DeepSeek’s unveiling wiped out $1trn from US stocks
A new Chinese AI chatbot called DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the tech industry on Monday, causing US tech stocks to plummet. The impact was so significant that some investors compared it to the “Sputnik moment” – when the Soviet Union surprised America by launching the first satellite into space.
What made investors nervous was that DeepSeek appears to work just as well as ChatGPT, but needs less computing power to run. This raised concerns about whether US companies like OpenAI really have the lead in AI technology that many thought they did.
The stock market reaction was dramatic. The Nasdaq, which includes many major tech companies, dropped by 3.1%. At its lowest point during the day, this drop erased more than $1 trillion from the index’s previous value of $32.5 trillion.
Some of America’s biggest tech companies took major hits. Nvidia, which makes the computer chips used in AI systems, suffered the biggest one-day stock market loss in US history. Its stock fell by 17%, wiping out nearly $600 billion of its value.
Trump said Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok
President Trump revealed on Monday that Microsoft wants to buy TikTok, and he’s hoping other companies will join in with competing offers.
TikTok, which is hugely popular with about 170 million Americans, faced a crisis on January 19 when it briefly went dark. This happened just as a new law kicked in that said TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance must either sell the app or face being banned in the US, due to national security concerns.
When Trump took office the next day, on January 20, he bought some time by signing an order that delayed enforcing this law by 75 days. Last week, he shared that he’s been talking with several potential buyers about TikTok’s future and expects to decide within 30 days.
Trump has also mentioned that he’d be happy to see Elon Musk buy TikTok if the Tesla billionaire were interested. So far, though, Musk hasn’t said anything publicly about this suggestion.
The US dollar is climbing as Trump puts tariff threats back on the agenda
The US dollar gained strength against all major world currencies on Tuesday after new comments about trade tariffs from President Trump and Scott Bessent made investors want more dollars.
Early Tuesday morning in Asia, currencies from Australia and New Zealand dropped by 0.5% compared to the dollar. This happened after the Financial Times reported that Trump’s Treasury Secretary wants to slowly add tariffs on everything the US buys from other countries, starting at 2.5%.
Trump also announced he’ll put tariffs on steel, aluminium, copper, and soon on computer chips from other countries. Meanwhile, China’s currency that trades outside mainland China (called the offshore yuan) fell by 0.3%.
Read Also: Five banks clear USSD debt as deadline elapses
Dangote refinery is expecting 12million barrels of US crude
The Africa Report reported on Monday that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is waiting for 12 million barrels of oil from the United States, which should arrive in February.
Why is Nigeria’s biggest refinery buying oil from abroad? The problem is that Nigeria’s state oil company (NNPC) can’t supply enough local crude oil to keep the refinery running at full speed. This is causing problems for Dangote’s plan to reach its full capacity of refining 650,000 barrels of oil daily by June this year.
The refinery, located in Lekki, Nigeria, turned to foreign oil after realising it couldn’t get enough supply from within Nigeria to keep production going at the levels it wanted.
NCC and telcos are refusing to extend the deadline for banks owing USSD debts
The Nigerian Communications Commission and telcos are reportedly standing firm: banks must pay their overdue Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) fees by Monday’s deadline, with no extra time allowed.
The situation started with nine banks owing money, but by Friday that number dropped to seven as some banks began paying. According to the Punch, the telcos said that only two of these banks had actually paid up. By Monday, one more bank said it would pay, leaving six banks still needing to settle their debts.
This all started on January 15, 2025, when Nigeria’s telecom regulator warned nine banks they had until January 27, 2025, to pay up. If they don’t pay, they’ll lose access to their USSD codes – the service that lets millions of Nigerians do their banking without needing internet access.
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