🧠 Tariff retaliations, dollar strength shaken market rally optimism

🌐 Financial Markets

• US Jobs Report 📝 US job growth slows, adding just 143,000 jobs in January but unemployment rate fell to 4% – Reuters: US job growth slowed more than expected in January, but a 4.0% unemployment rate will give the Federal Reserve cover to hold off cutting interest rates until June.

• US Tariffs 🏛️ Stock market suffers weekly loss after Trump tariff jitters strike again – MarketWatch: All three US stock indexes closed lower on the week after US President Donald Trump said he plans to announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries next week, following weak jobs and consumer sentiment data, suggested it would be a broad effort to help solve US budget problems.

• US Dollar 💲 King dollar emerges as fresh threat for Big Tech earnings views – Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance: From Amazon to Apple, the surge in the US dollar is darkening the earnings outlook for US multi-national companies, and leaving investors to question how much longer the stock rally can withstand.

• Europe 🏰 Investment banks warn: Trump tariffs could derail Europe's 2025 growth – EuroNews: Goldman Sachs top Wall Street analysts say US tariffs could derail Europe's 2025 GDP growth to 0.7%, well below latest ECB projections. Key sectors such as cars and pharmaceuticals face risks, while a weaker euro may offer only limited relief.

 📈 Stocks

• $DKNG 🏈 DraftKings, Sportsbooks Gear Up for Record $1.39B Super Bowl Betting Surge – Yahoo! Finance: According to estimates from the American Gaming Association (AGA), DraftKings and other sports betting companies are poised for a major payday as Americans are expected to legally wager a record $1.39B on Super Bowl LIX.

• $UBER 🚘 Uber shares jump to three-month high after Bill Ackman builds $2 billion stake – Reuters: Shares of Uber jumped to a 3-month high after billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman announced that he had taken a stake in the ride-sharing platform.

• $PINS 📍 Pinterest projects revenue above estimates as AI tools boost ad spend; shares jump – Reuters: Pinterest forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates, betting on the image-sharing platform's artificial intelligence-powered advertising tools to boost ad spend.

• $PLTR 📊 Palantir soars 24% to record high as AI powers strong earnings and guidance – CNBC: Palantir surged 24% to a record high after reporting stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results and guidance driven by AI. CEO Alex Karp called the momentum within its commercial and government segments “unlike anything that has come before”.

• $ARM 🌐 Arm narrows full-year forecast, shares fall amid concerns of a slowdown in AI demand – MarketWatch: Chip tech provider said it will no longer meet the top end of its previous full-year guidance, but slightly topped Wall Street's current-quarter expectations.

🚀 Magnificent 7

• Hyperscalers 🌐 Tech megacaps plan to spend more than $300B in 2025, as AI race intensifies – CNBC: Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft intend to invest as much as $320B this year, in a race to build out data centers and AI infrastructure. Amazon offered the most ambitious spending plan, aiming to shell out $100B.

• $GOOG 🔍 Alphabet stock tumbles after cloud revenue miss, spending growth – Yahoo! Finance: Google parent Alphabet reported its Q4 earnings, beating on earnings and coming in even on revenue but falling short on its cloud segment revenue. The company also dramatically expanded its capital expenditures, from $57.9B to a planned $75B in 2025.

• $AMZN 🛒 Amazon issues disappointing revenue forecast, points to weakest growth on record – CNBC: Amazon reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for Q4, but gave disappointing guidance due to foreign exchange headwinds. for the current period.

  • CNBC: Amazon set to pass Walmart in revenue for first time

• $TSLA 🔌 Tesla car sales in China fall 11.5% as competition intensifies – CNBC: Competition between Tesla and Chinese domestic rivals is intensifying as the US EV-maker continues to launch new buyer incentives. Tesla sold 63,238 units in January in China, down 11.5% from the 71, 447 cars sold in the same month last year. Meanwhile, Chinese rival BYD sold 296,446 pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in January, up 47% year-on-year.

  • EuroNews: Tesla European sales crash in Germany, France and the UK, as CEO Musk continues political activism

📊 ETFs

• Expense Ratio Fees 💸 Vanguard slashes fees on dozens of mutual funds, ETFs – Yahoo! Finance: One of the world's largest ETF issuers announced it is reducing fees on 168 mutual funds and ETF-related share classes, potentially saving investors over $350M this year.

• Transports 🚚 Tariffs take the wheel on transportation ETFs – VettaFi vai ETFdb: Recent tariff news has caused a broad shock across the market, including the retail and manufacturing sectors.

• Healthcare 🩺 Can Health Care ETFs aid your portfolio? – VettaFi vai ETFdb: Health care was out of shape in 2024, lagging the broader market by 20% in 2024, however, the sector ETF was up approximately 6% year-to-date as of thru the end of January.

💱 Crypto Currencies

• $BTC ₿ Bitcoin tags $100K despite warning Fed rate cut pause 'here to stay' – Cointelegraph: Bad news is good news as a mixed US employment outlook sends BTC price action back to above $100k.

• Research Analysts 🧮 Grayscale Research: Bitcoin could reach new highs in Q1 despite sluggish jobs print – Cointelegraph: Digital asset management firm’s head of research says the  market has already priced in less accommodating interest rate policy, and legislative tailwinds.

• Lobbyists 🏛️ Crypto Firms on the Hunt for Well-Connected Washington Lobbyists – Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance: A growing number of crypto companies are shopping around to hire well-connected lobbyists or policy experts to bolster their presence in Washington and have a line to the new digital asset-friendly administration.

• Regulations 🏛️ SEC seeks more time to deliberate on options for Ethereum ETFs, extends review to April 9 – Cryptoslate: Third delay on SEC's decision, and affects the spot Ethereum ETFs issued by BlackRock, Bitwise, and Grayscale.

🏖️ Retirement

• Withdrawals 🥚 You can now use your 401(k) to rebuild after a natural disaster. But should you? – MarketWatch: Under the 2022 federal retirement law known as Secure 2.0, individuals may take out up to $22,000 from a 401(k) or IRA without penalty for certain reasons, including federally declared disasters – such as the LA fires or Southeast’s Hurricane Helene.

• 💸 Subscribe to Great Wealth Xfer Coming Soon: Covering the global $84T wealth transfer (2025 thru 2045) from Boomers to Millennials and Gen Z.

We’ll be back next Saturday morning to recap the week’s financial news.

BTW, we’re working on new ETF and income GPT tools, let me know if you’re interested in testing it out, or make suggestions.

Thanks to UseFidelity for sponsoring.

Happy Unprompting!

Rawee
[email protected]

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