In his first 24 hours as President, Joe Biden has issued 25 executive orders to unwind some of the Trump agenda of the last four years. These include orders for the US to rejoin the World Health Organisation, the Paris Climate Accord, a commitment to racial equality, a "100-day masking challenge" to promote the wearing of face masks across the US, and an order overturning Donald Trump's travel ban. He also signed another 10 orders Thursday to boost the fight against Covid. He vowed to prioritise the "four overlapping and compounding crises" of COVID-19, the economy, climate change and racial inequality.






Within hours of President Biden’s inauguration, China’s three largest telecoms companies, China Telecom, China Mobile and Unicom applied to the New York Stock Exchange to reverse their delistings which were ordered by Donald Trump in November. The NYSE has 25 business days to schedule the review.





Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surged through the 30,000 level yesterday for the first time since May 2019, before profit taking set in. In the morning session, the benchmark index hit an intraday high of 30,135 before closing the day 0.1% lower at 29,927. The Hang Seng has rallied 9.9%, in the best start to a year since 1985.






On today’s Money Talk, we’re joined by Francis Lun of GEO Securities and Carlos Casanova from UBP. With a view from India is Toby Lawson, of Societe Generale.