Financial markets are churning on Friday as investors try to figure out what President Donald Trumps new nominee to lead the Federal Reserve will mean for interest rates. The initial reactions were uneasy because of the uncertainty.
U.S. stocks fell, with the S&P 500 down 0.8% in midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 507 points, or 1%, as of 1 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% lower.
The value of the U.S. dollar, meanwhile, climbed but only after swiveling a couple of times following Trumps nomination of Kevin Warsh. And some of the wildest action was again in precious metals markets, where the price of gold screeched lower following its stellar run over the last year.
Whoever leads the Fed has a big influence on the economy and markets worldwide by helping to dictate where the U.S. central bank moves interest rates. Such decisions lift or weigh on prices for all kinds of investments, as the Fed tries to keep the U.S. job market humming without letting inflation get out of control. Trump has been pushing for lower interest rates, which usually help goose the economy but can also cause higher inflation.
A fear in financial markets has been that the Fed will lose some of its independence because of Trump. That fear in turn helped catapult the price of gold and weaken the U.S. dollars value over the last year.
The longtime assumption has been that the Fed can operate separately from the rest of Washington so that it can make decisions that are painful in the short term but necessary for the long term. To get inflation down to the Fed’s goal of 2%, for example, may require the unpopular choice to keep interest rates high and grind down on the economy for a while.
The big question is what Warsh’s nomination, which still requires approval from the Senate, means for the Fed’s independence.
Warsh used to be a governor on the Feds board, so investors are familiar with him. That could also mean Warsh is familiar with and hopes to continue the institution of the Fed as an independent operator. And while with the Fed, Warsh criticized the central bank’s buying of bonds to keep interest rates low.
Some on Wall Street took Warsh’s nomination as an encouraging signal for a still-independent Fed that will keep rates high, if necessary.
But Warsh has also recently been critical of the Feds current chair, Jerome Powell, and has voiced support for lower rates.
Indeed, Warsh is not the Feds guy, he is Trumps guy, and has shadowed Trump on monetary policy almost every step of the way since 2009, according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie Group. This doesnt necessarily mean that Warsh will push the Fed into rate cuts soon, but it could indicate he may be quicker to do so when the time comes.
On Wall Street, stocks of metals miners tumbled as the price of gold dropped 8.9% to $4,878.80 per ounce. Gold’s price has suddenly run out of momentum following a tremendous rally where it roughly doubled over 12 months. It topped $5,000 for the first time on Monday and got near $5,600 on Thursday.
Silver, which has been on a similar, jaw-dropping tear, fell even more. It plunged 23.5%.
Prices for gold and other precious metals had been surging as investors looked for safer places for their money while weighing a wide range of risks, including a potentially less independent Fed, a U.S. stock market that critics say is expensive, political instability, threats of tariffs and heavy debt loads for governments worldwide.
The dramatic halt in momentum may have been inevitable given how far and how fast metal prices had surged over the last year. Nothing goes up in price forever.
Friday’s drops for metals prices helped send the stock of miner Newmont down 10.9%. Freeport-McMoRan, another miner, dropped 8.4%.
Apple was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after sinking 1.4%, even though the iPhone maker reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Helping to limit the market’s losses was Tesla, which rose 4.3%. It bounced back after dropping on Thursday despite delivering better profit reports for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.24%, where it was late Thursday. It got near 4.28% in the overnight and early-morning hours before falling back. A rise in a bond’s yield indicates that its price is weakening.
Yields may have felt some upward pressure from a report released Friday showing U.S. inflation at the wholesale level was hotter last month than economists expected. That could put pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates steady for a while instead of cutting them, as it did late last year.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in much of Europe following a mixed performance in Asia.
Stocks rose 1.2% in Jakarta after the CEO of Indonesias stock market, Imam Rachman, resigned Friday. Stocks had stumbled there in prior days after MSCI, an influential company in the investment industry that creates stock and other indexes, warned about market risks such as a lack of transparency.
Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
If you enter a query into Quili.AI on January 31, your question wont be answered by a large language model, but instead by residents from the Chilean community of Quilicura.
The project aims to replace artificial intelligence with analog intelligence, to both highlight the environmental impact of AI, and to get people thinking consciously about their AI use.
Were inviting people to have a day without AI, Lorena Antiman from Corporación NGEN, an environmental organization focused in part on protecting Quilicuras wetlands, says while speaking through a translator. Corporación NGEN spearheaded the project.
