Election Fuels Inflows

Thailand saw record foreign inflows into stocks following the election.

February 10, 2026

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🎯 In this issue:

  • Banana Bits: Finance headlines that actually matter

  • Market Summary: S&P 500 is near a record high as traders await economic data

  • What’s Ripe / Rotten: The tastiest and most disgusting stocks today

  • Technical Trip: Interview Q&A from BlackRock

  • Deal Deep Dive: M&A, IPO, and transaction breakdowns

Market Snapshot

📉 Banana Bits

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Market News

S&P 500 is Near Record High as Traders Await Economic Data

Another rally in tech stocks, following an artificial intelligence-driven rout, drove prices higher ahead of economic data that will help shape the Federal Reserve outlook. Gold topped $5,000. The dollar fell.

Following a surge that added $1 trillion to the S&P 500’s value at the end of last week, the index kept rising to approach its all-time highs. A gauge of chipmakers climbed 1.4%, while an ETF focused on software names extended its back-to-back advance to nearly 7%. Oracle Corp. jumped 9.6%. Alphabet Inc. embarked on a global bond spree to fund its AI ambitions.

 

Key economic data set to be released this week includes the jobs report, due Wednesday, which is expected to show payrolls rose 68,000 in January. The unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.4%.

In Friday’s consumer price index, economists will look for more evidence that inflation is on a downward trend. Before that, figures on Tuesday are projected to show solid retail sales.

What's Ripe

Valaris Ltd. (VAL) 34.3%

  • VAL soared 34%. Fellow offshore drilling company Transocean has agreed to acquire Valaris in an all-stock deal worth $5.8 billion.

  • The combined company would have an enterprise value of roughly $17 billion.

AppLovin Corp. (APP) 13.2%

  • APP was up 13%. Capitalwatch, a self-described independent news organization, retracted its earlier allegations against AppLovin, which it depicted as a “laundering machine” for illicit funds from Southeast Asia.

  • The publisher personally apologized to major shareholder Hao Tang, whom it depicted as the facilitator of the scheme.

What's Rotten

Monday.com Ltd. (MNDY) 20.8%

  • MNDY slumped 21%. The software provider posted quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street forecasts, but its 2026 guidance disappointed.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) 16.4%

  • CLF declined 16% after the steel company posted $4.3 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, missing analysts’ estimates of $4.57 billion.

  • Investors were also disappointed by the lack of updates on a strategic partnership with Korean steelmaker POSCO.

  • The pair has been discussing an agreement that could result in an equity investment in the U.S. steelmaker.

🧠 Technical Trip

Interview Q&A from BlackRock

👉 Want 1-on-1 recruiting help from BlackRock bankers & 2,000+ top mentors? Apply to WSO Academy

🦈 Deal Dispatch

M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions

Banana Brain Teaser

Previous

November 16, 2001, was a Friday. If each of the years 2004, 2008, and 2012 had 366 days, and the remaining years from 2001 through 2014 had 365 days, what day of the week was November 16, 2014?

Answer: Sunday

Today

For any positive integer n, the sum of the first n positive integers equals [n(n + 1)]/2. What is the sum of all the even integers between 99 and 301?

❝

Most investors want to do today what they should have done yesterday.

Larry Summers

How Would You Rate Today's Peel?


Happy Investing,
Chris, Vyom, Ankit, Mitchell, Fernanda, & Patrick