For the first time in over a decade the Fed conducted rate check on yen (around midday on Friday); Yen Intervention coming?
Do Kwon Trial
Tue:
India-EU historic Free Trade Agreement after 18 years of negotiations, EU President Ursula von said ‘mother of all deals’
SEC- CFTC to Hold Joint Event on Crypto Era at 10am ET
Trump speaks in Iowa on economy
Senate Agriculture Committee to hold hearing on its version of the crypto market structure bill (could be delayed due to snowstorm)
STX earnings
Wed:
FOMC Meeting (expected to leave rates unchanged); focus will on timing of the next rate cut as recent data show signs that the economy is improving (Economists now expect the Fed won’t cut interest rates until June); BI Says: “The most interesting figures to watch are Governors Waller and Bowman: If they vote with the majority to hold steady, they’ll be signaling to Trump that they side with Powell — including on Fed independence. We expect Waller to vote with the majority, but Bowman to dissent.” Powell’s press conference will be the first since he disclosed DOJ subpoenas affecting the Fed
Earnings: ASML, MSFT, META, TESLA, IBM
Thu:
UK’s Starmer set to visit China to boost trade ties (trump okay with this??, another round like US vs Canada over china)
Earnings: Apple, SNDK, nasdaq, WDC (more details on supply shortage)
Fri:
U.S. government runs out of funding (shutdown odds at 75% on polymarket)
NumerCon 2026 12:30 PST
Fed’s Miran term ends on Sat.
TBA/Whole Week:
macro: Fed chair decision; AI earnings, more trump tantrums after ICE murdered another citizen?;
crypto: lighter to make series of annoucements; crypto market structure bill
What Happened:
Crypto Bill Delayed (likely to further postpone to until late February or March) as Senate Panel Pivots to Housing Push
US Bitcoin ETFs See Over $700 Million in Outflow
Coinbase forms advisory board on quantum computing threat
UBS Plans to Offer Crypto Trading for Some Wealthy Clients
Novogratz’s Galaxy to launch $100mn crypto hedge fund
NYSE plans to use its existing technology that matches buyers and sellers, combined with private blockchain networks, to facilitate the trading of tokenized securities in real-time, according to executives. The company is looking to launch the new digital trading platform later this year.
Crypto security company Ledger plots $4bn New York listing
Farcaster To Repay $180 Million to Venture Backers
The CLARITY Act bill, as drafted, has several key provisions with significant implications for the industry: blockworks
A ban on issuer-paid yield for payment stablecoins
Tokenizing an RWA (stock, bond, fund) does not change the underlying asset’s security classification
CFTC maintains oversight of spot markets for “commodity-like” tokens
SEC maintains oversight of primary issuance and capital formation
SEC maintains control over which tokens can qualify as commodities
Tokens can launch as securities and graduate to commodity classifications
DeFi protocols are eligible for exclusion if they execute via predetermined, non-discretionary rules and users retain asset control
Protects publishing interfaces and maintaining protocol software only if operators can’t custody, reroute or execute on users’ behalf
Creates safe harbors for infrastructure activities like validating/sequencing transactions, node operation, and oracle services
Fraud and manipulation enforcement remain fully applicable to DeFi and onchain activity
Supreme Court Doesn’t Rule on Tariffs, With Next Potential Decision in February. the justices don’t have another scheduled courtroom session until Feb. 20. The wait means the disputed tariffs remain in place for now, costing importers more than $16 billion every month.
Saudi Arabia to scale back Neom megaproject AND now pivoting to AI data centers
Korea Zinc Says US Smelter’s Waste Pile Has $3 Billion in Metal
Hedge Funds Gather $116 Billion in Net Inflows, Most Since 2007
Small Caps Notch Longest Win Streak Over S&P 500 Since 1996
Polish Central Bank Approves Plan to Buy 150 Tons of Gold
VIX Call Volumes Hit The Highest Level Since April on Tuesday. Options traders are also bracing for the next shoe to drop.
Samsung Electronics increases NAND flash memory prices by 100% in the first quarter... “Supply cannot keep up with demand.”
Intel shares plunged 14% on Friday after the company struggled to meet strong AI-driven demand for data-center chips due to supply constraints
Apple & Google are discussing hosting the chatbot directly on Google servers running powerful chips known as TPUs, or tensor processing units. The more immediate Siri update, in contrast, will operate on Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers, which rely on high-end Mac chips for processing.
Japan Bond Wipeout Was Triggered by Just $280 Million of Trading; Bloomberg strategists say:
“The message to policymakers from the markets is unmistakable: if you plan to spend more without new revenue to match that ambition, be prepared to see yields go up a whole lot. And given how unforgiving global bond vigilantes appear to be right now, that message won’t be diluted even if the markets are beset by growth concerns prompted by the prospect of new tariffs over US demands for Greenland.”
Asean Stocks Set for First Foreign Inflows in a Row Since 2024
SILVER: “It’s the highest demand I’ve ever seen,” said Firat Sekerci, the general manager of Public Gold DMCC, a bullion dealer based in Dubai. “Most refineries in Turkey have been out of stock for the smaller bars — 10 ounces, 100 ounces — for the past 10 days.
OpenAI’s Altman Meets Mideast Investors for $50 Billion Round
McKinsey CEO Bob Sternfels says the firm now has 60,000 employees: 25,000 of them are AI agents
IBM CEO says there is ‘no way’ spending trillions on AI data centers will pay off at today’s infrastructure costs “$8 trillion of CapEx means you need roughly $800 billion of profit just to pay for the interest”
JPMorgan Chase has seen slower investor interest for $38 billion of debt tied to two Stargate sites. Oracle and OpenAI’s AI data centers buildout needs $500 billion, and Wall Street is starting to flinch
