Here are five things you need to know this morning:
Inauguration Day in the USA: After weeks of anticipation, Donald J. Trump will officially be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States today. It’s hard to downplay the significance of the event for global markets, as the incoming president’s policy pronouncements have created a mix of shock and awe, depending on your perspective. U.S. markets will be closed today for the Martin Luther King holiday, but that hasn’t stopped the Trump-related market action from being fast and furious, with the crypto world blowing up over the weekend via the launch of two memecoins tied to the president and first lady. Expect trading in DJT, the NYSE-listed media company that bears his name and that he controls more than 50 per cent of, to be feverish when trading resumes tomorrow.
Loonie’s wild ride: The Canadian dollar is going to be very vulnerable as a Trump trade, as the loonie fell to its lowest level since 2020 early Monday morning, before rallying on a Wall Street Journal report that Trump plans to bring in tariffs slowly. It feels like a lot of bad news is already priced into the loonie, but volatility will be the name of the game regardless, and that is already showing up as a cost of doing business. It’s now the most expensive it’s been in eight years for traders to hedge against short term swings in the loonie’s price, according to Bloomberg data.
TikTok back on the clock: Sunday was the deadline for TikTok to shut itself down in the U.S., and much like a teenager trying to memorize and nail the choreography steps of the latest dance craze on the platform, the execution was comically inept. The app voluntarily shut itself down over the weekend, before quietly relaunching, crediting talks with Donald Trump for the about face. Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social over the weekend that he plans to announce an executive order as soon as this afternoon to allow the app to continue to operate despite a law upheld by the Supreme Court that it is a danger to national security due to its Chinese ownership.
Canadian banks pull out of climate pledge: Following the lead of U.S. lenders like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Citi and Bank of America, some of Canada’s biggest banks are pulling out of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a global initiative that saw financial firms pledge to get their financed emissions to net zero by 2050. CIBC, TD, BMO and National said Friday they are no longer members of the initiative, although they all say they are still committed to meeting climate-related targets. The defections are just the latest in a trend that began after the election of Donald Trump. Officially, more than 135 banks around the world are still members of the plan, but that number was closer to 150 only a few weeks ago.
Canada ends trade embargo on French poultry: Canada and the United States have lifted an embargo against French poultry products, according to the French agriculture ministry. The ban has been in place since October 2023, when France began to vaccinate its poultry against bird flu. The ministry says Canada has also lifted restrictions on exports of “French avian genetics” which the country exported 340 tons of in 2022, before the ban.