Instead of going through a data center, each prompt into the chatbot will be answered directly by Quilicura residents. Artists, teachers, and others in the community will all meet in one place on Saturday, ready to respond to the queries.
Quilicura and data centers
The people of Quilicura, Chile are directly living with the impact of AI data centers. The community is located on the edge of Santiago, which is becoming a data center hub: 16 such facilities have been approved for construction there since 2012.
Data centers both use immense amounts of energy, and lots of water to cool the servers. Understanding AI water use can be complicated, but some experts have tried to quantify it. A 2024 Washington Post article says that generating a 100 word email with GPT-4 requires 519 milliliters of water, or just over a bottle.
Google opened its first Latin American data center in Quilicura in 2015. That facility uses 50 liters of water a secondor the same as 8,000 Chilean householdsthe New York Times reported in 2025, based on environmental records filed with the government. (Google says the sites used less water the year prior, about the same water use as a golf course.)
This data center boom from tech companies is happening as Chile experiences a 15-year megadrought. The country is expected to lead the world in terms of water stress by 2040.
Community activists in Quilicura have highlighted the impact of these data centers by showing before and after photos of the regions wetlands, appearing dry even during the rainy season.
[Photo: Quili.AI]
How Quili.AI works
Up to 50 community members will be participating in the day without AI, ready to respond to Quili.AI prompts over the 24 hours of January 31 only.
Each of them will bring their unique skills to the task. Prompt Quili.Ai to make a certain image, and a local artist will draw it. Ask Quili.AI for a recipe, and someone will share their own.
Or need something explained to you like youre 5? a community member says in a video promoting the action. Ask Mateo. Hes 5.
Instead of servers and cloud computing, community members will use their own experiences, their cultural knowledge, and their human judgment. Responses may not be immediate, but Antiman says theyll do their best to reply to as many queries as they can.
And though the humans powering this analog intelligence are local to Quilicara, the organizers say anyone can use the tool.
Instilling better AI habits
Antiman hopes the action helps people think more responsibly about what they turn to AI for, and if their prompts are worth the resources they require. Just like were taught to turn off lights when we leave a room, or to not run water while we brush their teeth, she hopes people can learn better AI habits.
Many people may simply not be aware of the impacts of using AI. Antiman is a teacher, and she says her students are surprised when she highlights those effects.
They dont know the consequences of the way theyre using AI, she says.
The day without AI is also an invitation, she adds, for people to look to their own neighbors or communities for knowledge. Maybe your neighbor knows how to change a tire, or another already has a recipe for cupcakes, so you dont need to ask ChatGPT.
This connection between real people is what makes the Quili.AI project so exciting to Antiman.
The most magical thing about it is the community is the one working on it, she says. Theyre all coming together to make this happen.
Federal prosecutors cant seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge ruled Friday, foiling the Trump administrations bid to see him executed for what it called a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.
Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding it technically flawed. She wrote that she did so to foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” as it weighs whether to convict Mangione.
Garnett also dismissed a gun charge but left in place stalking charges that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. To seek the death penalty, prosecutors needed to show that Mangione killed Thompson while committing another “crime of violence.” Stalking doesn’t fit that definition, Garnett wrote in her opinion, citing case law and legal precedents.
In a win for prosecutors, Garnett ruled they can use evidence collected from his backpack during his arrest, including a 9mm handgun and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to wack an insurance executive. Mangiones lawyers had sought to exclude those items, arguing the search was illegal because police hadnt yet obtained a warrant.
During a hearing Friday, Garnett gave prosecutors 30 days to update her on whether they’ll appeal her death penalty decision. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is prosecuting the federal case, declined to comment.
Garnett acknowledged that the decision may strike the average person and indeed many lawyers and judges as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law.” But, she said, it reflected her “committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case. The law must be the Courts only concern.
Mangione, 27, appeared relaxed as he sat with his lawyers during the scheduled hearing, which took place about an hour after Garnett issued her written ruling. Prosecutors retained their right to appeal but said they were ready to proceed to trial.
Outside court afterward, Mangione’s attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said her client and his defense team were relieved by the incredible decision.
Jury selection in the federal case is set for Sept. 8, followed by opening statements and testimony on Oct. 13. The state trial’s date hasnt been set. On Wednesday, the Manhattan district attorneys office urged the judge in that case to schedule a July 1 trial date.
