Economy
US Stocks May Benefit From Optimism About Impact of Tax Reform Bill
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a higher opening on Thursday following the lackluster performance seen in the previous session.
Optimism about the economic impact of the Republican tax reform bill may generate some buying interest after GOP lawmakers managed to send the legislation to President Donald Trump?s desk on Wednesday.
The reaction to the passage of the bill has been somewhat subdued thus far, however, as traders question if the potential impact of the legislation has already been priced into the markets.
After failing to sustain an initial upward move, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Wednesday. The major averages spent much of the day lingering near the unchanged line.
The major averages eventually ended the session slightly lower. The Dow dipped 28.10 points or 0.1 percent to 24,726.65, the Nasdaq edged down 2.89 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,960.96 and the S&P 500 slipped 2.22 points or 0.1 percent to 2,679.25.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders shrugged off news that Republican lawmakers managed to send a sweeping tax reform bill to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The House voted 224 to 201 in favor of the bill known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with the vote coming down largely along party lines.
The bill reduces the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, gives tax breaks to pass-through businesses and includes provisions intended to encourage domestic business investment.
The legislation also reduces tax rate for most individuals, although the tax cuts for individuals are set to expire.
The House voted in favor of a similar bill on Tuesday but needed to re-vote due to procedural issues related to the reconciliation process.
The Senate voted 51 to 48 in favor of the $1.5 trillion tax reform bill early this morning, with the vote coming down strictly along party lines.
While GOP lawmakers argue reductions in the tax rates for businesses and individuals will boost economic growth, Democrats claim the legislation will give tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
The bill also includes a repeal of Obamacare’s requirement that everyone has health insurance as well as a provision allowing energy development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In remarks at a cabinet meeting ahead of the vote, Trump described the tax reform bill as an “historic victory for the American people.”
On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing a much bigger than expected jump in existing home sales in the month of November.
NAR said existing home sales soared by 5.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.81 million in November from an upwardly revised 5.50 million in October.
Economists had expected existing home sales to rise to a rate of 5.52 million from the 5.48 million originally reported to the previous month.
With the much bigger than expected increase, existing home sales reached their highest level since hitting 6.42 million in December of 2006.
Most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster close by the broader markets.
Oil service stocks showed a substantial move to the upside, however, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index surging up by 2.5 percent. With the jump, the index reached its best closing level in well over a month. The strength among oil service stocks came amid an increase by the price of crude oil.
Significant strength was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. The index reached its best closing level in ten months.
Gold, natural gas, and railroad stocks also saw notable strength, while commercial real estate stocks showed a considerable move to the downside.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira rallied at the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday as supply continues to outweigh demand, giving it an edge against the United States Dollar.
In the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira improved its value on the greenback yesterday by N5 to quote at N1,450/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,455/$1, and at the GTBank FX desk, it gained N3 to trade at N1,383/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s exchange rate of N1,386/$1.
In the the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), which is also the official market, the Naira firmed up against the Dollar at midweek by N14.63 or 1.1 per cent to settle at N1,358.28/$1 versus the preceding session’s N1,372.91/$1.
Against the Pound Sterling, the domestic currency appreciated on Wednesday by N14.16 to N1,863.43/£1 from the previous day’s N1,877.59/£1, and gained N13.73 on the Euro to end at N1,606.03/€1 versus the N1,619.76/€1 it was exchanged a day earlier.
The strengthening of the Naira value has been driven by the injection of forex into the financial markets by foreign investors seeking attractive investments in the emerging markets, helping to boost Nigeria’s external reserves, which provide the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the capacity to support the local currency.
As of February 4, 2026, the reserves reached $46.59 billion.
The local currency has been able to find a solid path despite no indications of any intervention from the apex bank in recent week, strengthening the case of price discovery.
Policy moves by the CBN is also offering a backbone for the FX market as it considers some strategic reforms through a policy known as the Single Regulatory Window.
In its 2025 Fintech Report, the central bank said this scheme will significantly reduce time-to-market for new digital financial products by streamlining licensing and supervisory processes across multiple agencies.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was in red amid a broad sell-off in global technology stocks, with reports showing that liquidity was notably thin, amplifying price moves and contributing to forced liquidations. The decline followed a sharp sell-off in global technology stocks overnight, where concerns over the pace of artificial intelligence adoption and rising capital spending by major firms weighed heavily on valuations.
