[Posted 4:30 PM ET, Friday]
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Edition 1,398
Despite all the Sturm und Drang in the stock market this week, we hit Dow 50,000 for the first time today, so Par-tay!
Those of us in the Northeast of the U.S. this weekend will be shivering their butts off amid dangerously low windchills. I saw an ‘expert’ say, “If you aren’t covered up adequately, in 30 minutes you’ll be in danger.”
Buddy, in ten minutes you’ll be dead.
Ergo, I ran out today and got food and beer to last the weekend because I’m not stepping outside either Saturday or Sunday.
CBS should do well with their broadcast of Saturday’s third round of the WM Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour, at least for the major media markets in my area, and then very early Sunday morning, we have the amazing Lindsey Vonn, a week after tearing her ACL, attempting to medal in the downhill at Cortina.
And we have the Super Bowl, which seems to be as much about Bad Bunny’s halftime show as the actual game. [I’ll go with Seattle, 24-14.]
Bad Bunny said at his press conference Thursday that he just wanted everyone to have fun, and he intimated he wasn’t going to get political, as many of us fear. For his sake, I hope he does stay away from politics. To me it would only juice his already world-best sales further.
But on to the rest of the news of the week from around the world….
—
Wall Street and the Economy
The House on Tuesday passed a spending package to end the partial government shutdown and keep the Department of Homeland Security running while Democrats and President Trump negotiate over restrictions on the administration’s immigration crackdown.
The vote was 217 to 214 to send the measure to Trump’s desk, which he signed hours later, but under the deal, the money for the DHS lasts just through the end of next week.
Most Democrats, 193 of them, voted against the spending deal on Tuesday, a reflection of how toxic funding the Department of Homeland Security and ICE has become in the party. Twenty-one supported it.
Twenty-one Republicans opposed the Trump-backed measure.
But by week’s end, the chances for DHS running out of funding at the end of next week was on the rise as Democrats are standing by their demands for immigration policy reform.
Republicans are brushing off the 10 “guardrails” that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) laid out Wednesday as requirements for Democrats to support a funding bill.
The implications of a DHS funding gap would go far beyond immigration enforcement.
Other agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Coast Guard could also see limited operations. Each of those fall under DHS.
On the economic data front…with the partial government shutdown until Tuesday, the January jobs report slated for release today, was moved to next Wed., Feb. 11.
In the meantime, we did have multiple lousy jobs reports from various sources. ADP’s said 22,000 private-sector jobs were created in January, half of what analysts expected. Initial jobless claims for the week were higher than forecast. And Challenger, Gray and Christmas’ report on January job cuts came in at 108,400 compared to 35,000 in December.
Separately, the ISM purchasing managers indexes for January, with the manufacturing reading at a far better than expected 52.6, while the service sector figure was 53.8 (50 the dividing line between growth and contraction). Manufacturing was in expansion mode for the first time in 12 months.
President Trump on Monday said the U.S. and India had agreed to a trade deal after he spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the baseline U.S. tariff rate on goods from India dropping to 18% from 25% (which was hiked to 50% over India’s purchases of Russian oil).
India apparently agreed to stop buying Russian crude, meaning the 25% “reciprocal” tariff imposed will be dropped.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow barometer for fourth-quarter growth is at 4.2%.
Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ticked up again to 6.11%.
Next week the big jobs report, finally, and reports on consumer prices as well as retail sales. None of the earnings reports to come next week are market movers.
Europe and Asia
We had the January PMIs for the eurozone, the composite index at 51.3, a 4-month low. Manufacturing 49.5, services 51.6.
Germany: 49.1 manufacturing, services 52.4
France: 51.2 mfg., services 48.4
Italy: 48.1 mfg., services 52.9
Spain: 49.2 mfg., services 53.5
Ireland: 52.2 mfg., services 54.5
Netherlands: 50.1 mfg.
Greece: 54.2 mfg.
UK: 51.8 mfg., services 54.0
Dr. Cyrus de la Rubia, Chief Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank:
“Some progress can be seen in the manufacturing sector, but it’s happening at a snail’s pace. After dropping in December, production ticked up slightly at the start of the year, essentially continuing the growth path we saw between spring and fall last year. Order intakes haven’t been much help though – they fell again, even if not quite as sharply as at the end of last year. Right now, it’s hard to say what might put an end to the ongoing rundown of inventories, which makes a strong short-term upswing rather unlikely. Still, when looking twelve months ahead, companies are feeling a bit more upbeat than last month about expanding their production….
“Service companies in the eurozone have expanded their business activities for the eighth month in a row. The growth trajectory can be described as decent, but the situation is still not comfortable. Companies hardly hired any new staff in January. The fact that new business barely grew also shows that the recovery in this sector is still fragile.”
Eurostat issued a flash estimate of inflation in the eurozone for January, down to 1.7% from 2.0% in December. Ex-food and energy, 2.2%.
Germany 2.1%, France 0.4%, Italy 1.0%, Spain 2.5%.
Industrial producer prices in December for the euro area declined 0.3% over November, -2.1% from a year earlier. [Eurostat]
Retail trade in the EA21 (Bulgaria was added Jan. 1) in December fell 0.5% compared with November, but was up 1.3% from December 2024.
Separately, both the Bank of England and European Central Bank held the line on interest rates this week. I track eight different European bond markets and their respective 10-year yields, and not one of them budged more than a single basis point over the course of the week vs. last Friday.
China reported its PMIs from the National Bureau of Statistics for January; manufacturing at 49.3 vs. 50.1 in December, services 49.4 vs. 50.2.
But the private RatingDog manufacturing PMI for the month was 50.3, services a solid 52.3.
Japan’s January manufacturing PMI was 51.5 vs. 50.0 prior, services 52.3; both further signs of a growing economy.
But December household spending was down 2.6% year-over-year.
South Korea’s manufacturing PMI for January was 51.2; Taiwan’s 51.7.
Street Bytes
—A massive rally today saved the week, the Dow Jones advancing 2.5% Friday to a record 50115! But the S&P 500, -0.1%, and Nasdaq, -1.8%, declined.
