Today: 7 February 2026
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Shan Ahmed Khan

As a journalist focused on finance and the stock market, he delivers fast, reliable, and easy-to-understand coverage of market news.

Lockheed Martin stock jumps premarket after Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense-budget call

Lockheed Martin stock jumps premarket after Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense-budget call

New York, Jan 8, 2026, 04:58 EST — Premarket Lockheed Martin (LMT) shares jumped 7.6% in premarket trading on Thursday to $534.78. The stock closed Wednesday down 4.8% at $496.87 after dipping below $500 in the session. StockAnalysis Trump late Wednesday called for a $1.5 trillion U.S. military budget in 2027, far above the $901 billion Congress approved for 2026, a proposal that would still need lawmakers’ sign-off. Lockheed rose 6.2% in trading after the market closed, while General Dynamics gained 4.4% and RTX added 3.5%. Byron Callan, a defense analyst at Capital Alpha Partners, said the post left open
8 January 2026
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Intel stock hits a 52-week high on 18A Panther Lake debut as Jan. 22 earnings loom

Intel stock hits a 52-week high on 18A Panther Lake debut as Jan. 22 earnings loom

NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 05:01 EST — Premarket Intel shares jumped 6.5% on Wednesday to close at $42.63, after touching a 52-week high of $44.57 as trading picked up around its first laptop platform built on the company’s new 18A manufacturing process. About 166 million shares changed hands, roughly 2-1/2 times Tuesday’s volume. StockAnalysis+1 The move matters now because 18A sits at the center of Intel’s turnaround pitch — that it can regain chip-making edge and sell manufacturing capacity to outside customers in its foundry business. Intel has framed the new Core Ultra Series 3 line as the first
8 January 2026
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Applied Digital stock: APLD jumps after-hours on revenue beat, $5B AI lease and fresh funding

Applied Digital stock: APLD jumps after-hours on revenue beat, $5B AI lease and fresh funding

New York, January 8, 2026, 04:51 EST — Premarket Applied Digital shares rose about 7% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the data-center operator posted quarterly revenue above Wall Street estimates on demand for facilities used to run artificial-intelligence workloads. The stock last closed down about 2% at $29.56. Reuters The timing matters. Big cloud firms are chasing power and floor space as they race to train and deploy larger AI models, and Applied Digital has pitched North Dakota as a place to lock in capacity before it gets scarcer. Applied Digital reported revenue of $126.6 million for the fiscal
8 January 2026
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Blackstone stock steadies in premarket after Trump threatens Wall Street home-buying ban

Blackstone stock steadies in premarket after Trump threatens Wall Street home-buying ban

NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 05:11 EST — Premarket Blackstone Inc shares held steady before the open on Thursday, after a sharp selloff tied to fresh political risk around institutional home buying. The stock last traded at $153.59, unchanged from Wednesday’s close after it fell as low as $147.52 in the session. Yahoo Finance Why it matters now: the housing headline hit a corner of the market that had been leaning on lower-rate hopes and a calmer U.S. economy. Blackstone and Apollo Global Management slid more than 5% on Wednesday, weighing on the S&P 500 financials sector. Reuters Trump said
8 January 2026
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British American Tobacco stock edges up after fresh buyback update as Feb results loom

British American Tobacco stock edges up after fresh buyback update as Feb results loom

LONDON, Jan 8, 2026, 09:51 GMT — Regular session British American Tobacco (BATS.L) shares rose 0.3% to 3,979 pence by 0933 GMT, trimming a two-day slide in the London-listed tobacco group. In the United States, its ADR (BTI) was down about 1.4% in early premarket trading. SharePrices The move followed a new buyback disclosure that kept attention on capital returns at the start of the year, with investors now looking past day-to-day cigarette volumes to the bigger question: how much cash BAT can keep sending back while it pushes harder into vaping and nicotine pouches. Investegate BAT’s buyback programme, first
8 January 2026
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UK Retail Shakeout Starts Fast: 2,550 Jobs at Risk as Supermarkets Battle for Share

UK Retail Shakeout Starts Fast: 2,550 Jobs at Risk as Supermarkets Battle for Share

LONDON, January 8, 2026, 09:29 GMT Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop have been put into administration — a UK insolvency process — putting about 2,550 jobs at risk across almost 300 stores, days into the new year. “This was a cautious Christmas,” said Catherine Shuttleworth, chief executive of digital marketing agency Savvy. ITVX The early failures are landing just as Britain’s listed retailers start posting Christmas trading updates, a blunt check on whether consumers actually loosened their grip. The picture so far looks uneven: food held up better than non-food, while costs and weak confidence still hang over the
8 January 2026
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Standard Chartered stock edges up after buyback update; STAN.L investors eye Feb results

Standard Chartered stock edges up after buyback update; STAN.L investors eye Feb results

