Here’s what you need to know today

• Unsurprisingly, the headlines of every major news outlet were focused on the Trump victory in the US election. From an investing and markets perspective, some of the key things to know:

  • The S&P 500 stock market index was up 3%, as investors bet that Trump’s regulation-cutting, tax-lowering agenda would be good for companies.

  • Tesla stock jumped 15%, buoyed by Elon’s close relationship with Trump. The fact that Trump and JD Vance hate electric vehicle subsidies (and JD Vance proposed taking subsidies away from EVs and giving them to ICEs) didn’t seem to weigh on the stock.

  • Bitcoin jumped 7% and broke all-time highs as Trump promised to make America “the crypto capital of the world” if he won.

  • The US dollar rose as currencies of America’s major trading partners fell (Euro, Yen, Mexican Peso and Chinese Renminbi). The Euro had its biggest daily fall against the US dollar in more than 4 years.

  • Bonds were sold off and yields rose as investors feared Trump’s tariff and immigration policies would be inflationary and would force interest rates higher.
    
    

• Chemist Warehouse will be listing on the ASX after the Australian competition regulator approved the pharmacy giant’s merger with Sigma Healthcare. Together, the company will be an $8.8 billion pharmaceutical chain with almost 1,000 retail locations and 16 distribution centres across Australia and New Zealand. Sigma’s share price jumped 25% on the news. (ABC)
  
  

• The Mineral Resources fall out continues. With Chris Ellison announcing plans to step down as CEO in 12-18 months, the directors of MinRes are now in the hot seat. ASIC has announced an investigation (AFR) and Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, has asked the company for more information on Ellison’s conduct. (AFR)
  
  

• Danish weight loss giant Novo Nordisk have shared details about their new, stronger version of Ozempic: CagriSema. In early stage trials CagriSema patients lost an average of 15.6% of their body weight in 32 weeks. For comparison, Ozempic and Wegovy averaged 15% after 68 weeks in clinical trials. (Quartz)
  
  

• Germany’s three-party coalition government collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz sacked his coalition partner and finance minister Christian Lindner. Lindner’s Free Democrats party has been demanding sweeping tax, climate and social policy changes that the other two coalition parties opposed. Germany will now head to the polls in March for a snap election. (NY Times)
  
  

• Germany isn’t the only European nation to call a snap election. Ireland’s prime minister Simon Harris called a snap election for 29 November as the main opposition party Sinn Fein manages a number of internal crises and Ireland enjoys a tax windfall that has the government’s coffers overflowing. (Financial Times)

What the…?

Colorado and Washington were the first two US states to legalise recreational marijuana in 2012. You would assume marijuana use exploded since then. Which is why this recent data surprised us.

In 2011, 23% of US teenagers reported smoking weed. A decade later, in 2021, that is down to 16%. The step down is particularly noticeable in young boys. Young girls dropped from 20% in 2011 to 18% in 2021. Meanwhile, young boys dropped from 26% to 14% in the same time period. (Quartz)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Ireland’s government has an unusual problem: too much money

This is a novel problem. In an era of government’s running budget deficits and seeing national debt balloon, Ireland has the opposite problem - too much money.

For a while Ireland has been known as a bit of a tax haven with a 12.5% corporate tax rate. Even after succumbing to pressure and raising their corporate tax rate to a global minimum of 15%, Ireland is still seen as a favourable tax jurisdiction. But that has been the foundation of its tax windfall.

In 2015 corporation-tax receipts were €7 billion. By last year they had reached €24 billion. When European authorities sued Apple for evading tax in Ireland, Ireland actually intervened in court on the side of Apple. But European authorities won and the courts awarded Ireland another €13 billion.

Ireland is bringing in so much corporate tax revenue that it has announced plans to create ‘Norway-style’ sovereign wealth fund which the government hopes will be worth €100 billion by 2040.

They say mo’ money, mo’ problems, but too be honest, it’s a problem we’d love to have.

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