Stocks

Merck, PepsiCo and Eaton have released their fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results, showing differing levels of earnings and revenue outperformance versus forecasts. Merck met EPS expectations but beat on revenue, PepsiCo topped both metrics, and Eaton delivered slightly higher EPS in line with sales estimates while all three issued detailed 2026 outlooks.

Nintendo said it will maintain its goal of selling 19 million Switch 2 units in the year to March 2026, after shipments reached 17.37 million by December, including 7 million during the holiday quarter. In the fiscal third quarter, revenue rose to 806.32 billion yen and net profit to 159.93 billion yen, both up year on year.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday its Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.6 for January, the highest reading since August 2022. Some analysts view the stronger print as a potential tailwind for Bitcoin, which hovered near $78,000 after touching $75,442 on Monday and remains down almost 38% from its October peak.

ARK Invest disclosed on Monday that it increased holdings of crypto‑linked companies across ARKK, ARKF and its Next Generation Internet ETF. A trade notice showed 235,077 Robinhood shares valued around $21.1 million and 274,358 BitMine shares worth about $6.2 million were among the largest allocations. The trades were dated Feb. 2 amid a broader stock pullback.

Over the last two weeks, US spot bitcoin ETFs saw nearly $3 billion in redemptions, according to Coinglass, as BTC fell from about $84,000 to $74,600 over the weekend into Monday. With combined ETF assets near $113 billion and holdings around 1.28 million BTC, the average cost basis is roughly $87,830, leaving many positions below water.

On Tuesday in Asia, Bitcoin hovered around $78,000 while regional equities bounced, with Japan’s Nikkei up 2.5%, South Korea’s KOSPI up 4%, and S&P 500 futures up 0.3%. CoinGlass reported about $2.56B in Bitcoin liquidations in recent days as leverage unwound, even as metals rebounded with gold at $4,800 and silver at $83.34.

SpaceX confirmed the acquisition of xAI on Monday via a memo from Elon Musk posted on the company website. The move consolidates rockets, satellites, and AI, with Musk outlining space-based power and orbital data centers to meet rising compute needs. For investors, pre-IPO access remains limited, with SPVs and select public funds offering indirect exposure.

On 2 February 2026, Trump Media & Technology Group reaffirmed that 2 February 2026 is the record date for a shareholder-only digital token program. Holders with at least one full share of "DJT" will receive non-transferable tokens providing access-based rewards across Truth Social, Truth+, and Truth.Fi, with no equity, cash redemption, or investment features.

Since October, shares of major crypto exchange operators have dropped 40–60% amid a severe contraction in spot trading activity. Monthly spot volumes fell from roughly $2.3 trillion in October to $120–150 billion in January 2026, while an October 10 liquidation event erased about $19 billion in positions, raising concerns over market depth.

In a weekend post on X, Global Macro Investor founder Raoul Pal argued that bitcoin’s drawdown reflects a short‑term US liquidity squeeze, not a broken crypto cycle. He cited the 2024 reverse‑repo drain, a July–August TGA rebuild and shutdown effects, and said gold and long‑duration tech competed for flows; BTC was $77,510 at press time.