—U.S. Treasury Yields
6-mo. 3.61% 2-yr. 3.50% 10-yr. 4.20% 30-yr. 4.85%
Little change on the week, though the yield on the 10-year fell 4 basis points.
Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran resigned as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. He had been on unpaid leave from the White House since last fall, when President Trump nominated him to fill the remaining four months of a vacant Fed board term that expired Jan. 31.
Trump was hoping to then nominate Miran to a longer term on the Fed, especially if his effort to fire Board of Governors member Lisa Cook from her position over allegations of mortgage fraud is successful.
That fight is now before the Supreme Court, which last month signaled reluctance to greenlight Trump’s move for fear of weakening the Fed’s independence.
If Trump’s pick for Fed chief, Kevin Warsh, is confirmed, Warsh would be expected to fill Miran’s seat in the interim.
However, federal law allows a member to serve until a successor is appointed, meaning Miran could remain in place for some time.
Speaking of Warsh, the Wall Street Journal editorial board opined: “This is President Trump’s best second-term appointment.”
I like Warsh, too.
–Last Friday represented the biggest one-day dollar decline on record for gold and silver, after hitting all-time highs the day before.
And the volatility continued over the weekend and into Monday and Tuesday, but they rallied back, gold finishing with gains, just shy of $5000, while silver came off its lows to the $77 level.
—Bitcoin suffered a wicked sell-off from $84,000 last Friday to a low of $60,250 on Thursday afternoon (before recovering some to the $70,000 level today) aided in part by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggesting the U.S. government would not bail out the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is down from a high of $125,000 on Oct. 5.
Bitcoin-hoarding company Strategy Inc. confirmed a net loss of $12.4 billion for the fourth quarter after the close Thursday, driven by the mark-to-market decline in its vast holdings, Strategy holding 4% of all Bitcoin issued.
Michael Saylor, the co-founder and executive chairman, has said the company faces no margin calls and has $2.25 billion in cash, enough to cover interest and distributions for more than two years. But with Bitcoin trading below the firm’s $76,052 cost basis, pressure is building.
—We had a bloodbath in software stocks on Tuesday as investors’ fears that new developments in artificial intelligence will supplant software dragged down the shares of companies that develop, license and even invest in code and systems.
Recent advancements in tools such as those from AI developer Anthropic are now prompting more scrutiny of the likes of Salesforce and Adobe.
On Tuesday morning, investors digested Anthropic’s announcement that it was adding new legal tools to its Claude Cowork assistant meant to help automate a number of legal drafting and research tasks. Shares of Thomson Reuters, Legalzoom.com and London Stock Exchange, which all provide some form of legal tools or research databases, fell more than 10%.
Then the downturn swept through the broader software market; stocks like PayPal, Expedia, Equifax and Intuit were among the hardest hit, all also dropping more than 10%.
“If things are advancing as rapidly as we hear from OpenAI and Anthropic, it’s going to be a problem. Investors are starting to go after any of the companies that could be disrupted, which is all kinds of software application names,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management.
Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“Well, that was a surprise. Shares in software firms broadly sold off on Tuesday amid fears that artificial intelligence could disrupt their business models. Software companies were expected to benefit from AI, but AI is disrupting industries in unexpected ways. What the algorithm giveth, it can also taketh away.
“Tuesday’s rout was triggered by Anthropic’s launch of a new AI tool that automates legal work such as reviewing contracts, regulatory compliances, briefs and non-disclosure agreements. Businesses rely on legal software and data service companies to do much of this work, and investors fear Anthropic’s tool could supplant them.
“If AI can code and review legal documents, what’s to prevent it from also auditing a company’s books or crunching its tax liability? The threat that AI could replace all sorts of business-to-business enterprises prompted a mass selloff in software firms such as Salesforce, Intuit (which makes financial software products like TurboTax), and credit reporting agencies. Private-equity firms invested in software also took a header.
“Most of these companies have been incorporating AI into their products. But if Anthropic’s tool can deliver the same service to businesses at lower cost, they could be disrupted. Recall how Amazon upended brick-and-mortar book stores. Or how Netflix destroyed the movie rental business, and streaming is now disrupting cable TV.
“As legendary Intel CEO Andy Grove likes to say, only the paranoid survive. And companies and investors have good reason to be paranoid. The main AI fear on Wall Street has been about a bubble developing in big generative AI firms. The worry is they are building more computing power than they will be able to monetize, and returns on investment could be meager.
“That’s possible. There was excessive investment in network infrastructure during the dot-com bubble, though the internet still proved to be radically disruptive and transformative. Anthropic and others are betting that AI will similarly disrupt broad swaths of the economy in ways we currently cannot envision. Walmart’s market cap hit $1 trillion on Tuesday amid strong growth in its e-commerce business, which has been aided by AI. Who thought a retailer would be a big AI winner?
“AI will also augment what workers can now do with software. Drug discovery is a case in point. The broader challenge for businesses, including media outlets like our own, will be to provide information and services that AI models can’t.”
The software free-fall continued Wednesday and Thursday, but then came Friday’s huge recovery.
—Google parent-company Alphabet reported solid fourth-quarter earnings results after the close Wednesday, but the shares fell 4% as investors were more interested in the company’s forecast for expanded 2026 capital expenditure spending, which the company now sees at $175 to $185 billion, well in excess of expectations of around $115 billion. Good lord!
Those expenditures are intended to satisfy what seems to be a currently insatiable demand for AI cloud computing. Google Cloud saw revenue of $17.7 billion, up 48% year-over-year and well ahead of the Street. Google is also seeing its operating margins thicken at 30.1% in the fourth quarter, up from 17.5% last year and expectations of 22.7%.
CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google Cloud still expects to be supply-constrained in 2026, with cloud backlog growing 55% since the last quarter, now $240 billion.
Earnings-per-share for the quarter were $2.82, far above the consensus estimate of $2.63, with revenue reaching $113.8 billion, ahead of expectations for $111.3 billion, and up 18% on the year.
