Rise With Profit: Donald Trump Wins US Election, MSCI Rejig, Germany's Coalition Collapse | Podcast

This is the daily morning update from NDTV Profit. Here’s everything you need to know at the start of your day.

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The big story—Donald Trump has become the oldest President in US history. He won a second term at the age of 78. The campaign, it seemed, was hotly contested only till the final day. But the figures that emerged by the end of the day’s counting suggested that the Republican nominee would win by a comfortable margin. There were several key events in the run up to the win—not least of which were Trump’s legal troubles and the two assassination attempts that he survived.

In winning the race, Trump defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, blocking her bid to become the first woman President.

For her part, US Vice President Kamala Harris, in her concession speech yesterday, vowed to keep fighting for the ideals that powered her presidential campaign. She acknowledged President-elect Donald Trump's win while warning of potential dark times to come.

US stocks hit all-time highs and bond yields climbed sharply. The dollar, meanwhile, reported its best day since 2020. All of that is because of what is expected to come from Trump taking charge. The S&P 500 climbed 2%, and hit its 48th record this year.

Commodities declined yesterday on expectations that a stronger dollar under Trump and the possibility of trade disputes could reduce the demand for raw materials in global markets. As of this morning, Brent crude was trading just above $75 to the barrel.

Speaking of trade disputes, China has expressed respect for the US election result and congratulated Donald Trump on his victory while an official newspaper called for a "pragmatic" approach to China-US relations to handle their differences properly. That’s a Reuters report.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted in a statement as saying that China respects the choice of the American people and congratulates Donald Trump on his election as president.

Back home, you saw equity markets rally yesterday even as the votes were being counted in the US.

Today, expect stocks to react to earnings and certain other triggers. For one, there’s the rejig of the indices of MSCI in the month of November, which has resulted in the addition of five stocks to the standard index and three to the large cap index.

In earnings, Tata Steel swung back into the black with a net profit of Rs 759 crore in the quarter ended Sept. 30, beating analyst expectations. In the year-ago period, Tata Steel had posted a net loss of Rs 6,511 crore on account of a Rs 3,255-crore provision of impairment of non-current assets. Revenue grew 3% to over 53,900 crore.

The company’s lower revenue growth was offset by an improvement in Ebitda and margins, 1.3% lower cost of materials consumed and 11% lower other expenses on an annual basis.

In the same space, Jindal Steel & Power's consolidated net profit fell 38% in the September quarter, but was ahead of estimates. The company’s revenue fell about 8.5%, but margins improved by 90 basis points to 19.6%.

Updates from the primary market—The initial public offering of Swiggy has been subscribed 0.12 times, or 12% on the first day of bidding yesterday. The grey market premium of Swiggy was Rs 11 on Nov. 6. Do remember to check back later in the day to get the latest figures for the second day.

In some more international news, Germany's coalition collapsed yesterday, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired his finance minister and set things up for a snap election. Scholz is now expected to head a minority government with his Social Democrats and the Greens, which is the second-largest party. Scholz said he would call a confidence motion in his government for Jan. 15, the necessary precursor to holding an election by the end of March, according to a Reuters report.

In other news, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has said that only developments on the battlefield, not political moves, would bring an end to the hostilities between the Lebanese armed group and the Israeli military. There’s no major change in the situation in West Asia as things stand.