That case is none of my concern, Garnett said, adding that she would proceed as if the federal case is the only case unless she hears formally from parties involved in the state case. She also said the federal case will be paused if the government appeals her death penalty ruling.
Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Groups annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say delay, deny and depose were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used by critics to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.
Following through on Trumps campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors last April to seek the death penalty against Mangione.
It was the first time the Justice Department sought the death penalty in President Donald Trumps second term. He returned to office a year ago with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Garnett, a Biden appointee and former Manhattan federal prosecutor, ruled after hearing oral arguments earlier this month.
Besides seeking to have the death penalty rejected on the grounds Garnett cited, Mangiones lawyers argued that Bondis announcement flouted long-established Justice Department protocols and was based on politics, not merit.
They said her remarks, followed by posts to her Instagram account and a TV appearance, indelibly prejudiced the grand jury process resulting in his indictment weeks later.
Prosecutors urged Garnett to keep the death penalty on the table, arguing that the charges were legally sound and Bondis remarks werent prejudicial, as pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect.
Prosecutors argued that careful questioning of prospective jurors would alleviate the defenses concerns about their knowledge of the case and ensure Mangiones rights are respected at trial.
What the defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a repackaging of arguments rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said. None warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical preclusion of a congressionally authorized punishment.
Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
Relationships can feel like both a blessing and the bane of your existence, a source of joy and a source of frustration or resentment. At some point, each of us is faced with a clingy child, a dramatic friend, a partner who recoils at the first hint of intimacy, a volatile parent, or a controlling boss in short, a difficult relationship.
As a psychology professor and relationship scientist, Ive spent countless hours observing human interactions, in the lab and in the real world, trying to understand what makes relationships work and what makes them feel utterly intractable.
Recently, I teamed up with psychologist Rachel Samson, who helps individuals, couples and families untangle difficult dynamics in the therapy room. In our new book, Beyond Difficult: An attachment-based guide for dealing with challenging people, we explore the roots of difficult behavior and evidence-based strategies for making difficult relationships more bearable.
So whats really going on beneath the surface of difficult behavior? And more to the point, what can you do about it?
Difficult interactions can have deep roots
When a conversation with a co-worker goes sideways or a phone call with a friend goes off the rails, its easy to assume the issue stems from the situation at hand. But sometimes, big emotions and reactions have deeper roots. Difficult interactions often result from differences in temperament: your biologically based style of emotional and behavioral responses to the world around you.
People with a sensitive temperament react more strongly to stress and sensory experiences. When overwhelmed, they may seem volatile, moody or rigid but these reactions are often more about sensory or emotional overload than malice. Importantly, when sensitive children and adults are in a supportive environment that fits their temperament, they can thrive socially and emotionally.
Beyond neurobiology, one of the most common threads underlying difficult relationships is what psychologists call insecure attachment. Early experiences with caregivers shape the way people connect with others later in life. Experiences of inconsistent or insensitive care can lead you to expect the worst of other people, a core feature of insecure attachment.
People with insecure attachment may cling, withdraw, lash out or try to control others not because they want to make others miserable, but because they feel unsafe in close relationships. By addressing the underlying need for emotional safety, you can work toward more secure relationships.
Managing difficult emotions
In challenging interactions, emotions can run high and how you deal with those emotions can make or break a relationship.
Research has shown that people with sensitive temperament, insecure attachment or a history of trauma often struggle with emotion regulation. In fact, difficulty managing emotions is one of the strongest predictors of mental illness, relationship breakups and even aggression and violence.
Its easy to label someone as too emotional, but in reality, emotion is a social event. Our nervous systems constantly respond to one another which means our ability to stay regulated affects not only how we feel, but how others react to us. The good news is that there are evidence-based strategies to calm yourself when tensions rise:
Take a breath. Slow, deep breathing helps signal safety to the nervous system.
Take a break. Relationship researchers John and Julie Gottman found that taking a 20-minute break during conflict helps reduce physiological stress and prevent escalation.
Move your body. Exercise particularly walking, dancing or yoga has been shown to reduce depression and anxiety, sometimes even more effectively than medication. Movement before or after a difficult interaction can help work out the tension.
Reframe the situation. This strategy, called cognitive reappraisal, involves changing the way you interpret a situation or your goals within it. Instead of trying to fix a difficult family member, for example, you might focus on appreciating the time you have with them. Reappraisal helps the brain regulate emotion before it escalates, lowering activity in stress-related areas like the amygdala.