Also, the fears that AI search has been impacting Google’s ad sales may be quelled by the earnings report. Fourth-quarter Search ad revenue was up 17% from last year, easily beating the Wall Street consensus. But YouTube ad sales underperformed, only up 9%.
AI overview, an AI summary of search results at the top of traditional Google search, have proven to be very effective in maintaining the near 90% market share Google has in search. The Gemini 3 AI models, released in November, finally put Google on par with OpenAI and Anthropic.
—Amazon shares fell 7% after the company reported slightly worse-than-expected earnings results. But the story was the company issuing guidance that it would spend $200 billion in 2026 on capex, way above the $146.6 billion Street estimate (which was closer to $185 billion before the report).
For the December quarter, Amazon reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.95, compared with the consensus estimate of $1.96. Revenue came in at $213.4 billion, which was ahead of the Street’s $211.4 billion. Revenue for the closely watched cloud unit, AWS, was $35.6 billion versus the $34.9 billion analyst estimate.
Amazon said revenue for the current quarter would be between $173.5 billion and $178.5 billion, versus the $175.6 billion current consensus.
“With such strong demand for our existing offerings and seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites, we expect to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026, and anticipate strong long-term return on invested capital,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a press release.
On the earnings conference call with analysts, Jassy reiterated the company would invest aggressively to build capacity as it sees the strong demand for AI workloads. “I’m very confident we’re going to have strong return on invested capital here,” he said.
Many investors have their doubts.
—Elon Musk said SpaceX has acquired xAI, a deal that combined his powerful rocket-and-satellite business with an artificial-intelligence startup facing steep competition.
SpaceX confirmed the deal Monday, posting a memo Musk sent out about the arrangement on its website.
“SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth,” Musk, CEO at both, said in the memo.
SpaceX is planning to raise capital to expand its AI ambitions, including data-center capacity. It recently filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to build a “space cloud” of up to one million satellites.
That’s roughly 100 times the scale of SpaceX’s existing space-based broadband product, Starlink.
The idea is to use the power of the sun and the cold vacuum of space to free AI computing from its terrestrial bonds, such as electricity supply and cooling.
So with SpaceX morphing into an AI data center company, it makes sense to merge it with xAI, which has been valued at roughly $200 billion in recent funding rounds, while SpaceX is reportedly seeking an IPO valuation as high as $1.5 trillion.
Meanwhile, the other Musk company, Tesla, is positioning itself as an AI company. With each earnings call, it’s all about the future of robo-taxis and humanoid robots, with little discussion on its cars, whose sales have been declining.
However, Tesla sold 69,129 China-made electric vehicles in January, up 9.3% from a year earlier, extending gains for a third consecutive month as it battles shrinking market share in both China and Europe.
But January sales fell 29% from December’s 97,171 units.
In Europe, Volkswagen overtook Tesla in sales of fully-electric cars in 2025, data from JATO Dynamics showed on Thursday, with VW brand battery electric vehicles in Europe rising 56% last year.
Registrations of Tesla cars, on the other hand, dropped 27% in the same period.
Volkswagen sold 274,278 BEVs in Europe last year while Tesla sold 236,357.
—Stellantis (Jeep, Chrysler, Fiat) shares cratered 25% today after the automaker reported a massive charge of 22 billion euros ($25.94bn) as it resets its electric vehicle business.
“The charges announced today largely reflect the cost of over-estimating the pace of the energy transition that distanced us from many car buyers’ real-world needs, means and desires,” Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said in a statement. “They also reflect the impact of previous poor operational execution, the effects of which are being progressively addressed by our new Team.”
—Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company’s proposed $100 billion investment in OpenAI was “never a commitment” and that the company would consider any funding rounds “one at a time.”
“It was never a commitment,” Huang told reporters in Taipei on Sunday. “They invited us to invest up to $100 billion and of course, we were, we were very happy and honored that they invited us, but we will invest one step at a time.”
As part of a letter of intent signed in September, Nvidia said it planned to invest as much as $100 billion in OpenAI to support new data centers and other artificial intelligence infrastructure. The deal was designed to help OpenAI build data centers with a capacity of at least 10 gigawatts of power – equivalent to the peak electricity demand of New York City – equipped with Nvidia’s advanced chips to train and deploy AI models.
—Oracle shares fell anew Monday after it outlined plans to raise $45 to $50 billion this year to expand its cloud infrastructure, fueling investor concerns about its rising debt load. [And then we had Tuesday’s tech sector issues on the topic.]
While companies continue to ramp up capacity despite limited visibility into potential returns, investors are concerned whether a surge in artificial intelligence-related spending across the technology sector would generate sustained demand.
Oracle is heavily tied to OpenAI and these days that’s not exactly a good thing, see Nvidia above.
—Advanced Micro Devices recorded a 34% jump in fourth-quarter sales as its data-center business boomed.
The chip maker Tuesday posted a profit of $1.51 billion, $1.53 per share, adjusted, ahead of the Street’s anticipated $1.32.
Revenue rose 34% to $10.27 billion vs. expectations of $9.69bn.
AMD’s data-center segment sales jumped 39%, driven by strong demand for its EPYC processors and the ramp-up of its Instinct GPU shipments.
The company is looking for first-quarter revenue to be between $9.5 billion and $10.1 billion, ahead of Wall Street’s projection of $9.42 billion, but the tepid outlook, including for the year overall, caused investors to flee the stock to the tune of 17%!
—TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2025
2/5…127 percent of 2025
2/4…111
2/3…79
2/2…92
2/1…129
1/31…76
1/30…101
1/29…125
—Disney had a busy week. Over the weekend, word leaked out that CEO Bob Iger was planning to step down as CEO and pull back from daily management before the Dec. 31 end of his contract.
Disney then reported fourth-quarter earnings Monday that beat forecasts and were boosted by a record quarter in its parks business, while profits fell from a year ago amid higher costs across its business units.
The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.63 for the quarter, topping forecasts of $1.56, with revenue growing 5% to $26 billion, ahead of consensus for $25.7 billion. Total operating income for the company tallied $4.6 billion in the quarter, down from $5.1 billion a year ago.