London, Jan 8, 2026, 09:36 GMT — Regular session Standard Chartered (STAN.L) shares rose about 0.8% to 1,805 pence in early London trade on Thursday after the bank disclosed another round of share repurchases under its buyback programme. The lender said it bought 537,006 shares on Wednesday at an average 1,805.41 pence, lifting cumulative buyback spending to $1.11 billion and cutting shares outstanding after cancellation to about 2.26 billion. The stock has traded between 1,783.5 and 1,806.5 pence so far, still below its 52-week high of 1,875.5 pence. The move comes after a sharp pullback a day earlier. The shares
8 January 2026
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Diageo stock edges up in London after Kenya court bid targets $2.3 billion Asahi deal

Diageo stock edges up in London after Kenya court bid targets $2.3 billion Asahi deal

London, Jan 8, 2026, 09:35 GMT — Regular session Diageo shares edged higher in early London trade on Thursday, a small bounce after a Kenyan court filing put fresh noise around the spirits maker’s $2.3 billion plan to sell East African Breweries to Japan’s Asahi. Diageo was up 0.8% at 1,589.5 pence by 0919 GMT, while the FTSE 100 eased about 0.2%. SharePrices The move matters because Diageo has been leaning on asset sales to shore up cash flow and cut debt, and the Kenya challenge adds a new moving part just as investors are looking for cleaner lines on
8 January 2026
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LSEG shares edge higher after buyback filing as investors look to Feb results

LSEG shares edge higher after buyback filing as investors look to Feb results

London, Jan 8, 2026, 09:36 GMT — Regular session London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L) shares inched higher on Thursday after the company said it bought back 117,644 shares as part of its existing programme. The stock was up 0.1% at 8,898 pence. London South East The small gain follows a sharper move the other way a day earlier, when LSEG fell 2.33% to close at 88.90 pounds, underperforming the broader market. Trading volume was also light versus its recent average, MarketWatch data showed. MarketWatch Why this matters now: UK equities have been swinging between fresh highs and quick pullbacks, leaving
8 January 2026
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Lloyds Banking Group stock edges up after UK-first tokenised deposit blockchain trade

Lloyds Banking Group stock edges up after UK-first tokenised deposit blockchain trade

London, Jan 8, 2026, 09:46 GMT — Regular session Lloyds Banking Group plc (LLOY.L) shares edged up 0.7% to 99.58 pence on Thursday, after trading between 98.31 pence and 99.64 pence and sitting about 2 pence below a 52-week high of 101.70 pence. Investing.com The lender said on Wednesday it issued “tokenised deposits” — a digital form of bank money recorded on a blockchain — on the Canton Network and used them to buy a tokenised gilt, or UK government bond, from digital securities firm Archax. Surath Sengupta, head of transaction banking products at Lloyds, called it “a glimpse into
8 January 2026
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FTSE 100 record run stalls as gold dips and Tesla UK sales slide

FTSE 100 record run stalls as gold dips and Tesla UK sales slide

London, January 8, 2026, 09:21 GMT London’s FTSE 100 closed down 0.7% on Wednesday, pausing after a run of record highs as energy and financial stocks fell and investors tracked the latest U.S.-Venezuela moves. Energy shares slid after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had reached a deal to import up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude, while banks fell and defence stocks edged higher. The mid-cap FTSE 250 ended 0.4% higher, holding near a four-year peak. Reuters The wobble comes at the start of a year when investors have pushed several major markets toward new highs, then started
8 January 2026
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Jefferies lifts Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest price targets as UK bank rally rolls into 2026

Jefferies lifts Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest price targets as UK bank rally rolls into 2026

LONDON, Jan 8, 2026, 09:26 (GMT) Jefferies has raised its price targets on Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest Group, arguing there is still room for UK bank shares to climb despite a sharp run-up. The broker lifted its target on Barclays by 19% to 560p, Lloyds by 13% to 119p and NatWest by 14% to 720p, interactive investor reported. https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-commentary/new-price-targets-lloyds-bank-barclays-natwest-and-others-ii537727 The calls matter because UK lenders were a major driver of last year’s gains in London’s benchmark index and are a bigger part of many portfolios than they used to be. Jefferies said it was getting harder for underweight
8 January 2026
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Stock Market Today

Broadcom Stock Gets a Google AI Spend Lift as Jefferies Sees 60% Upside

Broadcom Stock Gets a Google AI Spend Lift as Jefferies Sees 60% Upside

7 February 2026
Google raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $175 billion–$185 billion, with most spending expected on data-center chips. Broadcom shares rose about 2% after the announcement, while Nvidia and AMD slipped. Jefferies reiterated a buy rating on Broadcom, maintaining a $500 price target, implying a 62% upside from Wednesday’s close.
No $2,000 IRS stimulus check is coming in February 2026 — but Trump’s tariff-check talk keeps the rumors alive

No $2,000 IRS stimulus check is coming in February 2026 — but Trump’s tariff-check talk keeps the rumors alive

7 February 2026
The IRS has not announced new federal stimulus payments for February 2026, and Congress has not approved fresh checks. Trump told NBC he is considering $2,000 tariff rebate checks but has not committed, saying any payout would likely come later in 2026. The IRS warns taxpayers to ignore texts and emails about “stimulus payments” and verify notices through official channels.
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