Giving better feedback
Difficult people are usually unaware of how their behavior affects you unless you tell them. One of the most powerful things you can do in a difficult relationship is give feedback. But not all feedback is created equal.
Feedback, at its core, is a tool for learning. Without it, you would never have learned to write, drive or function socially. But when feedback is poorly delivered, it can backfire: People become defensive, shut down or dig in their heels. Feedback is most effective when it stays focused on the task rather than the individual; in other words, dont make it personal.
Research points to four keys to effective feedback, based in learning theory:
Mutuality: Approach the conversation as a two-way exchange. Be open to the needs and ideas of both parties.
Specificity: Be clear about what behaviors youre referring to. Citing particular interactions is often better than You always .
Goal-directedness: Connect the feedback to a shared goal. Work together to find a constructive solution to the problem.
Timing: Give feedback close to the event, when its still fresh but emotions have settled.
Also, skip the so-called compliment sandwich of a critique between two pieces of positive feedback. It doesnt actually improve outcomes or change behavior.
Interestingly, the most effective sequence is actually to start with a corrective, followed by positive affirmation of whats going well. Leading with honesty shows respect. Plus, the corrective is more likely to be remembered. Following up with warmth builds connection and shows that you value te person.
The bottom line
Difficult relationships are part of being human; they dont mean someone is broken or toxic. Often, they reflect deeper patterns of attachment, temperament and differences in how our brains work.
When you understand whats underneath the behavior and take steps to regulate yourself, communicate clearly, and give compassionate feedback you can shift even the most stuck relationship into something more bearable, perhaps even meaningful.
Strengthening relationships isnt always easy. But the science shows that it is possible and can be rewarding.
Jessica A. Stern is an assistant professor of psychology at Pomona College.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
In the 1950s, the Air Force designed cockpits for the average pilot by measuring thousands of pilots and calculating the average for ten key physical dimensionsheight, arm length, torso size, etc. They assumed most pilots would be close to average in most dimensions.
When researchers actually checked, they found that out of 4,063 pilots, exactly zero were average on all ten dimensions. Not a single pilot fit the average they’d designed for. Even when they reduced it to just three dimensions, fewer than 5% of pilots were average on all three. By designing for the average, the Air Force created a cockpit that fit virtually no one well, and that had serious consequences for pilot performance and safety.
The solution might sound obvious: adjustable seats, adjustable pedals, adjustable controls, etc. The cockpit was fine once they designed for the range of human variation, rather than an average person that doesnt exist.
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The Statistical Ghost
Most American transportation systems suffer from the same fallacy. The car becomes treated as a prosthetic extension of the human body rather than what it actually is: a tool used for one segment of a multi-modal journey.
Designing for the average driver creates a phantom usera person who materializes inside their vehicle, drives, and dematerializes upon arrival. This ghost never walks across a street, never uses a bicycle or scooter, never uses a downtown circulator bus, and only makes long trips. The ghost is capable of seeing and hearing everything, is always alert and sober, doesnt experience chronic pain, doesnt need a cane or wheelchair, isnt young, and isnt old. And of course if the imaginary average driver has to wait a few seconds behind other people, the economy will collapse.
Even the most car-dependent commuter is a pedestrian at the beginning and end of every trip. They walk from their front door to their driveway, from a parking space to the office entrance, from their car across a parking lot into the grocery store. By optimizing transportation systems for the average motorist, we’re making significant portions of every trip uncomfortable or dangerous for everyone.
Like the Air Force’s phantom pilot, the average driver doesn’t exist. Designing for the statistical middle means designing well for none of them.
Mode-Switching Humans
Complete Streets is an engineering principle that acknowledges what actually exists: people switch modes throughout their day and even within single trips. The same person might drive to a park-and-ride, take transit downtown, walk to lunch, bike to a meeting, then return to the park-and-ride in an Uber.
The approach works. Over 1,700 American communities have adopted Complete Streets policies, and cities that implement them will see real results. Des Moines, Iowa, went from being the 24th safest metro area for pedestrians to the 5th safest in just three years. Boulder, Colorado, cut carbon emissions by half a million pounds annually as more people chose walking, biking, and transit.
Like the adjustable cockpit, Complete Streets accommodates the full range of users with protected bike lanes, accessible curb cuts, varied lane widths by context, pedestrian refuges, and transit priority lanes.