Operating income for the Disney+ and Hulu streaming services rose 72% from the same quarter a year earlier to $450 million, well above Wall Street analysts’ estimates and the company’s guidance.
Disney’s non-streaming entertainment operating income plummeted 55% last quarter to $650 million. Sports operating income fell 23% to $191 million, which it attributed in part to a $110 million hit from a 15-day blackout on YouTube TV, when the two companies were locked in a battle over rates.
Disney’s experiences unit – which includes its parks and cruise business – posted record quarterly revenue of $10 billion, with attendance at its parks in the U.S. up 1% and spending per customer rising 4% during the quarter. The company warned that international visitors to its U.S. parks would likely be a headwind in the current quarter.
The shares ended down 7% on the day, as executives warned that growth in the current quarter would be muted, partly because of higher costs for sports rights as well as theme park and cruise-line expansions.
Tuesday, Disney then named Josh D’Amaro as its new CEO, putting the man in charge of the theme parks and cruise ships, which have become its biggest source of profits, atop America’s best-known entertainment brand.
—Palantir shares rose after the company posted fourth quarter earnings and revenue above Wall Street’s expectations on Monday, bolstered by sales to the Trump administration and U.S. businesses.
The company’s revenue surged 70% from the year-earlier period to $1.4 billion, ahead of the $1.3bn expected by the Street. Adjusted earnings per share rose to $0.25 from $0.14 during the previous year, above consensus of $0.23.
Palantir’s first quarter revenue guidance of $1.5 billion also exceeded expectations, ditto its full-year revenue outlook of roughly $7.2bn, way above current Street projections for $6.3 billion.
The firm’s outperformance in the fourth quarter was boosted by its domestic sales. Palantir’s U.S. commercial revenue surged 137% to $507 million, with U.S. government revenue jumping 66% to $570 million.
Palantir’s roots are in intelligence and defense work, and the company has seen an acceleration of its already extensive contracts with the federal government. Most recently, in December, the company announced a new contract with the U.S. Navy, valued at up to $448 million.
—Eli Lilly reported fourth-quarter profit on the back of surging demand for its GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
The pharmaceutical company reported net income of $6.64 billion, or $7.39 a share, up from $4.41 billion, or $4.88 a share, the year prior. Adjusted earnings were $7.54 a share vs. consensus of $6.91.
Revenue rose 43% to $19.29 billion, driven by a 46% increase in volume, with the Street at $17.94 billion.
The company has seen soaring demand for its weight-loss treatments Zepbound and Mounjaro, both of which saw sales more than double in the fourth quarter from the previous year. The company recorded $7.41 billion in Mounjaro revenue and $4.26 billion in Zepbound revenue.
Eli Lilly guided for 2026 revenue of $80 to $83 billion and earnings of $33.50 to $35 a share, with analysts at revenue of $77.64 billion and earnings of $32.47 a share.
—Bristol Myers Squibb shares rose as growth in sales of its immune-oncology treatments helped to offset a decline in revenue for some of its older drugs.
My neighbors across the street (for new readers, I live directly across from a major BMY headquarters) posted net income of $1.09 billion, or 53 cents a share, up from $72 million, or 4 cents a share, the year prior. Adjusted earnings of $1.26 a share beat expectations for $1.23.
Revenue rose 1% to $12.5 billion, also beating the Street. Revenue from the company’s growth portfolio, led by immune-oncology drugs Breyanzi, Reblozyl and Camzyos, rose 16% to $7.4 billion.
Meanwhile, revenue from Bristol’s legacy portfolio fell 15% to $5.1 billion due to competition from generic formulations of its older drugs and higher U.S. government channel rebates.
The company guided for 2026 revenue of $46 billion to $47.5 billion, ahead of analysts’ forecasts for revenue of $44.18bn.
–Shares in Tyson Foods rose Monday after the meat processor posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue.
The company reported adjusted earnings of 97 cents for its fiscal first quarter, above analysts’ estimates of 95 cents. Sales totaled $14.3 billion, up 5.1% from last year and ahead of the Street.
Tyson’s chicken division saw 3.7% growth in sales volume, with prices remaining roughly flat from a year ago. Chicken and prepared foods accounted for the bulk of the company’s earnings. Its beef business, however, posted an adjusted $143 million loss, as average prices soared 17.2% from last year.
U.S. beef cattle inventory fell 1% over the past year to 27.6 million heads, according to a Jan. 1 estimate from the National Agricultural Statistics Services. That was the lowest level since Jan. 1960.
New federal dietary guidelines that encourage eating more animal protein could be a boon for Tyson, CEO Donnie King said on an earnings call. Food and grocer companies, from Starbucks to Kroger, are touting protein-forward offerings.
—PepsiCo announced it will cut prices on core brands such as Lay’s and Doritos by up to 15% following consumer backlash against several previous price hikes, the snacks and beverage maker said on Tuesday.
The move is the result of an “extensive consumer feedback around affordability limitations” in the second half of 2025, the company said after reporting fourth-quarter results that topped market expectations.
The company stuck to the annual forecasts of core earnings per share growth of 5% to 7% that it provided in December.
The Gatorade maker reported revenue of $29.34 billion for the three months ended December 27, beating estimates of $28.97 billion. EPS of $2.26 edged past estimates of $2.24.
For consumers looking for cheaper options, rival Coca-Cola has introduced mini 7.5-ounce single-serve cans of some of its sodas in U.S. convenience stores, priced around $1.29.
—Yum! Brands logged higher revenue in its latest quarter, helped by growth at its Taco Bell and KFC businesses.
The fast-food company on Wednesday posted a profit of $535 million, with adjusted earnings of $1.73 a share, compared with the Street’s $1.76.
Revenue rose 6% to $2.51 billion, topping forecasts.
Same-store sales grew 3% across the company’s restaurants, compared with analyst projections for a 2.4% increase. The metric rose 7% and 3% across the company’s Taco Bell and KFC divisions, respectively, offsetting a 1% decline in its Pizza Hut segment.
Speaking of Pizza Hut, Yum announced it was closing 250 stores, but this is part of a 20,000-unit franchise worldwide.
