Highlights for the morning: gold hits record, bitcoin below $90,000, OpenAI launches ads

Spot gold prices are up more than $100 in a day, with platinum also at an all-time high. Bitcoin fell in price, letting go below the $90,000 mark. OpenAI started testing advertising in ChatGPT, abandoning the purely subscription model. About these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of January 21.

The spot price of gold jumped more than $100 per day and set a record by crossing the $4800 per ounce mark. In the morning trading, the precious metal continued to grow, rising by 2% and exceeding $4880. Platinum also updated its historical maximum, silver is trading near it.

Precious metals are becoming more expensive amid the escalation of the crisis around Greenland and the sell-off of Japanese government bonds, Bloomberg writes. The harsh rhetoric of US President Donald Trump, including threats of new duties against European countries, strengthened demand for protective assets and weakened the dollar. An additional driver was anxiety about the stability of public finances: problems in the debt market in Japan spurred a move away from currencies and bonds. Gold is also supported by central bank purchases: Poland approved the purchase of another 150 tons, Bolivia resumed purchases.

Goldman Sachs allows gold prices to rise to $4900 per ounce. And ICBC Standard Bank senior strategist Julia Du predicts that they will reach $7150, reports CNBC.

The price of bitcoin fell to its lowest in more than a week, going below $90,000 for the first time since January 9 amid a large-scale sell-off of risky assets, Bloomberg writes. Geopolitical tensions, falling stocks and bonds, including U.S. and Japanese government bonds, added to the pressure. Ether and Solana lost 7% and more than 5%, respectively, and shares of cryptocurrency companies also sagged.

Netflix reported better than expected: revenue for the fourth quarter amounted to $12.05 billion, earnings per share - $0.56, the number of subscribers exceeded 325 million, reports Yahoo Finance. For the full year, revenue increased 16% to $45.2 billion. In 2026, the company expects this figure to reach $50.7-51.7 billion.

Meanwhile, Netflix will accelerate investments in its own content and temporarily halt share buybacks due to its pending purchase of Warner Bros. assets. Discovery for $72 billion in cash. This, as well as slower growth rates spooked investors - the stock fell more than 5% after the report, the publication notes. The company has no plans to raise prices, and has also promised that Warner Bros. movies will retain a 45-day rental period before streaming.

OpenAI has launched a test ad placement on ChatGPT for a limited number of advertisers, The Information reports. It's a pilot for a few weeks with budgets of less than $1 million per participant. Ads will be sold on a pay-per-view model rather than pay-per-click.

This is the company's first major shift away from a subscription-only model. The move reflects the need to increase revenue amid high data center costs and preparations for the expected IPO, the publication points out. There is no full-fledged self-service ad-buying platform yet, but OpenAI is working on launching one.

France's L'Oréal will create a beauty-tech hub in Hyderabad in southern India, investing more than 35 billion rupees (about $380 million), Reuters reports. The center will become a global base for AI developments in the beauty industry, accelerate technology adoption and create about 2,000 jobs by 2030.

The agreement was formalized at the World Economic Forum in Davos together with the authorities of Telangana state, which is fast becoming a major technology and investment center. The project also reflects the strengthening of economic ties between France and India amid growing bilateral trade and the convergence of the two countries, the agency said.

South Korean President Lee Jae-men said that possible U.S. duties on semiconductor imports of up to 100% will primarily lead to higher prices within the United States itself, Reuters writes. According to him, South Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers control 80-90% of the market, so the costs will almost inevitably be passed on to U.S. consumers. The president also noted that Seoul is protected by a trade agreement with the United States, and the country's exports in 2025 reached a record $709.4 billion thanks to growth in chip shipments.

- Japan's broad Topix index fell 1.1 percent, while the Nikkei 225 declined 0.5 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was little changed, while mainland China's CSI 300 index rose 0.6 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was little changed, while the Kosdaq collapsed 2.9%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.4 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor