Japan’s Nikkei 225 continued its post-election rally and reached new highs on Tuesday, amid gains in the broader Asian markets. The Japanese market continues to ride the “Takaichi trade” in the wake of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide victory in the Lower House. The Nikkei 225 rose 2.77%, within striking distance of the 58,000 mark, while the Topix was up 2.07%, also pushing record highs. Shares of Softbank Group Corp spiked as much as 11.95% on Tuesday after its subsidiary company upgraded its full-year forecasts for its financial year ending March 31. This follows a 6.3% gain on Monday. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.24%, paring some gains, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell into negative territory and was 1.16% lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.63%, and mainland China’s CSI 300 was unchanged.
The S&P 500 rose on Monday, boosted by technology stocks, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached new heights as investors awaited critical economic data and another batch of earnings reports following a volatile week that ended with the 30-stock index reaching a key milestone. The broad-based index advanced for a second straight day, rising 0.47% and ending at 6,964.82. The blue-chip Dow eked out a 20.20-point gain, or 0.04%, and settled at 50,135.87. The Dow Industrials scored a fresh all-time intraday high and closing record. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.9%, closing at 23,238.67.
Gold fell below $5,030 per ounce on Tuesday as investors booked profits after prices climbed to an over one-week high in the previous session. Market attention has now shifted to key US economic releases, particularly the nonfarm payrolls report and inflation data, which could shape the Federal Reserve’s rate path. On Monday, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett noted that job growth is likely to slow in the coming months due to declining population. Markets are currently pricing in at least two rate cuts this year, keeping expectations for easier monetary policy broadly supportive for bullion. Official-sector demand also remains strong, with China’s central bank extending its gold purchases for a fifteenth consecutive month in January.
WTI crude oil futures hovered around $64.2 per barrel on Tuesday, holding onto gains from the previous sessions amid lingering tensions between the US and Iran despite signs of progress in recent talks. On Monday, the US issued a warning to all American-flagged ships to avoid Iranian waters while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The advisory came even as negotiations between the two nations are set to continue following what they described as positive talks in Oman last Friday. However, uncertainty remains over a potential breakthrough, as Iran continues to insist on maintaining uranium enrichment, a key sticking point for the US.
U.S.-flagged ships have been advised to stay “as far as possible” from Iranian waters when navigating the Strait of Hormuz as tensions between Washington and Tehran remain elevated. In a notice issued Monday, the U.S. Maritime Administration said ship captains should decline permission for Iranian forces to board U.S. vessels. Boarding attempts, including moves to force commercial vessels into Iranian waters through small boats and helicopters, have occurred as recently as Feb. 3, the agency under the Department of Transportation said. Should Iranian forces board a U.S.-flagged commercial vessel, crews were advised not to “forcibly resist the boarding party,” the notice said. It added that refraining from forcible resistance does not imply consent or agreement to that boarding.
India has agreed to remove its digital services tax and has committed to buy around $500 billion of American goods under a recent trade deal, the White House said in a fact sheet published on Monday evening. India will also remove or reduce tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and a slew of agricultural imports. The country also committed to buy more than $500 billion of goods from the United States. New Delhi has agreed to remove its digital services tax and has committed to negotiate a new set of bilateral digital trade rules, the White House said. India will also work with the U.S. on hashing out more trade agreements in the coming weeks. Monday’s fact sheet comes just a week after the U.S. and India signed a trade agreement, under which Washington cut its trade tariffs on the South Asian country to 18% from 50%.
Singapore raised its growth forecast for this year to a range of 2% to 4% after a stronger-than-expected finish to 2025, saying on Tuesday that the global economic outlook was supportive and the AI investment boom would boost exports. The city-state’s economy grew 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025 from a year earlier, higher than an official advance estimate of 5.7%, government data showed. On a quarter-on-quarter, seasonally adjusted basis, gross domestic product expanded 2.1% in the October-December period, also higher than an advance estimate of 1.9%. The trade ministry upgraded its 2026 growth forecast from 1% to 3% previously, saying the global economy had outperformed expectations in late 2025 and that momentum would carry into this year.
The United Nations said on Monday it is waiting for details on when and how much the United States will pay toward its delayed budget dues, following a promise last week that Washington would make an initial payment within weeks. "We’ve seen the statements, and frankly, the secretary-general has been in touch for quite some time on this issue with Ambassador (Mike) Waltz," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a briefing. "Our (budget) controller has been in touch with the U.S.; indications were given. We’re waiting to see exactly when payments will be made and in what amounts," he added. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm on U.N. finances in a January 28 letter to member states and warned that the 193-country organization is at risk of "imminent financial collapse" due to unpaid fees.
Target is stepping up store staffing, but eliminating about 500 jobs in distribution centers and regional offices, CNBC reported on Monday citing an internal memo. The big-box retailer said it is making changes to the way it runs and oversees stores to improve the customer experience, a top goal of the company’s new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, the report said citing an internal employee memo. Target will reduce the number of store districts — the geographic areas that its nearly 2,000 stores are broken into, which have dedicated staffing — and put money toward more hours for frontline store employees, the report added.
Taiwan has told Washington that its proposal to move 40% of the island’s semiconductor supply chain to the U.S. was “impossible,” the country’s top tariff trade negotiator said in an interview. Speaking on a local television broadcast Sunday, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she had made it clear to Washington that the country’s semiconductor ecosystem, built up over decades, could not simply be relocated. The comments push back against onshoring targets outlined by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in a CNBC interview in January, shortly after the latest U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement. Lutnick said he wanted 40% of Taiwan’s entire chip supply chain to shift to the U.S. within President Donald Trump’s ongoing term. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s leading contract chipmaker and producer of the most advanced semiconductors, has already been working to better align with U.S. policy interests.
Google parent Alphabet tapped the U.S. high-grade bond market on Monday, adding to a boom in debt funding by AI companies that analysts project will lead to a record-breaking year for corporate debt issuance. Alphabet sold $20 billion in a seven-part series of senior unsecured notes, according to International Financing Review (IFR) data. The company is planning an additional debut sterling offering which could include a rare 100-year bond, according to a report on Monday by the Financial Times, which cited people familiar with the matter. Alphabet did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Monday’s deal follows a $25 billion note sale by Oracle disclosed on February 2 in a securities filing, as AI companies have rapidly increased their borrowing alongside their spending as they race to expand their data-center presence and processor needs. Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Eli Lilly will buy Orna Therapeutics for up to $2.4 billion in cash, gaining access to a technology that allows patients’ own cells to generate therapies inside the body, without the need to extract them. The deal, announced on Monday, is the latest in the flurry of transactions signed by the U.S. drugmaker over the last few months to diversify beyond obesity. Lilly shares were up more than 3% in morning trading. Orna is developing therapies that use a form of RNA called circular RNA, along with novel lipid nanoparticles. Its lead drug candidate, ORN-252, is in early stages of development. It is a type of treatment called chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or CAR-T, targeting cells with a receptor called CD19. CAR-T therapies modify a patient’s immune cells to recognize a specific target and destroy cancer cells.