—Chipotle shares were flat after the company reported same-store sales fell in the fourth quarter and told investors it expects no sales growth in 2026 as Chipotle continues to navigate economic pressure on its core customer and a decline in traffic.
In Q4, same-store sales fell 2.5%, less than the 2.9% Wall Street expected. Higher menu prices offset lower transactions.
In a statement, CEO Scott Boatwright cited a “dynamic consumer backdrop” as Chipotle reported a full-year same-store sales drop of 1.7%.
Its forecast for flat sales this year was called by Boatwright “conservative,” noting that consumer trends “have been really tough to predict.”
–It was a bloody Wednesday in the offices of the Washington Post as employees were informed of massive layoffs, 30 percent of all employees, including more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom.
Owner Jeff Bezos has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet.
The company will now focus more on national news and politics, as well as business and health, and far less on other areas, including international and sports, the latter department closing entirely, though some of its reporters would stay on and move to the features department to cover the culture of sports.
Just devastating. A bad day for the entire news industry.
But White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on X: “Just a reminder that printing fake news is not a profitable business model.”
I’m biting my tongue.
—Melania Trump’s documentary saw opening-weekend ticket sales of roughly $8.1 million in the United States and Canada, giving “Melania” the best start for a documentary (excluding concert films) in 14 years.
Were it not for Amazon, which spent an exorbitant $75 million to buy distribution rights to “Melania” and market its release, the figure would have been much lower. Theater owners keep roughly 50 percent of ticket sales, meaning that Amazon would end the weekend with about $4 million to show for its investment. [Overseas ticket sales are expected to be negligible.]
Some of the reviews were rather brutal. The Guardian dismissed the movie as “gilded trash,” while Variety asked, “Why would Amazon spend $75 million on a movie this boring?”
Foreign Affairs
Russia/Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine wrapped up two days of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, Thursday, Kyiv’s lead negotiator calling the talks “productive.”
But the two sides remain far apart. The main issue for Moscow is still the idea that Kyiv pull its troops out of all the Donetsk region, including a belt of heavily fortified cities regarded as one of Ukraine’s strongest defenses.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russian troops would keep fighting until Kyiv made “decisions” that could bring the war to an end.
“Russia is not winning its war against Ukraine” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha told online media outlet Liga on Tuesday. He argued that Moscow was paying a heavy price in terms of battlefield casualties and economic harm for small territorial advances.
Polls show that the majority of Ukrainians oppose a deal that hands Moscow more land. Residents in Kyiv told Reuters this week they were skeptical that the new round of talks would bring any major breakthroughs.
During a video call Wednesday, Chinese President Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed their ties in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
–While talks continue, Russia ended its supposed one-week pause in going after Ukraine’s energy grid, Sunday, with a massive attack on Kyiv and broader Ukraine, firing around 450 long-range drones and 70 missiles of various types. The bombardment of at least five regions of the country specifically took aim at the power grid, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. At least ten people were wounded.
Zelensky said: “Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy.”
By early morning, 1,170 apartment buildings in the capital were without heat, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. [Temps below zero, Fahrenheit, some nights the last ten days.]
The attack also damaged the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, Ukraine’s culture minister, Tetiana Berezhna, said.
“It is symbolic and cynical at the same time: the aggressor state strikes a place of memory about the fight against aggression in the 20th century, repeating crimes in the 21st,” Berezhna said.
Separately, a Russian drone attack on coal mining facilities in southeastern Ukraine Sunday killed at least 12 miners heading home after finishing their shift. It was part of a large-scale Russian attack targeting facilities belonging to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company.
But also Sunday, Ukrainian forces received an apparent boost from an unexpected source: Elon Musk, who wrote on X that his company had successfully taken steps “to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia,” referring to his satellite-linked internet service, which is crucial to Ukraine’s war effort.
Musk was responding to Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Federov, who three days before said he contacted SpaceX over reports that “Russian dronies equipped with Starlink connectivity were operating over Ukrainian cities” and “proposed concrete ways to resolve the issue.”
Sunday, Federov in response to Musk’s tweet said that “the first steps are already delivering real results.” He thanked Musk, calling him a “true friend of the Ukrainian people.”
In January, the Institute for the Study of War warned that since Russia had begun equipping the cheap kamikaze Molniya-2 drones with Starlink, their battlefield efficiency had increased “dramatically.”
Russian war bloggers warned the implications of pulling back Starlink availability could have implications beyond drones, as the Russian military uses Starlink to provide the front line with internet.
—The number of Ukrainian soldiers killed on the battlefield is estimated at 55,000, President Zelensky told France 2 TV in an interview Wednesday.
Zelensky added on top of that casualty figure was a “large number of people” considered officially missing.
—A deputy chief of Russia’s military intelligence was shot and wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of assassinations of senior military officers that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyeve was shot several times by an unidentified assailant at an apartment building in Moscow and hospitalized, an Investigative Committee spokesperson said in a statement.
–Lastly, the New START treaty between the U.S. and Russia expired Thursday. The agreement capped long-range missiles and bombers, but President Trump said last month he was not concerned. “If it expires, it expires,” he told the New York Times.
But Trump has said he can replace New START with a better agreement that includes China, which is nuts…it would take years and years and probably never come to fruition.
At least the U.S. and Russia agreed to resume high-level military-to-military dialogue. The United States broke off the relationship in late 2021, months before Russia broadened its invasion of Ukraine.
Iran: U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that a U.S. Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea.
Central command said the drone “aggressively approached” the carrier with “unclear intent” and it “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters.” Iran also harassed a U.S.-flagged and U.S. crewed merchant vessel that was sailing in the Strait of Hormuz.
It’s been reported that airstrikes on Iran aren’t imminent until the Pentagon moves in additional air defenses to better protect Israel, Arab allies and American forces in the event of a retaliation by Iran and a potential prolonged conflict.
Regarding scheduled talks for this weekend, Editorial /Wall Street Journal:
“The U.S. has been demanding limits on Iran’s missile program and an end to its support for terrorist proxies. Both are fine ideas, but they would amount to paper promises that the ayatollah would be unlikely to honor. As Iranians know, this regime is willing to impoverish and endanger its own country to pursue a ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’ foreign policy. It is a regime bent on spreading revolution, not on living peacefully with its neighbors.
