MARKET WRAPS

STOCKS: Stocks rose, with the technology sector leading the way after artificial-intelligence and cryptocurrency fears sparked a selloff last week.

TREASURYS: Treasury yields fell ahead of economic and inflation data later in the week.

FOREX: The U.S. dollar fell against rivals, and was set to test multiyear lows, as the yen gained in the wake of a Japanese election.

COMMODITIES: Oil futures rose as traders weighed the risk of conflict in the Middle East. Gold futures rose, topping $5,000 a troy ounce again.

HEADLINES

Kroger Names Ex-Walmart Executive as Its Next CEO

Grocery giant Kroger said it named Greg Foran, a former executive at top rival Walmart, as its next chief executive.

Kroger, the biggest grocer in the U.S. by sales after Walmart, had been searching for a permanent leader for almost a year after the departure of longtime CEO Rodney McMullen for an undisclosed ethics violation.

Foran will take over effective immediately, Kroger said Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported the move on Sunday.

Novo Nordisk Escalates Fight Against Hims & Hers

A lawsuit that drugmaker Novo Nordisk filed on Monday against telehealth firm Hims & Hers shows how fierce the maneuvering over the booming obesity-drug market has become.

In the lawsuit filed in a federal court in Delaware, Novo Nordisk accused Hims & Hers of violating the patents covering its Ozempic and Wegovy drugs used for weight loss by trying to sell custom-made versions of those medicines.

The pill from Hims & Hers threatened to undermine Novo Nordisk's efforts to recapture momentum in the $70 billion weight-loss drug market by providing a lower-cost alternative to a Wegovy pill the Danish company recently launched.

Transocean to Acquire Valaris in $5.8 Billion Deal

Transocean agreed to acquire fellow offshore drilling services company Valaris in an all-stock deal worth $5.8 billion.

The companies said the deal will expand their reach and customer access in the world's most attractive offshore drilling basins. The combined company will own 73 rigs.

"The powerful combination is well-timed to capitalize on an emerging, multi-year offshore drilling upcycle," said Transocean Chief Executive Keelan Adamson.

Kyndryl Shares Halved Amid CFO Departure, Accounting Review

Shares of Kyndryl Holdings lost more than half their value after the company's chief financial officer left amid a review of accounting practices following an inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission

The information-technology-services infrastructure provider on Monday said finance chief David Wysher had left the company, along with general counsel, Edward Sebold. The company also cut its guidance for the year after posting third-quarter results below Wall Street expectations.

Shares were down nearly 57% in recent trading to $10.18.

Eli Lilly to Buy Biotech Orna Therapeutics for Up to $2.4 Billion

Eli Lilly has struck a deal to buy genetic-medicine biotechnology company Orna Therapeutics for up to $2.4 billion in cash.

Eli Lilly on Monday said Orna, which is dedicated to engineering immune cells in vivo, is advancing a new class of therapeutics using engineered circular RNA paired with novel lipid nanoparticles to allow the patient's own body to generate cell therapies that can treat underlying disease.

The Indianapolis drugmaker said the acquisition, which includes inclusive of an undisclosed upfront payment and subsequent payments based on the achievement of certain clinical development milestones, gives it a platform for long-term innovation in genetic medicine and in-vivo cell engineering.

Apollo Global Management Profit Falls, Revenue Rises

Apollo Global Management's fourth-quarter profit fell as higher tax provision and an investment-activities loss outweighed strong revenue gains and higher quarterly inflows.

The alternative asset manager on Monday posted a lower net income of $684 million, or $1.07 a share, compared with $1.49 billion, or $2.39 a share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company's income-tax provision-money set aside to cover taxes-rose to $592 million, compared with $62 million in the prior-year period. It also logged a net loss from investment activities of $43 million in the quarter, compared with a gain of $25 million a year earlier.

Gold Bull Thomas Kaplan Pushing Ahead on Plans for America's Biggest Gold Mine

Thomas Kaplan is pushing ahead on what he's dubbed America's gold mine.

Having secured control of a long-coveted gold deposit in Alaska, Kaplan's NovaGold Resources and fellow investor John Paulson have hired engineering firm Fluor to lead a bankable feasibility study on the Donlin gold project. A successful study would be the green light to develop what the billionaire investor expects will be the largest single gold mine in the U.S.

The development comes as the price of gold remains elevated, even after a recent pullback, and amid the Trump administration's embrace of developments in Alaska.

Proposed Ban on Investors in the Housing Market Hits a Wall in Congress

The White House is at loggerheads with Congress over one of President Trump's signature housing proposals, a ban on Wall Street investors buying single-family homes.

Trump officials pressured Congressional Republicans in recent weeks to include the investor ban as an amendment in either of the major housing bills currently winding through the House and the Senate, according to people familiar with the matter.

But lawmakers in both chambers have resisted adding the investor ban, which traditional free-market advocates, Wall Street executives and the home-builder industry generally oppose. Any such amendment could derail the bipartisan momentum behind both housing packages that have been in the works for months.

Eddie Bauer Store Operator Files for Bankruptcy

The operator of Eddie Bauer stores in the U.S. and Canada has filed for bankruptcy, becoming the latest retailer to do so as headwinds challenge the industry.

Eddie Bauer LLC announced the move Monday, saying it has entered into a restructuring support agreement with lenders.

The company made the "difficult decision" to implement a court-supervised sale process after careful deliberation, said Marc Rosen, chief executive of Catalyst Brands.

