Citi Launches Funds Offering Access to Private-Market Asset Classes

Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is garnering retail attention after Blackstone Inc. (BX) reportedly mulls more financial commitment to its Michigan data center project.

According to a report from Bloomberg that cited people familiar with the matter, Blackstone is considering a debt investment to boost the project.

The world’s largest alternative asset manager has already been in talks with Oracle to provide equity capital for the project, as per the report. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is at the forefront of the debt raise, targeting $14 billion for the project as an initial goal.

Shares of ORCL gained 0.12% at the time of writing.

Lender Concerns

Oracle’s shares have declined in recent months, while the cost of insuring its debt against default has jumped, according to the Bloomberg report. This has prompted some prospective investors to question whether the project’s original terms remain viable amid market volatility, the people reportedly told Bloomberg.

Oracle shares have declined nearly 30% in the past six months.

However, representatives for Oracle, Bank of America and Related Digital confirmed to Bloomberg that financing for the project has been progressing as planned.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Bank of America said the lender is leading the financing discussions for the project with other banks and investors, with progress towards closing on schedule.

Project In Michigan

In October 2025, Oracle, OpenAI, Related Digital, and DTE Energy announced a hyperscale data center in Saline Township, Michigan, to bolster AI infrastructure in the U.S.

The deal, part of the Stargate Project, outlined a 575-acre site south of Ann Arbor, with a 1.4-gigawatt campus, including three large data-center buildings and was slated to break ground in early 2026.

The Stargate Project is a U.S.-focused AI infrastructure venture with a planned commitment of $500 billion over four years for OpenAI, led by SoftBank and OpenAI with Oracle and MGX as partners.

However, the data center in Michigan has drawn widespread regulatory and public scrutiny over energy and environmental concerns, as well as local zoning overrides. In December, Oracle confirmed that long-term financing partner Blue Owl Capital Inc., which has financed some of its other AI infrastructure projects, would not be contributing equity to the Michigan data center.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around ORCL shares remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past day amid ‘extremely high’ message volumes.

One bullish user said Blackstone, Softbank, and OpenAI are partners with very deep pockets. The user said ORCL shares would go over $200.

https://stocktwits.com/KnuckleSandwich/message/643167561

Shares of ORCL have gained nearly 7% in the past year.

Also Read: Seagate Shares Rallied 19% Today — How Much More Upside Does The Street See?

Press release Regulated information 

Brussels, January 28, 2026, 17:45 CET 

In line with Belgian transparency legislation (Law of May 2, 2007), Citigroup Inc. recently sent to Solvay the following transparency notifications indicating that they crossed the threshold of 3%.

Here is a summary of the notifications: 

The latest notification, dated January 27, 2026, contains the following information: 

• Reason for the notification:
  • Acquisition or disposal of voting securities or voting rights 
  • Downward crossing of the lowest threshold 
• Notified by:A parent undertaking or a controlling person 
• Date on which the threshold is crossed:January 22, 2026 
• Threshold of direct voting rights crossed:3% downwards 
• Denominator:105,876,416
• Persons subject to the notification requirement:Citigroup Inc., 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware 19801, USA 

Transparency notifications and the full chain of controlled undertakings through which the holding is effectively held are available on the Investor Relations Section of Solvay's website. 

Contacts 

Investor relations 

Geoffroy d’Oultremont: +32 478 88 32 96 

Vincent Toussaint: +33 6 74 87 85 65 

Charlotte Vandevenne: +32 471 68 01 66 

investor.relations@solvay.com 

Media relations 

Peter Boelaert: +32 479 30 91 59 

Laetitia Van Minnenbruggen: +32 484 65 30 47 

media.relations@solvay.com 

About Solvay

Solvay, a pioneering chemical company with a legacy rooted in founder Ernest Solvay's pivotal innovations in the soda ash process, is dedicated to delivering essential solutions globally through its workforce of circa 9,000 employees. Since 1863, Solvay harnesses the power of chemistry to create innovative, sustainable solutions that answer the world’s most essential needs such as purifying the air we breathe and the water we drink, preserving our food supplies, protecting our health and well-being, creating eco-friendly clothing, making the tires of our cars more sustainable and cleaning and protecting our homes. Solvay’s unwavering commitment drives the transition to a carbon-neutral future by 2050, underscoring its dedication to sustainability and a fair and just transition. As a world-leading company with €4.7 billion in net sales in 2024, Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels and Paris (SOLB). For more information about Solvay, please visit solvay.com or follow Solvay on Linkedin.