“Any sanctions relief now would break faith with the protesters, who relied on Mr. Trump’s promises, and extend their regime a lifeline while it totters on the brink of becoming a failed state. It would also tell the region that the U.S. President blinked, which would have damaging implications for the next three years of Mr. Trump’s Presidency.
“Ask Barack Obama about the red line against chemical-weapons use in Syria that he failed to enforce. Russia jumped into the vacuum the U.S. left in Syria, then moved into Ukraine, and the result was more bloodshed and tragedy as U.S. deterrence was seen as feckless.
“There is a better way for President Trump: Help the protesters topple the ayatollah and his enforcers. Don’t crush the Iranian people’s hopes; give them the confidence to keep pushing against a regime that has no answer but bullets to any of their problems. If Iran’s revolutionary regime falls, the whole region gets better. China and Russia lose the third spoke in their axis of U.S. adversaries.
“The price of oil is lower today than it was at the start of the 12-day war in June, and the U.S. has options to mitigate disruptions. Iran’s regime and its proxies are at their weakest, and its people are waiting. Mr. Trump has forged his opportunity, and this is his moment to seize it.”
The problem with the above is the protests have been crushed.
Friday morning, Oman’s government confirmed an initial round of indirect talks had taken place involving Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of Central Command (CENTCOM), was also in attendance, as well as Oman’s foreign minister.
“The consultations focused on preparing the appropriate circumstances for resuming the diplomatic and technical negotiations by ensuring the importance of these negotiations, in light of the parties’ determination to ensure their success in achieving sustainable security and stability,” Oman’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The problem is the U.S. is pushing for a discussion broader than just the nuclear program to include Iran’s ballistic missile and regional activities, while Iran insists the talks focus solely on nuclear issues and sanctions relief.
Speaking on state television after the talks, Foreign Minister Araghchi said negotiators would return to their capitals for consultations but described the meeting as a “good beginning.”
The U.S. Virtual Embassy then urged American citizens to leave immediately, a call it has made before.
Israel: Gaza’s border crossing to Egypt at Rafah reopened in a key step in the truce, but it has been mostly symbolic as few people will be allowed to travel in either direction and no goods will be going into the war-torn territory.
About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care hope to leave devastated Gaza via the crossing, according to Gaza health officials, while across Egypt, about 150 hospitalizations are ready to receive evacuated Palestinian patients, authorities said.
But the second phase of the ceasefire agreement is far more complicated. It calls for installing the new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas and taking steps to begin rebuilding.
Saturday, Israeli strikes killed at least 32 Palestinians, one of the highest tolls since the October ceasefire aimed at stopping the fighting. Strikes hit locations throughout Gaza.
Wednesday, Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed at least 21 Palestinians including six children, health officials said.
The Israeli military said it had launched the strikes in response to militants opening fire against Israeli troops operating near its armistice line with Hamas. One Israeli soldier was severely injured, which Israel described as a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
China: In a Wednesday phone call between President Trump and President Xi, right after Xi’s call with Vladimir Putin, while the two discussed the situation in Iran, Xi wanted to focus on Taiwan.
The Chinese readout, however, said the two leaders discussed major summits that both nations will host in the coming year that could present opportunities for them to meet. Except the Chinese statement made no mention of Trump’s expected April visit to Beijing.
Rather China made clear it has no intention of stepping away from its long-term plans of reunification with Taiwan.
The Trump administration in December announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones. The move continues to draw an angry response from Beijing.
“Taiwan will never be allowed to separate from China,” the Chinese government statement said. “The U.S. must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.”
Xi called Taiwan “the most important issue” in China-U.S. relations during his call with Trump, telling Trump to be “prudent” when supplying weapons to the island, state media reported, adding that he attached “great importance” to ties with Washington and hoped both sides would find ways to resolve their differences.
Trump cast Wednesday’s call as “excellent” and “long and thorough.”
“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” he wrote on Truth Social.
On Thursday, Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te told reporters relations with the U.S. remained “rock solid” and that “all ongoing cooperation projects are continuing.”
Greenland: A new poll shows 76% of Greenlanders say they wouldn’t benefit from becoming part of the U.S., noting their concerns about exchanging the Danish welfare system for American healthcare, elder care and education.
Only 3% of Greenlanders had a “very positive” view of U.S.-government-provided benefits, while 59% held a mainly or very negative view of it, the poll shows.
Sune Steffen Hansen, a Danish pollster who designed and conducted the survey, said the findings make clear Greenlanders are broadly satisfied being part of the Danish kingdom and even expect their circumstances to get better under their current political arrangement. “That’s a hard deal for the U.S.,” he said.
Given a choice between strengthening Greenland’s cooperation and relationship with the EU or the U.S., 65% of respondents chose the European bloc and only 5% said America.
The poll of 610 Greenlanders aged 18 or older took place Jan. 16-28, when President Trump and members of his administration escalated their rhetoric about potentially using military force to seize the world’s largest island.
At a private black-tie event Saturday night in Washington, D.C., President Trump reportedly told the high-powered audience of CEOs, politicians and luminaries (including Jamie Dimon and Jerome Powell), “We’re not going to invade Greenland. We’re going to buy it.”
“It’s never been my intention to make Greenland the 51st state. I want to make Canada the 51st state. Greenland will be the 52nd state. Venezuela can be 53rd,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Greenland experienced its warmest January on record this year, as a rate of warming four times faster than the global average redraws the outlook for sectors from fishing to mining.
Preliminary temperature readings from the Danish Meteorological Institute in the capital Nuuk averaged +0.2 degrees Celsius (32.4F) in January, the highest on record and well above the historical average of -7.7 (18F) between 1991 and 2020.
Random Musing
—Presidential approval ratings….
Gallup: 36% approve of President Trump’s job performance, while 59% disapprove. 25% of independents approve (Dec. 1-15).
Rasmussen: 41% approve, 57% disapprove (Feb. 6)…kind of shocked at the low approval rating in this one, this long seen as a poll more sympathetic to Trump.
