• Unemployment Claims Fall as Layoffs Remain Low
  
  Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as U.S. layoffs remain low despite growing concern about a weakening job market.
• Wall Street Futures Rise as TSMC Sparks Chip Rally
  
  U.S. stock index futures ticked higher Thursday after TSMC delivered a knockout quarter, sparking a fresh rally in chipmakers, while Wall Street braces for earnings from the financial heavyweights.
• Trump: I Have No Plan to Fire Powell
  
  U.S. President Donald Trump said he has no plans to fire Jerome Powell despite a Justice Department criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve chair, but it was "too early" to say what he would ultimately do.
• Bipartisan Bill Would Create $2.5B Critical Minerals Stockpile
  
  A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers Thursday introduced a bill to create a $2.5 billion stockpile of critical minerals, a move aimed at stabilizing market prices and encouraging domestic mining and refining.
• Airlines Continue to Avoid Iran Iraq Despite Airspace Reopening
  
  European airlines like Wizz Air, Lufthansa, and British Airways dodged Iraqi and Iranian airspace on Thursday, according to flight tracking websites, opting instead for routes over Afghanistan and central Asia...
• Trump: Minneapolis Food Stamp Fraud 'Giant Dem Scam'
  
  President Donald Trump accused retailers in Minneapolis that accept food stamps of widespread fraud in a Wednesday night post on Truth Social, arguing that taxpayer-funded programs are being abused with political and media protection.
• Musk's Grok Blocks Image Undressing After Global Backlash
  
  Elon Musk's platform X on Wednesday announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, following global backlash over its generation of sexualized photos of women and children.
• Sen. Marshall to Newsmax: Credit Card Bills Promote Consumer Savings
  
  Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said on Newsmax Wednesday that Senate action aimed at the credit card industry pairs a bipartisan push to break up what he called a payments duopoly with the President’s call for a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates.
• Fed Gov. Criticizes Global Defense of Chair Powell
  
  Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said Wednesday it was inappropriate for prominent central bank officials from around the world to publicly defend Fed Chair Jerome Powell amid a Department of Justice criminal investigation.
• Kaiser Permanente Affiliates to Pay $556M Over Medicare Fraud Claims
  
  The Department of Justice said five Kaiser Permanente affiliates in California and Colorado agreed to pay $556 million to resolve claims they illegally pressured doctors to add codes for diagnoses they never considered to patients' medical records, in order to inflate...
• Trump Places 25% Tariff on Advanced Computer Chips
  
  President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed a 25% tariff on certain advanced computing chips, such as the Nvidia H200 AI processor and a similar semiconductor from AMD called the MI325X, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.
• Beijing Orders Chinese Firms to Drop US, Israeli Cyber Tools
  
  Chinese authorities have told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by more than a dozen firms from the U.S. and Israel due to national security concerns, three people briefed on the matter said.
• US Healthcare Spending Soared to $5 Trillion in 2024
  
  U.S. healthcare spending rose by 7.2% to $5.3 trillion in 2024 from $4.9 trillion in 2023, driven by increased health insurance enrollment and a jump in use of medical services, particularly in private health insurance plans, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
• Trump Team Completes $500M Venezuela Oil Sale
  
  The U.S. has completed its first sales of Venezuelan oil under a new Trump-era arrangement valued at about $500 million. The proceeds are being held in U.S.-controlled accounts, including a main one in Qatar.
• Wall Street Ends Lower, Led by Tech and Bank Shares
  
  U.S. stocks fell Wednesday, led by a drop in the Nasdaq with technology shares declining as investors moved into more defensive areas, while bank stocks extended recent losses following some mixed quarterly results.
• Fed: US Economic Activity Rose in Recent Weeks
  
  Economic activity increased in most parts of the U.S. and employment was mostly unchanged in recent weeks, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in a report that may do little to sway policymakers' interest rate views ahead of the central bank's meeting in two weeks.
• Greenland Acquisition Cost US Up to $700 Billion
  
  The United States could be looking at a bill as high as $700 billion if it tried to fulfill President Donald Trump's long-stated goal of buying Greenland, according to three people familiar with a cost estimate developed for planning purposes.
• Bipartisan Deal Pushes $50B in Foreign Aid Spending
  
  Republicans struck a bipartisan, bicameral funding deal with Democrats to send roughly $50 billion overseas, defying DOGE-backed spending cuts and President Donald Trump's push to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, Foreign Policy reported.
• Verizon's Network Down for Thousands in US
  
  Verizon Communications' network was down for thousands of users in the U.S. Wednesday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.
• Zoe Saldana Becomes All-Time Highest-Grossing Actor
  
  Zoe Saldana became the highest-grossing actor in film history after the global success of "Avatar: Fire and Ash," which pushed the combined box office total of her films to $15.47 billion, according to industry tracking firm The Numbers.
• Banking Giants Reap Bigger Profits on More Loans
  
  U.S. banking giants boosted their profits in the fourth quarter, buoyed by increasing demand from borrowers that could bode well for lenders' future earnings.
• Mortgage Refis Jump 40% After Trump's $200B Move
  
  Mortgage refinancing demand surged 40% in a single week after President Trump ordered a sweeping $200 billion purchase of mortgage bonds , a move that briefly pushed mortgage rates below 6% for the first time in years and sent homeowners scrambling to lock in lower...
• CrowdStrike Defeats Lawsuit Over Major Outage
  
  A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by CrowdStrike shareholders who said the cybersecurity company defrauded them by concealing its inadequate software testing and quality assurance procedures, before a July 2024 outage crashed more than 8 million Microsoft Windows-based...
• Medical Debt Linked to Rent, Mortgage Problems
  
  People burdened with medical bills may also be more likely to struggle to keep a roof over their heads, a new study finds.
• 2025 US Home Sales Stuck at 30-Year Low
  
  The U.S. housing market slump dragged into its fourth year in 2025 as sales remained stuck at a 30-year low with rising home prices and elevated mortgage rates keeping many prospective home shoppers out of the market.

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