Finance

Donald Trump has fired the first shot. Goods arriving in America from Canada and Mexico will meet tariffs of 25% as soon as he returns to the White House, the president-elect announced on November 25th. Mr Trump also said that he would impose additional 10% tariffs on Chinese goods. With two months to go before his inauguration, the promise is rippling through financial markets. Mr Trump is not wasting any time in seeking to exert America’s influence. More

Italian lender Banco BPM on Tuesday said the unexpected takeover offer by domestic rival UniCredit does not reflect its profitability and could reduce its legal autonomy.
UniCredit offered to snap up Banco BPM for roughly $10.5 billion on Monday.

A Banco BPM SpA bank branch in Milan, Italy, on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. 
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Italian lender Banco BPM on Tuesday said the unexpected takeover offer by domestic rival UniCredit does not reflect its profitability.
The 10 billion-euro ($10.52 billion) bid presented by UniCredit on Monday was not previously agreed and was delivered on “unusual” terms, the Banco BPM board of directors said in a CNBC-translated statement.

It also fails to reflect Banco BPM’s profitability and potential for further value creation, the board added, flagging that the brisk timeline of a potential merger — expected “in the shortest time possible” — would damage the lender’s legal autonomy.
The Banco BPM bid comes two months after Unicredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, set its sights on a possible takeover of Germany’s Commerzbank. These ambitions have been met with bristling opposition from the German government.
Banco BPM’s board said Unicredit’s offer exposes its stakeholders to uncertainty surrounding expansion plans in Germany, which could represent a “significant dilution of the present geographical exposure, instead of an attractive concentration of Banco BPM in the most dynamic regions of the country and of the Euro zone.”
UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel on Monday said a Banco BPM transaction would take precedence over any potential venture with Commerzbank, according to Reuters.
CNBC has reached out to UniCredit for comment.

UniCredit’s Milan-listed shares were flat at 12:37 p.m. London time on Tuesday, with the stock of Banco BPM down 0.20%.

‘Historical target’

On Monday, the bank offered to pay 6.657 euros for each share of Banco BPM — marking only a slight premium on Friday’s close price of 6.644 euros — as part of an all-stock deal. In a statement accompanying the bid, Orcel described Banco BPM as a “historical target” — fanning the flames of media reports that UniCredit had previously courted a union with its domestic peer back in 2022.
“Europe needs stronger, bigger banks to help it develop its economy and help it compete against the other major economic blocs. Thanks to the work that has been done over the past three years, UniCredit is now well positioned to also answer that challenge,” Orcel said.
His consolidation overtures have yet to bear fruit as UniCredit awaits the European Central Bank’s approval to bolster its current 21% holding in Commerzbank to 29.9% —  and has enjoyed a so-far tepid reception of its domestic plan from the Italian government.
“The safest way to lose a war is engaging on two fronts, although maybe the rule won’t be true this time”, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said Monday of UniCredit’s Banco BPM and Commerzbank ambitions, according to Italian newswire ANSA.
The stage was set for Italian M&A earlier this month after Banco BPM acquired a 5% holding in Monte dei Paschi —  the world’s oldest lender and itself a former takeover target of UniCredit until talks collapsed in 2021 — as the government sought to trim its stake in the bailed-out bank. At the time, Banco BPM said it did not intend to submit a request to potentially exceed the threshold to acquire more than 10% in Monte dei Paschi. More

President-elect Donald Trump plans to raise tariffs by an additional 10% on all Chinese goods coming into the U.S., according to a post Monday on his social media platform Truth Social.
The post immediately followed one in which Trump said his first of “many” executive orders on Jan. 20 would impose tariffs of 25% on all products from Mexico and Canada.

Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019.
Aly Song | Reuters

BEIJING — President-elect Donald Trump plans to raise tariffs by an additional 10% on all Chinese goods coming into the U.S., according to a post Monday on his social media platform Truth Social.
The post immediately followed one in which Trump said his first of “many” executive orders on Jan. 20 would impose tariffs of 25% on all products from Mexico and Canada.

