WSJ What’s News - Dow Jones Industrials Cross 50000 for First Time

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

P.M. Edition for Feb. 6. Stocks bounced back today from a tech selloff. We hear from WSJ markets reporters David Uberti and Jack Pitcher about how that took the Dow over a historic milestone of 50000 and what that means. Plus, President Trump posts, then deletes, a video depicting former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. And Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has only been in her role for a few months, but she’s already betting her seat on a snap election this Sunday. WSJ Tokyo bureau chief Jason Douglas joins to discuss how Takaichi hopes to cement her power and move Japan closer to the U.S. Alex Ossola hosts. Your Money Briefing episode featuring Lauryn Williams: Going for Gold: The Financial Hurdles Facing Olympic Athletes Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How are the U.S. businesses of Philip Morris International invested in America? We're invested in advancing science, giving adults who smoke better options. We're invested in American manufacturing, helping local economies thrive. We're invested in community, supporting military veterans and their families, disaster relief, and economic empowerment. Because we're proud to be invested in America. See how at USPMI.com. The Dow soars and crosses over 50,000 for the first time. Plus, why Japan's first female prime minister is betting her seat on a snap election.

The goal is to get a big majority for the coalition. I think she'd be even happier if she could get a big majority for her ruling party alone, which some of the polls suggest that she could. The opposition is somewhat fragmented, somewhat divided. All the polls are pointing to a landslide for her. And American athletes at this year's Winter Olympics will get something they've never been given before. a retirement nest egg. It's Friday, February 6th. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

The Dow today hit a new milestone, crossing 50,000 for the first time. It's only been about a year and a half since it crossed 40,000, making this the fastest 10,000-point milestone on record. The journalist David Uberti says a lot of that was because of the success of the tech sector. Despite some fits and starts here and there, the line has basically gone up into the right. There's been basically a continuous rally into U.S. stocks over the last 10 to 15 years in part because of this tech boom that we've had out of Silicon Valley, which has really accelerated in recent years with the growth of AI. So now we're hitting 50,000. And what that says is that America and the American economy has basically created this giant, sucking sound of investment flowing in to U.S.-based companies, particularly tech stocks. But David says that the Dow in particular is bigger than tech.

So when investors are sort of evaluating the stock indexes as economic indicators, not just market snapshots, many of them choose to look at the Dow as a source of evidence of how the general economy is doing. The makers and takers of goods, logistics firms, airlines, manufacturers, media properties, etc., how they are all doing vis-a-vis some of these tech names, which tend to drive the NASDAQ and S&P in a more volatile way. The Dow doesn't capture the full weight of the AI boom in some respects, but on the other hand, it might be a more accurate representation of what is actually happening in the U.S. economy.

WS.J. Markets reporter Jack Pitcher says the relief rally today after this week's tax sell-off helped lift the Dow, which closed up two and a half percent at 50,116. We actually had a pretty volatile week. There was a big tech sell-off, especially software-related companies. The Dow has less software exposure. It fared better and has been hanging out just below record high for quite a while. And then today we've had a relief rally across markets. We're seeing tech come back a little bit, including InVIDIA.

Envidia is now a component of the Dow that's been helping drive things higher. So are industrial stalwarts like Caterpillar and 3M. There were big gains in the other indexes today, too. The NASDAQ climbed 2.2% while the S&P ended up 2%. One piece of news that might be making investors feel optimistic, the closely watched Consumer Sentiment Index from the University of Michigan climbed for February, though economists had expected a slight decline. The surveys director said the public still remains anxious about inflation and a weaker labor market.

Speaking of jobs, whether you're hiring, firing, looking for a promotion or a new job, we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions about the labor market. Email us a voice memo to WNPOD at WSJ.com or leave us a message at 212-416-4328. Make sure to include your full name and location so we can use your comments on the show. According to a securities filing release today, Amazon's U.S. corporate income taxes fell to $1.2 billion last year from $9 billion in 2024. even as its domestic profit before taxes rose by more than 44% to $89.5 billion. It's one of the clearest examples yet of how big American companies are benefiting from Republicans' new tax law. Amazon says that Congress made the law to encourage greater investment in the U.S. economy,

and that due to Amazon's, quote, unprecedented U.S. investments, our tax bill this year reflects those changes. We're exclusively reporting that the Justice Department's investigation into Netflix's 72, billion-dollar-dollar deal is casting a wide net on Netflix business practices. The department is asking if Netflix has acted in a way that could make it a monopoly. The journal viewed a civil subpoena that the DOJ sent another entertainment company. A lawyer for Netflix says the company thinks the Justice Department is conducting a standard deal review. The Justice Department is also reviewing Paramount's bid, which Warner has told its shareholders to reject. Paramount says its offer provides investors with greater value and a more certain

passed to completion than the Netflix deal. The DOJ declined to comment. President Trump posted and later deleted a video that depicted former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. The roughly one-minute video was posted on Truth Social last night. It was mostly about voting machines in the 2020 election. In the video's final seconds, images of the Obama's faces on the bodies of cartoon apes appear. They bobbed their heads against the backdrop of a jungle as the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight plays. The imagery plays into longstanding racist tropes dehumanizing black people. Lawmakers from both parties condemned the video and said Trump should remove it. The video was deleted late this morning after the White House initially defended

it. The White House blamed a staffer for posting the video. An Obama spokeswoman didn't immediately comment. Coming up, what Japan's prime minister hopes to gain from Sunday's snap election and a change to the personal finances of U.S. Olympic athletes. That's after the break. Sharpen your perspective on the future of technology and business in 2026. Take a look inside the new edition of ThoughtWorks Looking Glass and discover how business leaders can prepare their organizations for the future and make informed decisions that have a lasting impact.

