News Recap • Week 1 2026

Check the news below and make sure to visit my latest Market Recap as well.

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Macro

• Tue Minutes from the latest FOMC meeting showed a highly divided Fed with varying opinions on the current and future approach to interest rates. However, most participants still judged that further rate cuts will be appropriate if inflation comes down as expected over time. (CNBC)
• Tue China’s factory activity rose to 50.1 in December, beating expectations for just 49.2 which was also the reading in November. This was the first time China’s manufacturing PMI was in expansionary territory since March. The Hang Seng index rallied 2.03% this week. (CNBC)
• Wed China’s state planner approved major projects and an investment plan for the central government worth more than $42 billion. This is just the latest on a long list of initiatives meant to stimulate the struggling Chinese economy. The Hang Seng jumped 2.76% on Friday after the news. (Reuters)
• Thu The price of diamonds has fallen to at least a 25-year low in stark contrast to other materials associated with jewelry like gold and silver. (Barchart)
• Sat The US carried out a large-scale strike on Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, indicting them in the US for “narco terrorism”. The move comes after weeks of Trump threatening action against Maduro. Looking at the crypto market as a risk barometer, investors don’t seem to worry about the situation. Bitcoin actually rose a bit after the news broke. What investors will watch for now is the potential fallout inside of Venezuela and in the relationships between the US and Venezuela’s allies, including China and Russia. (CNBC)

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Other

• Mon Nvidia has formally taken a $5 billion stake in Intel, carrying out the transaction announced in September. Neither stock reacted to the news. (Reuters)
• Mon SoftBank announced an acquisition of DigitalBridge in a deal worth $4 billion. The purchase will expand SoftBank’s AI infrastructure portfolio. (Reuters)
• Mon Meta said it will acquire Chinese-founded AI startup Manus based in Singapore for around $2 - $3 billion. (Reuters)
• Tue SoftBank has completed its $40 billion investment commitment to OpenAI after sending over the final $22.5 billion last week. (CNBC)
• Tue The US government has granted an annual license to Samsung and SK Hynix, allowing them to bring in chip manufacturing equipment to their facilities in China in 2026. The two companies’ stocks surged 7% and 4% on Friday, the first trading day after the news came out. The South Korean KOSPI index soared more than 75% in 2025 and now rallied 2.27% on the first day of 2026. TSMC received a similar license this week and also popped more than 5% to a new record high on Friday. (Reuters)
• Wed Elon Musk said on X that Neuralink will begin high-volume production of brain-computer interface devices and move to an entirely automated surgical procedure in 2026. (Reuters)
• Fri Tesla reported just over 418,000 vehicle deliveries for Q4 of 2025, shy of the 426,000 analyst projection and down 16% from a year earlier. For the full year, deliveries fell 8.6% to 1.64 million. This also meant that China’s BYD surpassed Tesla to become the world’s biggest EV maker after growing vehicle sales 28% to 2.26 million units. Tesla stock did pull back on Friday after the report but continues to trade more on the future prospects for robots, robotaxis, etc. (CNBC)