Mark Carney "Disappointed" With New Trump Tariff

Donald Trump has raised trade tariffs on Canada from 25% to 35% - Mark Carney has expressed disappointment. Pakistan's tariffs have shrunk to 19% following Pakistan's nomination of Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. India faces 25% tariffs.

Merger Speculation Engulfs Northern Trust

The Wall Street Journal reported in June that BNY (in full, the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, NYSE: BK, which has seen solid share price growth over the past year, Q2 2025 revenue of $5bn) had approached Northern Trust about a potential merger. 

Northern Trust's Chairman and CEO (Mike O'Grady) retorted saying it remains committed to being fully independent. Mike has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

There have been hopes of looser regulation under Trump which would give a boost to banking M&A, however Senator Elizabeth Warren warned a merger could violate federal banking laws.

A major part of Northern Trust's business is asset servicing, which consists of administrative and operational tasks performed by custodians of financial assets on behalf of clients.

Trump Tariffs on Mexico Could Hit Electronics

Nvidia has invested in Mexico, assembling its GB200 NVL72 server racks through a Foxconn factory in Guadalajara. Foxconn is part of the Taiwanese Hon Hai Technology Group founded by Terry Gou in 1974. Mexico is the second biggest source of electronics imports to the US after China. Chinese manufacturers like Lenovo and Hisense have also opened factories in Mexico in recent years.

The Fed has a New Future Boss - Jerome Powell

Jerome Powell has been chosen by President Trump to head up the Federal Reserve, replacing Janet Yellen from February 2018 or thereabouts.

The Fed conducts American monetary policy and promotes a stable financial system.

Jerome Powell is a former partner in the Carlyle Group. He is currently a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. His undergraduate degree was in Politics at Princeton. He also has a JD from Georgetown, the second largest law school in the United States.

No more Tequila - Mexico acts on Trump Slump

The volatility mollification strategy has been dubbed the biggest change in Mexican central banking since the "Tequila Crisis", in which a devaluation of the peso led to a banking crisis.

For those unfamiliar with the "Tequila Crisis" the devaluation occurred in December 1994, which caused half the country's foreign exchange reserves to leave the country.

The peso's fall has been largely due to threats to impose trade barriers on Mexican goods headed to the United States by the Trump administration, which has also sparked currency volatility. It has been dubbed by the media as the "Trump Slump".

Mexico's foreign exchange commission announced the volatility was "not consistent with the country's economic fundamentals".

Mexico has responded to the fall by hiking interest rates over the course of a year. In January 2017, the central bank also reportedly sold around a billion USD to support the peso.

Repeal and Replace the Dodd Frank Act Message from Trump is a Boon for Banking Stocks (especially Goldmann Sachs)

"Dodd Frank is a disaster" said President Trump, on the law Obama signed into law in 2010, named partly after Connecticut native, and Democrat, Chris Dodd, and Barney Frank, a Harvard Law School alumnus and also a Democrat.

Swap Execution Facilities (or SEFs) came about as a direct result of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The market response has been positive.

Goldman stock rose 4.2% (NYSE:GS) and Bank of America 2.5% (NYSE:BAC). This is despite the stocks having very similar betas of 1.5 and 1.47 respectively.

Gary Cohn, formerly Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs, former options dealer and now chief economic advisor to Donald Trump, waxed lyrical to the Wall Street Journal regarding the move.