News

Chip stocks in the U.S. and Europe rose on Wednesday for a second straight day, recovering from a punishing selloff triggered by China's low-cost DeepSeek artificial intelligence tool at the start of the week. Shares of AI chip leader Nvidia, however, slipped 2.7% to $125.44 and weighed on the Nasdaq. European tech stocks jumped, partly fuelled by a nearly 8% surge in ASML after the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker reported a surprisingly large rise in new bookings.

The Federal Reserve, which wraps up its latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, is about to enter one of the more challenging periods of managing what most observers believe is the approaching endgame for its balance sheet drawdown. That's because even as the Fed is expected in coming months to get financial sector liquidity down to levels that will allow it to stop rolling off expiring Treasury and mortgage bonds from its balance sheet, it will be hard to try to get a handle on how tight liquidity is. The U.S. government debt ceiling is again an issue and until that's resolved and borrowing can rise, the current cap will affect Treasury bond issuance in a way that will obscure already difficult efforts to gauge money market liquidity.

Investment firm D.E. Shaw has built a position in Riot Platforms and may push it to make changes, two sources familiar with the matter said, making it the second activist shareholder to do so at the cryptocurrency mining company. Reuters could not determine the size of D.E. Shaw's stake in Riot. Representatives for Riot and D.E. Shaw, which oversees $70 billion in assets, declined to comment.

Apple downgraded, Rivian initiated: Wall Street's top analyst calls

(Reuters) -Oil prices edged lower on Wednesday on a rise in U.S. crude stockpiles and easing concern over Libyan supply, with U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports also in focus. Brent crude futures were down 44 cents, or 0.57%, at $77.05 a barrel by 1400 GMT. The White House said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump still plans to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico on Saturday.

With an ongoing crypto bull market and widespread interest in the asset class among everyone from retirement investors to the government, now's a great time to think about starting a position in some of the sector's leaders. Many investors are familiar with the Solana platform, which is becoming widely known as the place for meme coin investing. More importantly, several catalysts in the coming year or so could send its price soaring, including the potential approval of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold the Solana coin.

The popular meme coin has climbed to its highest levels since 2021.

Dealmaking in the U.S. upstream oil and gas industry hit $105 billion in 2024, the third highest annual total ever, but activity slowed in the second half as buyers found fewer targets to acquire, consultancy Enverus said on Wednesday. Last year's total deal value fell sharply behind the whopping $192 billion in mergers and acquisitions done in 2023, which included the $60 billion combination of Exxon Mobil and Pioneer Natural Resources. The Permian remained the most desirable acquisition target, but buyers are also looking further afield as opportunities there dry up, according to Enverus' report.

(Bloomberg) -- A small band of Wall Street skeptics are moving to protect their credit portfolios against a market priced like nothing in the economy could possibly go wrong.Most Read from BloombergTrump's Federal Funding Pause Threatens State Financials Housing Aid Uncertain After Trump’s Spending Freeze MemoUS Students’ Reading Scores Drop to Worst in More Than 20 YearsTexas HOA Charged With Discrimination for Banning Section 8 RentersManhattan’s Morning Commute Time Drops With New Congestion

Institutional investors poured $16.3 billion into bitcoin spot ETFs in the fourth quarter, leading the cryptocurrency to hit new all-time highs.