Mixed trend in Europe; Japanese and South Korean stock markets jumped sharply

14:20

The mixed trend in Europe continues. The Dax index rises by about 0.3%, the Potsi falls by about 0.5% and the KAC loses its value by about 0.1%.

Oil prices are now registering slight increases. The price of a barrel of American oil is about $62.4, while the price of a barrel of Brent oil is about $66.4.

12:10

stock Palantir is now jumping about 10% in early trading on Wall Street, after the financial results it published yesterday surpassed analysts’ forecasts.

The company reported record revenues of $1.41 billion and earnings per share of 24 cents, compared to expectations for revenues of $1.33 billion and earnings per share of 23 cents. The results reflect revenue growth at an impressive rate of 70% compared to the corresponding period last year. In an interview with CNBC, the company’s CEO Alex Karp said that the reports are “without a doubt the best results that I am aware of in the field of technology in the last decade. If you don’t spend money on it, you don’t spend money on something that is meant to be part of the momentum.”

11:55

Trade in Europe is currently running in a mixed trend. The Dax index rises by about 0.6%, the Potsi falls by about 0.2% and the KAC advances by about 0.1%.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures climb about 0.2% and about 0.5%, respectively; Dow Jones futures are trading steady.

CNBC reports that President Trump announced the establishment of a national reserve of critical minerals. In a speech delivered at the White House, Trump stated that as part of the proposal, known as “Project Vault”, a first-of-its-kind strategic reserve of critical minerals intended for the private sector in the US will be established. According to the report, the plan combines private capital in the amount of $1.67 billion with a loan of $10 billion from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, according to a White House official. Trump’s move is aimed at reducing America’s dependence on China for materials essential to electric vehicles, defense systems and advanced technology.

Following the report, the shares of mining companies of the rare metals jump in early trading on Wall Street, among them M.P. Materials USA Rare Earth, Energy Fuels and more.

10:20

European stock markets opened the day with a positive trend. The DAX index jumps by about 1.1%, the FTSE advances by about 0.2% and the KAC rises by about 0.6%.

Precious metal prices continue to recover after yesterday’s declines. Gold jumps by nearly 6% and trades around $4,930 per ounce, while silver soars by about 12% and trades around $86 per ounce. Following the recovery, European mining stocks are climbing.

8:50

Asia

In Asia, some stock markets jumped sharply, following optimism surrounding the trade agreement reached by the US and India. The Nifty 50 index, which includes the 50 largest public companies in India, jumps by nearly 3%; the Nikkei index jumped by about 4% and the Kospi index soared by about 6.8%. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange advances by about 0.3% and the Shanghai Stock Exchange adds about 1.2% to its value.

According to Trump’s announcement, the US will reduce tariffs on India from 25% to 18%, while India will gradually reduce its tariffs on the US to zero. Trump noted that “Prime Minister [מודי] He also pledged to buy a much larger amount of American products, in addition to the purchase of energy products, technology, agriculture, coal and many other products from the USA, amounting to over 500 billion dollars. In addition to that, President Trump noted that Modi pledged to him to stop purchasing Russian oil, and to purchase much more from the US and Venezuela – which he said “will help end the war in Ukraine.”

Wall Street

Wall Street, as mentioned, closed yesterday with rising rates. The Nasdaq index rose by about 0.6%, the S&P 500 rose by a similar rate and the Dow Jones jumped by about 1.1%. At the same time, the prices of precious metals were very volatile during the trading day, after the drop they recorded last Friday (see the expansion under section 3).

The increases in the stock market came after the ISM manufacturing index indicated an expansion in factory activity for the first time in a year (see expansion under Section 4), as well as President Trump’s announcement of reaching a trade agreement with India.

In the sector of technology giants, a mixed trend was recorded yesterday: Nvidia , Tesla , Meta andMicrosoft became weak; Alphabetical (Google) , Amazon anddark climbed up Nvidia’s decline came amid a report in the Wall Street Journal according to which the company’s investment plan in OpenAI, amounting to up to 100 billion dollars, has stalled and is not progressing as planned.

The cloud giant oracle concentrated interest yesterday, after announcing that it will raise between 45 and 50 billion dollars this year, through a combination of debt and share issuance, with the aim of significantly expanding its cloud infrastructure – a step that illustrates the scale of investments required to support the growth of artificial intelligence. The company said that the capital is intended to increase cloud capacity in accordance with the contractual demand from huge customers, including AMD, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, TikTok and xAI, as part of the global race to build AI infrastructures on a large scale. The stock rose by more than 3% at the beginning of the trading day, but later the gains were erased and it ended in negative territory.

Yesterday it was also reported that according to a report by the investment bank TD Cowen, the company is planning a new wave of layoffs, which will include an estimated 20,000-30,000 employees, and may sell some activities to free up budgets for investment in server farms. This round of cuts, considered the largest of all time, comes after the company, which currently employs 162,000 people, laid off an additional 10,000 workers at the end of last year as part of a restructuring plan designed to save it $1.6 billion in annual expenses. The new move expected soon should free Oracle of $8-10 billion in cash, which, as mentioned, will be directed to the centers of their server farms that the company committed to as part of the joint investment project with OpenAI and Softbank known as Stargate.

Information storage stocks continued to soar to new heights, amid the tremendous acceleration in demand for memory (RAM) in favor of the expansion of AI infrastructures. stock SanDisk Soared by over 15%, alongside other stocks in the field such as Seagate , Western Digital andMicron .