Ce communiqué de presse est également disponible en français. 

Dit persbericht is ook in het Nederlands beschikbaar. 

Attachments

• 20260119 - Notification Citi
• 20260122 - Notification Citi
• Press release

By Candice Choi

A former Citigroup executive sued the bank Monday, alleging one of its top executives sexually harassed her and that its human resources department was "weaponized" against her in the aftermath.

The suit was filed in Manhattan federal court by Julia Carreon, who worked in Citi's wealth management division until 2024. It alleges Andy Sieg, Citi's head of wealth, publicly displayed sexually charged conduct toward her and failed to refute rumors that they were having an inappropriate relationship.

In a statement, a Citi spokesman said the lawsuit "has absolutely no merit and we will demonstrate that through the legal process."

Carreon in the lawsuit accuses Citi of fostering a decadeslong culture of sexual harassment that reduced her to being perceived as a sex object. Citi Chief Executive Jane Fraser is one of the finance world's few female CEOs.

Sieg was poached by Citi in 2023 to revive its wealth-management business and saw his remit expanded late last year. Carreon said in her lawsuit she was hired in 2021 to transform the wealth management unit's digital experience but was harassed when she succeeded at her job because she ruffled the feathers of male colleagues.

Carreon alleges in her lawsuit that she was sidelined for her initial two years of employment, but was encouraged after Sieg joined and she was named Citi's global head of platform and experiences.

Carreon alleges in the lawsuit that Sieg called and texted her multiple times a week including at night, insinuated in front of others that the two were intimate and had her sit near him in meetings, despite her not being his direct report. She alleges other employees falsely assumed that she was promoted for having an affair with Sieg, who she says didn't refute the suspicions.

The suit says Carreon became aware she was the subject of a human resources investigation in 2024 for two separate allegations — that she was a bully and that she had gotten ahead because of her special access to Sieg.

Regarding the latter allegation, Carreon said in the lawsuit that HR representatives appeared to pose questions as predetermined conclusions when they interviewed her.

In an interview Monday, she said it became clear to her that they "intended to bury me and this is just not something they do to men."

Write to Candice Choi at candice.choi@wsj.com

By Philip van Doorn

A combination of high and improving returns on equity and low or declining price/earnings ratios make the case for several major industry players

These are among the large U.S. banks that have shown a combination of high returns on tangible common equity and have low forward price/earnings ratios.

Bank earnings season isn't over, but it is not too early to point out that some of the big banks stand out with a combination of high or improving returns on equity and low or declining price/earnings valuations.

Let's begin by looking at how returns on tangible common equity and forward P/E ratios for the largest 15 U.S. banks by total assets have changed over the past year.

A bank's ROTCE is its return on equity, excluding preferred stock and intangibles such as goodwill, loan-servicing rights and deferred tax assets.

All of these banks have reported their fourth-quarter results except for American Express (AXP), for which we are showing ROTCE for the first three quarters of 2025 and total assets as of Sept. 30. American Express will announce its fourth-quarter earnings on Friday.

All ROTCE figures were calculated by FactSet, except for some that cannot be calculated by the data provider until full 2025 financial statements are presented within the banks' annual reports. Therefore, for Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Capital One (COF) and Charles Schwab (SCHW), we have used the banks' own reported ROTCE figures.

Bank of New York Mellon's return on equity has always been outstanding, and certainly underappreciated.Macrae Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli

To the right of the ROTCE columns are a comparison of current forward P/E ratios to those from a year ago. These are stock prices divided by consensus earnings-per-share estimates among analysts working for brokerage and research firms polled by FactSet.

You may need to scroll the table or flip your screen to landscape to see all of the data:

   Bank                                  2025 ROTCE  2024 ROTCE  Forward P/E  Forward P/E one year ago  Total assets ($bil) 
   JPMorgan Chase & Co.                       20.0%       22.1%         13.9                      14.2               $4,425 
   Bank of America Corp.                      14.1%       12.9%         11.8                      12.4               $3,410 
   Citigroup Inc.                              7.7%        6.9%         10.9                      10.8               $2,657 
   Wells Fargo & Co.                          14.8%       13.5%         12.3                      13.0               $2,149 
   Goldman Sachs Group Inc.                   16.0%       13.5%         15.7                      13.7               $1,810 
   Morgan Stanley                             21.6%       18.5%         15.9                      15.9               $1,420 
   U.S. Bancorp                               19.4%       16.8%         11.0                      11.1                 $692 
   Capital One Financial Corp.                 3.2%       10.1%         10.4                      12.9                 $662 
   PNC Financial Services Group Inc.          15.1%       15.3%         12.0                      12.8                 $574 
   Truist Financial Corp.                     12.3%       -1.1%         10.9                      11.5                 $548 
   Bank of New York Mellon Corp.              30.5%       23.6%         14.0                      12.2                 $472 
   Charles Schwab Corp.                       38.0%       35.3%         17.3                      19.3                 $491 
   State Street Corp.                         18.8%       18.7%         10.7                      10.0                 $366 
   American Express Co.                       35.4%       39.9%         20.5                      21.2                 $298 
   Fifth Third Bancorp                        17.3%       17.6%         14.1                      11.9                 $214 
                                                                                                            Source: FactSet 

