☕️ Buckle up

Good morning.

Donald Trump’s encore presidency is upon us, and it promises to debut with a bang.

It’s not even Day 1 and the incoming president is already facing accusations he is exploiting his supporters’ enthusiasm for financial gain, after launching on Friday his own cryptocurrency: $TRUMP. The memecoin has already soared to a $58 billion ($93.54 billion) valuation, with 80% of tokens tied up in Trump-affiliated entities.

And Trump reportedly has lined up over 100 executive orders for Day 1 that leave almost no political corner untouched.

His inaugural Sharpie session is expected to include “saving” TikTok – his words – reviving the Keystone Pipeline, reimposing Title 42 at the southern border and rolling back offshore wind projects.

Unsurprisingly, given the $TRUMP coin launch, one can also expect the first crypto-friendly executive orders within the first days in power.

🏆 LOI Subscriber #TBD

Market movers

Lovisa shares surged on Friday after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating to 'overweight', flagging faster store expansion and naming the retailer a top small-cap pick.

The quick sync

• KeyInvest defends private credit as transparent and low-risk amid growing regulatory focus. (Capital Brief)

• Elita Genetics launches Australia’s first pet stem cell bank, tackling arthritis and disease prevention with $1.1m in funding. (Capital Brief)

• Star’s Macau mystery man Xingchun Wang is a coal magnate with a taste for luxury. (AFR)

• ASX under fire after a December outage left brokers scrambling, markets rattled and trust in the exchange hanging by a thread. (The Australian)

Trading floor

M&A

• Findi's $30m acquisition boosts its Indian unit ahead of a high-value IPO. (AFR)

• TikTok shut down in the US under a divestiture law; Perplexity AI proposes merging with TikTok US (Capital Brief)

• FTC warns Microsoft's OpenAI investment could cement dominance in AI and cloud, risking acquisitions and talent consolidation. (Bloomberg)

Capital Markets

• Qantas opens Brisbane engineering academy to meet demand for aircraft maintenance, training 200 engineers annually. (The Australian)

• Trump launches $TRUMP cryptocurrency, its value soars, reflecting his pro-crypto policy vision. (Capital Brief)

• GCQ Funds bets on Hermes and Richemont, banking on luxury's resilience in 2025. (AFR)

• TikTok assures Australian advertisers the US ban won't disrupt local operations or ad spending. (Capital Brief)

• Carlyle and Varde inject equity to aid Bis Industries' $150m refinancing, their third in three years. (AFR)

VC

• Mint Payments plans a $20m secondary round amid potential investor exits. (AFR)

People moves

• Nicola Willis takes on Economic Growth role in cabinet reshuffle to drive New Zealand’s economy in 2025. (Bloomberg)

• Andrew Lockhart defends private credit amid criticism, while Metrics revitalises Rockpool and expands its empire. (AFR)

The watercooler