A new Pew Research Poll has Trump with a 37% approval rating, 61% disapproval.
—Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“How does a Republican lose by 14 points in a safe conservative Texas state Senate seat that President Trump carried by 17 points in 2024? Answer: When there’s a voter backlash against the Trump Administration, notably its mass deportation debacles.
“That’s what happened Saturday in a special election to fill a GOP seat in Tarrant County in the Fort Worth area. Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, romped over Republican Leigh Wambsganss, who had a Truth Social endorsement from Mr. Trump and vastly outspent Mr. Rehmet.
“The election timing was awful for Republicans in the wake of the two killings by immigration agents in Minneapolis. Ms. Wambsganss has been a leader in the parental-rights movement in school boards and wasn’t a bad candidate. But state politics is often national these days, and the 31-point swing in a little more than 14 months can only be explained as part of a rising tide of opposition to Mr. Trump’s first year and a sour public mood….
“(Some of) MAGA’s mouthpieces are saying the GOP should run more forcefully on immigration enforcement. This was White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s strategy in 2018 as he helped to blow up a bipartisan immigration reform compromise on Capitol Hill. The GOP lost a net of 41 House seats.
“The Miller strategy isn’t likely to fare better this year, as the polls show voters turning against the way Mr. Trump is pursuing mass deportation. In the wake of the Minneapolis shootings, Mr. Trump has said he wants to dial back the confrontations on the street. That’s smart, but he’ll also have to dial back Mr. Miller, who is the mastermind of the mass deportation strategy.
“Mr. Miller ordered the immigration bureaucracy to fill a quota of 3,000 migrant arrests a day. This was bound to result in agent intrusions into homes and businesses, since there aren’t that many criminal migrants to fill such a quota each day.
“Immigration has overall been a winning issue for Republicans but it works better as a reaction to Democratic border enforcement failures. Mr. Trump has already largely closed the border. But immigration enforcement that turns ugly in the streets is turning off the swing voters who will determine who wins the race for Congress this year.”
–As you’ve noticed, I’ve written very little on the Epstein Files. ‘Just show me the facts, conclusions,’ has been my thinking.
But late last Friday, in a classic Friday news dump, the Justice Department released millions of pages of new documents but as the Wall Street Journal found, “A review of 47 victims’ full names on Sunday found that 43 of them were left unredacted in files that were made public… Several women’s full names appeared more than 100 times in the files.
“The Justice Department was required to redact all victims’ names prior to releasing the files. Officials said they had spent weeks doing so after receiving lists of names from victims’ attorneys. Since Friday, the agency has been temporarily taking down documents to make new redactions….
“More than two dozen names of minor victims are exposed in the filings, according to the Journal’s analysis….
“Some of the missing redactions are unusual. For example, in one 2008 email where U.S. attorneys are discussing the list of victims they need to contact, 10 names are redacted and one that is in the middle of the list is left exposed.”
Meanwhile, Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed to give depositions to a House committee investigating Epstein, defusing a potential showdown between the legislative and executive branches.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued subpoenas in August 2025 and scheduled appearances in January, but the Clintons defied them at that time.
It was then announced Hillary will face the Oversight Committee on Feb. 26 and Bill Clinton will appear on Feb. 27. It will mark the first time that lawmakers have compelled a former president to testify.
—In a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, President Trump’s former deputy FBI director, Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many – 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law, leading to a decentralized process in which voting is administered by county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country. But Trump is fixated on the false claims that U.S. elections are rife with fraud…and that Democrats are perpetrating a vast conspiracy to have undocumented immigrants vote and lift the party’s turnout.
As I opened my column last week, FBI agents seized ballots and other voting records from the 2020 election center in Fulton County, Ga., where his election fraud allegations have been largely centered.
We then learned that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, who was on site in Fulton County last week when the FBI conducted the search (at the president’s behest), the next day brokered a call that was far outside the bounds of normal law enforcement procedure, putting Trump on speakerphone with some of the FBI agents who conducted the investigation, as the New York Times first reported.
Last month in Davos at the World Economic Forum, Trump said “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“There’s no shortage of panic in the press after Mr. Trump’s FBI recently raided an election office in Fulton County, Ga., seeking something, anything, to lend credence to his claims about the 2020 election. Yet that mischief won’t save him in November.
“MAGA mouthpiece Steve Bannon suggested that Mr. Trump ‘have ICE surround the polls’ and ‘call up the 82nd and 101st Airborne.’ Yeah, after Mr. Trump’s political debacle in Minneapolis, independent voters would love that.”
—Border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that 700 immigration and border agents are departing the Minneapolis area after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.
The withdrawal shrinks the federal footprint from about 3,000 agents to 2,300 – a significant scaling back but still a much larger number than the 80 who were in the Minneapolis area before Operation Metro Surge began Dec. 1, according to court records.
—It is outrageous that the Trump administration froze $16 billion in federal funding for the construction of a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, New York and New Jersey then launching a lawsuit asking a judge to rule the funding freeze was unlawful and for payments to resume, so construction can continue.
Construction was slated to shut down today, impacting 1,000 workers at the Gateway Tunnel project.
What is so idiotic on the part of the administration is they know this project is badly needed, and these workers (and contactors) will go elsewhere…as in you can’t just then restart it, which is inevitable. And President Trump is always saying he loves New York City.
But there are multiple reports that back in October, when Trump threatened to stop funding Gateway, the president said he would release the money if Democrats agreed to support renaming New York City’s Penn Station and Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., after Trump.
According to the story, Sen. Chuck Schumer quickly rejected the idea, saying he didn’t have the power.
“There was nothing to trade,” a person close to Schumer told Politico. “The president stopped the funding and he can restart the funding with a snap of his fingers.”
Further stories today confirm Trump insists Penn Station be named after him. Just sick.
—President Trump said the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will close for two years for renovations; a move he said would turn the venerated national cultural institution into a “new and spectacular Entertainment Complex.”
Trump said the Kennedy will close on July 4 of this year, a date that coincides with the country’s 250th birthday, and said that the financing for the renovation is “completed, and fully in place.”
