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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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The DAO soars and crosses over 50,000 for the first time. Plus, why Japan's first female prime minister is betting her seat on a snap election.
The goal is to get a big majority for the coalition. I think she'd be even happier if she could get a big majority for her ruling party alone, which some of the polls suggest that she could. The opposition is somewhat fragmented, somewhat divided. All the polls are pointing to a landslide for her.
And American athletes at this year's Winter Olympics will get something they've never been given before, a retirement nest egg. It's Friday, February 6th. I'm Alex Oseleff for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. The Dow today hit a new milestone, crossing 50,000 for the first time.
It's only been about a year and a half since it crossed 40,000, making this the fastest 10,000-point milestone on record. The journal's David Uberti says a lot of that was because of the success of the tech sector.
Despite some fits and starts here and there, the line has basically gone up and to the right. There's been basically a continuous rally into U.S. stocks over the last 10 to 15 years, in part because of this tech boom that we've had out of Silicon Valley, which has really accelerated in recent years with the growth of AI. So now we're hitting 50,000.
And what that says is that America and the American economy has basically created this giant sucking sound of investment flowing in to U.S.-based companies, particularly tech stocks.
But David says that the Dow in particular is bigger than tech.
So when investors are sort of evaluating these stock indexes as economic indicators, not just market snapshots, many of them choose to look at the Dow as a source of evidence of how the general economy is doing. The makers and takers of goods, logistics firms, airlines, manufacturers, media properties, etc., how they are all doing vis-a-vis some of these tech names.
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Chapter 2: What milestone did the Dow Jones Industrials achieve and why is it significant?
It fared better and has been hanging out just below record high for quite a while. And then today we've had a relief rally across markets. We're seeing tech come back a little bit, including NVIDIA. NVIDIA is now a component of the Dow that's been helping drive things higher. So are industrial stalwarts like Caterpillar and 3M.
There were big gains in the other indexes today, too. The Nasdaq climbed 2.2 percent, while the S&P ended up 2 percent. One piece of news that might be making investors feel optimistic? The closely watched Consumer Sentiment Index from the University of Michigan climbed for February, though economists had expected a slight decline.
The survey's director said the public still remains anxious about inflation and a weaker labor market. Speaking of jobs, whether you're hiring, firing, looking for a promotion or a new job, we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions about the labor market. Email us a voice memo to WNPOD at WSJ.com or leave us a message at 212-416-4328.
Make sure to include your full name and location so we can use your comments on the show. According to a securities filing released today, Amazon's U.S. corporate income taxes fell to $1.2 billion last year from $9 billion in 2024, even as its domestic profit before taxes rose by more than 44 percent to $89.5 billion.
It's one of the clearest examples yet of how big American companies are benefiting from Republicans' new tax law. Amazon says that Congress made the law to encourage greater investment in the U.S. economy and that due to Amazon's, quote, unprecedented U.S. investments, our tax bill this year reflects those changes.
We're exclusively reporting that the Justice Department's investigation into Netflix's $72 billion Warner deal is casting a wide net on Netflix business practices. The department is asking if Netflix has acted in a way that could make it a monopoly. The Journal viewed a civil subpoena that the DOJ sent another entertainment company.
A lawyer for Netflix says the company thinks the Justice Department is conducting a standard deal review. The Justice Department is also reviewing Paramount's bid, which Warner has told its shareholders to reject. Paramount says its offer provides investors with greater value and a more certain path to completion than the Netflix deal. The DOJ declined to comment.
President Trump posted and later deleted a video that depicted former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. The roughly one-minute video was posted on Truth Social last night. It was mostly about voting machines in the 2020 election. In the video's final seconds, images of the Obamas' faces on the bodies of cartoon apes appear.
They bob their heads against the backdrop of a jungle as the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight plays. The imagery plays into longstanding racist tropes dehumanizing Black people. Lawmakers from both parties condemned the video and said Trump should remove it. The video was deleted late this morning after the White House initially defended it. The White House blamed a staffer for posting the video.
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