Above the Fold
US and World Markets and Events - Mid Jan to Feb 2026
Epstein Files and Clintons to Sit for a Deposition
X Office Raided by Cybercrime Unit in Paris and Social Media Ban
Crypto and Bitcoin in Freefall *
Anthropic AI leads to a Global Tech Selloff of SAAS *
Reciprocal Tariffs between US and India *
Fed Chair Appointment * and Proposal to Nationalize Elections
First Social Network for AI (humans can observe)
NFL : Seahawks, 2025 MVP and HOF Snubs
Pictures from the Seahawks Museum in Seattle
To wrap up the week : Dow closes above 50,000 *
* Definitely to possibly, market moving
#epsteinfiles
The Who’s Who of the World’s Powerful, Rich and Famous - all across the globe and all across the political spectrum. Not market moving - but certainly Above the Fold. This story took up all of the oxygen in the room, as it deservedly should
Clintons Sit for a Deposition : Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton will sit for depositions conducted by the House Oversight Committee, later this month (on 2/27 and 2/26, respectively). This is pertaining to the Epstein scandal. This avoids a contempt of congress charge, and the depositions are set to be videotaped, transcribed, and made public
X Office Raided by Paris Cybercrime Units : Paris cybercrime unit raids X’s office, on charges of unlawful data extraction and child abuse images (source : BBC). The UK opens fresh investigation into Grok as well. Musk claims these are politically motivated, and they might very well be, two things can be true at the same time - these charges can also very well be legitimate
Spain Plans to Ban Social Media for Teenagers : Following Australia’s playbook, Spain plans to ban social media for children under sixteen
Bitcoin (BTC) in Free Fall : This is ugly. I have to go back a year almost to identify a potential support level, and we have no idea if that would hold
BTC is a legitimate asset class, and you can trade it purely off technical levels. It is mostly price speculation and not about a meaningful change in fundamentals (such as quarterly earnings reports and how price reacts to it)
Year to Date, Daily Plot
1 Year Out, from 2/4 (Support level around 80,000)
Crypto, 30 day performance (~ Year to Date, from Coin Market Cap)
From Investing.com
Anthropic AI Leads to SAAS Selloffs : Anthropic introduces Claude Opus 4.6 this week. It can automate workflows, analyze data and generate insights - all at a much lower cost than SAAS firms. SAAS firms do more than this, but with time, they’ll probably need to sell certain features with reduced margins. Market is forward looking, and it led to a global selloff of SAAS firms (WSJ)
Reciprocal Tariffs between India and the US : Back in December, we talked about the delicate triangle of diplomacy that India orchestrates between DC and Moscow. On Monday 2/2, India agreed to cease purchasing oil from Russia, and in return, DC agreed to reduce reciprocal tariffs from 25% to 18%, for products from India
Trump Appoints New Fed Chair : Trump appoints Kevin Warsh as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. Warsh served in the Federal board of Governors between 2006 and 2011, and is at Stanford Economics and Business schools currently. More recently, he indicated that the Fed should cut rates faster - which plays well with the White House’s stance on our monetary policy
Trump Calls for Nationalizing Elections : The Constitution grants the rights of counting votes to States. Trump floated the idea that he wants Federal government agents to count votes for about 15 locations in the country
Robot X : Moltbook - https://www.moltbook.com , is the first social network for just robots (AI agents). Its like X, but for AI, and humans are allowed to observe from the bleachers
NFL Pushes for Individual Majority Ownership : The Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots, in what is perhaps their biggest game in just over a decade (they lost their last SB to the Pats in 2014). The Hawks are valued at $ 6B as of now. They are owned by a trust, established by the late Paul Allen. The NFL does not want a trust owning their teams, they want an individual with at least a 30% majority ownership, someone they can personally call when decisions need to be made
This is as good a time as any, to potentially sell the Hawks, and news has it that the Seattle Seahawks are probably going to be sold soon. Another Lombardi tomorrow will only exert more upwards pressure on that valuation
NFL MVP 2025 and Hall of Fame : Matthew Stafford well deservedly won the NFL MVP for this year. But for a couple of plays, he would be in Santa Clara tomorrow, there are no margins left at this stage in the season. He brought all of his four daughters to the stage too (awwwww ! I cried happy tears). Patriots owner Robert Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick, both with multiple championships, did not get into the HOF the first time they were nominated
Photos from the Seahawks Museum : I used to live in Seattle, and these are pictures from the Seahawks museum, including the Lombardi that the Seahawks won by defeating the Denver Broncos in 2014. They lost the succeeding year to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, it was the last time the Hawks were in the Super Bowl. There really is no easy way to play the Seattle defense, and that defense in a lot of ways is similar to the one they have this time
Brady found a way to consistently take short-yard underneath plays with a snap to pass lag time of under 2.5 seconds. That’s three reads in less than 2.5 seconds, it really was the one way he could move the ball. Tom Brady can chess match an elite defense - can Drake Maye ? We’ll find out on Sunday won’t we
These are easily more than ten years old and taken on a much older phone, I never thought I would use these, but here we are
Seahawks start as -230 (Moneyline) and -4.5 (spread) favorites
And, Friday (2/6) at Close : Dow closes above 50,000
Be good to yourself, enjoy Benito, but if he not your cup of tea, just enjoy the last game of the season
On a personal note, I love gunslingers, I think Sam Darnold is going to sling his way to a glorious Lombardi tomorrow
— Deepak Sivaraman PhD (Axe), adeadcatbounce@gmail.com
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