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Shell reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.26 billion, missing analyst expectations of $3.53 billion and marking its weakest quarterly profit since early 2021. The results were impacted by lower crude oil prices, unfavorable tax adjustments, and weakness in its chemicals business. Despite the miss, Shell increased its dividend by 4% to $0.372 per share.

• Full-year 2025 adjusted earnings came in at $18.5 billion, below expectations, as European energy majors face pressure from lower oil prices
• Net debt increased to $45.7 billion with gearing at 20.7%, up from $41.2 billion and 18.8% in the previous quarter
• CEO Wael Sawan emphasized strong operational performance in integrated gas, upstream, and marketing businesses, while acknowledging tax adjustments and chemicals weakness hurt results

Toyota Motor is expected to report a 10% decline in operating profit to 1.09 trillion yen for the October-December quarter, marking its third consecutive quarterly profit decline. Despite record global sales of 10.5 million vehicles driven by strong hybrid demand, the automaker faces headwinds from rising labor and raw material costs, plus 15% U.S. tariffs on Japanese vehicle imports.

• Toyota's global sales reached a record 10.5 million vehicles in 2025, up nearly 4%, with hybrids accounting for 42% of sales while EVs represented less than 2%
• U.S. market performance was particularly strong with 8% sales growth as consumers shifted toward high-margin hybrid vehicles
• The yen's weakness against Toyota's forecast rate (146 per dollar vs. current 156.88) may provide upside to financial results and help offset cost pressures

Workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, Tennessee plant have reached a tentative agreement with the company, according to an announcement by the United Auto Workers union on Wednesday. The deal represents a significant development for labor relations at the German automaker's U.S. manufacturing facility.

• The United Auto Workers union announced the tentative deal late Wednesday, though specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed
• The agreement affects workers at Volkswagen's Tennessee manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, one of the company's key U.S. production facilities
• The deal still requires ratification by union members before it becomes final

Sony reported a 22% increase in third-quarter operating profit to 515 billion yen ($3.28 billion), exceeding analyst expectations of 469 billion yen. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 8% to 1.54 trillion yen, driven by strong performance in its music business.

• Third-quarter profit of 515 billion yen beat the average analyst estimate of 469 billion yen by approximately 10%
• Full-year operating profit forecast increased 8% to 1.54 trillion yen, primarily due to music business performance
• Sony faces industry headwinds including surging memory chip prices amid AI investment boom and uncertainty from AI-powered game development tools

Meta Platforms' Instagram experienced a service outage on February 4, affecting over 10,000 users in the United States according to Downdetector. The incident reports peaked at 10,108 as of 8:30 p.m. ET but dropped sharply within an hour. Meta did not respond to requests for comment on the disruption.

• Downdetector recorded 10,108 incident reports at the peak of the outage around 8:30 p.m. ET
• The number of reported incidents decreased significantly just one hour after the peak
• Meta Platforms did not provide any official statement or explanation regarding the service disruption

Ciena, a networking hardware maker, will rejoin the S&P 500 after being removed 17 years ago during the 2009 financial crisis. The company is replacing Dayforce, which is being acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $12.3 billion. Ciena's return is driven by surging demand for data center infrastructure supporting generative AI workloads.

• Ciena's market cap has nearly tripled in the past year, with the stock reaching its highest price since 2001 as AI infrastructure demand accelerates.
• The company projects 24% revenue growth in fiscal 2026, which would be its fastest expansion since 2011, with nearly 18% of fiscal 2025 revenue coming from a single unnamed cloud provider.
• Supply constraints for optical components and AI infrastructure parts are driving up prices, though Ciena says it has secured supply from key vendors to meet demand.

Bob's Discount Furniture raised $330.7 million in its U.S. IPO, selling approximately 19.5 million shares at $17 per share. The Bain Capital-backed furniture retailer will list on the NYSE under ticker symbol 'BOBS', testing investor appetite for consumer-focused companies amid a backlog of PE-owned firms seeking to go public.

• Bob's has grown from a single Connecticut store in 1991 to over 200 showrooms nationwide, becoming one of the largest U.S. furniture chains
• The company has been under private equity ownership for two decades, with Bain Capital acquiring it in 2014 from KarpReilly and Apax Partners
• J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley serve as joint-lead book-running managers for the offering, which comes after years of limited IPO activity

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) plans to invest approximately $17 billion to establish mass production of advanced 3-nanometer chips at its Kumamoto plant in Japan. The Japanese government, which has already subsidized TSMC's chipmaking expansion in Kumamoto, is considering additional financial support for this new investment plan.

