Based on rumors and reports from Axios, talks between the United States and Iran are expected to take place on Friday, with Iran set to submit its nuclear proposal. These discussions are occurring as Trump has set a 10 to 15 day deadline to reach an agreement, and his military deployments in the Middle East have been completed.

On the first trading day, markets turned risk averse amid uncertainty surrounding United States trade policy. US equity futures such as the S and P 500 and Nasdaq declined, and the dollar weakened against major currencies such as the yen and the euro. In contrast, gold and silver rose as safe haven assets, and Bitcoin fell by nearly 5 percent to below 65000 dollars. Asian markets, especially Hong Kong technology shares, performed positively on hopes of reduced tariff pressure on the region.

Retail spending in New Zealand grew beyond forecasts, signaling continued economic recovery at the end of 2025. According to Statistics New Zealand data, real sales increased by 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter, above economists’ estimate of 0.6 percent. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has stated that the interest rate cutting cycle has ended and that it currently has no plans to raise rates, a factor that could support consumption. Westpac economists say spending growth has been concentrated in discretionary goods and tourism, while labor market weakness remains a risk to the continuation of this trend.

Christopher Waller, a member of the Federal Reserve, addressed two conflicting signals in the US economy: strong economic growth and rising productivity on one hand, and an almost complete halt in new job creation on the other. He noted that zero employment growth in some periods is not sustainable and said that forecasting the labor market outlook depends heavily on February data. Waller described artificial intelligence as playing a key role in future labor market changes and said predicting which jobs will disappear is easier than predicting new ones. He also identified energy shortages as the biggest obstacle to AI development in the United States..