Average daily corporate bond turnover reached $50 billion in 2025, up from $46 billion in 2024, as AI-related capital spending and private credit activity accelerated. Tech data center financing, including roughly $27 billion by Meta and Blue Owl, and banks' forecasts for record investment‑grade issuance in 2026 are drawing more trading, alongside broader use of portfolio and electronic execution.

In 2025, Cathie Wood’s ARK Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF recorded a 29% gain by broadening its holdings beyond traditional payment and crypto firms into areas such as artificial intelligence and streaming. Positions in Palantir Technologies, Roku, Robinhood and Shopify helped counter declines in Bitcoin, Coinbase and major payment stocks, while Circle’s June IPO initially surged before losing about 70% from its peak. Despite the strong fund performance and a brief inflow of over $600 million around September, overall investor flows into ARKF remained mostly flat for the year.

On January 2, 2026, the Trump administration ordered Delaware-based HieFo Corp., which is controlled by a Chinese citizen, to divest semiconductor assets it acquired from Emcore in a transaction valued at about $2.92 million. Officials concluded that allowing the company to retain the US chip technology posed national security risks, as experts say the components could have military and advanced AI applications. In parallel, China has introduced a 50% domestic equipment requirement for new chip production capacity, while the US has delayed new semiconductor tariffs on Chinese imports until June 23, 2027.

On January 2, 2026, risk assets started the year higher, with stocks rising in January's first session. Last year delivered broad gains: about 18% for U.S. stocks, roughly 23% for global equities, nearly 7% for global Treasuries, and around 11% for commodities, while inflation remains the key wildcard.

In a Friday blog post, Stani Kulechov said Aave Labs plans to distribute revenue generated outside the core protocol to AAVE token holders, with a formal proposal to follow. The move comes after community disputes over fee routing and branding; in December, AAVE fell 10% to $160. The article was updated on January 2, 2026.

International equities delivered roughly 33% to U.S. investors in 2025 via an ETF tracking the MSCI ACWI ex U.S., while the S&P 500 rose about 18%. The dollar fell around 9%, lifting dollar-based returns, and Goldman Sachs found most major indexes beat the S&P 500 even without currency effects.

On January 2, 2026, Waymo outlined plans to scale its autonomous ride service, aiming for 1 million weekly rides by the end of 2026 and adding 20 new markets over the next year. It says it currently provides roughly 250,000 weekly trips and has completed 20 million rides since 2020. Production in Arizona will double to over 2,000 vehicles by late 2026, while Zeekr will help produce tens of thousands annually.

CES 2026 opens on Jan. 6 in Las Vegas, with robotics highlighted as the year's central theme, according to organizer Kinsey Fabrizio. On Jan. 5, Nvidia, AMD, Intel and Qualcomm will detail gaming, AI and processor updates, including Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) on 18A, with sessions scheduled throughout the afternoon and evening.

In West Texas, around 6,000 workers reportedly arrive each day at an OpenAI construction site that forms part of the multibillion-dollar Stargate data center program, with individual sites estimated at about $50 billion and the total near $850 billion. Major tech firms including OpenAI, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Oracle are collectively driving capital spending toward roughly $443 billion this year and are taking on $121 billion in new debt, while analysts warn that power availability, rising leverage and growing use of credit-default swaps signal mounting investor unease.