Bitcoin (BTC) lost 7.9 per cent to sell at $70,534.94, Ripple (XRP) declined by 11.2 per cent to $1.42, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 9.4 per cent to $689.70, Ethereum (ETH) crashed by 8.9 per cent to $2,072.46, and Solana (SOL) dipped by 8.7 per cent to $89.86.
In addition, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 6.9 per cent to $0.1008, Cardano (ADA) slipped by 6.8 per cent to $0.2792, Litecoin (LTC) dropped 5.1 per cent to trade at $57.56, and US Dollar Tether (USDT) went down by 0.1 per cent to $0.9980, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00.
By Dipo Olowookere
The decision of investors to cherry-pick stocks with sound fundamentals across categories further lifted the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 1.28 per cent on Wednesday.
This selective buying of equities was inspired by the earnings season, as companies that have already released their 2025 financial statements have impressed market participants.
However, the insurance sector experienced profit-taking yesterday, causing its index to go down by 0.84 per cent at the close of business.
But this loss was offset by the 2.33 per cent growth achieved by the banking index, with the other remaining sectors also closing in green. The energy industry appreciated by 1.52 per cent, the industrial goods landscape expanded by 1.20 per cent, and the consumer goods counter improved by 1.09 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 2,128.61 points to 168,030.18 points from 165,901.57 points and the market capitalization rose by N1.366 trillion to N107.861 trillion from the previous day’s N106.495 trillion.
Yesterday, 53 equities ended on the advancers’ chart and 26 equities finished on the laggards’ table, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
DAAR Communications led the gainers’ group after it surged by 10.00 per cent to sell for N1.87, Berger Paints appreciated by 10.00 per cent to N66.00, Fortis Global Insurance advanced by 10.00 per cent to 22 Kobo, RT Briscoe also jumped by 10.00 per cent to N10.45, and First Holdco improved by 9.92 per cent to N48.75.
Conversely, Red Star Express led the losers’ gang after it went down by 9.97 per cent to N17.15, Deap Capital also fell by 9.97 per cent to N6.86, Union Homes REIT slipped by 9.95 per cent to N69.25, McNichols dipped by 9.93 per cent to N6.53, and eTranzact lost 9.89 per cent to trade at N16.85.
At the midweek’s session, traders transacted 694.8 million shares worth N20.6 billion in 42,095 deals compared with the 736.4 million shares valued at N24.7 billion traded in 46,026 deals a day earlier, showing a shortfall in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 5.65 per cent, 16.60 per cent, and 8.54 per cent, respectively.
Chams ended the day as the busiest stock after trading 57.4 million units worth N256.3 million, Universal Insurance transacted 56.2 million units valued at N88.8 million, First Holdco exchanged 35.3 million units for N1.7 billion, Deap Capital traded 26.8 million units valued at N187.0 million, and Wema Bank sold 26.7 million units worth N674.6 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices surged about 3 per cent on Wednesday after it was reported that planned talks between the United States and Iran on Friday could collapse.
Brent futures grew by $2.13 or 3.16 per cent to $69.46 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures gained $1.93 or 3.05 per cent to trade at $65.14 per barrel.
The US and Iran had agreed to meet on Friday in Istanbul, with other Middle Eastern countries participating as observers.
However, the Iranians said on Tuesday that they wanted to move the talks to Oman and hold them in a bilateral format, to ensure that they focused only on nuclear issues and not other matters like missiles that are priorities for the US and countries in the region.
US officials were at first open to the request to change the location but then rejected it.
Later, the talks scheduled for Friday were back on, after several Middle Eastern leaders urgently lobbied the Trump administration on Wednesday afternoon not to follow through on threats to walk away.
The talks will be held in Muscat, the capital of Oman, on Friday.
The tensions between the US and Iran and heightened fears of potential disruption to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply passes through.
Members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude via the strait.
Recall that the US military on Tuesday shot down an Iranian drone that aggressively approached a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. Separately, a group of Iranian gunboats approached a US-flagged tanker north of Oman.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday that US crude stocks fell last week as a winter storm gripped large swaths of the country.
US crude oil inventories fell by 3.5 million barrels to 420.3 million barrels last week, as oil output slid to the lowest level since November 2024, the EIA said.
The EIA’s data release follows figures by the American Petroleum Institute (API) that were released a day earlier, which suggested that crude oil inventories fell by a colossal 11.1 million barrels.
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