Here are some notes about the data, highlighting combinations of attractive or improving ROTCE along with low or declining P/E:

• Schwab stands out with the highest 2025 ROTCE, at 38%, and with a forward P/E of 17.3, which is second-highest on the list but well below its level of 19.3 a year ago.
• American Express's ROTCE for the first three quarters of 2025 was down from the 2024 ROTCE but was still the second-highest on the list. This is the most expensive bank stock on the list by forward P/E, but that valuation is down from its year-earlier level, even though the share price has increased by 11%, excluding dividends.
• Bank of New York Mellon's BK 2025 ROTCE was vastly improved from 2024, and when the bank announced its fourth-quarter results, it raised its medium-term ROTCE target to 28% from 23%. When asked during the bank's conference call with analysts on Jan. 13 whether that might be a conservative target, since the 2025 ROTCE was higher than the new target, Bank of New York Mellon Chief Financial Officer Dermot McDonogh said, "Maybe think of that as a floor to our ambition," according to a transcript provided by FactSet.
• Like Bank of New York Mellon, State Street STT is focused on custody services and asset management. State Street's 2025 ROTCE was lower than that of its rival trust bank; however, it was up slightly from a year earlier. Meanwhile, State Street's forward P/E is second-lowest among these 15 banks. Only Capital One's stock is cheaper on this basis, and Capital One's ROTCE over the past two years has been much lower than that of State Street. During 2025, Capital One incurred one-time expenses related to its May acquisition of Discover, including a boost to loan-loss reserves and booking losses on the sale of mortgage loans.
• Morgan Stanley's ROTCE improved to 21.6% in 2025 from 18.5% in 2024. Its current forward P/E of 15.9 is unchanged from a year ago, even though the share price (excluding dividends) has increased 30%.
• U.S. Bancorp's USB 2025 ROTCE improved to 19.4% from 16.8% in 2024. Its current forward P/E is 11, down slightly from a year ago and fourth-lowest on the list.

When asked about the trust banks (Bank of New York Mellon and State Street), Macrae Sykes, a portfolio manager at Gabelli, told MarketWatch that he had "always appreciated their businesses," which feature "pretty stable fees and straightforward operations."

Sykes holds both of those stocks as portfolio manager of the Gabelli Financial Services Opportunities exchange-traded fund GABF, which has a five-star rating (the highest) within Morningstar's U.S. Fund, Financial category. Among the 15 banks listed above, Sykes also holds American Express, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Morgan Stanley and Schwab within the GABF portfolio.

Under the leadership of Robin Vince, who became Bank of New York Mellon's chief executive in August 2022, "execution has been stronger," Sykes said. He added that market volatility has been a benefit for the various custody, trading and back-office work the institution does for corporate clients in the brokerage and asset-management industries.

"Bank of New York Mellon's return on equity has always been outstanding, and certainly underappreciated," he said. Sykes also pointed to this statement from Vince during the Jan. 13 call, which was confirmed per the FactSet transcript: "Over the last two years, the number of clients buying three or more of our services increased by more than 60%."

When discussing State Street, Sykes said the bank had reported eight straight quarters of improving operating leverage (fixed costs to variable costs) and that it had been making good progress reducing expenses, while service fees had "grown by double digits." He specifically pointed to the SPDR suite of exchange-traded funds managed by State Street as "a nice area of growth."

Amid the "wave of innovation for tokenization, digital assets, crypto and stablecoins," Sykes said, both Bank of New York Mellon and State Street had been "developing platforms quickly to service the new space."

When discussing the trust banks' valuations, he said that "historically, they have traded between 10 and 13 times earnings," and that Bank of New York Mellon "has certainly seen the multiple expand" to the current forward P/E of 14.

"We have had a pretty strong run-up in the markets and good operating leverage, so it can be more challenging going forward," he said.

