Author: Olumide Adesina

Olumide Adesina is a French-born Nigerian financial writer. He tracks the financial markets with over 15 years of working experience in investment trading.

Turmoil in Silver: 10% Crash Wiped Out Amid Brutal Liquidity Crunch

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Silver lurched between gains and losses caused by weak liquidity, falling almost 10% before rising again.

 

Spot silver had risen 4% to nearly $74 an ounce after plunging toward $64. All of the metal’s gains from a spectacular rally last month were erased by a 20 percent drop in the previous session. Following an earlier retreat, gold also made progress.

Its price swings have historically been more severe because silver has a smaller market and less liquidity than gold.

However, recent movements—the most erratic since 1980—have been notable for their magnitude and velocity, exacerbated by speculative momentum and a decline in over-the-counter trading. Since reaching its highest point ever on January 29, white metal has dropped by more than a third.

Investors piled into call options and leveraged exchange-traded products, building up sizable positions in precious metals. With gold plunging the most since 2013 and silver experiencing its largest-ever daily decline on January 30, that rally came to an abrupt end at the end of last week. Since then, markets have been incredibly erratic.

Silver had difficulty finding support amid a significant decline in Chinese purchases last week.

Violent market movements have deterred buyers, and prices in the nation have dropped to a discount compared to global standards. Positions are being closed as open interest on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped to its lowest level in over four years.

Bitcoin Flips Green: Strategy (MSTR) Surges 33% in Dramatic Crypto Comeback

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Strategy experienced a significant rally,  reaching +33 percent.  Bitcoin “flipped green” and experienced a sharp recovery, rising as much as ~$70,188 intraday and bouncing ~10 percent in a single day from lows of l$60,000.

Bitcoin is experiencing severe selling pressure right now.
Some analysts maintained their bullish outlook and set high price targets, arguing against the forced sale of Bitcoin ($440 for MSTR) and stating that the company is “better positioned than ever” for recovery through its treasury strategy, capital raises, and instruments like STRC (a preferred stock instrument).

US stock markets experienced a robust recovery following recent heavy selling, fueled in part by a recovery in technology stocks and a stabilization/rebound in Bitcoin (often referred to as “turning green” when charts display gains or positive/upward movement).

Recently, strategy has been under a lot of pressure. It reported a massive Q4 net loss of about $12.4 billion, mostly due to unrealized Bitcoin declines under fair-value accounting. Additionally, its stock has dropped significantly from its 2025 peaks, trading near $100 to $110 levels after declines of more than 70% from those highs.

The February 6 rally was not a reversal of the overall downward trend, but rather a bounce amidst Bitcoin’s ongoing volatility. Bitcoin had dropped in recent days and weeks, falling toward $60,000 (its lowest since late 2024).

However, on February 6, it recovered sharply, rising back above $70,000 at points (up about 10% intraday in some reports, recovering from lows near $60k–$63k)

Associated stocks rose because of Bitcoin’s recovery.  Strategy (MSTR) because of its substantial holdings (roughly 713,502 BTC as of early February, purchased at an average of about $76,000 per coin), which functions as a leveraged proxy for Bitcoin, saw a notable increase during the session.

Gold’s Silent Billionaire Now Holds Shanghai’s Biggest Silver Short Position

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

A billionaire Chinese trader who made his fortune riding the record-breaking gold rally has turned his attention to silver’s explosive rise with a bet on the metal’s collapse valued at nearly $300 million.

 

Bian Ximing, who stays out of the spotlight and spends most of his time in Gibraltar, has profited from bullish wagers on gold contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange to about $3 billion

Bian has been forced to liquidate some positions at a loss due to the high risk associated with his big short.

However, he currently has a short position worth roughly 450 tons of silver, or 30,000 contracts; since last week, the metal has dropped sharply, resulting in a paper gain of roughly 2 billion yuan ($288 million).

Bian, via Zhongcai Futures, his brokerage. started increasing silver shorts in the last week of January, according to data from the exchange. The majority of SHFE’s precious metals holdings, according to the people, are made up of Bian’s personal wagers and products he doles out for a select group of clients.

SHFE does not reveal the identities of individual investors behind brokerage accounts. Zhongcai’s silver short position increased to roughly 18,000 lots in January, according to exchange data. 28. In January, it increased even more to roughly 28,000 lots. 30 when Shanghai’s metal hit its highest point ever.

Bian’s wager coincides with weeks of sharp price fluctuations that make market observers reconsider their one-size-fits-all strategy for precious metals.

While many institutional investors still see gold as a hedge against changes in interest rates, central bank purchases, and worldwide unpredictability, silver’s recent surge is increasingly perceived as an industrial rally driven primarily by speculative positioning.

