In a post on X, Elon Musk said SpaceX is prioritizing a self‑growing lunar city, arguing it could be achieved in less than 10 years, while a Mars city would take over 20. He cited the Moon’s faster cadence—launches every 10 days and a two‑day transit—as key to quicker iteration. NASA said the SpaceX Crew‑12 ISS launch is planned for no earlier than 6:01 a.m. EST on Wednesday, February 11.

Ahead of the upcoming U.S. jobs report, Bitcoin is trading back above $70,000 after dropping below $61,000 on Thursday night, while gold remains above $5,000 and silver is near $77. U.S. stock futures are slightly higher, with S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow futures all edging up following a volatile week and a strong rebound on Friday.

The dollar index has fallen 1% since the start of 2026 after a 9% annual drop in 2025, while traders discount White House assurances of a "strong dollar." Tariff threats and the nomination of Kevin Warsh for Fed chair are seen as tilting toward lower rates, steering investors toward gold and other perceived havens.

Over six trading days, retail investors committed $430 million to SLV, the largest silver ETF, while silver prices plunged from a January high of $121 per ounce to $64 before recovering to $78. On January 30, silver dropped 27% in its biggest-ever one-day loss, yet data showed small investors continued buying aggressively as institutional players pulled back.

In a snap poll conducted by the University of Chicago’s Clark Center with the Financial Times, nearly 60% of leading economists said artificial intelligence is unlikely to reduce inflation or borrowing costs meaningfully over the next two years. Their view contradicts Kevin Warsh, Donald Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, who argues AI-driven productivity will justify cutting rates from the current 3.5%–3.75% range without rekindling inflation. Many respondents also flagged tensions around Warsh’s push to shrink the Fed’s balance sheet further and his support for bank deregulation.

MicroStrategy, now branded as Strategy, has left long-term investors with substantial losses, as a $10,000 position at its Dot Com peak would be worth about $4,050 today. After a 62% single-day crash on March 20, 2000, the stock slid to penny levels by 2002, and its later pivot into bitcoin has driven a 67.03% share price decline over the past 52 weeks and a 71.8% fall from its 2025 high. Despite this volatility, analysts' consensus price target still implies large potential upside from current levels.

In the week ending February 8 2026, PayPal and Coinbase posted some of the steepest declines on Wall Street, with their Relative Strength Index readings dropping into extreme oversold territory. PayPal slid more than 24% after issuing a weak 2026 forecast and announcing the departure of CEO Alex Chriss, sending its RSI below 11, while Coinbase fell 25% as Bitcoin retreated, pushing its RSI to about 14. Analysts’ average ratings still lean toward "hold" for PayPal and "buy" for Coinbase, with consensus targets implying sizable potential upside but no assurance those gains will materialize.

Over the past year, the Trump administration has directed taxpayer money into equity and governance stakes across at least 10 companies in sectors such as minerals, semiconductors, energy, and defense. These deals include non‑voting shares in Intel, preferred stock and warrants in MP Materials, equity in Lithium Americas, Trilogy Metals and USA Rare Earth, and structured arrangements tied to L3Harris and Westinghouse. In several cases, government holdings come with veto or future ownership rights, positioning federal agencies as shareholders in businesses they also regulate.

On February 8, 2026, Elon Musk's net worth was reported at $845 billion, making him the first individual to exceed $800 billion. A $1.25 trillion SpaceX takeover of xAI left him with about 43% of the combined company, a stake valued at more than $530 billion. Tesla shareholders also approved a performance-based pay package that could reach $1 trillion.