Markets rebounded after Donald Trump withdrew his threats about taking over Greenland. The prospect of a damaging trade war between America and Europe had earlier spooked investors, causing the S&P 500 to fall by 2.1% and the NASDAQ Composite by 2.4%, their biggest daily declines since mid-October. The yields on long-term American government bonds hit their highest levels in several months amid a sell-off in the broader bond market that was triggered by concerns over Japanese debt. Yields on 30-year Japanese bonds jumped the most since 2003.
The IMF nudged up its forecast for global growth this year, to 3.3%. The fund said the world economy was demonstrating “notable resilience” to tariffs and that trade tensions had eased (this was before Mr Trump issued threats of tariffs over Greenland). Investment in AI is a big factor driving growth, the IMF said. It thinks the potential overvaluation of tech stocks is not as great as that of the dotcom boom of 1995 to 2000, but that even a modest correction could have a sizeable economic effect.
China’s economy expanded by 5% in 2025, officially aligning with the government’s target for GDP. Domestic demand remained weak, but a surge in exports helped boost growth. Meanwhile, China’s birth rate fell to 5.63 per 1,000 people, the lowest it has been since at least 1949, when the communists came to power. The total population count decreased by 3.4m, levelling off at around 1.4bn.
The number of people in payroll employment in Britain dropped by 184,000 for the 12 months to December, the biggest such fall since the pandemic. The Labour government’s controversial Employment Rights Act is blamed by some, with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development saying that the act is “holding back” employers. In further bad news the fight against inflation took an unexpected backward step, with the annual rate rising from 3.2% to 3.4% in December.
The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether Mr Trump has the authority to sack Lisa Cook from the board of the Federal Reserve over alleged mortgage fraud (no charges have been brought against Ms Cook over the allegations). The justices seemed sceptical about the administration’s arguments. They will rule in coming weeks.
Blue Origin, a space company owned by Jeff Bezos, said it would launch a network of 5,408 communications satellites to serve data centres, companies and governments. Called TeraWave, it would compete directly with Elon Musk’s Starlink network of around 10,000 satellites, though not for ordinary users.
Porsche sold 10% fewer cars last year, the steepest drop since 2009, during the global financial crisis. Amid a slump of interest in its electric vehicles the German carmaker is refocusing on petrol and hybrid models.
The Federal Trade Commission decided to appeal against a judge’s dismissal of its Meta antitrust case. In 2020 the FTC sued over Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, but last November a judge ruled that Meta did not hold a monopoly in social media because of competition from the likes of TikTok. The FTC insists that Meta “illegally maintained a monopoly in personal social- networking services through anti-competitive conduct”.
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, reached a settlement in a lawsuit that claims algorithms in social media cause users to become addicted. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Meta, TikTok and YouTube are also subject to the suit and the case is due to go to trial. Social-media companies have asked the appeals court to reverse lower-court rulings that have left them exposed to potentially thousands of addiction claims. Comparisons have been made to the cases against tobacco companies in the 1990s.
Netflix rejigged its $83bn bid for the studio and streaming business of Warner Bros Discovery, changing it to an all-cash deal rather than a mix of cash and stock. Warner’s board backed the revised offer, as it tries to fend off a rival hostile $108bn bid for all of Warner Bros from Paramount, which has said it will go straight to shareholders to seek their approval for its acquisition.
Meanwhile, Netflix announced a $2.4bn net profit for the last three months of 2025, a 29% year-on-year increase. It now has 325m paid memberships worldwide, which translates to a global audience approaching 1bn people. Its biggest film hit last year, indeed its biggest film ever, was “KPop Demon Hunters”. Other hits included “Frankenstein”, “My Oxford Year” and “A House of Dynamite”.