Indeed, last Friday, the Dow Jones stood out by officially breaking through the symbolic 50,000-point mark for the very first time in its history. The world's oldest stock index surged by over 1,200 points during the final session of last week, closing at 50,115.67. By the end of February, the Dow Jones could notch a tenth consecutive month of gains. Such a streak has been seen only once in the past ten years, between April 2017 and January 2018.

US-Iran back in talks, FedEx in the spotlight

 On the geopolitical front, the United States announced on Friday new sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's oil exports. The decision is part of the Trump administration's maximum political pressure, intended to cripple revenue sources for the Tehran regime.

President Donald Trump "is committed to reducing illicit exports of oil and petrochemical products by the Iranian regime as part of the maximum pressure campaign led by his administration," State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
Yet Iran said on Friday it would continue its negotiations with the United States, following a round of talks in Oman held in a "positive atmosphere". The discussions were said to have focused on the nuclear file.

"We had very good discussions on Iran, Iran seems to really want to reach a deal," Donald Trump said separately to reporters. Both nations are due to continue their negotiations early in the week.

On the stockmarket, FedEx (-0.80%) is slipping after the global express transport specialist confirmed an agreement with a consortium on a fully cash tender offer project to buy InPost for €15.60 per share, implying a total valuation of €7.8bn.

Loews Corporation (+0.67%), the parent company notably of insurer CNA Financial and energy infrastructure group Boardwalk Pipelines, posted EPS that more than doubled (+125%) to $1.94 for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. Over the period, revenue totaled $4.73bn, versus $4.55bn a year earlier.

Eli Lilly (+0.16%) signed an agreement with Orna Therapeutics, a specialist in in vivo immune cell engineering, with a view to acquiring it. Under the terms of the deal, Orna shareholders could receive up to $2.4bn in cash, including an upfront payment as well as subsequent payments contingent on achieving certain clinical development milestones.

By contrast, telehealth company Hims & Hers Health (down nearly -23%) is plunging after the cancellation of the launch of a cheaper version of the anti-obesity pill Wegovy from its Danish rival Novo Nordisk.

On the data front, nothing of major importance is scheduled for this Monday. In the United States, investors will take note of December retail sales data (Tuesday), the monthly jobs report (Wednesday) and January consumer prices (Friday).

They will also be watching closely the release of annual results from Applied Materials, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Mcdonald's and Spotify.