Some Federal Reserve officials were hesitant to support more interest rate cuts in 2026, according to minutes from the Fed's most recent policy meeting published on Tuesday.
Why it matters: The Fed is split over how much more to lower borrowing costs to support the economy, a division that might deepen next year against the backdrop of President Trump pressuring the central bank to lower rates.
Meta's acquisition of Manus AI could be worth around $2.5 billion, including employee retention compensation, Axios has learned from a source familiar with the deal.
Why it matters: AI has reset startup exit valuations, driven by unprecedented revenue growth.
The U.S. economy was beaten and battered in 2025, and powered ahead despite it all.
The big picture: The question for 2026 is whether the underlying sources of weakness that are already evident will broaden out into something that threatens to undermine its overall resilience.
American stocks are underperforming international equities at their widest margin since the great financial crisis.
Why it matters: Investors are looking to increase their exposure outside of the U.S. amid policy uncertainty under the Trump administration and heightened fears over high valuations and an AI bubble.
Editor's note: For the latest on the severe winter weather, click here.
An "intense" winter storm threatens to disrupt travel ahead of the New Year's holiday period, as forecasters warn of frigid Arctic air surging into the eastern two-thirds of the country — including Florida.
The big picture: The latest extreme weather to snarl U.S. holiday season travel after heavy snow and powerful winds pummeled the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. this week saw a bomb cyclone and trailing Arctic airmass trigger more heavy lake-effect snow and subfreezing temperatures in the Eastern U.S.
Beyoncé is a billionaire following the success of her Cowboy Carter tour, Forbes declared Monday.
Why it matters: The Grammy Award-winning star is only the fifth musician to make Forbes' billionaires list, after Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen and her husband, Jay-Z.
Silver prices had a bit of a reality check on Monday, pulling back after a yearlong surge had taken the metal to record highs just last week.
Why it matters: In a year of geopolitical uncertainty triggered by Trump's tariffs, wars and worries over sovereign debt, silver and gold have been preferred by many investors over stocks and bonds.
2025 has been a monster year for dealmaking, trailing only 2021 in terms of dollar value, according to preliminary data from LSEG.
The big picture: Dealmakers were appropriately optimistic entering the year, due to falling interest rates, the rise of artificial intelligence, and decreased regulatory headwinds in the U.S.
Venture capitalist Alex Davis is "deeply concerned" that too many data centers are being built without guaranteed tenants, according to a letter being sent this morning to his investors.
Why it matters: This critique is coming from inside the AI optimist camp.
President Trump's inauguration in January kicked off a relentless news cycle that sent Americans scrambling to keep up with the volume and velocity of change from the Oval Office and beyond, according to Axios' annual analysis of Google Trends data.
Why it matters: Political violence, economic nerves and mass tragedies gripped the country in a dizzying year for both domestic and international news.
Chipmakers Nvidia and Groq entered into a non-exclusive tech licensing agreement last week aimed at speeding up and lowering the cost of running pre-trained large language models.
Why it matters: Groq's language processing unit (LPU) chips power real-time chatbot queries — as opposed to model training — potentially giving Nvidia an edge in the AI race.
