deported Immigrant Workers? Not Americans.

  Healthcare Is Propping Up the Job Market

  RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Skepticism Is Entering a New Phase

  The Knockoff GLP-1 Market Is Still the Wild West

  Securing a Healthier Future Through Generic Drugs

  CVS Annual Profit Guidance Misses Wall Street Estimates

  Atlanta Is Challenging Big Corporate Landlords Without Waiting on Trump

  Memory Chip Squeeze Widens Gap Between Market Winners and Losers

  TSMC Revenue Jumps 37% in January as AI Spending Marches On

  Bond Investors Are Betting on Another 100 Years of Google

  Alphabet Seeks $9.4 Billion From Pound, Swiss Franc Bond Sales

  Alphabet’s 100-Year Bond Gets Highest Demand in Sterling Sale

  Spotify Keeps Adding Subscribers as Features Expand

  Kering Shares Surge on Hopes for a Sustained Rebound for Gucci

  A Conversation With Anna Wintour and Her U.S. Vogue Successor, Chloe Malle

  Eddie Bauer Files for Bankruptcy

  Red Lobster CEO Says Seafood Chain Needs to Get Smaller

  Chipotle CEO Wants More Customers Who Make Over $100K — Which Means Price Hikes Are Coming

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• Morning News: February 9, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 9th, 2026 at 7:02 am

  Taiwan Exports Start 2026 Strong in Bright Sign for Economy

  In Japan, Investors Give an Exuberant Welcome to Takaichi’s Big Win

  How Japan’s Leader Wants to Shape the Economy

  MAGA’s Split Over Israel Extends to a Ship Attacked 58 Years Ago

  US-Iran Talks Make a Good Start But Oil Markets Can’t Relax Just Yet

  Congress Must Stop War by Mission Creep

  Copper Price Surge Is Masking Mining Woes in Top Producer, Chile

  What an Olympic Medal Is Worth

  Why Inflation May Be About to Come in Hot

  Finance 101 Still Explains (Almost) Everything

  These Presidents Found Out How Trying to Control the Fed Chair Can Backfire

  Warsh Call for Fed-Treasury Accord Stirs Debate in $30 Trillion Bond Market

  Google-Parent Alphabet Kicks Off Seven-Part US Bond Sale

  Dow 50,000: Why Wall Street Keeps Misunderstanding Trumpnomics

  The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way.

  Junior Bankers Are Teaching Their Elders How to Use AI

  NatWest Agrees to Buy Wealth Manager Evelyn Partners for $3.7 Billion

  Trump’s Dollar Doctrine: Weak Currency, Strong Nation

  Easy-Money Loans Backfire on Rookies in the Home Flipping Market

  Immigration Raids in South Texas Are Starting to Hit the Economy

  The Heritage Foundation Sees the Family Crisis — But Not the Fix

  This Is Why It’s So Hard to Find a Job Right Now

  Chinese Cars Are Coming to the US — Like It or Not

  The Chinese Factory That Opened in the U.S. and Clobbered Its Rivals

  Big Tech’s AI Push Is Costing a Lot More Than the Moon Landing

  Advent, FedEx-Led Consortium to Buy InPost for $9.2 Billion

  Novo Says It’s Suing Hims to Halt Obesity Drug Copycats

  Kroger Plans to Name an Ex-Walmart Executive as Its Next CEO

  Hollywood Braces for New Round of Labor Talks

  Prediction Markets and Casinos Go to War Over Sports Betting

  Why the N.F.L. Booked Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl

  Two Volleyball Leagues Want to Be the Next W.N.B.A. Only One Can Win

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• Morning News: February 6, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 6th, 2026 at 7:03 am

