Energy Producers on High Alert as U.S. Braces for Major Winter Storm

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Here is your Morning Brief for Friday, January 23rd. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. A winter storm bearing heavy snow, strong winds, and bitter cold is descending upon the central U.S. from the Dakotas to the Gulf, with its sights set on the East Coast in the coming days.

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Utilities are bracing for the worst, wary of a repeat of a deadly 2021 winter storm in Texas that left millions without power for days. Energy producers in some of America's largest oil and gas fields could also see disruptions, with traders anticipating that a large share of U.S. production could become blocked in frozen wells. precisely when heating demand is at its peak.

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Those concerns and increasing demand for heating have pushed U.S. natural gas prices up more than 60 percent this week. While gold prices are also soaring, nearing $5,000 an ounce just three months after crossing the once unthinkable $4,000 mark. The metal has surged amid geopolitical uncertainty and sky-high stock prices, as well as central banks piling in as fellow buyers pushing up prices.

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And good news for roughly two in three Americans, TikTok officially isn't going anywhere. The company has formally inked a joint venture, allowing it to keep operating in the U.S., ending a years-long fight over whether to ban the video-sharing app on national security grounds.

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ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, has agreed to sell an 80% stake to a group of U.S.-approved investors, which include tech giant Oracle, Silverlake, and Michael Dell's family investment office. Asian stocks have end of the day mostly up, European stocks are down in midday trading, and U.S. stock futures are looking for direction.