Increases in contracts on Wall Street, following a stronger than expected employment report

15:45

The futures contracts on Wall Street are now registering increases of up to 0.5%, following the stronger than expected employment report published in the US.

15:30

The US Department of Labor published the expected employment report for the month of January. The economy presented an addition of 130 thousand jobs compared to an expectation of 68,000-70,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate stands at 4.3%, it was expected to remain stable at a level of 4.4%.

14:00

Radver Overtook forecasts in the fourth quarter of 2025 and recorded record revenues of $80.2 million, a 10% growth compared to the corresponding quarter. The company, a provider of security solutions and application migration for multi-cloud environments, presented a net profit of 32 cents per share in the fourth quarter, 2 cents higher than market forecasts.

The year 2025 ended with 10% growth to revenues of $302 million, net profit of $20.3 million (compared to $6 million in 2024) and Non-GAAP net profit of $51.5 million. According to CEO Roy Zisafel, “2025 was a year of strong performance and significant progress for Redware.” He added that cloud ARR (annual recurring revenue) approached a milestone of $100 million and the company expanded the cloud platform with API security and agent-based AI protection. “We enter 2026 with a healthy order backlog, a comprehensive platform and growing demand from cyber security customers cloud-based, and well positioned for continued growth,” Zisapel concluded.

12:34

The share of the French software giant Dassault Systems It fell this morning by up to 21% at the opening of trading, which appears to be the worst day in its history.

After trading in the stock was stopped for a short time right after the opening in Paris, the declines moderated a bit and at 9:30 (London time) it was trading down about 18%. The sharp drop came after the company released disappointing financial reports for the last quarter and provided a tepid growth forecast for 2026, leading to an aggressive selling wave by investors.

10:32

Trading in Europe opened this morning with a mixed trend. London rises by 0.3%. Paris and Frankfurt decrease by 0.4%.

The futures contracts in New York rise this morning by up to 0.4%, investors’ eyes are on the “super bowl of employment reports” which will be published about an hour before the opening of trading.

The jobs report for the month of January (Nonfarm Payrolls) of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The report is expected to be published after it was postponed following a partial government shutdown last month. Economists estimate a median increase of about 68 thousand jobs, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.4%.

08:48

In Asia this morning there is a positive trend. Hong Kong rises by 0.3%, South Korea by 1%, Shanghai unchanged and the stock market in India rises by 0.4%. There is no trading in Japan this morning.

Yesterday on Wall Street, after two days of decent gains, trading was in a negative trend. While bond yields fell after weaker-than-expected retail sales data reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates as early as this year.

The S&P 500 index fell by 0.4% after a strong two-day rally, the Nasdaq by 0.6% and the Dow Jones rose by only 0.1%, but broke another record, the third in three days.

The software sector (the ETF VAT ) which fell by about 20% in the last month began to recover a little, yesterday it rose by about 0.5%.

JP Morgan strategists estimate that software company shares may recover after their abnormal declines, which were excessive and unjustified in their opinion – since the market is pricing in a scenario of rapid and unrealistic disruption by artificial intelligence.

The team recommends increasing exposure to high-quality, AI-resistant software companies, citing “extreme price movements” alongside strong economic fundamentals as possible reasons for rotation back into the sector. The strategists point to companies like Microsoft and Crowdstrike as resistant to AI disruptions, and emphasize that high switching costs and multi-year contracts provide them with a layer of protection against disruptions in the short term.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon also said that last week’s sharp selling wave in software sector shares was “too broad”, and joined the chorus of voices on Wall Street who are calling for patience amid the pressure in the markets and concerns about the effects of artificial intelligence on the investment world.

“The narrative of the past week has been too broad,” Solomon said at the UBS Financial Services Conference in Key Biscayne, Florida. “There will be winners and there will be losers, and many companies will know how to adapt (pivot) and continue to operate well,” he added.

Shares that gathered interest:

The stock of the streaming company spotify Jumped by about 15%, after profits in the fourth quarter significantly exceeded analysts’ forecasts.

Alphabetical (Google) plans to issue a very rare 100-year bond, as part of an especially large debt issue, in what will be the first case since the late 1990s in which a technology company issues such a long-term debt.

The long-awaited regulatory approval for the historic acquisition of the Israeli Wiz is in my hands Alphabetical (Google) It has finally arrived: the Antitrust Committee of the European Union has approved the deal, which will be carried out in the amount of 32 billion dollars. But there are still several countries that have not formally approved the process, including Israel, Turkey, South Africa and Australia.

stock Coca Cola decreased after it published its financial results for the fourth quarter. The company slightly exceeded analysts’ expectations in the line of adjusted profit per share, and reported 58 cents, compared to an expectation of 56 cents. However, in the revenue line, the company missed expectations.

