Markets
A broad rise in yields and a lukewarm US market, testing new highs. Another huge gain for $HSI, rising 1.6%. Broad rise in yields. US10Y rose 6bps to 4.56%. Gold continues to gain.
Headlines
• Trump, Musk pull curtain back behind relationship, media’s divide and conquer mission
Fox interviews Trump and Musk. Doge makes sure the presidential order gets carried out. Trump: “I wanted somebody really smart to work with me.” Claims executive orders get signed but don’t actually get implemented. The two of them are getting things done.
Data center was the bottleneck. So they build 100k GPUs in 122days. Then built another 100k GPUs in 92 days. Grok3 has 10x more training than Grok2, beats Gemini-2 Pro, GPT-4o. “We are doing some obscuration so that the model doesn’t get copied.” It’s so fast.
• Stock market today: S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq futures hit pause with fresh tariffs, Fed minutes in focus
• Investors aren’t just buying US stocks anymore: Morning Brief
Europe and gold.
• Trump says he will introduce 25% tariffs on autos, pharmaceuticals and chips
• European Capitals Clash Over Ukraine as Trump Makes Overtures to Putin
Germany will have parliamentary election on this Sunday.
• Zelenskiy calls U.S. minerals deal unfair, seeks guarantees
• Germany’s Cartel Office calls for tighter oil pricing rules
Cartel Office aims to bolster competition.
• Europe stocks mixed; Philips tumbles 12% after sales miss expectations
• UK inflation leaps to higher-than-expected 3% in January
Inflation increased to the highest level since March 2024. UK rates were cut 25bps on Feb 6th to 4.5%
• Trump says Ukraine ‘should never have started it’ in comments about war with Russia
Says they should’ve made a deal 3 years ago.
• Singapore likely to see ‘limited’ direct impact from U.S. tariffs: deputy prime minister
Says progress in nuclear technology is their main concern. Singapore powers 95% of electricity needs through LNG from Malaysia and Indonesia. Looking into SMRs.
• Trump Is Scrambling Global Automakers’ Reliance on America
Korean and Japanese manufacturers have been increasing output in the United States, but still rely more on cars made in their home country.
• The French Billionaire Working His Trump Ties to Spare His Luxury Empire
May increase more production in the US for favorable tariffs.
