U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives a thumbs up as he departs Munich International Airport in Munich, southern Germany, on February 15, 2026, after attending the Munich Security Conference (MSC).
Alex Brandon | AFP | Getty Images
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered words of comfort to Europe at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
“We want Europe to be strong,” he said. “We believe that Europe must survive, because the two great wars of the last century serve as a great historical reminder that ultimately our destiny is and will always be intertwined with yours.”
This is in sharp contrast to last year’s Security Council meeting, in which US Vice President J.D. Vance criticized European democracy and said there was a division between the continent and the United States.
“Europe is retreating from some of its most fundamental values, the values it shares with the United States,” Vance said.
German Foreign Minister Johann Vardepoel told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that Rubio’s speech emphasized the importance of the U.S. and Europe working together again, and that both countries have worked together successfully in the past.
Elsewhere, Friday’s US consumer price index also provided some relief. Consumer inflation rose 2.4% year-on-year in January, below December’s 2.7% and back to levels after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs globally in April 2025. Core CPI was 2.5%, the lowest level since April 2021. Economists had expected 2.5% for both numbers.
“This will be welcome news for the market and for incoming Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh,” said Phil Brancato, chief market strategist at Ozaik. “This is only one month’s worth of data, but if this trend continues, it should pave the way for lower interest rates and lower inflation.”
But US markets on Friday took only tentative steps in either direction, and may still be wondering where to go amid uncertainty about how AI will impact businesses. All major indexes ended the week in the red. US markets will be closed on Monday for President’s Day.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Pia Singh and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
Japan’s economic expansion has been disappointing. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.1% in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, lower than the 0.4% expansion expected in a Reuters poll of economists. However, this is a reversal from the 0.7% contraction seen in the third quarter, meaning Japan’s economy has avoided a technological recession.
Cryptocurrency payments to suspected human trafficking syndicates will jump 85% in 2025, with hundreds of millions of transactions tracked on public blockchains, according to a report by Chainalysis. The blockchain analytics firm said most of the activity is related to the growing criminal ecosystem in Southeast Asia.
TikTok’s U.S. joint venture is expected to stabilize its user base. New numbers show that early stories of a mass exodus of users over concerns about outages and censorship now appear to have been exaggerated.
The S&P500 was almost flat, but Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.1% increase; Nasdaq Composite It fell 0.22% on Friday. Most Asia-Pacific markets were closed on Monday due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
(PRO) AI stocks’ risks are causing the U.S. dollar to lose its safe-haven status, said George Saraveros, global head of U.S. currency research. deutsche bank. Opportunities outside the US are also driving investors away from the US dollar.
And finally…
Markets brace for more AI noise and “fear trading”
AI disruption has disrupted global stock markets in recent weeks, putting every sector in the crosshairs of investors looking to bet on which industries will be upended by the inevitable wave of agent AI.
There will almost certainly be more moments like this this week, as some of the biggest names in AI will be on stage at the AI Impact Summit in India. Headliners include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Microsoft’s Brad Smith, Mistral AI co-founder Arthur Mensch, and Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang.
— Leonie Kidd