• TSMC will produce cutting-edge 3-nanometer chips at the Kumamoto facility, representing advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology
• The $17 billion investment builds on Japan's strategy to boost domestic chip production capacity in the Kumamoto region
• Japan is considering further subsidies beyond existing support to secure TSMC's expanded operations

Kyle Svara, a 26-year-old Illinois man, pleaded guilty to hacking nearly 600 women's Snapchat accounts through phishing schemes to steal nude photos, which he kept, sold, or traded online. The case emerged from an investigation into a former Northeastern University coach who hired Svara for $50 to hack student athletes' accounts. Prosecutors recommended a three-year prison sentence under a plea agreement.

• Svara used social engineering from May 2020 to February 2021, posing as Snapchat support to obtain security codes from 571 women, successfully accessing at least 59 accounts
• He advertised hacking services on Reddit and other forums, offering to provide stolen content 'for you or trade' to clients
• Former Northeastern coach Steve Waithe, who hired Svara, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 for schemes targeting 56 women nationally

Investors traded record volumes of oil price hedging contracts in January 2026 amid geopolitical tensions with Iran and the return of Venezuelan crude to U.S. markets. WTI Midland at Houston contracts hit 1.9 million on ICE for the month, with a single-day record of 257,569 contracts on January 30 when U.S. crude reached around $65 per barrel, up 14% from early January.

• Iranian tensions and severe U.S. winter weather (which knocked off up to 2 million bpd of crude output) drove risk premiums and hedging activity in oil markets
• Venezuelan crude's return created competition for Canadian oil at the U.S. Gulf Coast, with WCS futures hitting a record 188,000 contracts and a single-day record on January 6 when a deal allowed up to $2 billion in Venezuelan imports
• The hedging surge reflects producers seeking to lock in prices and traders capitalizing on volatility, with U.S. crude futures hovering around six-month highs during the period

Verizon sued T-Mobile in federal court for false advertising, alleging the carrier exaggerated consumer savings claims by over 100% when promoting carrier switches. Verizon seeks triple damages under the Lanham Act and an injunction to stop the challenged advertisements, claiming T-Mobile compared promotional rates against Verizon's standard rates unfairly.

• T-Mobile allegedly promised consumers over $1,000 in annual savings by comparing its promotional rates to Verizon's standard rates and inflating the value of streaming and other benefits
• The National Advertising Review Board previously found T-Mobile's substantially identical savings claims unsubstantiated and misleading in 2025 and 2026, yet T-Mobile continued similar advertising
• Verizon has 146.9 million subscribers and is seeking unspecified triple damages plus an injunction under federal and New York state laws

The Trump administration has approved a license for Nvidia to sell H200 AI chips to China's ByteDance, but the deal remains stalled over terms. Nvidia has not accepted the U.S. government's Know-Your-Customer requirements and other conditions designed to prevent Chinese military access to the chips. The chipmaker argues that conditions must be commercially practical or the market will shift to foreign competitors.

• The U.S. approved the license approximately two weeks ago, but Nvidia has not accepted the proposed Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements to ensure China's military cannot access the chips
• Nvidia is negotiating with the U.S. over license terms for H200 chip shipments to Chinese companies, stating it cannot unilaterally accept or reject conditions as an intermediary between government and customers
• President Trump personally greenlit sales of H200 and similar AMD chips to China once national security concerns are addressed, signaling potential broader chip exports to Chinese AI companies

Snap's shares rose after the company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.72 billion, surpassing Wall Street's expectations of $1.70 billion, with sales growing 10% year-over-year. Net income surged nearly 400% to $45.2 million from $9.1 million a year ago. However, the company issued weaker first-quarter revenue guidance of $1.50-$1.53 billion, below the $1.55 billion analyst estimate.

• Global daily active users reached 474 million, missing the 478 million estimate, with a 3 million sequential decline attributed to reduced marketing spending and age verification measures that removed 400,000 accounts
• Average revenue per user (ARPU) was $3.62, exceeding the $3.56 estimate, as Snap focuses on growing subscription offerings like Snapchat+ to diversify revenue streams
• The company announced a $500 million stock repurchase program and reported adjusted EBITDA of $358 million, beating the $300 million estimate

Arm Holdings projected fourth-quarter revenue of $1.47 billion, exceeding Wall Street's $1.44 billion estimate, driven by strong demand for its energy-efficient chip designs used in AI applications across data centers and smartphones. The company's architecture has been adopted by major tech firms including Nvidia for AI-focused server chips, positioning Arm as a critical player in the AI ecosystem.

