Dan Schwartzman

Back in December, Myron had projected rates falling to below 2.25% by the end of the year, but now favors being less aggressive to put rates below 2.75% by the end of 2026.

Despite all the Trump tariffs, the U.S.

trade deficit widened in December to $70.3 billion, resulting in a full-year deficit of just over $900 billion, one of the largest in data back to 1960.

The trade data was notably volatile in 2025 due to persistent tariff announcements from President Trump.

Gold and pharmaceutical imports were particularly choppy as companies raced to beat higher duties.

Amazon is officially the biggest global company by revenue, taking the top spot away from Walmart.

The e-commerce giant reported 2,025 sales of $717 billion, while Walmart reported sales of $713.2 billion.

Amazon's growth rests largely on the importance of its cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services, which contributes to its revenue dominance.

Amazon's revenue has increased at almost 10 times the pace of Walmart's, fueled by a shift in consumer spending from stores to websites, as well as a cloud computing business.

Johnson & Johnson is preparing a potential sale of its orthopedics unit, with big bio firms already circling.

The unit could be valued at more than $20 billion in a sale,

and can also draw interest from rival medical device players.

According to Labor Department data, applications for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 to 206,000 in the weekend of February 14th, adding to evidence of stabilization in the labor market.

The number was lower than all but one estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

We check markets all day long here at Bloomberg, heightened geopolitical worries, sending stocks lower as the Dow is down around two-thirds of a percent, S&P 500 is down close to a half percent, while the Nasdaq has also lost almost six-tenths of a percent.

The 10-year Treasury yield is at 4.072, the two-year at 3.467.

Gold is hovering just below $5,000 an ounce, while Bitcoin is right around $67,000.

Norway still leads the medal count at the Milan Cortina Olympics with 34 total, while the U.S.

is in third with 25, just one behind Italy.

Norway also has 16 golds compared to seven for the U.S.