Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
1) Amazon.com shares tumbled in premarket trading on Friday after the e-commerce and cloud-computing company’s $200 billion annual capex forecast is much higher than expected, underlining concerns about how much big tech companies are spending on AI-related investments and when they will pay off. The company reported spending roughly $130 billion on property and equipment in 2025. Analysts anticipated those expenses would reach about $150 billion this year. Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said the money “predominantly” would go toward the company’s Amazon Web Services cloud unit, and most of that spending would be for AI workloads.
2) Bitcoin whipsawed in a volatile trading session after a selloff that briefly dragged the token to a more than 50% retreat from its October peak. The original cryptocurrency rose as much as 5.8% on Friday and traded around $64,800 at 9 a.m. in London. Earlier in the session, it came close to falling below $60,000 for the first time since October 2024. Cryptocurrencies have been on shaky ground ever since a brutal series of liquidations in October that sapped market confidence. The selling picked up steam this week in line with the unwinding of leveraged bets and broader market turbulence.
3) President Trump called for the creation of a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, as the existing New START agreement between the two nations expires and fuels concern about the possibility of a new arms race. The pact — formally known as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — built on efforts to reduce the nuclear weapons arsenals amassed during the Cold War. The deal expired on Thursday, raising the possibility that the US and Russia could potentially pursue new nuclear weapons unhindered by any diplomatic agreement while geopolitical tensions between Washington and Moscow rise.
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