Strategy Stock Surges 33% as Bitcoin Flips Green in Dramatic Rebound

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Strategy experienced a significant rally,  reaching +33 percent.  Bitcoin “flipped green” and experienced a sharp recovery, rising as much as ~$70,188 intraday and bouncing ~10 percent in a single day from lows of l$60,000.

Bitcoin is experiencing severe selling pressure right now.
Some analysts maintained their bullish outlook and set high price targets, arguing against the forced sale of Bitcoin ($440 for MSTR) and stating that the company is “better positioned than ever” for recovery through its treasury strategy, capital raises, and instruments like STRC (a preferred stock instrument).

US stock markets experienced a robust recovery following recent heavy selling, fueled in part by a recovery in technology stocks and a stabilization/rebound in Bitcoin (often referred to as “turning green” when charts display gains or positive/upward movement).

Recently, strategy has been under a lot of pressure. It reported a massive Q4 net loss of about $12.4 billion, mostly due to unrealized Bitcoin declines under fair-value accounting. Additionally, its stock has dropped significantly from its 2025 peaks overall, trading near $100 to $110 levels after drops of more than 70% from highs.

The February 6 rally was not a reversal of the overall downward trend, but rather a bounce amidst Bitcoin’s ongoing volatility. Bitcoin had dropped in recent days and weeks, falling toward $60,000 (its lowest since late 2024).

However, on February 6, it recovered sharply, rising back above $70,000 at points (up about 10% intraday in some reports, recovering from lows near $60k–$63k)

Associated stocks rose because of Bitcoin’s recovery.  Strategy (MSTR) because of its substantial holdings (roughly 713,502 BTC as of early February, purchased at an average of about $76,000 per coin), which functions as a leveraged proxy for Bitcoin, saw a notable increase during the session.

Amazon Stock Plunges Toward $200 as $200B 2026 Capex Guidance Shocks Investors

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported capital expenditures of approximately $200 billion for 2026, which was significantly higher than anticipated, despite surpassing quarterly top-line estimates on Thursday. The company’s stock fell more than 9% at the start of Friday.

AMZN share price has formed a support above $160

Wall Street is witnessing a significant shift away from technology stocks and toward other industries at the moment of Amazon’s results. Investors no longer believe that artificial intelligence will benefit the entire technology sector; instead, they now believe that AI will create certain winners and losers.

Chipmakers and the larger industry have been affected by the decline in the software subsector, which has been identified as a loser. Additionally, high valuations and ambitious spending plans worry traders. Amazon’s $200 billion forecast exceeded the $146.11 billion consensus estimate.

“Retail is delivering with increasing efficiency, and AWS is accelerating with even faster growth ahead.” In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley equity analyst Brian Nowak stated, “Yes, AMZN is investing (AWS, Retail, LEO), but it has a history of demonstrating ROIC, which leaves us bullish on this underappreciated GenAI winner across.”

The announcement was made just one day after Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), the parent company of Google, shocked the market with plans to spend up to $185 billion on capital projects in 2026.

Amazon earned $1.95 per share in its Q4 2025 revenue of $213.39 billion (up 13.6% year over year), missing profit projections by a cent. The consensus on the top line was $211 billion.

Silver Market in Turmoil: Nearly 10% Drop Erased Amid Liquidity Crunch

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Silver lurched between gains and losses caused by weak liquidity, falling almost 10% before rising again.

 

Spot silver had risen 4% to nearly $74 an ounce after plunging toward $64. All of the metal’s gains from a spectacular rally last month were erased by a 20 percent drop in the previous session. Following an earlier retreat, gold also made progress.

Its price swings have historically been more severe because silver has a smaller market and less liquidity than gold.

However, recent movements—the most erratic since 1980—have been notable for their magnitude and velocity, exacerbated by speculative momentum and a decline in over-the-counter trading. Since reaching its highest point ever on January 29, white metal has dropped by more than a third.

Investors piled into call options and leveraged exchange-traded products, building up sizable positions in precious metals. With gold plunging the most since 2013 and silver experiencing its largest-ever daily decline on January 30, that rally came to an abrupt end at the end of last week. Since then, markets have been incredibly erratic.

Silver had difficulty finding support amid a significant decline in Chinese purchases last week.

Violent market movements have deterred buyers, and prices in the nation have dropped to a discount compared to global standards. Positions are being closed as open interest on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped to its lowest level in over four years.

Brent, WTI Fall as Iran Signals Progress in US Nuclear Dialogue

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Oil prices eased in a tumultuous session following Iran’s announcement that nuclear talks with the US in Oman were going well and that both parties had decided to continue.

EIA expects higher crude Oil production in 2025

Brent fell below $67 a barrel, reversing an earlier rise after wildly fluctuating on news reports related to the meeting. The next meeting’s time and location have not yet been determined, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the talks were off to a good start.