Still, progress on implementation remains frustratingly slow. Despite widespread policy adoption, most communities have struggled to translate policies into actual street improvements. Planning and designing transportation systems for real, mode-switching humans instead of phantom average drivers creates safer, healthier, more livable communities. The question isn’t whether Complete Streets worksit’s whether we’ll finally implement it at scale.
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This Sunday’s full moon, or “big cheese,” as it’s sometimes called, comes with a side of queso and chips.
Fast-casual restaurant chain Qdoba is offering stargazers a free 4-ounce serving of its signature 3-Cheese Queso or Queso Diablo and chips all day on February 1, according to a press release. The deal is available for Qdoba Rewards members with the purchase of a full-size entrée in-restaurant, online at Qdoba.com, and through the Qdoba mobile app. No telescope is required.
The moon may not really be made of cheese, but we think a free side of our creamy, cheesy queso and tortilla chipsseasoned with salt and limeis the next best thing,” Qdoba’s chief marketing officer Jon Burke said.
Even better news: Qdoba is offering the deal on the day of each full moon in 2026. Those days are: March 3, April 1, May 1, May 31, June 29, July 29, August 28, September 26, October 26, November 24, and December 23.
This weekend’s full moon, on February 1, is also dubbed the “snow” moon. Here’s what to know about it.
What is the ‘snow’ moon?
The second full moon of 2026 is called the Snow Moon, because it comes during a period of heavy snowfall in the northern hemisphere. (For those in the Northeast, you just have to look outside to see how fitting this is.)
And this moon comes with a special treat: It will appear with “one of the most beautiful open star clusters in the night sky . . . in the Leo constellation,” according to Live Science.
When can I see the February 2026 full moon?
The best time to view the February full moon is at “moonrise” at 5:09 p.m. EST on February 1. It will also appear full and still be bright the following night, on Monday, February 2.
The best way to view this full moon is to stand at an elevated point or an open space, looking toward the eastern horizon with binoculars or a telescope, though you’ll be able to see it with just your own eyes too, per Live Science.
It’s shaping up to be a busy year for initial public offerings from some of the most closely watched companies.
Rumors have been floating around for a while now that SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, and Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup behind Claude, could make their market debuts in the summer and by the end of 2026, respectively.
And now, a report says that OpenAIAnthropics main competitor, and the owner of ChatGPTcould go public before the end of the year, too. Heres what you need to know about OpenAIs rumored IPO plans.
OpenAI may go public in 2026
A report from the Wall Street Journal yesterday has investors buzzing: ChatGPT owner OpenAI is reportedly considering an initial public offering before the year closes.
According to the report, OpenAI is in informal talks with banks on Wall Street about a potential IPO. The artificial intelligence company is also reportedly staffing up in preparation for an IPO.
The WSJ says OpenAI recently hired a new chief accounting officer and a new business finance officer, the latter of whom will oversee OpenAIs investor relations department. The report cited anonymous sources.
Fast Company reached out to OpenAI for comment.
Pressure and financial need may be driving OpenAIs 2026 IPO ambitions
In the past, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hasnt spoken enthusiastically about one day running a public company.
As a private company currently, OpenAI doesnt have to answer to Wall Street or retail investors, giving it much more freedom in how it chooses to run its businesswhich is currently operating at a major loss.
But as a public company, Altman and OpenAI would have to take investors desires and expectations for returns on investment into account. This would make Altman, who is currently answerable to very few, answerable to legions of shareholders.
So why go public sooner rather than later? The Journals report says that there are two main factors driving OpenAIs exploration of a 2026 IPO.
The first is Anthropic, one of OpenAIs biggest competitors. OpenAI executives have expressed concerns about Anthropic listing first, WSJ reports.
There is massive pent-up demand from retail investors who want to get in on the latest spate of AI companies. If Anthropic were to go public first, it could potentially dampen demand for OpenAI shares.
The second factor driving OpenAI to explore a potential 2026 IPO reportedly has to do with the companys finances. Current investors are concerned about the companys cash flow as it continues to spend billions training its models and building out its AI infrastructure.
Despite ChatGPTs popularity and cultural cache, loss-making OpenAI is burning through piles of cash. Most analysts dont expect OpenAI to turn a profit until at least 2030.