Trump is set to be inaugurated as the next U.S. president on Jan. 20.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates. More

Warren Buffett
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Warren Buffett, who has amassed a $150 billion personal fortune, made a case against creating “dynastic” wealth as he named three independent trustees to oversee his philanthropy following his children and donated an additional $1.1 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to his family’s four foundations.
Instead of leaving his three children an enormous inheritance, the 94-year-old legendary investor has long pledged to give away 99% of the fortune he built at Berkshire, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate he has been running since 1965. 

Buffett believes family wealth dynasties could have negative consequences such as eroding personal growth and complicating relationships. Meanwhile, they also create societal uncertainties as it’s unforeseeable how future generations choose to distribute such wealth.
“I’ve never wished to create a dynasty or pursue any plan that extended beyond the children,” Buffett wrote in a lengthy letter Monday. “I know the three well and trust them completely. Future generations are another matter. Who can foresee the priorities, intelligence and fidelity of successive generations to deal with the distribution of extraordinary wealth amid what may be a far different philanthropic landscape?”
Successor trustees named
The “Oracle of Omaha,” who owns about 37.6% of Berkshire Class A shares, said the assets he’s collected may take longer to deploy than his children live. He has appointed three trustees of his charitable trust to potentially succeed his children in disbursing his wealth. Buffett’s children are now 71, 69 and 66.
“Three potential successor trustees have been designated. Each is well known to my children and makes sense to all of us. They are also somewhat younger than my children,” Buffett wrote. “But these successors are on the wait list. I hope Susie, Howie and Peter themselves disburse all of my assets.”
The identity of the trustees was not revealed.

Buffett has been making annual donations to the four family foundations since 2006. He said he’s built strong trust in his children’s managerial ability and philanthropic ambition through years of observation.
“The 2006-2024 period gave me the chance to observe each of my children in action and they have learned much about large-scale philanthropy and human behavior,” he said. “They enjoy being comfortable financially, but they are not preoccupied with wealth. Their mother, from whom they learned these values, would be very proud of them. As am I.”
On Monday, Buffett converted 1,600 A shares into 2,400,000 B shares to donate to the four family foundations: 1,500,000 shares to The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 300,000 shares to each of The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation.
Buffett’s Berkshire, which pierced a $1 trillion market cap this year, owns a vast array of well-established businesses, ranging from its crown jewel Geico insurance to BNSF Railway to consumer brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candies.

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UniCredit on Monday offered to snap up its domestic rival Banco BPM for roughly 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion).
The deal would, if completed, merge two of Italy’s largest lenders.
It follows a flurry of banking M&A news in Europe. In September, UniCredit increased its stake in Commerzbank to around 21% and submitted a request to boost the holding to up to 29.9%.

A logo on the UniCredit SpA headquarters in Milan, Italy, on Saturday Jan. 22, 2022.
Bloomberg | Getty Images

Italian lender UniCredit on Monday offered to snap up its domestic rival Banco BPM for roughly 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion) in a move it says is separate from its pursuit of German bank Commerzbank.
The deal would, if completed, merge two of Italy’s largest lenders. UniCredit said in a statement early Monday that it is offering 6.657 euros for each share — a slight premium on Friday’s close price of 6.644 euros.

UniCredit said the purchase, which would be an all-stock deal, would allow the bank to “further strengthen its role as a leading pan-European banking group.”
Shares of UniCredit were down 1.7% on Monday in early deals, while Banco BPM soared 5%.
The news follows a flurry of merger and acquisition announcements in the European banking sector this year. The industry has been considered ripe for consolidation for years, with cash-rich UniCredit often cited as a possible acquirer.

In September, UniCredit increased its stake in German lender Commerzbank to around 21% and submitted a request to boost the holding to up to 29.9%. Earlier that month, the Italian bank had taken a 9% stake in Commerzbank, with half of this shareholding acquired from the German government.
The German government has yet to bless the potential union, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz stating that “unfriendly attacks, hostile takeovers are not a good thing for banks,” in late-September comments carried by Reuters.