• Third-quarter revenue reached $1.24 billion, beating the $1.22 billion estimate, with royalty revenue rising 27% to $737 million (above $707.9 million estimate)
• Arm's power-efficient chip designs are critical for data center operators managing soaring energy costs from running massive AI models
• CEO Rene Haas indicated AI agents will continue benefiting sales 'beyond no end in sight,' as Arm-based chips are needed to manage data flows between Nvidia GPUs and other AI processors

Qualcomm reported fiscal Q1 earnings that beat expectations but issued weaker-than-expected guidance due to a global memory shortage impacting smartphone production. The chip shortage, driven by high data center demand for memory, is forcing Qualcomm's smartphone customers to closely manage inventories and may constrain the mobile market. CEO Cristiano Amon stated that memory availability is now defining the size of the mobile market despite strong handset demand.

• Qualcomm beat Q1 estimates with $3.50 adjusted EPS and $12.25 billion revenue, but guidance fell short of consensus due to memory supply constraints affecting smartphone manufacturers
• Handset sales reached $7.82 billion (up 3% annually), while faster-growing segments included IoT at $1.69 billion (up 9%) and automotive at $1.1 billion (up 15%)
• The memory shortage, caused by data center demand competing with consumer electronics, may push smartphone makers toward higher-tier devices better able to absorb memory price increases

Alphabet announced plans to spend $175-185 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, far exceeding analyst expectations of $115 billion, as the company accelerates AI infrastructure investments. The massive spending increase reflects intensifying competition in artificial intelligence, with Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft collectively expected to invest over $500 billion in AI this year. The investment comes as Google shows strong AI momentum, with its Gemini model gaining 650 million monthly users and securing a major partnership with Apple.

• Capital spending target of $175-185 billion represents a roughly 60% increase over the $115 billion analysts expected for 2026
• Google Cloud revenue surged 48% to $17.7 billion in Q4, significantly outpacing the 35.2% growth analysts projected, though capacity constraints are limiting ability to meet AI demand
• Google's Gemini AI assistant reached 650 million monthly users and the company struck a deal with Apple to power Siri across 2.5 billion devices, strengthening its competitive position against OpenAI

NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens criticized the Pro Football Hall of Fame voting process as 'broken' following the recent snubs of Patriots coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft. Owens, who was passed over twice before his 2018 induction despite elite statistics, argued the flawed system has real financial consequences and called for reforms to preserve the institution's credibility.

• Owens stated first-ballot induction carries significant financial value through endorsement and business opportunities, noting he personally lost money when delayed despite ranking near the top of receiving categories
• He called on Hall of Fame President Jim Porter to reform voting criteria and hold accountable the writers who don't adhere to guidelines, suggesting some should be 'stripped of their position'
• The snubs of Belichick and Kraft are particularly notable given the Patriots' six Super Bowl championships under their leadership, with a potential seventh title this Sunday

Target's new CEO Michael Fiddelke acknowledged in his first town hall that the retailer has lost trust with both shoppers and employees, particularly citing confusion about the company's identity. Fiddelke, who replaced Brian Cornell in February and previously announced layoffs of 1,800 corporate roles, is inheriting challenges including a sales slump, boycotts related to diversity initiatives, and tariff-related sourcing issues.

• Fiddelke admitted Target 'wasn't clear enough about who we are as a company,' which hurt standing especially with Black shoppers and staff
• The company cut approximately 1,800 corporate positions in October, marking its first major layoff in roughly a decade
• Target faces multiple pressures including a pullback from diversity initiatives, related boycotts and lawsuits, and reliance on sourcing from countries affected by Trump-era tariffs

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission disclosed in a Wednesday court filing that it is investigating Nike for alleged discrimination against white employees through the company's diversity policies. This marks a significant development as federal authorities examine whether Nike's workplace diversity initiatives violate anti-discrimination laws.

• The investigation stems from allegations that Nike's diversity policies discriminate against white employees
• The EEOC, which enforces federal workplace discrimination laws, revealed the probe through a court filing
• This case could set a precedent for how corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are legally scrutinized

SAS AB is negotiating a large widebody aircraft order with Boeing and Airbus, anticipating increased long-haul travel demand. The Air France-KLM-controlled Scandinavian carrier is evaluating Boeing's 787 and 777X models alongside Airbus's A350 and A330neo aircraft, though specific order quantities were not disclosed.

• SAS CEO Anko van der Werff confirmed negotiations with both manufacturers but did not specify the number of aircraft being considered
• The airline is evaluating four widebody models: Boeing 787 and 777X, and Airbus A350 and A330neo
• The order reflects SAS's strategic bet on rising demand for long-haul routes as the carrier operates under Air France-KLM control