But even if the valuations aren't particularly attractive now, banks are operating under an easing regulatory environment, and the trust banks have continued with what Sykes called "very healthy capital return" in the form of dividend increases and stock buybacks.

So with high ROTCE and buybacks to lower share counts and boost earnings per share, along with dividend increases, long-term investors may still be looking at excellent opportunities with the trust banks and others among the players with attractive ROTCE.

Let's end with a chart. This shows the weighted forward P/E of the Invesco KBW Bank ETF KBWB, which tracks the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index BKX of 24 of the largest U.S. banks, relative to that of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, which tracks the S&P 500 SPX, since the end of 2011:

Large U.S. banks as a group are trading relatively low against the S&P 500 on a weighted forward P/E basis.

Over the past 15 years, the big U.S. banks as a group have traded on average at 67% the S&P 500's weighted forward P/E. Now they are slightly more discounted, at a 56% relative valuation.

Don't miss: This momentum fund has dodged U.S. stocks and trounced the competition

-Philip van Doorn

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Blackstone, Inc. (BX) and Arlington Industries, Inc. announced Monday that funds managed by Blackstone Energy Transition Partners have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Arlington, a leading designer and manufacturer of electrical products in the U.S. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1949, Arlington designs and manufactures a range of electrical products such as fittings, enclosures and other components.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to customary conditions.

Arlington represents the latest in a number of recent transactions Blackstone Energy Transition Partners has announced behind its high-conviction investment themes in electrification and the ongoing energy transition. This includes Alliance Technical Group, Maclean Power Systems, Wolf Summit Energy, Hill Top Energy Center, Shermco, Enverus, Lancium, Westwood, and others.

In Monday's pre-market trading, BX is trading on the NYSE at $149.77, up $0.68 or 0.46 percent.

Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved

Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

By Alex Kozul-Wright

Precious metals have shone through the gloom as market clouds gather amid global trade tensions. But investors joining the hunt for havens would do well to understand the fundamental trading differences between the leading lights of this flight to safety — gold and copper.

The two metals have been on a tear since the start of 2026, hitting fresh record highs in January. But they each respond to distinct financial cues, making their shared rally less coincidence than warning that the market is sending mixed signals about inflation, growth, and financial stability.

What Makes Gold Shine

Unlike copper, the physical demand and supply for gold aren't its key price drivers. Instead, investment demand — in the form of gold bars, coins, and ETFs — play a much bigger role.

According to the World Gold Council, investment accounted for 41% of final demand for the yellow metal in the third quarter of 2025. Jewelry came in second, at 28%.

And while gold does have several industrial applications (such as in circuit boards), they account for just 6% of final demand. The opposite is true for copper, for which industrial applications make up almost 100% of its end use.

Copper as a Bellwether

More than two thirds of copper's annual supply is used in construction — in plumbing and wiring — and manufacturing equipment-used in energy transmission cables, electric motors, and micro chips.

More recently, the buildout of artificial-intelligence data centers has amounted to 7% of global demand (or 1.7 million tons). Its widespread use in manufacturing has prompted some traders to view copper as a bellwether for global economic activity.

In reality, copper's price is best understood as a proxy for Chinese economic activity, given the country's longstanding industrial expansion. China remains by far the world's largest consumer of copper — at roughly 60% last year.

Diverging Fortunes?

The factors underpinning gold's historic performance look set to persist. Earlier this month, analysts at Citigroup recently estimated that gold could reach $5,000 an ounce within three months.

That watermark has come faster than many anticipated. Continuous gold futures were trading at $5,089 in early trading Monday, having already climbed 17.5% since the start of January.

For copper, underlying price drivers may be moving in the other direction. Goldman Sachs released a note in January stating it sees the LME copper price falling to $11,000 a ton by December 2026.

For now, copper futures are hovering at around $13,115 a ton.

Goldman noted that China's copper demand came in below expectations in the fourth quarter of 2025. In addition, high prices could also incentivize switching from copper to aluminum in the manufacture of various goods, including EV batteries.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on imports from several European countries unless the U.S. can acquire Greenland stoked worries that a resulting trade war could weigh on global growth — and consequently copper demand. Trump has since backtracked but fears remain.

Just remember, if you're in the market to diversify your portfolio into metals, make sure you know why you're buying — gold for resilience, copper for long-term growth. Whatever your motivation, the discipline to hold for the cycle ahead will be key as markets continue to be buffeted by geopolitical uncertainty.

Write to Alex Kozul-Wright at alexander.kozul-wright@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.