Good morning. January is wrapping up, and February is right around the corner. So here’s your read for today—enjoy it as much as we enjoyed preparing it for you.

Today’s topics:

• The Federal Reserve is holding interest rates steady

• Jeddah Tower construction resumes, aiming higher

• Pine-based foam offers greener alternative

• Frontier attempts Spirit rescue with merger

• New York’s biggest solar farm underway

• Spotify CEO bets big on health scans

  and more…

Wall Street opened strong on Thursday, but its positive mood soured after Trump's threat of more tariffs. The Dow rose 168 points (0.4%), nearing a 300-point increase before leveling off. The S&P 500 experienced an important climb of precisely 0.5%, while the Nasdaq also saw a small upward movement of 0.3%. Traders expected exceptionally tranquil market conditions; however, Trump's shocking announcement of a potential 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico dramatically changed those expectations. Investor apprehension increased because trade wars are not generally conducive to market growth.

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Super Bowl Ads Hit $8 Million

Super Bowl ads are now selling for $8 million a pop. At least 10 brands paid up, because what’s a few million for 30 seconds of airtime? Fox sold out months ago at “record pricing,” with last-minute buyers driving costs up even more. Ad prices usually rise by $100K each year, but this time the increase was closer to $500K. Too many brands decided late in the game that they needed to be there.

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Fed keeps rates high, because inflation won’t chill. The Federal Reserve is holding interest rates steady as inflation refuses to back down. Gas and food prices, especially eggs, which jumped 37 percent in a year, are keeping wallets under pressure. The job market is still solid, with 256,000 new jobs added last month, mainly in restaurants and retail. That’s enough for the Fed to stay cautious about rate cuts. “We’re not in a hurry,” Fed chair Jerome Powell said, while borrowing costs for cars and credit cards remain high. The Fed’s benchmark rate stays between 4.25 and 4.5 percent, keeping everything expensive just a little longer.

OpenAI might get $25 billion from SoftBank. SoftBank wants to dump up to $25 billion into OpenAI, which would make it the startup’s biggest sugar daddy—yes, even bigger than Microsoft. The total AI spending could hit $40 billion, because apparently, there’s no such thing as too much money for chatbots. This comes after SoftBank and OpenAI already pledged $100 billion for a giant data center project, because running AI takes more power than a small country. Meanwhile, China’s DeepSeek just freaked out investors by building a cheaper AI model, briefly wiping $589 billion off Nvidia’s value. If this deal goes through, it’ll be SoftBank’s biggest bet since the WeWork disaster. Fingers crossed it ends better this time.

Frontier tries to rescue Spirit (again). Frontier Airlines is once again trying to merge with Spirit, the budget airline that flamed out and declared bankruptcy last year. The plan is to throw some fresh debt and stock at it and hope for the best. Last time, JetBlue outbid Frontier for Spirit, but the government shut that deal down, saying it would jack up prices. Spirit then spiraled into bankruptcy, losing over $2.5 billion since 2020. Meanwhile, bigger airlines stole its budget travelers with their own no-frills tickets. Now, Frontier thinks it can finally close the deal. 

New York’s Biggest Solar Farm

New York’s largest solar farm is officially happening, thanks to $950 million in funding. Greenbacker Renewable Energy is behind the 500-megawatt project, which broke ground last October and is set to go live in 2026. Called Cider, the farm will cover 2,500 acres in Genesee County and generate enough power for 120,000 homes. It’s one of 23 massive clean energy projects backed by the state as New York pushes to get 70 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030. New York is already 8th in the nation for solar power, but with projects like this, it’s expected to crack the top five in the next five years.

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Europe finally tries 3D-printed housing. Ireland just built Europe’s first 3D-printed concrete social housing, proving the continent is finally catching up to a tech the U.S. has already been playing with. The three homes in Dundalk were made by Harcourt Technologies, Roadstone, and Louth County Council using a giant Danish 3D printer. Each house has three bedrooms and covers 1,184 square feet—because even futuristic housing still follows the same old floor plans.

Petroleum out, pine in: a new way to make foam. Scientists found a way to make polyurethane foam—the stuff in sponges, cushions, and packaging—less terrible for the planet. A Washington State University team swapped out 20 percent of the usual petroleum-based chemicals with lignin from pine and still got a foam just as strong and flexible as the original. The global polyurethane market is worth over $75 billion, and most of it comes from fossil fuels that stick around for centuries. Recycling plastic is expensive and mostly pointless since it just creates a weaker product, so the world keeps making more of it. This new pine-based approach could help, assuming the industry actually cares.

Spotify CEO now selling health scans for £299 a pop. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek just turned body scanning into a £1.4 billion business. His startup, Neko Health, raised £211 million in fresh funding, making it his second billion-dollar company. For £299, people can get a one-hour full-body scan, checking everything from heart health to mole mapping. 100,000 people are already lining up to pay for it, proving that paranoia about future health is a solid business model.

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Saudi Arabia Still Wants the Tallest Building

Jeddah Tower is back from the dead. After years of delays, construction has officially restarted on what will be the world’s tallest building, set to finish in 2028. First announced in 2011, the tower was supposed to be a big deal, but progress stalled. Now, the plan is to make it at least 1,001 meters tall, beating Dubai’s Burj Khalifa by 173 meters. Because apparently, the tallest building is never tall enough.

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UK companies ditch the 5-day grind. Two hundred UK companies just made the four-day workweek permanent. Same pay, one less day of suffering. Over 5,000 workers now get 50% more weekend, because apparently, the 100-year-old five-day grind isn’t sacred after all.

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TikTok of the day: watch here