● Mixed results for Inmode just before its possible sale

Israeli women on Wall Street:

stock monday It fell by 4.5% and compares to the low it traded in November 2022.

The disappointment from the forecast published by Munday at the beginning of the week caused its stock to fall by 20.8% after the reports and over a billion dollars were wiped off its value, a value that is 82% lower than its peak value in 2021. The market’s concerns about the impact of AI tools in the operations of SaaS companies (software in a subscription model) that had a negative impact on the company recently did not subside even after Munday exceeded forecasts in the fourth quarter of 2025, and maybe even exceeded against the background of the forecast for 2026.

stock Tower Semiconductor Down 7.5% without news. It is expected to publish financial reports today, and analysts’ forecasts are for annual revenues of $1.57 billion and Non-GAAP net profit of $2.18 per share. Last Thursday, Tower published a report of a collaboration with the AI ​​giant Nvidia.

stock you discovered It also fell by about 20% in New York following the quarterly report.

Bitcoin recently traded around $69,000, down 9% in the last five days. The currency retreated amid investors’ reassessment of its usefulness, when last Thursday it fell by 15% to $60,062, the lowest low in about 16 months. At the lows, the crypto was down more than 50% from its peak.

CEO of a company strategy Michael Saylor, dismissed concerns about the company’s credit risk should bitcoin continue to slide. According to him, he even plans to continue accumulating the cryptocurrency for the company every quarter.

“If bitcoin goes down 90% over the next four years, we will refinance the debt,” Saylor told CNBC. “We’ll just roll it forward.” When asked if he believes that the banks will continue to lend to his company even if Bitcoin crashes, he replied: “Yes, because the volatility of Bitcoin is such that it will always have value.”

Strategy has more than $8 billion in total debt on its balance sheet, partly as a result of issuing convertible bonds that were used to buy bitcoin. Saylor also dismissed any hint that the company would sell some of its crypto holdings: “I expect we’ll be buying bitcoin every quarter, forever,” he said.

In the USA, US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Kevin Warsh was the second candidate in 2017 for the position of Fed Chairman, so he chose to appoint Jerome Powell. According to him, this decision was a “big mistake”.

He made it clear that he expects that Warsh will work to lower the interest rate if he is approved for the position and will replace Jerome Powell starting in May.

However, statements made yesterday by two senior Fed officials emphasize that such a move could be met with resistance. In two separate speeches, Beth Hammack and Laurie Logan, presidents of the Cleveland and Dallas Federal Reserve respectively, expressed concern that inflation is still high, and that progress in curbing price increases may be stalled. Both stated that after the interest rate cuts carried out by the Fed in the last 18 months, the interest rate may no longer significantly restrain growth and inflation, which raises the risk that further reductions will actually worsen the problem.

“Instead of trying to gently steer the federal funds rate, I would rather err on the side of patience,” Hammock said. She added that the central bank “may remain on hold for a considerable time.”

Wall Street traders mostly estimate that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged in March as well, this is the second time in a row, but the implied probability of an interest rate cut before May is closer to 50/50.

Trump even said that the American economy can grow by at least 15% if Kevin Warsh heads the Federal Reserve Bank (FED). “He is a very high quality person,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business with Larry Kudlow. “If he does the work he is capable of doing – we can grow by 15%, in my opinion even more than that.”

Trump did not specify which economic index it is or which time frame. According to the World Bank forecast, the American economy is expected to grow by 2.2% this year, and slow down to 1.9% in 2027.

Yesterday it was announced that retail sales remained unchanged in December, after a 0.6% increase in November, according to seasonally adjusted data but not adjusted for inflation. In annual terms, sales rose by 2.4%, a significant drop from the 3.3% rate in November. Sales excluding vehicles increased by 3.3% year-on-year in December.

The intriguing US employment report is expected to be published today.

The employment report will be particularly important as it will include a planned annual update to the previous two years’ data. According to the initial estimates, a relatively weak figure is expected, among other things, because most of the updates in recent years have been downward, alongside the negative impact of the unusual weather in parts of the country. Regarding inflation, we expect a further decrease towards 2.5% (2.7% in December), mainly due to the “exit” of a higher January index than last year.

Expectations for a relatively weak employment report alongside a drop in inflation may lead Trump to express his dissatisfaction with the governor and the interest rate again. However, Beharel believes that this is not enough to justify an interest rate reduction already in the upcoming decision in March, among other things due to the expansionary fiscal policy in the first months of the year. At the same time, we do estimate that the interest rate will return to decrease in a measured manner (probably twice) later this year.

Economists expect an increase of 68 thousand jobs in January – a result that would be the best in the last four months. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.4%.