The transportation sector on Wall Street rose to a new all-time high. The Dow Jones Transportation Index ended the day up nearly 3%, led by stocks United Airlines , Delta Airlines , American Airlines andOld Dominion . stock FedEx She also rose to a new all-time high.

stock Walt Disney Yesterday it fell by almost 7%, even though its financial results exceeded analysts’ forecasts in the top and bottom line. CNBC attributed the declines to the company’s warning of a decline in the number of international visitors to its US theme parks, and a slowdown in profits at its television and film division. Other reports attributed the sentiment to uncertainty about the replacement of CEO Bob Iger, who is expected to leave his post soon.

stock Palantir Jumped yesterday in late trading by about 7%, after its financial results exceeded analysts’ expectations. The company reported record revenues of $1.41 billion and earnings per share of 24 cents, compared to expectations for revenues of $1.33 billion and earnings per share of 23 cents. The results reflect revenue growth at an impressive rate of 70% compared to the corresponding period last year. In an interview with CNBC, the company’s CEO Alex Karp said that the reports are “without a doubt the best results that I am aware of in the field of technology in the last decade. If you don’t spend money on it, you don’t spend money on something that is meant to be part of the momentum.”

Also during the night, Bloomberg reported that Elon Musk is merging his space company, SpaceX, with his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, in a deal that reflects a value of the merged company at $1.25 trillion – SpaceX is valued at $1 trillion, while xAI is valued at $250 billion. In a SpaceX announcement, it was stated that the company acquired xAI with the aim of “creating the most ambitious vertically integrated innovation engine on Earth (and beyond), which includes artificial intelligence, rockets, space-based internet, direct communication to mobile devices, and the world’s leading platform for real-time information and freedom of expression.”

According to the report, the company still expects to make an initial public offering (IPO) later this year, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter. SpaceX has planned an IPO that could raise up to $50 billion, in what would be the largest initial public offering ever.

In a broader look at the report season, Deutsche Bank strategists indicated at the end of the week that the growth in corporate profits is on track to be the strongest in four years – CNBC reported yesterday. So far, about a third of S&P 500 companies have reported, and about 78% of them have beaten analysts’ forecasts, according to FactSet. Tim Holland, chief investment officer at Orion, told CNBC that “if you think about what people were concerned about with our stock prices [בארה”ב]these were the valuations, especially among the larger companies. Double-digit growth in profits for the fifth quarter in a row, may go a long way in allaying the concerns about the valuations that we have all been living with in recent years.”

Macro

In the US, the ISM manufacturing index was published yesterday, which indicated that factory activity in the US for the month of January expanded for the first time in a year. The ISM manufacturing index showed a reading of 52.6 for the month, representing the percentage of companies that participated in the survey and reported expansion. This level reflects an increase of 4.7 points compared to December, and is significantly higher than the analysts’ consensus, which was 48.4. Prior to reading the latest expansion, the index had been in contraction range—that is, below 50—for 26 straight months.

Yesterday it was also reported that the US employment report for the month of January will not be published this Friday as planned, due to the partial shutdown of the American government that began last Friday – that is, following a delay in approving the state budget. A new date is expected to be set when the shutdown ends, which may happen this week.

This coming Thursday, the interest rate decision of the ECB, the European Central Bank, will be published. Senior economist Nadia Garbi of Picetta Wealth Management Bank expects interest rates to remain unchanged. In her estimation, the bank will maintain a “decision from meeting to meeting according to the data” approach.

She adds that the more relevant question will be regarding the level required to take monetary action, and in particular, the issue of the strengthening of the euro against the dollar. According to her, “The euro has strengthened by about 1% against the dollar since the December meeting. If it continues to strengthen ahead of the next meeting in March, this may contribute to a downward revision of the inflation forecasts. Already in the December forecasts, inflation was below the target – at 1.9% for 2026 and 1.8% for 2027, and the strengthening of the trend may, on the margins, strengthen the arguments in favor of further monetary easing.”

The commodity and currency markets

The shekel traded stably against the dollar this morning, and its rate stands at NIS 3.09; This, after the beginning of the year the American currency weakened against the shekel, and also on a global level.

Idan Azoulai, chief investment officer at Sigma-Clarity, notes that since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House about a year ago, the dollar index (DXY), which measures its strength against a basket of selected currencies around the world, has lost over 10%. the deficit”.

Trump is indeed satisfied, but his trading partners are less so, and Vazoulai adds: “It is impossible to separate the policy of weakening the dollar from many other actions of the administration, which raise the fear among the trading partners of the US about damage to their economic interests. The change in attitude causes an increasing number of central banks in the world to reduce their holdings in US bonds in favor of gold. According to him, for the first time since the mid-nineties, central banks in the world hold higher gold balances than balances in American bonds.

In the commodities market, oil prices fell by about 5% yesterday, amid reports of the possibility of negotiations between the US and Iran. The price of a barrel of American oil is about $62, while the price of a barrel of Brent oil is about $66.2. The price of natural gas plunged about 26% and ended its weakest day in 29 years, according to Bloomberg. The reason for the drop lies in the weather forecasts in the US, which predict warming already later this month.

The prices of the precious metals were volatile, after the sharp dive they registered during the weekend. Silver traded stable around a price of about $78 per ounce, while gold fell by over 4% and traded around a price of $4,650 per ounce. This morning, prices register sharp increases: gold jumps by over 5% and trades around $4,920 per ounce, while silver jumps by over 11% and trades around $86 per ounce.