Many are still trying to size up monetary policy for 2022 as the market heads into February. What we know so far is the central bank will begin hiking interest rates in March, assuming that the "conditions are appropriate for doing so," but it's anyone's guess how aggressive the Fed will be after that as it tries to snuff out the strongest pace of inflation in decades.

The gaming frenzy is not showing any signs of slowing down as Sony announced a $3.6B acquisition for privately held video game developer Bungie. The latter is the beloved maker of multiplayer shooter games like Destiny and Halo, and was bought by Microsoft in 2000 (to develop games for its Xbox console) before splitting off in 2007. The company will continue to operate independently after the deal closes, and will be run by its board and the current management team.

ExxonMobil registered its highest quarterly profit since 2014 as rising oil and gas prices boosted the American oil supermajor’s earnings. The Texas-based company’s $8.9bn fourth-quarter profit easily beat Wall Street’s expectations.  Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. The company said it was using the influx of cash to launch a $10bn share buyback program, and that it had paid back much of the debt it took on during the 2020 market downturn.