“I have determined that the Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday evening.
Musicians and other artists have been distancing themselves from the center since Trump began exerting more control over it, but a two-year closure could be deadly for the arts scene in the area.
—South Carolina’s measles outbreak grew to 840 cases, overwhelmingly in unvaccinated children and adults. Nineteen adults and children have been hospitalized.
Across the United States, more than 500 measles cases were reported in January, primarily driven by South Carolina’s outbreak, compared with more than 2,000 in all of 2025. As a result, experts fear the vaccine-preventable virus has regained a foothold and will result in the United States losing its measles-free designation.
Ralph Abraham, the No. 2 official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chosen by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently told reporters that losing the measles elimination status would be the “cost of doing business.”
“We have these communities that choose to be unvaccinated,” said Abraham, who until recently was Louisiana’s top health official known for unwinding vaccine promotion events.
Abraham said vaccination was the best way for people to prevent measles but added: “That’s their personal freedom.”
What a freakin’ jerk.
—At least 200 died at a major coltan* mining site in eastern Congo last week, the area controlled by the M23 rebels. Authorities said the collapse was caused by heavy rains.
*Coltan is a metallic ore found only here, which is used in smartphones, laptops and electric car batteries.
—The Artemis II mission, set to send four astronauts deep into space around the moon, has been delayed for at least a few more weeks.
The mission had initially been expected to launch as soon as this week, but NASA announced in a post on Tuesday that delays would require the launch to be pushed back to at least March.
A dress rehearsal for the launch early Tuesday morning encountered a few issues, including a leak of liquid hydrogen and problems with a valve.
The Artemis program is set to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Artemis I launched an uncrewed probe to orbit the moon in 2022, while Artemis II will be manned.
Artemis III is set to eventually return humans to set foot on the lunar surface.
—Winter Storm Gianna left a mess across North and South Carolina last weekend, dumping up to a foot of snow in some places, 18+ inches in parts of eastern North Carolina.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport clocked 11 inches of snow. [The airport saw about 1,950 cancellations Saturday and Sunday.]
By Saturday night, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol had responded to 750 collisions statewide, though thankfully none were fatal. More than 100 drivers were caught up in a pileup on Interstate 85 north of Charlotte Saturday night.
Florida had to deal with record cold, and citrus growers in central Florida dealt with below-freezing temperatures.
—Seven people died when their fishing vessel sank off the coast of Massachusetts in rough, frigid waters Saturday. The Coast Guard called off the search and rescue mission earlier after finding a debris field near where the alert was sent along with a body in the water and an empty life raft, the Coast Guard said.
The Lily Jean was on its way home to Gloucester, Mass., America’s oldest fishing port. There was no mayday call, but the Coast Guard was notified by the boat’s beacon that alerts when it hits the water.
Conditions were atrocious, as a northeaster was approaching. Searchers were dealing with 7- to 10-foot seas, air temps of 12F, and water temperatures about 39F.
It’s a dangerous profession, and Gloucester has seen lots of sorrow.
—The lack of snow out West is more than worrisome. The Salt Lake City airport may set a new record this winter for low snowfall, with only one-tenth of an inch as of early in the week; the previous low in 1933-34, was 14.3 inches.
The snow drought has taken a big toll on Colorado’s $5 billion-a-year ski industry. Vail Resorts said that in December, just 11 percent of the terrain at its sites in the Rockies was open.
It’s all part of a 26-year-long megadrought in the region, which has led to extremely low levels in the two largest reservoirs on the Colorado River. And the assessments represent the latest backdrop for tense negotiations this year between Upper and Lower Basin states on how the river will be managed in the future.
From Dec. 1 last year to Jan. 15, temperatures were up to 15 degrees above normal in the Rockies, the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada. Colorado is having its warmest winter since 1895.
Snowpack in the Colorado Rockies is closely monitored, with about 40 million people in seven U.S. states and about two million in Mexico relying on the Colorado River for their water. Snowpack is responsible for 70 percent of the river’s flow.
The mountains of Oregon are also hard hit, with the Mt. Bachelor ski resort having 109 inches of snow at its base last year, and only 27 inches this year.
—You want lots of snow? Go to Japan, which regularly receives some of the highest snowfall in the world. Soldiers and swarms of snowplows battled on Tuesday to clear record-breaking snowfalls that have buried some northern and western cities, as the death toll rose to 30 from winter storms.
Troops from the Self-Defense Forces were drafted in to help authorities struggling to clear a nearly 2-m (7-foot) pileup of snow in the city of Aomori, the biggest seen in four decades.
About 1,000 snowplows began trying to push snow off 2,300 miles of roads in Sapporo, the largest city in the Hokkaido region, broadcaster Nippon TV said.
—Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow after emerging from his den in Pennsylvania on Monday morning – signifying six more weeks of winter.
But Phil has only a 35% accuracy record according to NOAA.
Staten Island Chuck, New York City’s resident groundhog, also saw his shadow, but over the years, Chuck has an 85% accuracy rate, also per NOAA.
Gotham experienced its longest deep freeze (nine consecutive days under 32 degrees…under 30, for that matter) in 7 years…one more day below freezing, Monday, would have made it worst in 65 years.
The National Weather Service said New Jersey had experienced “a top five longest stretch of below freezing temperatures.”
—
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.
Slava Ukraini.
God bless America.
—
Gold $4944…Silver $77.10
Oil $63.35
Bitcoin $70,000…literally [4:00 PM ET, Friday]
Regular Gas: $2.90; Diesel: $3.64 [$3.13 – $3.66 yr. ago]
Returns for the week 2/2-2/6
Dow Jones +2.5% [50115]
S&P 500 -0.1% [6932]
S&P MidCap +4.4%
Russell 2000 +2.3%
Nasdaq -1.8% [23031]
Returns for the period 1/1/26-2/6/26
Dow Jones +4.3%
S&P 500 +1.3%
S&P MidCap +8.5%
Russell 2000 +7.7%
Nasdaq -0.9%
Bulls 62.3
Bears 15.1
Hang in there.
Brian Trumbore
