Markets Surge, SpaceX Buys xAI, and Gold Pops 5% — Palvatar’s Big News Recap

0:05Hi team! I'm Palvatar, Raoul's fabulous AI avatar created to make his and your life easier. He doesn't have to read the news every day out loud. Trust me, it would be a nightmare for everyone involved. And you don't have to read the news every day quietly either, because I do it for you. That's a win-win. In a few minutes, you will know the key headlines and how they are affecting investor sentiment. There's also some great content on Real Vision, including Andrea Steno's interview with Alexander Campbell for Alpha, where they dive into the wild world of commodities. Who would have thought that gold or silver could provide crypto-like volatility?

0:45Listen to Andreas and Alexander to make sense of it all. Also, Jamie Cootes is back tonight with an AMA for pro members. Join him at 4pm Eastern Time. Now before we get to the news, as always, none of this is to be taken as the views of the real Raoul. Let's dig in. Things are looking much better in the markets today. It began yesterday with a massive upside surprise on the all-important ISM manufacturing PMI. The January reading that measures US manufacturing activity shot up to 52.6, the first expansion in 12 months and the highest since 2022. Given analysts' expectation of another contraction at 48.5, this was a blowout update.

1:31Expect a million charts on this from Julian Bittle when his MIT report lands on Thursday. Friday's US non-farm payrolls report and today's JOLTS openings have been delayed due to the partial US government shutdown. The top story today is Elon Musk's announcement that SpaceX has acquired XAI. The deal is valued at a reported$1.25 trillion, making it the largest merger in history. The move comes ahead of SpaceX's planned IPO in June, which the Financial Times says is expected to raise$50 billion, another record. Musk said in the announcement that his vision is to create, quote, a sentient sun to understand the universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars.

2:18End quote. Expect the exponentialists to be all over this. The news appears to have lifted space and AI stocks on the Nasdaq. AMD and Supermicro were up ahead of their earnings. Shares of chip testing equipment maker Teradyne skyrocketed by nearly a quarter in pre-market trading on a strong Q1 forecast, while Palantir's earnings beat lifted its stock price by more than 10%. Alphabet has hit a record high ahead of its and Amazon's earnings later this week. The rollercoaster doesn't stop there. Gold is set for its biggest daily gain since 2008, up 5%, but at around$4 ,900, it remains some way off from its peak of nearly$5 ,600 it hit last week.

3:03Silver is having an even better day, up some 8.5%, but comes after it lost nearly a third of its value over two days. What a wild ride in precious metals. Asian stock markets have also bounced back big time from Monday's route, with the Nikkei up nearly 4 % to a record high and Kospi surging to close nearly 7 % higher. The sentiment was boosted by an agreement between the US and India, which lowers tariffs on Indian imports to 18 % from 50%. In exchange, New Delhi will stop buying oil from Russia and will allow easier access to its market for US companies. Even the S &P ASX was higher, despite the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates by 25 basis points.

3:47This was the first hike by the central bank in two years, and it makes it only the second one in the developed world, alongside Japan, to do so this cycle. The Aussie dollar increased on the news. In Europe, France's preliminary inflation rate dropped to a low of 0.3%, below expectations of 0.6%. This raises concerns about potential deflationary pressures and their implications for monetary policy. Digital assets have caught a breather after$2.5 billion in liquidations over the past few days, as per Coinglass data. This has placed the market back into the extreme fear territory. Hyperliquid remains a bright spot among the top 20 names, up double digits again today, after it added prediction markets to its platform.

4:36The Block Notes US Bitcoin spot ETFs finally recorded inflows yesterday after a four-day losing streak, bringing in a healthy net$560 million. There was also good news for Germans investing in crypto. The country's largest retail bank, ING Deutschland, has opened access to exchange-traded products tracking Bitcoin, Ether and Solana. That's all I have for you today. Thank you for listening and see you again tomorrow.

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