Author: Daniel Wilson

The US wants to get its hands on critical minerals — whether through a deal (now in limbo) with Ukraine or domestic production. On Tuesday President Donald Trump teased efforts to produce more critical minerals required for everything from semiconductors to aerospace and defense. “Later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA,” Trump said on Tuesday during his speech in front of Congress. Industry watchers point to more than 50 critical minerals identified by the US Geological Survey needed for nearly every type of modern…

A rally in digital assets faded Monday despite new promises from Donald Trump about a US strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies. The president said Sunday in a social media post on Truth Social that such a reserve would include bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), solana (SOL), and cardano (ADA). He had not previously spelled out which digital assets would be included. The new disclosure sent the value of these digital assets soaring through Monday morning, reversing a slump that had taken hold in recent weeks and accelerated last week as bitcoin experienced its worst correction since a 2022 meltdown. By…

Donald Trump stood behind his ambitious tariff plans, lavished praise on Elon Musk’s controversial DOGE effort, vowed to end a Biden-era chips subsidy law, and pledged to look for rare earth minerals in the US during a 90-minute joint address to Congress Tuesday night. “It has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action,” Trump said of his early weeks in office, adding: “And we are just getting started.” It was a speech marked by culture war standoffs which saw one Democratic member removed from the chamber by the House sergeant at arms in a night that appears unlikely to calm…

The markets sank back toward session lows on Thursday after President Trump announced that tariffs on goods and services from Mexico that fall under the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) would be delayed until April 2. However, the president did not say the same about Canada. “After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” he added. SNP…

This is The Takeaway from today’s Morning Brief, which you can sign up to receive in your inbox every morning along with: The dust has settled on the latest Nvidia (NVDA) earnings week frenzy. And I think it’s important to take stock of where things stand for the world’s most important stock (sorry, Apple (AAPL)). Why? Because you should be thinking about whether the pullback in Nvidia is a buying opportunity or the start of a deeper sell-off as expectations are reset. We know Nvidia’s margins in the first half of the year will be below their usual robust levels…

BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink is notching some early wins in the new Trump era. The latest came Tuesday as the world’s largest money manager announced that a BlackRock-led investment coalition would take control of two key ports on either end of the Panama Canal for the price of $22.8 billion. The move essentially gives President Donald Trump something he asked for — a larger American presence at this vital shipping lane where he had alleged Chinese interference. The ports being picked up by BlackRock are owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holding. The canal itself is still controlled…

The first week of March will bring investors a crucial jobs report and a range of key retail earnings that could have the potential to either stoke or allay fears about the US economy and the consumer showing some signs of stress.The February jobs report out Friday is expected to show hiring rose modestly last month while the unemployment rate held steady at 4%.Last week, the major averages were a mixed bag in the end, with the Dow (^DJI) eking out a weekly gain while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) lost over 4%. After forfeiting its year-to-date gains at the week’s…

President Donald Trump and TSMC (TSM) announced Monday that the Taiwanese chip manufacturer will invest at least $100 billion in its US manufacturing capabilities “over the next short period of time,” bringing the company’s total investment in the US to $165 billion. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said during a briefing at the White House that the new investment will be used to build three new chip manufacturing facilities, two advanced packaging plants, and a research and development center in Arizona. Intel (INTC) is currently the only leading edge computing chip manufacturer with R&D in the US. “Most importantly, actually, we…

Okta (OKTA) co-founder and CEO Todd McKinnon — a longtime competitive CrossFit athlete — said his latest earnings report out Monday definitely beats tossing wall balls. He makes a good point. “This is a blowout quarter,” McKinnon told me in a Yahoo Finance Opening Bid podcast exclusive (see video above). “It’s reflective of big deals in the quarter,” McKinnon said, pointing to a 25% surge in subscription backlog to more than $4 billion. New products represented 20% of total subscription bookings, its highest level ever, per McKinnon. Okta beat analyst estimates on sales, earnings, and initial 2025 profit guidance. Shares…

A choppy February for investors was punctuated by a poor reading on consumer confidence, a soft report on consumer spending, and a sell-off across many of the momentum trades that had defined the market action this year. “The fear here among a lot of investors now [has] become that the economy could be slowing down faster than the Fed is willing to react, which is a tough situation,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told Yahoo Finance an interview on Friday. For the month, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell about 4% while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Dow…