Increases in Europe; Nasdaq futures are red

14:25

Trading in Europe is currently underway with slight price increases. The DAX index rises by about 0.2%, the FTSE index rises by about 0.1% and the KAC climbs by about 0.5%.

The price of gold is rising at this hour by about 1.3%, to a record of more than seven weeks, and stands at about $4.4430 per ounce. CNBC states that the increases come against the background of the weakness of the dollar, expectations of further interest rate cuts in the future and demand for safe assets due to geopolitical upheavals.

13:00

Wall Street futures are currently trading in a mixed trend. The Dow Jones continues its positive momentum and rises by about 0.2%, the S&P 500 falls by about 0.2% and the Nasdaq falls by about 0.5%.

Chip and AI stocks continue to come under pressure in early Wall Street trading. Among the decliners are shares Broadcom , Nvidia , Intel , oracle , Palantir , AMD , Micron Technology and super micro computer.

stock lululemon Jumping over 9%, after the sportswear company announced that CEO Calvin McDonald is expected to end his position on January 31. Analysts at the investment bank Jefferies upgraded their recommendation on the stock from “underperform” to “hold”, but said that investing in it during 2026 is equivalent to “dead money”. The stock has fallen by over 50% since the beginning of the year.

11:40

Trading in Europe continues to be conducted with price increases, following the increases recorded yesterday on Wall Street. The Dax index rises by about 0.6%, the FTSE advances by about 0.3% and the KAC adds to its value by about 0.7%.

Investors are expected to continue to closely monitor the developments in the negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. UN Secretary General Mark Rutte said yesterday in a speech in Berlin that Europe should be prepared for war. “Russia has brought war to Europe, and we need to be prepared for a war of the magnitude that our grandfathers went through.”

10:20

The price of gold is now up by about 0.3%, and stands at about $4,290 per ounce. Yesterday, the precious metal rose to its highest level in over a month, after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut pushed the dollar lower.

Silver rose by about 4% yesterday to an all-time high, and traded for a certain time at the level of $64.31 per ounce. Now, its price is down about 0.8% and is trading around $64 per ounce.

10:05

Slight increases at the opening in Europe: the DAX index rises by about 0.4%, the FTSE advances by about 0.4% and the CAC adds to its value by about 0.2%.

9:30

The shekel is now strengthening against the dollar by about 0.2% to a level of about NIS 3.19 – a four-year high, since December 2021. Yesterday, the dollar fell to a low of several months against the euro, the Swiss franc and the pound sterling and continued its negative momentum, this after the Federal Reserve provided a less hawkish forecast than some investors expected in the interest rate decision last Wednesday.

9:10

The dollar is strengthening slightly this morning against the shekel, and its rate now stands at 3.2 shekels. This, after yesterday the shekel strengthened against the dollar by a significant rate of about 0.6%.

8:30

In Asia, there are price rises this morning, after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones climbed to a new high yesterday on Wall Street (see expansion below). The Nikkei Index rose by about 1.4%, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange climbed by about 1.8%, the Shanghai Stock Exchange advanced by about 0.4% and the Kospi jumped by about 1.4%.

Wall Street

Last night on Wall Street, trading closed with price increases, after indices opened the trading day with decreases. The S&P 500 index rose 0.2% to a new record high, while the Nasdaq closed down 0.3%, after falling 1.6% at the beginning of the trading day. On the other hand, the Dow Jones index jumped 1.3% to a record high of 48,698 points. Russell 2000 which represents small-cap stocks, rose 1.3% and also to a second record in a row.

Thus, the trend of rotation from the large technology stocks to other sectors, some of which are more defensive, continues. Chris Zachary, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, told CNBC that “the Dow Jones had a great day, and if the trend continues, this could be the start of the expansion in trading. The key to the continuation of the bull market is that the rest of the market will go up even without the help of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ – and if the stick can move on and the rally can extend, then we wouldn’t be surprised to see a year-end rally that continues into early next year.”

As mentioned, after the bad opening of the trading day, the buyers returned, after the concerns about the plans of oracle Significantly increasing investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure have led to a broad withdrawal from risky assets. Oracle shares fell after cloud sales disappointed and the company raised its 2026 capital spending forecast by $15 billion to $50 billion. Oracle’s market value dropped by about $70 billion to $555 billion, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, who owns about 40% of the shares, recorded a loss “on paper” of about $25 billion in one day.

Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, says the market is rightly concerned about Oracle, and by extension the entire AI field, because it has trillions of dollars in commitments, but it’s still unclear how all these huge investments will actually materialize. According to him, Oracle is currently acting like the “canary in the coal mine”, an early warning sign that something is not working as expected. Therefore, the market is doing the right thing by reducing exposure and partially rotating out of AI stocks.

During the night, the chip company Broadcom published its financial results for the quarter. First, the stock jumped about 3% in late trading, but later the gains were erased and it fell about 4.5%.

The company reported a particularly strong quarter, in which growing demand for its artificial intelligence chips pushed revenues to record highs. In the fourth fiscal quarter, Broadcom recorded revenues of 18 billion dollars, above market forecasts, and a growth of 28% compared to last year. Earnings per share also exceeded expectations. The chips sector jumped to 11 billion dollars and the infrastructure sector reached 6.9 billion dollars.

The company’s CEO, Hock Tan, noted that AI revenues in the quarter jumped 74% and are expected to double in the first quarter to $8.2 billion, thanks to dedicated AI accelerators and advanced Ethernet switches. Broadcom expects first quarter revenues to reach $19.1 billion with an adjusted EBITDA of approximately 67%, which supports investors’ sentiment that demand for AI chips continues speed up

The Wall Street Journal noted that the stock fell in late trading following questions raised by analysts regarding the company’s sales forecasts, its backlog and expected future profit margins. It was also noted that the company’s CEO said that the company’s AI business, which shows high revenue growth, generates a lower gross profit than non-AI products; this, when the revenue forecast for non-AI products in the next quarter remains unchanged.

Eli Lilly Yesterday published the best trial results of a slimming drug to date. The company’s “triple mechanism” drug – the next generation of its slimming drugs – achieved in a clinical trial the best results observed to date in this field. The subjects were participants with obesity and knee osteoarthritis, without diabetes.

After 68 weeks, the patients who took the high dose of the drug lost about 28.7% of their body weight – an average decrease of about 32.3 kilograms. Even a slightly lower dose, of 9 mg, was very effective and led to an average weight loss of 26%, which is 29.1 kilograms. In addition, the participants reported a significant improvement in knee pain and function.

In the media sector, yesterday it was reported that Disney It will invest $1 billion in OpenAI and allow the AI ​​platform to use its characters and assets to create short videos based on user prompts. The newly announced partnership is a significant step in opening Hollywood’s doors to generative artificial intelligence, even though the industry is concerned about AI’s impact on creative works and intellectual property rights.

The commodity and currency markets

Oil prices are registering increases this morning, after registering decreases of more than 1% yesterday. In the background, investors are following the developments in the negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as on the front lines of the tensions between the US and Venezuela. The price of a barrel of American oil stands at about $58.1, while the price of a barrel of Brent oil stands at about $61.7.

In the crypto market, Bitcoin is up by over 2% this morning and its price is hovering around $92,000. The currency is still very far from the record it recorded in January of this year, when its price was about 126 thousand dollars.