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Good morning and welcome back to the start of the working week. In today’s newsletter:
Argentine voters back Milei in midterm polls
Global markets rally on trade truce optimism
JPMorgan allows chatbot use for performance reviews
What did Ronald Reagan really think of tariffs?
And uplifting news for fans of the exclamation point
We begin in Argentina, where President Javier Milei’s libertarian party has won a big victory in national legislative elections.
Here’s the latest: Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party garnered 40.7 per cent against 31.7 per cent for the Peronist opposition alliance with 98 per cent of the vote counted, according to provisional figures from the electoral commission. About half of the 257 seats in Argentina’s lower house were up for re-election yesterday and La Libertad Avanza won 64 of the 127 available, performing strongly across the country.
Projections based on official results suggest Milei and his allies will have more than 100 seats in the new lower house, but will need the support of smaller centrist parties to reach the 129 required to pass legislation. The picture in the Senate, where one-third of seats were renewed, is broadly similar.
“Today is clearly a historic day for Argentina,” the libertarian economist told cheering supporters at his party headquarters in Buenos Aires. “The Argentine people decided to leave behind 100 years of decadence and to persist on the road of freedom, progress and growth.”
Why it matters: The result will bolster Milei’s position in Congress and help him push ahead with his radical overhaul of Argentina’s long-troubled economy. It will also ease investor concerns about the future of Milei’s government and boost Argentine assets.
US President Donald Trump, who came to Milei’s rescue this month with a bailout package, welcomed the result. “Congratulations to President Javier Milei on his Landslide Victory in Argentina. He is doing a wonderful job!”
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has promised up to $40bn of support for Argentina and has spent roughly $2bn propping up the peso, according to economists’ estimates. This month Trump threatened to withdraw the US’s financial support if Milei failed in the midterms.
“Argentina has given Milei a very forceful endorsement, and he now has a big opportunity to deliver on his promises,” said Sergio Berensztein, an Argentine political consultant. Read the full story.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
Markets: Global stock markets are rallying on hopes that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will extend a trade truce during a high-stakes meeting in South Korea this week (more on the US-China trade talks below).
Company earnings: Diagnostics group Revvity, beverage maker Keurig Dr Pepper and Universal Health Services report at the start of a big week for tech earnings.
Trump in Asia: The US president has landed in Tokyo for a meeting with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi tomorrow. He flew to Japan from Malaysia where he attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit as part of his first visit to Asia since his re-election.
‘Davos in the Desert’: Saudi Arabia will host the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh from today until Thursday, with speakers including bank executives Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Georges Elhedery of HSBC, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and UK chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Five more top stories
1. The US government’s debt burden is on track to exceed levels in Italy and Greece for the first time this century, IMF figures show. General government gross debt is set to reach 143.4 per cent of GDP by the decade’s end, underlining the parlous state of America’s public finances.
2. JPMorgan Chase has given employees the option to use its in-house artificial intelligence system to help write year-end performance reviews. The push reflects corporate America’s uptake of AI tools along with potential efficiency gains from the technology.
AI rollout: Businesses are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI for the workplace but getting employees to use the tools to their full potential is a huge task, as this FT video explains.
The AI Shift: To read more about how AI is changing the workplace, sign up to our new newsletter from John Burn-Murdoch and Sarah O’Connor here.
3. OpenAI chief Sam Altman and an inner circle of executives masterminded deals worth as much as $1.5tn with little input from external advisers. The unconventional dealmaking process has resulted in agreements that analysts have criticised for their lack of detailed financial terms. Read more on who Altman relied on to strike the deals.
4. US officials expect China to delay introducing export controls on rare earths, following a weekend of negotiations in Kuala Lumpur. Beijing’s announcement of the sweeping controls this month triggered a sharp escalation in trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies and threatened to torpedo plans for Trump and Xi’s first summit since 2019. Here’s more on the talks ahead of the Xi-Trump meeting on Thursday.
5. HSBC will set aside $1.1bn for a lawsuit brought by investors who lost money in Bernard Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme after a Luxembourg court denied the bank’s appeal. The UK lender said it would recognise the provision in its third-quarter results, which are released tomorrow.
Today’s big read
Donald Trump has reignited a trade battle with Canada after the province of Ontario broadcast an ad showing Republican icon Ronald Reagan criticising tariffs in a televised address to the nation in 1987. Trump protested that Reagan “loved tariffs”, just as he does. James Politi looks at Reagan’s relationship with the levies.
We’re also reading . . .
1990s redux: Rana Foroohar points out three comparisons between the rise of the internet and today’s AI boom that warrant more investor attention.
Competing forces: For most new chief executives, the real test of power begins in the boardroom, Anjli Raval writes.
Pakistan: Trump’s “favourite field marshal” is confidently wooing global powers, but Asim Munir faces far tougher challenges closer to home.
Exclamation marks: Pilita Clark reviews the latest research on this problematic piece of punctuation and finds some uplifting news for fans.
Chart of the day
Pennsylvania was one of the few states where turnout among voters under 25 increased from 2020 to 2024. In Northampton County, which includes Bethlehem — where the FT is reporting over the next four years — they swung to the right. Students in that city spoke to FT reporter Ian Hodgson about being young in Trump’s America.
Take a break from the news . . .
At first sight, the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes could be any basic mountain lodge, with its dark-wood structure, green shutters and Swiss flag. But through the revolving door, one discovers an alternative reality. Josh Hickey explains what makes it the perfect ski hotel.