Find out more at ThoughtWorks.com slash looking glass. Japanese Prime Minister Sanai Takayichi has only been in the job since October. but she's already betting her seat on a snap election that's to take place on Sunday. I'm joined now by Jason Douglas, who heads up the journal's Tokyo Bureau. Jason, what is Takiichi's background and how did she get to the prime minister's spot? Takiichi is a little unusual in Japanese politics. The political scene in Japan is very much dominated by men and by people from famous political families. So Takiichi is a bit of an outsider.

She came from humble beginnings. Her father was a factory worker. Her mom worked as an administrator for the police. And she's been slogging away in the fringes, really, of conservative politics in Japan for the last 30 years. And then in October last year, she had her chance to run for leader of the ruling party. She won. And now she is the prime minister. Why does she call this stop election?

What is she hoping to get out of it? Her ruling coalition doesn't have a majority in the lower house of parliament. She wanted to strengthen her position to make sure that she can push through her agenda. The goal is to get a big majority. for the coalition. I think she'd be even happier she could get a big majority for her ruling party alone, which some of the polls suggest that she could. The opposition is somewhat fragmented, somewhat divided. All the polls are pointing to a landslide for her. I'm curious how much that this is a reflection of how she's been performing as PM. Part of her platform has been to revitalize

Japan's economy. How has she been doing on that and how's that going over in the country? The prospect of a landslide is almost entirely to do with Takiichi's personal popularity. She's only been in power for three months, so she hasn't really had an opportunity to do very much. But she has this persona that is really resonating with the public. She's decisive. She got on terrifically well with President Trump when he was here in October last year. She's in the middle of this kind of diplomatic rye with Beijing, and her standing up to the Chinese to leader of Xi Jinping is playing pretty well with Japanese voters. She's very plain speaking. She makes these videos where she's playing the drums with the South Korean president.

She's really good social media. She does seem to have really struck a chord with young voters who are just a bit fed up with inflation, a bit fed up with falling living standards in Japan. You mentioned Takeichi's relationship with Trump. One of the things Takeichi has done is double down on Japan's ties with the U.S. What does the outcome of this election mean for U.S. interests and stability in the region? Yeah, this is super important. Lots of countries are kind of pulling away somewhat from the U.S.

they're recoiling from President Trump and his, you know, moves on tariffs, his talk about Greenland. This is particularly true in Europe. But in Asia, I think the picture looks very different. And for a country like Japan, which is surrounded by China, Russia and North Korea, there's really no alternative to the U.S. alliance. It's absolutely essential for their security. And so Takiichi feels this very strongly and is doubling down on it. And I think she is totally in line with U.S. interests and what Trump and his administration want allies to do in Asia. So she's talked about raising defense spending.

talked about taking on a greater role in preserving security in the region and deterring China. She's doing all the things that the US wants Japan to do. But one thing she has to watch out for is financial markets. So we've seen these big moves, big swings in interest rates and big swings in the currency. There's some anxiety in financial markets about her economic plans because she is a big believer in fiscal spending. She wants to borrow and spend to really drag Japan out of its economic torpor and that it's been in for the last 30 odd years. And that makes some people in financial the market's nervous. That was WSJ Tokyo Bureau Chief, Jason Douglas. Thanks so much, Jason. Thank you very much.

Talks in Oman today between senior U.S. and Iranian officials made little progress. Tehran wouldn't agree to end enrichment of nuclear fuel or move it offshore, a core U.S. requirement. But Iran's foreign minister said it had been a good start. Both sides signal that they would keep working toward a diplomatic solution that could head off an American strike. And finally, the Winter Olympics kicked off today in Milan. and we're taking a look at the personal finances of Olympians. The U.S. government, unlike some other countries, doesn't pay its Olympic athletes. So starting at this year's Winter Games, financier Ross Stevens will give $200,000 to each U.S. athlete who competes in the Olympics and Paralympics.

But they won't get that money right away. Half of it will come 20 years after their first qualifying Olympic appearance or at age 45, whichever comes later. The second half of the payment is a benefit for the athletes' family after they pass away. Gold medalist sprinter Lauren Williams became a financial planner after retiring from competition and has worked with dozens of Team USA athletes. She says this money could be life-changing. This is a huge deal that will change a trajectory of athletes' finances. If only this had existed when I was participating in sport.

So many athletes work a full-time job while competing and then continue to work full-time after competing, even if they win a medal. There's this kind of misnomer that once you win an Olympic gold medal, you never have to work again at you're filthy rich. And for the vast majority of Olympic athletes, that is not true. And so for $100,000 to be coming your way, it's going to be a big, big difference for athletes over the long term. If you want to hear more from Lauren,

our colleagues at Your Money Briefing spoke to her in 2024 about Olympic athletes' financial hurdles. We'll leave a link to that episode in the show notes. And that's what's news for this week. Tomorrow you can look out for our weekly markets wrap up, What's News and Markets? Then on Sunday, it's the Sunday. Super Bowl. And like a lot of people, I will be watching it for The Ads. And in our show, we'll be

discussing how AI is transforming the advertising industry. That's in What's New Sunday. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienameh and Alexis Moore with supervising producer Tali Arbell. Michael Laval wrote our theme music. Jessica Fenton is our technical manager. Isha El Muslim is our development producer. Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor. And Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Alex Osala. Thanks for listening. What does leadership really look like? On the power of advice, a new podcast series from Capital Group,

you'll hear from athletes, entrepreneurs, and executives who've led on the field in the boardroom and in their communities. It's not about titles. It's about impact. Discover what drives them and the advice they carry forward. Subscribe and start listening today. Published by Capital Client Group Inc.