📈The Prosperity Machine: BlackRock hit a record $14tn in AUM, fueled by a historic $342bn in quarterly net inflows and continued ETF dominance. CEO Larry Fink continues to believe that his pivot into private markets is a key to doubling the firm’s value by 2030, where the firm eventually becomes a “prosperity flywheel” that democratizes access to exclusive investments previously reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

📈Your Next Siri is … Gemini: Gemini 3’s release was pretty impressive — or so thought Apple execs. The same executives who decided it would power the next version of Siri. Google’s stock price soared following the news (alongside bumper earnings reports), briefly pushing it into the $4 trillion market cap club.

📈The Math Ain’t Mathing: In the same year the US imposed the largest tariffs on China, China announced its largest trade surplus — ever. Export growth hit 6.1% yoy and China’s surplus reached $1.2 trillion with total exports at $3.8 trillion. Perhaps tariffs really are a good thing…

📈Mortgage Market Rally: By announcing “US government representatives” would purchase $200bn of mortgage bonds, Trump has increased demand in the mortgage bond market. This means bonds are rallying (price up, yield down), resulting in higher mortgage applications as borrowing gets cheaper.

🌎Unrest in Iran: After protests initially sprang up in Tehran (Iran) due to the massive depreciation of the Iranian rial and a bank collapse, the current government has been cracking down on protestors, hard. As death tolls rose to the low 1000s, the US reportedly considered military intervention but has yet to intervene.

🌎A High Risk, High Reward Play: After record levels of inflation in Japan (think 3-4%), Japan’s PM, Sanae Takaichi is planning to call for a early election in the first week of February. Her party’s current majority of 1 seat in parliament is too small, particularly as she plans to pass her big spending package and other defence-related laws.

🌎Demolition Job: Fed. Reserve Chair Jerome Powell faces a criminal investigation into whether he provided false testimony regarding the $2.5bn renovation of the central bank’s headquarters, an allegation he vehemently rejects as a political pretext to force interest rate cuts. S&P 500 futures dipped slightly as fears of the central bank is losing its independence looms.

🌎How Much for Greenland?: Greenland, now valued at $700 billion is the U.S.’ national security pancea — at least, according to Trump. While we don’t know whether his desire for Greenland stems from national security concerns or from its abundant natural resources, Trump is willing to tariff any country that gets in his way.

👔The “Best Tariff Deal”: Taiwan agreed to invest $250bn in the American tech industry in exchange for the U.S. capping its tariffs on Taiwan at 15%. Taiwan views the pact as the “best tariff deal” whilst Chinese officials condemn the accord. Trump’s tariff on Taiwanese goods was previously at 20%.

👔Rolls Royce’s Growth Goes Nuclear: Over the past 5 years, a competitior to build-a-bear’s stock success story has entered. As it doubled-down on defence manufacturing, Rolls-Royce has gained 1,200% on its stock price. Now with plans to establish a nuclear reactor, analysts are as bullish as ever.

👔Saks in Survival Mode: Saks Global, parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its debt. Once approved, Saks will secure over $1bn in financing to fund its turnaround. The filing follows a recent financial crisis where the luxury retailer missed a $100M interest paument to bondholders, while separetely facing reports that vendors had halted shipments due to unpaid bills.

👔AI’s Hidden Price Tag: The highly unpopular move of building data centers has triggered a new social concern. According to Bloomberg, communities near data centers saw electricity costs soar by ~267% last year compared to five years ago. Some states are pushing back with new legislation and tariffs to ensure tech companies pay their fair share, ensuring price hikes don’t get passed on to neighbouring communities.

🤪Traitors to the Trade: Valued at $10bn, Mercor is a startup that hired over 30,000 white-collar contractors in 2025 to train and critique LLMs behind today’s top AI tools. This new gig platform offers lucrative pay of up to $250 an hour, even though it tasks professionals with refining the very technology designed to eventually replace them.

🤪Trump Unoffically Gets One: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gifted her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Trump to honor his efforts in removing Nicolás Maduro, though the nobel commitiee clarified the title itself is non-transferable.

🤪Who Let the Dogs Out?: Malawi’s current and former presidents are in a hot dispute over who gets to keep 4 presidential dogs. The former argues they’re part of his security detail while the current argues they’re essentially civil servants and should remain with the President. With the former President “dognapping” them at the end of his term.

🤪NewJeans - 1: Former NewJeans member Danielle hosted an IG live on Jan. 12 via her newly confirmed “@Dazzibelle” account, breaking the silence following her contract termination by ADOR in late Dec. Danielle says she “fought until the very end” to remain with the group but essentially confirms the definitive end of the original five-member lineup.