Economy
Choppy Trading on Wall Street Amid Mixed Economic, Geopolitical News
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat opening on Thursday, with stocks likely to continue to experience choppy trading.
Traders may be reluctant to make significant moves as they weigh better than expected U.S. economic data against disappointing news out of the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The futures recovered from earlier weakness following the release of a report from the Commerce Department showing U.S. economic growth slowed by less than expected in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Meanwhile, traders are also digesting news that the Trump-Kim summit ended abruptly without an agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Trump told reporters the North Korean dictator wanted the U.S. to lift all sanctions without having to give up all of his weapons of mass destruction.
?Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that,? Trump said. ?They were willing to de-nuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that.?
?So we continue to work and we’ll see, but we had to walk away from that particular suggestion,? he added. ?We had to walk away from that.?
The president noted that the two sides will continue to work toward an agreement, although the lack of a deal at the summit may add to recent uncertainty on Wall Street.
Stocks once again recovered from an early move to the downside on Wednesday but showed a lack of direction over the remainder of the session.
The major averages spent the afternoon lingering near the unchanged line before closing mixed. While the Nasdaq inched up 5.21 points or 0.1 percent to 7,554.51, the Dow fell 72.82 points or 0.3 percent to 25,985.16 and the S&P 500 edged down 1.52 points or 0.1 percent to 2,792.38.
The early weakness on Wall Street came as comments from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer partly offset recent optimism about the U.S.-China trade talks.
Lighthizer, who is described as “hawkish” on trade, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that China needs to go beyond pledging to buy more U.S. goods to reach to a long-term trade agreement.
“We can compete with anyone in the world, but we must have rule, enforced rules, that make sure market outcomes and not state capitalism and technology theft determine winners,” Lighthizer said.
The reaction to Lighthizer’s remarks reflected the lingering uncertainty about a potential U.S.-China trade deal even after President Donald Trump decided to postpone an increase in tariffs on Chinese imports.
Selling pressure waned as the day progressed, however, as traders kept an eye on Trump’s second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, looking for more concrete signs of progress toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
“Kim Jong Un and I will try very hard to work something out on Denuclearization & then making North Korea an Economic Powerhouse,” Trump said on Twitter this morning. “I believe that China, Russia, Japan & South Korea will be very helpful!”
On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing pending home sales rebounded by much more than anticipated in the month of January.
NAR said its pending home sales index spiked by 4.6 percent to 103.2 in January after tumbling by 2.3 percent to a downwardly revised 98.7 in December. Economists had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.4 percent.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Meanwhile, a government shutdown-delayed report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for manufactured goods rose by much less than anticipated in the month of December.
The Commerce Department said factory orders inched up by 0.1 percent in December after falling by a revised 0.5 percent in November. Economists had expected orders to climb by 0.5 percent.
Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.
Gold stocks showed a significant move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plunging by 1.9 percent. The weakness among gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal.
Considerable weakness was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent drop by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
On the other hand,
biotechnology stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the
session, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 2.4 percent.
The index jumped to its best closing level in over four months.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
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