An oversupply outlook has been overshadowed by a risk premium added to benchmark oil prices due to the escalation in the Middle East, which supplies roughly one-third of the world’s crude. Nevertheless, the discussions helped ease fears of a conflict in the area, and London’s futures are on course for their first weekly retreat since mid-December.

Ukraine and Russia agreed to swap prisoners for the first time in five months as part of trilateral talks with the United States to put an end to their four-year conflict. Trump’s special envoy stated that the talks were progressing and that outcomes were anticipated “in the coming weeks.”

Saudi Arabia lowered prices for Asian buyers by less than anticipated, indicating that the kingdom believes there will be a market for its barrels, even though prices have already dropped to their lowest level since late 2020.

Anthropic Unveils Claude Opus 4.6: Supercharged for Complex Financial Research

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Anthropic announced a new version of its most potent AI model intended to conduct financial research.

The company introduced Claude Opus 4.6, which it claims can examine market data, company data, and regulatory filings to produce in-depth financial analyses that would typically take a person days to finish.

Additionally, Opus 4.6 is designed to be more proficient in several other work-related tasks, such as software development and creating spreadsheets and presentations. After the announcement, the stock of financial services firms fell, with FactSet Research Systems Inc. dropping as much as 10%, and the Nasdaq, Moody’s Corp, and SandP Global all saw significant declines.

Anthropic and competitor OpenAI have devoted a significant portion of the last year to creating artificial intelligence tools to expedite a broader range of professional tasks, from financial services to health care. OpenAI is in fundraising talks at a valuation of up to $830 billion, while Anthropic is currently negotiating a new round of funding at a $350 billion valuation.

Additionally, OpenAI released an update on Thursday for Codex, its AI coding agent, which can create complex games and applications and is designed to simplify the process of writing and debugging code.

The creator of ChatGPT emphasized that the product’s capabilities go beyond writing software to include a variety of other related documentation and presentation tasks, like assisting with slide decks and user data analysis. For its part, Anthropic has over 300,000 business clients who use its models to make their jobs easier.

Bitcoin Bounces Back: Traders Pile In After 50% Crash From All-Time High

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Bitcoin whipsawed during a volatile trading session amid a huge selloff that saw it drop more than 50% from its October peak.

Bitcoin swung down fast after a quick climb to $90K.

The original cryptocurrency fell as much as 4.8 percent to a new low of $60,033 on Friday morning. After that, it recovered to $66,721, up about 5.8% for the session.

Other tokens experienced a steep decline before rising again. Solana experienced a 14 percent decline at one point, but a few hours later, those losses were completely erased.

Cryptocurrencies have been in a precarious position ever since a harsh round of liquidations in October undermined market confidence.

The selling gained momentum this week because of the winding down of leveraged bets and general market volatility. Thursday saw the biggest one-day decline in Bitcoin since November, falling more than 13%. Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX failed in 2022.

“Bitcoin volatility has doubled from last week,” said Pratik Kala, head of research at Apollo Crypto, a digital-assets hedge fund. The Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility Index, which is based on real-time cryptocurrency options prices and is intended to reflect the market’s expected 30-day volatility of Bitcoin, jumped to over 97 percent on Thursday from 57 percent. “

Chinese Trader’s Epic Pivot: $3 Billion Gold Haul Followed by Massive Silver Short Position

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

A billionaire Chinese trader who made his fortune riding the record-breaking gold rally has turned his attention to silver’s explosive rise with a wager on the metal’s collapse valued at nearly $300 million.

 

Bian Ximing, who stays out of the spotlight and spends most of his time in Gibraltar, has profited from bullish wagers on gold contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange to about $3 billion

Bian has been forced to liquidate some positions at a loss due to the high risk associated with his big short.

However, he currently has a short position worth roughly 450 tons of silver, or 30,000 contracts; since last week, the metal has dropped sharply, resulting in a paper gain of roughly 2 billion yuan ($288 million).

Bian, via Zhongcai Futures, his brokerage. started increasing silver shorts in the last week of January, according to data from the exchange. Most of SHFE’s precious metals holdings, according to the people, are made up of Bian’s personal wagers and products he oversees for a select group of clients.

SHFE does not reveal the identities of individual investors behind brokerage accounts. Zhongcai’s silver short position increased to roughly 18,000 lots in January, according to exchange data. 28. In January, it increased even more to roughly 28,000 lots. 30 when Shanghai’s metal hit its highest point ever.

Bian’s wager coincides with weeks of sharp price fluctuations that make market observers reconsider their one-size-fits-all strategy for precious metals.

While many institutional investors still see gold as a hedge against changes in interest rates, central bank purchases, and worldwide unpredictability, silver’s recent surge is increasingly perceived as an industrial rally driven primarily by speculative positioning.