By going public, OpenAI would receive a massive injection of cash from its share sale. This could help alleviate current investor concerns over how the company can come up with the hundreds of billions of dollars it needs to keep expanding in the years before it starts to turn a profit.
When is OpenAIs IPO date?
As of now, OpenAI has not announced an initial public offering. There are only reports that the company will do so by the end of this year. Whether that 2026 timeframe actually comes to pass remains to be seen.
How much will OpenAI shares cost?
Until OpenAI announces its IPO and how many shares it will offer, it is impossible to know what its IPO share price will be.
How much is OpenAI worth?
As a private company, its impossible to put an exact figure on OpenAIs value. But most analysts currently value the company at around $500 billion, based on the amount of investment it has received so far.
However, the Journal notes that OpenAI is currently in the middle of seeking additional fundraising, perhaps up to $100 billion more. If it achieves this, OpenAI could be valued at around $830 billion.
The European economy recorded modest growth at the end of last year, pushing past turmoil over higher U.S. tariffs. Now the economy faces another hurdle: a stronger euro against the dollar that could weigh on exports.
Growth in the 21 countries that use the shared euro currency came in at 0.3% for the last three months of 2025, matching the figure from the third quarter, the EU statistics agency Eurostat reported Friday. Growth compared with the fourth quarter of 2024 was 1.3%.
Moderate growth has defied recession fears from earlier in the year, when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs to levels that could have devastated trade. Talks settled on a 15% cap on U.S. tariffs, or import taxes, on goods from the European Union. The higher tax isnt great for business but the certainty resulting from the deal let companies at least go ahead and plan.
That assurance was dented after the quarter ended when Trump on Jan. 17 threatened EU member countries with higher tariffs for supporting Greenland against his calls for a U.S. takeover. Trump later withdrew the threat.
European services businesses a broad category ranging from hairdressers to medical treatment have shown moderate growth according to the S&P Global survey of purchasing managers. Exports have tanked and the industry continues to lag but showed improvement toward the end of 2025. Lower inflation of 1.9% in December after a painful spike in 2022-2023 and rising wages have left consumers with more purchasing power and willingness to spend.
The latest threat is the dollars steep fall against the euro. It is at its weakest for 4 1/2 years, which makes European exports less competitive on price in a key foreign market.
The dollar has weakened due to fears that Trumps tariffs will slow growth and that his attacks on U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will undermine the U.S. central banks role as an inflation fighter and protector of the dollars worth. The euro has risen 14.4% against the dollar in the past 12 months and traded at $1.19 on Friday.
Analysts are saying that if the dollars weakness against the euro continues, the European Central Bank may cut interest rates later this year to stimulate growth. The ECB holds a rate-setting meeting on Thursday but is not expected to change rates then.
Germany showed improved growth at 0.3% in the quarter, its best quarterly performance in three years, but still faces serious short- and long-term headwinds. The eurozones largest economy is still waiting for infrastructure and defense spending set in motion by Chancellor Friedrich Merz to show its effects through increased growth. Germany grew 0.2% last year, its first year of growth after two years of declining output. The government on Wednesday cut its growth outlook for this year to 1% from 1.3% previously.
Germany has struggled with a raft of troubles: higher energy prices after the loss of Russian natural gas due to the war against Ukraine, a shortage of skilled labor, increasing Chinese competition in key export sectors such as autos and industrial machinery, years of underinvestment in growth-promoting infrastructure, and too much red tape.
Growth for the broader 27-country European Union also came in at 0.3% for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 1.4% compared with the year-earlier quarter. Not all EU members have moved to join the euro, which gained its 21st member in January when Bulgaria joined.
David McHugh, AP business writer
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple an island plagued by a deepening energy crisis.
The order would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has constantly voiced solidarity for the U.S. adversary even as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to build a strong relationship with Trump.
Trump was asked by a reporter Thursday whether he was trying to choke off Cuba, which he called a failing nation.
The word choke off is awfully tough, Trump said. Im not trying to, but, it looks like its something thats just not going to be able to survive.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and a number of other Cuban officials condemned Trumps executive order. Rodríguez called it a brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people who are now threatened with being subjected to extreme living conditions.
He accused the U.S. of resorting to blackmail and coercion to try to force other countries to join its universally condemned blockade policy against Cuba.
Cuba relies on allies for energy
This week has been marked by speculation that Mexico would slash oil shipments to Cuba under mounting pressure by Trump to distance itself from the Cuban government.