The largest shareholder of Commerzbank, the Berlin administration, retains a 12% stake after rescuing the lender during the 2008 financial crisis and divesting 4.5% of its initial position in early September. Commerzbank shares slipped 6% on Monday.
“It’s definitely a surprise,” Kian Abouhossein, head of European bank equity research and global IB coverage at JP Morgan, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
“It’s unlikely that he [UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel] can do both transactions at the same time. So that sends a message that maybe Commerzbank is a bit more difficult than originally expected.”

Earlier this month, meanwhile, Banco BPM itself made a bid for asset manager Anima in a possible 1.6-billion-euro deal, and just days later bought a 5% chunk of state-owned Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).
UniCredit on Nov. 6 posted an 8% year-on-year hike in quarterly net profit to 2.5 billion euros ($2.25 billion), compared with a Reuters-reported 2.27-billion-euro forecast. It also raised its full-year net profit guidance to above 9 billion euros, from a previous outlook of 8.5 billion euros. Shares are up some 55% so far this year.
Abouhossein said that even if the Commerzbank and Banco BPM deals were staggered by, for example, nine months, this would still be an unrealistic timeframe for the transactions.
“You have to also remember, from a regulatory perspective, there’s a lot of execution risk and the regulator will look at the size of the bank, operational risk, and management’s ability to integrate two banks at the same time,” he said. “So I think he’s [Orcel] hedging himself a bit on these transactions.”
—CNBC’s April Roach and Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this article.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Banco BPM. More

America’s gross national debt is $36trn, or $107,000 per person. It is rising fast and will probably soon be rising even faster. If Donald Trump’s election campaign was anything to go by, his return to the White House heralds a flurry of tax cuts on everything from corporate profits to tips. In the fiscal year that ended in September, Uncle Sam spent $1.8trn more than he collected in taxes (6.4% of GDP, or over double the annual earnings of America’s seven biggest firms). By one estimate, Mr Trump’s agenda could raise borrowing by $4.1trn in the coming decade. More

The bitcoin rally is generating a false sense of security among investors, according to the strategist behind the so-called granddaddy of gold exchange-traded funds.
State Street Global Advisors’ George Milling-Stanley warns cryptocurrency plays don’t offer the stability of gold.

“Bitcoin, pure and simple, it’s a return play, and I think that people have been jumping onto the return plays,” the firm’s chief gold strategist said on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Milling-Stanley’s comments came as his firm’s SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) celebrated its 20-year anniversary this week. It is the world’s largest physically backed gold ETF, and it’s up more than 30% in 2024.
“Gold was $450 an ounce [20 years ago],” said Milling-Stanley. “It’s now five times what that price was then. If you look at a five-times price, then gold should be somewhere over $100,000 in twenty years’ time.”
Gold just had its best weekly performance since March 2023. Gold futures settled at $2,712.20 on Friday, the highest settle since Nov. 5. Gold prices are now just 3% below the record high hit on Oct. 30.
Bitcoin, which has surged since the Nov. 5 election, is having a banner year, too. It hit an all-time high on Friday.

Milling-Stanley thinks investors who treasure gold’s safety qualities should reconsider piling into bitcoin. He suggests the crypto world is trying to manipulate them.
“This is why they [bitcoin promoters] called it mining. There’s no mining involved. This is a computer operation, pure and simple,” he said. “But they called it mining because they wanted to seem like gold — maybe take some of the aura away from the gold.”
Yet, he acknowledges it is unclear how high the yellow metal can actually go.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen over the next 20 years except it’s going to be a fun ride,” Milling-Stanley said. “I think that gold is going to do well.”

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At last, white smoke has emerged from Mar-a-Lago. Two and a half weeks after the election and more than a week since it first seemed as if an announcement about a choice of treasury secretary was coming, Donald Trump has finally made his decision. On November 22nd the campaign said that Scott Bessent, a hedge-fund titan, would command 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue. Both the appointment of Mr Bessent, and the manner in which he was picked, offer clues about economic policy during a second Trump term. More