Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Occasion (LDP) speaks to the media on the LDP headquarters on common election day in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 8, 2026.
Kim Kyung-Hoon | Anadolu | Getty Photographs
Japan’s Sanae Takaichi and her ruling Liberal Democratic Occasion secured an awesome mandate in Sunday’s election, sweeping a supermajority — which suggests the LDP holds two-thirds or extra seats within the Decrease Home — and ushering her again because the nation’s prime minister.
The end result provides Takaichi broad latitude to pursue her agenda, which incorporates boosting spending and suspending some food-related taxes. Japanese shares climbed to a document excessive Monday, whereas the yen strengthened to 156.88 per greenback, reflecting renewed investor confidence following the election outcomes.
That optimism follows a pointy rebound in U.S. markets on Friday, when tech shares reminiscent of Nvidia, Broadcom, and Oracle led the cost.
“We’re in a gold rush proper now with AI,” stated Falcon Wealth Planning founder Gabriel Shahin. “There may be cash that can be deployed … It is simply the carousel [of money movement] generally scares folks.”
The rally pushed main benchmarks greater. The Dow Jones Industrial Common popped 2.47% to shut above 50,000 for the primary time. The S&P 500 rallied 1.97% — placing it again within the inexperienced for 2026 after it dipped into damaging territory after Thursday’s shut — whereas the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.18%.
Over in Europe, Italian financial institution UniCredit posted its best-ever annual internet revenue of 10.6 billion euros ($12.6 billion) in 2025, helped by its stakes in Commerzbank and Alpha Financial institution. The lender additionally raised its estimates for income and earnings this yr. Discover out extra as CEO Andrea Orcel discusses the financial institution’s earnings on “Squawk Field Europe.”
In the meantime, political pressures continued to construct on U.Okay. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. His chief of workers, Morgan McSweeney, stop on Sunday, to take duty for advising Starmer to nominate Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the U.S. — regardless of Mandelson’s previous hyperlinks to intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
With Starmer’s public approval slipping, some members of his Labour Occasion are brazenly questioning his political future — a far cry from the unifying power Japan’s Takaichi demonstrated on Sunday.
What you should know at the moment
Massive Tech has misplaced greater than $1 trillion in valuation collectively over the previous week, in response to FactSet information. The declines hit Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Google and Oracle. Amazon alone misplaced over $300 billion in market cap.
Silicon Valley’s largest names have been present in recordsdata associated to intercourse felony Jeffrey Epstein that had been lately launched by the U.S. Justice Division. Aside from Elon Musk and Invoice Gates, the names embrace Google co-founder Sergey Brin, enterprise capitalist Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
Jimmy Lai was sentenced to twenty years in jail on Monday, in one of the vital distinguished prosecutions below a China-imposed nationwide safety regulation. The media tycoon, who based pro-democracy newspaper Apple Each day, was convicted in December for collusion with overseas forces, amongst different expenses.
The Dow closes above 50,000 for the primary time. Main U.S. indexes jumped on Friday as tech shares rebounded. Asia-Pacific markets broadly rose Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 crossed the 57,000 stage in earlier buying and selling, a primary for the index. Chinese language chip designer Montage Know-how surged about 60% on its debut on the Hong Kong inventory trade.
[PRO] Tech giants bought off in China final week. Nonetheless, the explanations behind the strikes differ from these within the U.S., analysts stated.
And at last…
Non-public credit score worries resurface in $3 trillion market as AI pressures software program corporations
Non-public credit score markets are dealing with recent uncertainty as AI-driven instruments begin to stress software program corporations, a serious borrower group for personal lenders. Shares of asset managers with giant personal credit score franchises tumbled final week as buyers fretted about how AI might upend debtors’ enterprise fashions, stress money flows and in the end raise default dangers.
The strikes convey to fore a rising unease across the personal credit score market. It now has to brace for the affect from AI-driven disruption to the software program sector, which is closely uncovered to buyouts financed with opaque, illiquid loans, in response to market watchers.
— Lee Ying Shan
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