MARKET WRAPS

Watch For:

Germany foreign trade, industrial production; trading updates from Societe Generale, Orsted, Telenor, Aker Solutions

Opening Call:

European stock futures traded mostly lower early Friday. Asian stock benchmarks were mixed; the dollar was flat; Treasury yields were flat; while oil futures inched higher and gold fell.

Equities:

Stock futures point to a lower open in Europe, as concerns about the threat artificial intelligence poses to tools for modeling and analysis grow.

"These fears of AI disruption have grown from worries about seat-based business models to more general existential risk perceptions, and investors are showing little tolerance for anything controversial when it comes to AI-related disruption," Macquarie analyst Steve Koenig said.

Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson, said that Anthropic's new product launches are causing investors to rethink how fast AI might disrupt businesses.

New AI tools "perform tasks that used to take people far longer to execute," he said. "That's a concern for investors."

Forex:

The dollar is likely to take "a more gradual path lower" this year and the next, Bank of America's Alex Cohen and Michalis Rousakis said.

Uncertainty remains high, but some market narratives "seem overdone to us at this stage, barring new developments," they said, referring to the concepts that the dollar could be losing its reserve status and global investors shun U.S. assets.

"Evidence thus far does not support these claims, though we do remain attentive going forward," they said.

Bonds:

The steep selloff in software stocks is spreading to the debt market.

Advances in new AI coding tools could potentially help some software companies increase profit margins, but investors still worry they could also put some out of business, as clients develop software themselves or use the plug-ins.

"There are potential transmission mechanisms" from software to other sectors," said Michael Anderson, global head of credit strategy at Citigroup.

Energy:

Iran has confirmed that it would hold talks with the U.S., allaying worries over U.S. military action that could threaten oil exports from the OPEC member, ANZ Research analysts said.

But "the two sides remain well apart, leaving tensions elevated. This should see the geopolitical risk premium remain in place," the analysts added.

Metals:

Gold fell amid spillover from the selloff in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

"The crypto bear market has morphed into a full-on market rout," IG's Chris Beauchamp said. This broad selloff is taking hold across markets, with commodities deep in the red too, the chief market analyst said.

"The best selloffs start when no one is really expecting one, but it seems like, as many have feared, the contagion from a crypto selloff has spread to the rest of the financial universe," Beauchamp added.

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Copper was down in early Asian trading. Signs of weaker demand in China are likely weighing on sentiment, ANZ Research said. Inventories of copper rose in London Metal Exchange warehouses in Asia, while there have been reports of easing Chinese buying as fabricators and manufacturers seem to lack the appetite, ANZ said.

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Iron ore lost ground, with prices threatening to break below $100 a ton for the first time since November. There is a broader selloff across industrial metals, in addition to weak fundamentals, ANZ Research analysts said.

Stockpiles at Chinese ports have been rising in recent weeks as the industry enters a seasonal slowdown around the Lunar New Year, while shipments from Australia have also increased this week, ANZ added.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

The Software Rout Is Spreading Pain to the Debt Markets

The steep selloff in software stocks is spreading to the debt market.

Pressured by growing worries about the disruptive potential of new AI coding tools, shares of large software companies such as Salesforce and ServiceNow have been sliding for months. But now the prices of software-company bonds and loans are also dropping.

Atlanta Fed's Bostic Makes the Case for Keeping Interest Rates Steady

It appears most Federal Reserve officials remain committed to keeping interest rates steady in the near term, including Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic.

On Thursday, Bostic was the latest policymaker to stress the importance of keeping the central bank's benchmark interest rate unchanged to help bring inflation sustainably down to the Fed's goal of 2%.

Weak Hiring, Layoff Plans Paint a Gloomy Labor-Market Picture

The U.S. job market is off to a rough start in the new year, with companies announcing more layoff plans after freezing out job seekers, cutting back on hiring, and rattling markets.

More reports out Thursday, from both government and private data sources, point to sluggish job growth, employers' reluctance to hire, and rising willingness to slash payrolls. They are filling in a picture of a labor market that slowed considerably in 2025 as economists wait for the government's official January report, due next week.

Three Takeaways From the Ukraine Peace Talks

U.S., Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have come away from two days of talks in Abu Dhabi with what appeared to be only modest progress in making a deal to end the war in Ukraine, and hardly any at all on the most difficult topic: the amount of territory Moscow and Kyiv should control in the eastern Donbas area.

Russian state media reported Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying it was too early to assess the outcome of the discussions, which began earlier this week. The U.S.'s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said he anticipated more progress in the coming weeks.

Novo Nordisk Accuses Hims & Hers of 'Illegal Mass Compounding' Over Cheaper Wegovy Version

Novo Nordisk accused Hims & Hers of "illegal mass compounding" after the telehealth platform said it would offer a cheaper, compounded version of the Wegovy pill.

Earlier Thursday, Hims & Hers said it would begin offering copies of Wegovy for an introductory price of $49 for the first month with a five-month plan, with the version made from the same active ingredient, semaglutide, as Novo Nordisk's treatment.

Rio Tinto, Glencore Abandon Megadeal Talks

Rio Tinto said it was no longer considering a tie-up with Glencore after weeks of talks, killing a potential deal that would have created the world's largest mining company with a market value of more than $200 billion.

The companies said they failed to reach an agreement on the key terms, which included Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto retaining both the chairman and chief executive roles and pro forma ownership of the combined group.

The Week Anthropic Tanked the Market and Pulled Ahead of Its Rivals

Anthropic once appeared as an also-ran in the chaotic race for AI supremacy. This week, the sophistication of the startup's products upended the stock market.

A simple set of industry-specific add-ons to its Claude product, including one that performed legal services, triggered a dayslong global stock selloff, from software to legal services, financial data and real estate. Then, Anthropic unveiled Super Bowl ads that taunt rival OpenAI.

Amazon Shares Sink as Company Boosts AI Spending by Nearly 60%

Amazon.com shares fell sharply after the technology giant unveiled plans for a massive increase in AI-related spending and fourth-quarter growth in its cloud-computing unit that was slower than rivals.

The company said it expects $200 billion in 2026 capital spending, a nearly 60% increase from last year and far above Wall Street expectations.

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Expected Major Events for Friday

05:30/NED: Dec Consumer Spending

06:45/SWI: Jan Unemployment

07:00/DEN: 4Q Consumer credit

07:00/GER: Dec Foreign Trade

07:00/NOR: Dec Industrial Production Index

07:00/UK: Jan Halifax House Price Index

07:00/GER: Dec Industrial Production Index

07:00/DEN: Dec Industrial production & new orders

07:30/HUN: Dec Preliminary Industrial Production

07:45/FRA: Dec Foreign trade

07:45/FRA: Dec Balance of payments

08:00/CZE: Dec External trade

08:00/CZE: Dec Industry, Construction

08:00/SWI: Jan SNB foreign currency reserves

08:00/AUT: Jan Wholesale Price Index

08:00/SPN: Dec Industrial Production

08:00/SVK: Dec Foreign trade

09:00/ICE: Jan External trade, preliminary figures

10:00/GRE: Dec External Trade (provisional data)

10:00/MLT: Dec Industrial Production Index

10:00/CRO: Dec Foreign Trade

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 06, 2026 00:09 ET (05:09 GMT)

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