Markets tiptoed into Christmas with records on thin ice. US equities notched fresh highs in a shortened session, Japan saw a landmark private-equity exit under activist pressure, oil rebounded on growth optimism shadowed by geopolitics, and crypto remained stuck in holiday limbo. Precious metals quietly stole the spotlight as uncertainty…
Banks have enjoyed a formidable moat built on customer relationships, regulatory privilege, and distribution networks for decades. – but that moat was breached in 2025.Embedded finance, the integration of payment, lending, insurance, and investing directly into non-financial platforms, became mainstream this year – shifting the locus of value creation away…
Europe enters 2026 with a positive ending to the year. Inflation is under control, interest rates have stopped moving, and the worst fears of recession have faded. But growth remains thin, uneven, and heavily dependent on where money actually gets spent rather than on any macro lever being pulled.The easy…
The artificial intelligence revolution has forced a brutal choice upon the world’s biggest cloud providers.Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta have committed an unprecedented $400-plus billion annually to AI infrastructure, a spending surge that has reshaped markets, accelerated semiconductor shortages, and created entirely new vendor dynamics.Yet as 2026 approaches, executives and…
The Russian ruble has had a great performance this year, even as crude oil and natural gas plunged. The USD/RUB exchange rate was trading at 77.20, down by 35% from its highest point in November last year.Why the Russian ruble soaredThe Russian ruble soared after Donald Trump’s election in 2024…
The South Korean won staged a strong comeback against the US dollar, soaring to its highest point since November 4. The USD/KRW exchange rate was trading at 1,430, down by 3.65% from its highest point this year. It remains 6.70% up from its lowest point this year.Why the South Korean…
The USD/JPY exchange rate pulled back after the latest macro data from Japan. It was trading at 156.25, down from this month’s high of 157.83. It has also formed the risky double-top pattern, pointing to more downside in the coming days.Weak Japanese data raises doubts for BoJ rate hikesThe USD/JPY…
The DAX Index had a strong performance in 2025 as it jumped by 22%, which mirrored the growth of other global indices like the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indices. It was trading at €24,340, up by 32% from its lowest level in April.However, the index has remained in…
US stocks held steady on Christmas Eve, with the broad market opening virtually flat.The Dow edged marginally higher, while the Nasdaq Composite matched the S&P’s sluggish performance in a shortened trading session marked by thin holiday volumes and cautious investor positioning heading into the year-end break.The S&P 500 closed at…
Shares of Agios Pharmaceuticals surged nearly 15% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the US Food and Drug Administration approved an expanded use of its drug mitapivat, strengthening investor optimism around the company’s growth prospects.The approval allows mitapivat to be used to treat anemia in patients with both non-transfusion-dependent and…