with technology stocks seeing their biggest two-day drop since April. Bitcoin treasury stock Strategy (MSTR) cratered 35% in a week and has given up 74% in four months. Interest rates are rising, which is not good for anyone. Is the rising unemployment rate finally starting to bite?

Initial claims increased by 22,000 to 231,000 in the final week of January, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. Claims exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, increased to 1.84 million in the previous week.

while hiring a new low according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday. U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for the month, up 118% from the same period a year ago and 205% from December 2025. The total marked the highest for any January since 2009, while the economy was in the final months of its steepest downturn since the Great Depression.

to a new post bubble low at $67. Analysts point to speculative flows, leveraged positioning, and options-driven trading as key drivers of the price swings. No way of knowing the bottom here. My worst-case low? The old Bunker Hunt high of $50 an ounce.

with the collapse of international trade leading to structural overcapacity. Danish shipping giant Maersk said on Thursday that falling freight rates, driven by container-vessel overcapacity and the gradual resumption of shorter Red Sea routes, could halve earnings in 2026, dragging its shares down sharply. Avoid all shipping plays.