In its deepening energy and economic crisis, fueled in part by strict economic sanctions by the U.S., Cuba has relied heavily on foreign assistance and oil shipments from allies like Mexico, Russia and Venezuela before a U.S. military operation ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and the Cuban government is ready to fall.
In its most recent report, Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex said it shipped nearly 20,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba from January through Sept. 30, 2025. That month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mexico City. Afterward, Jorge Pion, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, said the figure had fallen to about 7,000 barrels.
Uncertainty simmers in Mexico
Sheinbaum has been incredibly vague about where her country stood, and this week has given roundabout and ambiguous answers to inquiries about the shipments, and dodged reporters questions in her morning press briefings.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said Pemex had at least temporarily paused some oil shipments to Cuba. But she struck an ambiguous tone, saying the pause was part of general fluctuations in oil supplies and a sovereign decision not made under pressure from the U.S. Sheinbaum has said Mexico would continue to show solidarity with Havana, but didnt clarify what kind of support Mexico would offer.
On Wednesday, the Latin American leader claimed she never said Mexico has completely suspended shipments and humanitarian aid” to Cuba would continue and decisions about shipments to Cuba were determined by Pemex contracts.
So the contract determines when shipments are sent and when they are not sent, Sheinbaum said.
Trump and Sheinbaum spoke by phone Thursday morning. Sheinbaum said they did not discuss Cuba.
We didnt address the issue of Cuba, Sheinbaum said, adding that Mexicos foreign affairs secretary had discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it was very important for Mexico to maintain its humanitarian aid to Cuba and Mexico was willing to serve as an intermediary between the U.S. and Cuba.
Under threat of tariff coercion
The lack of clarity from the leader has underscored the extreme pressure Mexico and other Latin American nations are under as Trump has grown more confrontational following the Venezuelan operation.
It remains unclear what the Thursday order by Trump will mean for Cuba, which has been roiled by crisis for years and a U.S. embargo. Anxieties were already simmering on the Caribbean island as many drivers sat in long lines this week for gasoline, many unsure of what would come next.
On Cuban state television, commentator Jorge Legaoa, who usually expresses views aligned with the government, asserted Cuba was not a threat, but rather that the islands authorities were fighting gangs and preventing regional drug trafficking with their zero-tolerance policy.
Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos F. de Cossio wrote on social media platform X that the U.S. is tightening its Cuban blockade after the failure of decades of relentless economic warfare and attempting to force sovereign states to join the embargo.
Under threat of tariff coercion, they must decide whether to forgo their right to export their own fuel to Cuba, he wrote.
Michelle L. Price and Megan Janetsky, Associated Press
Andrea Rodríguez and Dánica Coto contributed to this report.
Liftoff Mobile, a California-based mobile app marketing provider, announced on Thursday that it plans to launch . . . into the public markets.
The company, backed by Blackstone, is targeting a valuation of nearly $5.2 billion for its IPO, and is looking to raise as much as $762 million in funding by selling more than 25 million shares. Share prices are expected to range between $26 and $30. It will trade under the ticker LFTO.
The companys roots go back to 2012, when it was initially founded. A majority stake was later acquired by Blackstone in 2021, and Liftoff was then combined with Vungle to create a single, large, independent mobile adtech platform. That platform provides users with an AI-powered tool to support customer acquisition and monetization for mobile advertisers or publishers. It works across several industries, such as finance and gaming. The companys S-1 filing with the SEC states that it has more than 1.4 billion daily active users, and more than 1,000 global advertisers as of the fourth quarter of 2025.
To our new investors: You are investing in a company with a senior leadership team averaging twelve years of ad tech industry experience, and technology that gets smarter with every cycle. We have a history of delivering results and a commitment to sustaining that reputation. You can expect what weve always delivered: customer focus, product velocity, and results, said CEO Jeremy Bondy in a statement included in the S-1 filing.
The IPO market has felt quiet overall, but a recent report from EY shows that 2025 was the busiest year for IPOs since 2021. Last year, there were 216 total IPOs, amounting to $47.4 billion in proceeds. As for 2026, EYs report notes that there is significant optimism for investors and potential issuers in 2026, fueled by strong interest in AI and other areassomething Liftoff is likely trying to take advantage of.
Almost a month into 2026, data from Renaissance Capital shows that there have been nine IPOs priced so far, down 47% from 2025.