  Argentina Inflation Battle Jolts Confidence in Milei’s Overhaul

  They Came for Its Riches, but Big Business Is Souring on South Africa

  Failed Rio Tinto-Glencore Talks Show Big Copper Deals Are Hard to Do

  Bank of Canada Gov. Macklem Warns of Misdiagnosing Economic Weakness

  Bank of Mexico Pauses in Rate-Cutting Cycle

  It’s Time to Rethink the Standard Investment Advice. But Not Too Much

  Crypto Takes a Deep Slide Despite Trump’s Support

  Bitcoin’s Slump Can Worsen as Icy Winter Sets In

  Credit Market’s Reality Check Follows Decade of Loose Lending

  Goldman, JPMorgan Bankers See Bonus Pools Rise at Least 10%

  They Can Keep Greenland. Let Us Have Free Speech

  Both Parties Are Missing Something Big on Immigration

  ‘Gang Stuff’ and ‘Illicit Trysts’: How Epstein Sought Leverage With the Wealthy

  Trump Is Remaking the Global Oil Market, and Exxon and Chevron Want In

  Trump’s Tax Law Sharply Cuts Amazon’s Corporate Tax Bill

  Amazon Shares Sink as Company Boosts AI Spending by Nearly 60%

  Big Tech to Spend $650 Billion This Year as AI Race Intensifies

  Amazon and Google Picked a Bad Time to Announce Extraordinary Spending

  The Dark Side of A.I. Weighs on the Stock Market

  Artificial Intelligence Will Be the Greatest Job Creator Ever

  The New Office Oddity: Co-Workers Dictating Everything Into AI

  AI Has Turned Bernie and DeSantis Into Unlikely Allies

  Your Business Runs on Data: Protect It Like It Matters

  The Car Industry Is Racing to Replace Chinese Code

  Facing Threats From Both America and China, Toyota Changes C.E.O.s

  AutoNation Revenue Declines on Weaker New, Used Vehicle Sales

  Why Are New Cars So Expensive in the US Now?

  Maritime Giants Target Major New York-Area Port Terminal

  Europe Accuses TikTok of ‘Addictive Design’ and Pushes for Change

  Nike and Trump’s Supporters Have Been on a Collision Course for Years

  Your Peptide Is a Black Box the FDA Chooses to Ignore

  Italy’s Richest Family Wants to Conquer America’s Breakfast Tables

  After 80 Years, Minute Maid’s Frozen Canned Juices Are Getting Put On Ice

  Gambling Pros Adjust to a Super Bowl on the Prediction Markets

  Blood Tests and Better-for-You Soda: Super Bowl Ads May Be Healthiest Yet

  The Super Bowl Ads (So Far), Ranked

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

• Morning News: February 5, 2026
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 5th, 2026 at 7:07 am

  Why a Snap Election Is a Gamble for Japan’s Leader

  Demise of US-Russia Nuclear Pact Sparks Fears of New Arms Race

  The Black Market for Russian and Iranian Oil Is in Trouble

  The $100 Billion Bet on Venezuelan Oil Relies on a Broken State Company

  Extreme Cold Is a Billion-Dollar Problem, Too

  U.S. Enlists Mexico, EU and Japan in Its Minerals Race With China

  Barrick to Spin Off North American Gold Assets Through IPO

  China Trader Who Made $3 Billion on Gold Bets Big Against Silver

  Silver Is So Pricey That the World’s Largest Jeweler Is Switching to Platinum

  Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000 as Market Faces a ‘Crisis of Faith’

  Bank of England Holds Rates But Signals It Is Likely to Cut Again

  Gilts Jump, Pound Drops as BOE Vote Fuels Bets on March Cut

  BNP Paribas Lifts Midterm Targets

  UBS Investment Bank Units to See Bonus Pools Jump by Up To 20%

  Top Republican Senator Says Fed’s Powell Didn’t Commit a Crime

  Tear Down the Regional Fed Walls, Mr. Warsh

  How Kevin Warsh Could Square the Trumpnomics Circle

  What if Labor Becomes Unnecessary?

  US Companies Announce Most Job Cuts for a January Since 2009

  Jeffrey Epstein’s Money Mingled With Silicon Valley Start-Ups

  Startup Pitches X-Rays and AI to Catch Fraudulent Returns

  Google Backs Up $185 Billion in AI Spending With Receipts

  Anthropic’s New AI Legal Tool Triggered a Selloff Without Evidence

  Texas Instruments to Acquire Silicon Labs in Deal Valued at $7.5 Billion

  What’s Behind the ‘SaaSpocalypse’ Plunge in Software Stocks

  The TikTok “Saga” Is About American Envy, Not National Security

  Spotify, a Major Audiobook Provider, Will Soon Offer Physical Books

  KKR to Acquire Pro Sports Investor Arctos in $1.4 Billion Deal

  Behind Disney’s Search for a Lasting Successor to Bob Iger

  Media Bosses Bent to Trump. Artists Aren’t Having It

  If a Fiber Campaign Costs Millions, It Has to Be a Super Bowel Ad

  Peloton Slashes Sales Outlook, Misses Estimates Despite Hardware Debut

  Hershey’s Outlook Tops Estimates on Price Hikes, New Items

  Be sure to follow me on Twitter.