TALKING POINT Why AI Chatbots Can't Be Trusted for Financial Advice: They're Sociopaths

Should you use AI for financial advice?

Andrew Lo, a finance professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, says not yet. Large language models like Copilot or ChatGPT aren't suited to being used as financial advisers because they are the digital equivalent of sociopaths-smooth, persuasive and devoid of empathy.

If an adviser powered by artificial intelligence "is able to communicate both good and bad financial advice with the same pleasant and convincing affect, its clients will rightfully view this as a problem," Lo and one of his graduate students, Jillian Ross, wrote in 2024 in an article for the Harvard Data Science Review. (Today's robo advisers, like those offered by Betterment and Wealthfront, went into action before the era of large language models and aren't built on them for the most part, so Lo's critiques don't apply to them.)

Still, people are already using AI tools for help with their finances. This past August, a survey of 11,000 individual investors in 13 countries commissioned by eToro, a trading and investment platform, found that 19% were already using ChatGPT-style AI tools to manage their portfolios, up from 13% in 2024.

That worries Lo. "The AI people are using now can be dangerous, especially if the user isn't fully aware of the biases, inaccuracies and other limits" of large language models, he wrote in an email.

Despite his reservations about current AI models, Lo believes that large language models will eventually be able to help investors-especially people with small accounts and limited experience with investing. In fact, he is working to build one that is specialized for financial advice. He doesn't plan to charge for it, he says.

--Peter Coy, reports@wsj.com

Expected Major Events for Tuesday

00:01/UK: Jan BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor

06:00/JPN: Jan Preliminary Machine Tool Orders

06:30/FRA: 4Q ILO Unemployment and Labour Market-related indicators

11:00/US: Jan NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism

13:30/US: Dec Import & Export Price Indexes

13:30/US: Dec Advance Monthly Sales for Retail & Food Services

13:30/US: 4Q Employment Cost Index

13:55/US: 02/07 Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index

15:00/US: Nov Manufacturing & Trade: Inventories & Sales

17:00/US: World Agricultural Supply & Demand Estimates (WASDE)

21:30/US: API Weekly Statistical Bulletin

All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.

Expected Earnings for Tuesday

$Aramark(ARMK-W)$ $(ARMK)$ is expected to report $0.46 for 1Q.

Ares Commercial Real Estate $(ACRE)$ is expected to report $0.02 for 4Q.

Arvinas Inc $(ARVN)$ is expected to report $-0.51 for 4Q.

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd $(AXTA)$ is expected to report $0.57 for 4Q.

Blackbaud Inc $(BLKB)$ is expected to report $0.67 for 4Q.

CTS Corp (CTS) is expected to report $0.60 for 4Q.

CVS Health Corp $(CVS)$ is expected to report $0.68 for 4Q.

Coca-Cola Co $(KO)$ is expected to report $0.58 for 4Q.

Consensus Cloud Solutions Inc (CCSI) is expected to report $1.10 for 4Q.

Cyanotech Corp (CYAN) is expected to report for 3Q.

Datadog Inc (DDOG) is expected to report $0.11 for 4Q.

DuPont de Nemours Inc (DD) is expected to report $0.43 for 4Q.

Duke Energy Corp $(DUK)$ is expected to report $1.47 for 4Q.

Ecolab Inc $(ECL)$ is expected to report $2.02 for 4Q.

Entegris Inc $(ENTG)$ is expected to report $0.39 for 4Q.

Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc $(FMAO)$ is expected to report $0.66 for 4Q.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc $(FIS)$ is expected to report $0.81 for 4Q.

Fiserv Inc (FISV) is expected to report $1.35 for 4Q.

GCM Grosvenor Inc $(GCMG)$ is expected to report $0.21 for 4Q.

Harley-Davidson Inc $(HOG)$ is expected to report $-1.12 for 4Q.

InMode Ltd $(INMD)$ is expected to report $0.38 for 4Q.

Incyte Corp $(INCY)$ is expected to report $1.41 for 4Q.

International Petroleum Corp (IPCO.T) is expected to report $0.02 for 4Q.

Lee Enterprises Inc $(LEE)$ is expected to report for 1Q.

LiveWire Group Inc (LVWR) is expected to report for 4Q.

Marriott International Inc $(MAR)$ is expected to report $2.60 for 4Q.

Masco Corp $(MAS)$ is expected to report $0.78 for 4Q.

Oscar Health Inc $(OSCR)$ is expected to report $-0.87 for 4Q.

Quest Diagnostics Inc $(DGX)$ is expected to report $2.09 for 4Q.

S&P Global Inc $(SPGI)$ is expected to report $3.64 for 4Q.

Saia Inc $(SAIA)$ is expected to report $1.91 for 4Q.

Silicon Laboratories Inc $(SLAB)$ is expected to report $-0.17 for 4Q.

TerraVest Industries Inc (TVK.T) is expected to report for 1Q.

Trimble Inc $(TRMB)$ is expected to report $0.65 for 4Q.

Vestis Corp $(VSTS)$ is expected to report $0.01 for 1Q.

Wesco International Inc $(WCC)$ is expected to report $3.75 for 4Q.

Williams Cos $(WMB)$ is expected to report $0.57 for 4Q.

Xylem Inc $(XYL)$ is expected to report $1.14 for 4Q.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc $(ZBH)$ is expected to report $1.66 for 4Q.

iRadimed Corp $(IRMD)$ is expected to report $0.44 for 4Q.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2026 16:39 ET (21:39 GMT)

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