Hi, I'm Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-host of Squawk Box, and this is five things to know before today's opening bell.

Japan's central bank raising its short-term interest rates to a three-decade high of 0.75% that helped lift the country's 10-year treasury yield past 2%.

And the Bank of Japan also signaling readiness to tighten further.

Meantime, data center deals hitting a record $61 billion in 2025. That's according to the

S&P global. European Union leaders agreeing to loan Ukraine more than $100 billion to help

the country defend itself from Russia for the next two years. But EU countries could not

agree on a plan to use frozen assets from Russia for the next two years. But EU countries could not agree on a plan to use

frozen assets from Russia to support Ukraine's defense. So that's still on the table. House Republican

leaders committed to vote in the new year on legislation to ban members of Congress from

owning or trading individual stocks. That's been on the table for quite some time. And the government on the way to potentially allowing sales of Nvidia's second most

powerful AI chip to China. Reuters reporting that the Commerce Department has sent licensed

applications for sales of Vivida's H-200 processor to the state energy and defense departments

for review.

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