Investors are bracing for the start of Donald Trump's second term, with the US president-elect due to be sworn in on Monday.
Trump has warned that a wave of executive orders would be signed upon him returning to the White House. He and top aide Stephen Miller have said that the total could be close to 100 executive actions in the early days of his second presidency.
The orders are expected to focus on topics ranging from immigration policies to energy, as well as trade tariffs.
More supportive policies for cryptocurrencies are also expected to form part of Trump's agenda. In fact, both the president-elect and his wife, Melania Trump, launched their own meme coins over the weekend.
Shares in Trump Media were on the rise last week, ahead of the inauguration, though US markets are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.
Jim Reid, market strategist at Deutsche Bank (DBK.DE), said: "The common perception in politics is that in his first term Mr Trump was less prepared for office than he is this time round in terms of personnel and infrastructure so under this view you can expect him to hit the ground running with immediate policy moves."
Reid highlighted that Trump issued 55 executive orders in his first year in office back in 2017, and 220 in total during his four year term.
"For modern day comparison, Reagan issued 381 in eight years, GHW Bush 166 in four years, Clinton 364 in eight years, GW Bush 291 in eight years, Obama 276 in eight years and Biden 160 in four." he said. "So in the last 45 years Trump has made more use of his executive power than any other president."
Intel's shares popped in October, after the chipmaker guided to revenue of between $13.3bn (£10.9bn) and $14.3bn for the fourth quarter, versus Wall Street expectations of $13.6bn.
However, shares are still down 54% over the past year, with the company having faced a series of struggles.
This prompted Pat Gelsinger, who retired as Intel CEO last month, to announce in August "significant actions" to reduce costs. He said the firm planned to deliver $10bn in cost savings in 2025, which included reducing the company's head count by around 15,000 roles.
Despite nervousness over China being in line for the harshest tariff policies once Trump returns to the White House, Hong Kong-listed stocks rose in Monday's session.
Data released Friday showed that China's economy grew by 5% last year, which was in line with the government's target.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (^HSI) closed Monday's session up 1.75%, with e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com (9618.HK) rising nearly 5% and 7% respectively.
Shares in pharmaceuticals firm Novo Nordisk fell on Friday and were flat on Monday morning, following the news that the US Medicare government health insurance programme was seeking to negotiate prices on 15 drugs.
This included Novo Nordisk's GLP-1 weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. The list also included drugs from other pharmaceuticals giants Pfizer (PFE), AstraZeneca (AZN.L, AZN) and Merck (MRK).
The UK's accounting watchdog announced on Monday that it had started an investigation into an audit conducted by KPMG of Ladbrokes-owner Entain.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said that the probe was regarding KPMG's audit of Entain's financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022.
However, the announcement stressed that the investigation "does not relate to any persons or entities other than the relevant statutory auditor(s) and/or statutory audit firm(s) and it would not be fair to treat any part of this announcement as constituting or evidencing an investigation into any other persons or entities."
A KPMG UK spokesperson said: “We will cooperate fully with the FRC to conclude this matter as quickly as possible."Entain declined to comment.
