Japanese stocks jumped to a record high Monday, leading gains in the region after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won a landmark election victory. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party captured a two-thirds supermajority in the 465-seat lower house, public broadcaster NHK reported. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 5.6% to hit 57,337, while the Topix advanced over 3%, also notching a record high. Japanese stocks have hit several highs over the past few months, driven by the so-called “Takaichi trade” as markets expect the prime minister’s economic policies — seen as growth-focused continuation of Abenomics — to boost equities, while weakening the yen as she pushes for a looser monetary policy and higher government spending.
Stocks surged on Friday as technology stocks recovered following several days of heavy selling in the sector and bitcoin rebounded following a rout that took the popular cryptocurrency down more than 50% at one point. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1,206.95 points, or 2.47%, closing at 50,115.67. Friday marked the first time the Dow exceeded the 50,000 level. The S&P 500 jumped 1.97% and ended at 6,932.30, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.18% to 23,031.21. With those moves, the S&P 500 climbed back into the green for 2026. Even with Friday’s pop, the S&P 500 posted a 0.1% decline for the week, while the Nasdaq fell 1.8% on the week. The 30-stock Dow rose 2.5% week to date, benefiting from some rotation into some economically cyclical stocks even as the overall market was weighed down by tech selling.
Gold prices rose 1% toward $5,020 per ounce on Monday, the highest level in over a week, supported by a weaker US dollar as traders awaited key US economic data that could offer clearer insights into the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook. The January jobs report, scheduled for Wednesday and expected to show signs of stabilization in the labour market, as well as inflation data due on Friday, will be closely watched. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said last Friday that it may be necessary to cut rates once or twice to address weakening labour market conditions. In addition, China’s central bank extended its gold purchases for the 15th consecutive month in January, signalling sustained institutional demand.
WTI crude oil futures fell below $63 per barrel on Monday, extending last week’s decline, as concerns over US-Iran conflict eased after diplomatic talks. President Trump described the discussions as “very good,” while Tehran referred to them as a “step forward.” Both sides agreed to continue negotiations this week, alleviating fears of immediate supply disruptions. However, underlying tensions remain. Trump warned that the “consequences” would be severe if a deal on Iran's nuclear program is not reached, while Tehran reiterated on Sunday that it will not abandon uranium enrichment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday about American talks with Iran, his office said Saturday, while Iran’s foreign minister threatened U.S. military bases in the region a day after the discussions. “The prime minister believes that all negotiations must include limiting the ballistic missiles, and ending support for the Iranian axis,” Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement, referring to Tehran’s support for militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Trump and Netanyahu last met in December. There was no immediate White House comment. The U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran held indirect talks on Friday in Oman that appeared to return to the starting point on how to approach discussions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
It would be "impossible" to move 40% of Taiwan’s semiconductor capacity to the U.S., the island’s top tariff negotiator said, pushing back against recent comments by American officials who called for a major production shift. In an interview with Taiwanese television channel CTS that was broadcast late on Sunday, Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she had made it clear to Washington that Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem, built up over decades, could not be relocated. "I have made it very clear to the United States that this is impossible," she said, referring to the 40% goal the U.S. has floated. That ecosystem will continue to grow in Taiwan, Cheng said, adding that the semiconductor industry would keep investing at home. "Our overall capacity (in Taiwan) will only continue to grow," she said. "But we can expand our presence in the United States."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday he would not expect the Federal Reserve to move quickly to shrink its balance sheet, even under Fed chief nominee Kevin Warsh, who has criticized the U.S. central bank’s bond purchases. Bessent said on Fox News Channel’s "Sunday Morning Futures" program that the Fed could take up to a year to make decisions on its balance sheet, adding that Warsh will be a very independent Fed chief. "That will be up to the Fed in terms of what they want to do with the balance sheet," Bessent said. "I wouldn’t expect them to do anything quickly if they move to an ample (reserves) regime policy, and that does require a larger balance sheet. So, I would think that they’ll probably sit back, take at least a year to decide what they want to do."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that he was imposing sanctions on some foreign manufacturers of components for Russian drones and missiles used against Ukraine. "Producing this weaponry would be impossible without critical foreign components, which the Russians continue to obtain by circumventing sanctions," Zelenskiy said on X. "We are introducing new sanctions precisely against such companies – component suppliers, as well as missile and drone manufacturers. I have signed the relevant decisions." According to two decrees published by the Ukrainian presidency, targets of the sanctions include several Chinese companies as well as companies from the former Soviet Union, the United Arab Emirates and Panama.
Global semiconductor sales are expected to hit $1 trillion this year, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday. The group, which represents most U.S. chip firms, said that chip sales hit $791.7 billion in 2025, an increase of 25.6% over the previous year. That booming growth is expected to continue into this year as major technology firms around the world spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build out data centers for artificial intelligence. The growth leader and largest segment of chips was the kind of advanced computing chips made by Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. Sales of those products increased by 39.9%, totalling $301.9 billion in 2025. The second-largest category was memory chips, whose prices are soaring amid an AI-induced shortage. Memory chip sales rose 34.8% to $223.1 billion.
SpaceX has shifted focus to building a “self-growing” city on the moon over reaching Mars, CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post on Sunday, claiming that the goal could be achieved in less than 10 years. “SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” Musk said in a post on X. Musk said that relatively shorter travel times for the moon made it appear more attractive as a short-term destination over Mars. Still, he said that SpaceX will also “strive to build a Mars city” and will begin working on the project in five to seven years. Musk’s comments come as SpaceX prepares for a public offering this year that could raise $50 billion and value the firm at $1.5 trillion, making it the biggest public offering in history.
Amazon on Thursday projected a surge of more than 50% in capital expenditures this year, joining its peers in a spending spree to build out artificial-intelligence infrastructure, and sending its shares down 11.5% in after-hours trading. As the shares sputtered on news that Amazon would be pumping $200 billion into boosting its AI efforts in 2026, CEO Andy Jassy struck a defensive tone during the company’s call with investors, a contrast to the more self-assured Alphabet executives on Wednesday as Google showed resilience in developing AI software. "As a reminder," said Jassy, referring to the results of cloud platform Amazon Web Services, "it’s very different having 24% year-over-year growth on $142 billion annualized run rate, than to have a higher-percentage growth on a meaningfully smaller base, which is the case with our competitors."
Goldman Sachs is working with technology startup Anthropic to develop AI-powered agents aimed at automating a widening range of internal functions, CNBC reported on Friday, citing the bank’s chief information officer. Goldman Sachs confirmed the accuracy of the report. The Wall Street bank has spent the past six months collaborating with Anthropic engineers embedded within its teams to build autonomous agents for tasks including trade and transaction accounting as well as client due diligence and onboarding, Marco Argenti told CNBC. Anthropic is making a push for business deals with products like Claude Cowork, which executes computer tasks for white-collar workers. Goldman is still in the early stages of developing agents based on Anthropic’s Claude model, but the technology is expected to significantly reduce the time required to complete core operational processes.