The Q4 2025 earnings season for US corporations begins this week when big banks kick things off, starting with JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday (Jan 13). With the benchmark S&P 500® closing at 6,966 on Friday due to stable jobs data, above its previous record high close of 6,944, investors will be looking at corporate earnings to assess whether the market’s momentum can continue in the new year.

Earnings growth in 2025 highlighted, once again, the resilience of the US economy, corporations and consumers. The Fed’s aggressive rate hikes in 2022 weren’t enough to dismantle markets in 2023 or 2024, just as the April 2025 trade shock wasn’t enough to derail US corporations last year. Despite thinking US companies would take on massive cost cutting plans to offset higher tariffs, they were able, for the most part, to pivot production, renegotiate with suppliers, and pass costs onto consumers, leading to continued profit growth for the year. (Wall Street Horizon – Continue Reading)

The Trump administration’s escalation of political pressure on the Federal Reserve underlines the White House’s increasingly unconventional policy approach which has placed pressure on the long-standing checks and balances of US governance.

This reflects one of the main negative drivers for the downgrade of the US sovereign rating to AA- in October last year.

The criminal probe into Fed Chairman Jay Powell further intensifies the growing political and legal pressure from the executive branch on the independence and credibility of a key pillar of US governance. The growing political scrutiny, including the attempted dismissal of Governor Lisa Cook last year, will pose a significant challenge for the Fed’s next chair to operate with the traditional degree of independence that markets have been accustomed to. (Scope Ratings – Continue Reading)

Bank executives were sent scrambling over the weekend after President Donald Trump declared late Friday that American credit card companies would be subject to a 10% cap on the interest rate they can charge customers.

The move sent shares of large banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America down between 1% and 4% in premarket trading Monday. Companies more tightly tethered to the card industry, like Visa, Mastercard and American Express, also fell. Capital One, whose loan book is mostly from credit cards, sank 7% in premarket trading. (CNBC – Continue Reading)

Google parent company Alphabet has become the fourth member of the $4 trillion club.

Alphabet shares popped about 1% Monday, after Apple said it had picked Google’s Gemini to be the foundation for its artificial intelligence models and the next generation of Siri.

The search company joins Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple as the few companies that have crossed the $4 trillion mark.

Both Nvidia and Microsoft topped the $4 trillion milestone for the first time in July, while Apple crossed the threshold for the first time in October. Since then, however, Apple and Microsoft have dropped well below the $4 trillion line. (CNBC – Continue Reading)