Here Are Five Things You Should Know Before Starting Your Day

There is a lot of news around this weekend with the decision of Donald Trump not to plead guilty, an official from the Federal Reserve warning that higher borrowing costs will last for a while longer, as well as Xi Jinping courting Emmanuel Macron.

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Donald Trump

The indictment prosecutors filed against Donald Trump alleges he used hush money to conceal damaging information about an affair and boost his electoral chances in 2016. Despite making a comeback bid for the White House, he pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies, including burying damaging information about an affair with hush money. On Tuesday, the former US president, the first to be indicted in history, was arraigned in lower Manhattan, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged him with a broad influence scheme. Trump was arraigned there Tuesday in lower Manhattan. According to Bragg, Trump falsified business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels made by his former attorney, Michael Cohen. In response to the 34-count indictment, Trump charged it as politically motivated hours later and addressing his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach in front of hundreds of supporters.

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The interest rate

To quell inflation over the coming years, according to Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester, policymakers should raise their benchmark interest rate to above 5% and hold it there for a while, with the exact level dependent on how quickly price pressures ease over the coming months. It is imperative that monetary policy is moved slightly further into restrictive territory this year to keep inflation below 2%, Mester said at an event Tuesday at New York University with the Money Marketeers of New York University, where he spoke at an event with the Money Marketeers of New York University. Mester explained that the fed funds rate needed to rise to 5% this year and the real Fed Funds rate needed to stay in positive territory for a considerable period of time. A separate interest rate hike by the New Zealand central bank shocked the market as well.

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Credit Suisse

There was no doubt that UBS Group pounced on one of the biggest bank deals ever in just a few days, but years of preparation had been made before that. Upon becoming chairman of Credit Suisse Group in April of last year, Colm Kelleher was left with the inherited feasibility studies by predecessor Axel Weber, dating back to at least 2020, which outlined the steps that could be taken to take over the company. Kelleher, who is a former adviser to Morgan Stanley, was forced to enlist a small group of top advisers from his alma mater Morgan Stanley in order to ramp up contingency plans after his clients pulled out billions from his neighbor on Parade Platz early this year, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. Several people at the US bank told me that the project was top secret and very few employees at the bank were aware of what their senior merger and financial services colleagues were working on with a tightly knit circle of UBS executives.

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Xi-Macron

As China's leader is trying to distance Europe and the US in their approaches towards Beijing, Xi Jinping is pulling out all the stops in support of French President Emmanuel Macron. The visit, which begins on Wednesday, will feature extensive face-to-face time between Macron and Xi during the three-day visit. Macron and Xi will meet in Beijing on Thursday, where they will also meet with the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen. They will then go on to Guangzhou, located in the southern state. Xi usually reserves such honors for close friends like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who usually attends the same event outside the capital: A trip to Tianjin east of Beijing with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 included a high-speed train trip to the city and an event watching a hockey match with the Russian President. 

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Here's what's coming up...

Concerns regarding US banks are still lingering on European shares, which may prove difficult for them to gain traction. The UBS annual general meeting takes place in Basel. The Polish central bank makes a rate decision. Phillip Lane, chief economist at the ECB, speaks in Cyprus. The data from France, Germany, and Italy is expected to include services and composite PMI data. The earnings for companies such as Sodexo, Industrivarden, and Barry Callebaut are expected to be released in the coming days.