Business

➚ BUY: Trump. The stock market — the President’s preferred measure of economic success — rose on his first day in office, when he dialed down his tariff talk. (More on his business agenda below.)

➘ SELL: $TRUMP. The president’s official memecoin briefly had a $10 billion market value before plummeting after he failed to mention crypto during his inaugural address. The First Lady’s own coin, which launched Sunday, also fell.

Bonds, dollar rise as Trump shifts on tariffs… China will import more, Vice Premier says… Trump may sell government buildings… Jeep maker bets on MAGA manosphere…

Willscot Holdings, a $6 billion maker of mobile offices (think cargo-container sized buildings that fill construction and industrial sites), has fielded takeover interest from private-equity, according to people familiar with the matter.

At least one of those firms has hired bankers to sketch out a formal bid for the company, which, despite its sagging stock price (down 16% over the past year), is exposed to things PE likes: cash flow from leases and a secular boom in fixed investment.

Willscot hasn’t put itself up for sale, but one ingredient for a potential transaction is already in place: an activist investor. Ben Pass’ TOMS Capital has a stake in the company.

Donald Trump wasted no time getting down to business, with a raft of executive orders. He delayed tariffs against China but threatened levies of as much as 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1, which could violate the NAFTA 2.0 deal that Trump touted at Davos five years ago today.

He also saved TikTok from an immediate ban, declared a national emergency to boost US oil and gas production, and dropped Biden’s pro-EV policies —though Semafor’s Tim McDonnell notes these moves could actually help Elon Musk’s Tesla out.

The actions will be met with legal challenges while corporate lawyers will have a billing bonanza combing through the fine print. While tariffs are worrisome, most of Trump’s first-day actions will be cheered by executives who relish that America is now open for, and to, business.

Goldman Sachs promoted 15 people to its management committee today, a move meant to placate a cadre of executives made restless by a lack of senior rank movement in recent years.

It might do that, but it’s sure to rankle others, and it’s a reminder that a quarter-century after Goldman went public — and six years into the tenure of CEO David Solomon, who moved to corporatize it — the firm still carries DNA from its days as Wall Street’s last private partnership.

Goldman was once controlled by a powerful committee of partners who ran its various divisions. When it went public in 1999, it replaced its managing partner with then-CEO Hank Paulson, but kept the management committee as a nod to its past.

“MC,” as it’s known inside the firm, functioned for a while as a kitchen cabinet, advising Paulson and Lloyd Blankfein in his early days. After 2008, it became a way for the bank to signal to regulators its contrition and virtue by adding risk officers and accountants. At one point, by my memory, a third of its members didn’t run a revenue-producing division. Eventually its most important function was simply existing: CEOs could signal executives on the rise by giving them a seat.

When Solomon took over in 2018, he thought about whittling down the 30-person committee to key decision makers (for which, read moneymakers). Ultimately, he diluted its influence by making it bigger and its regular Monday meetings became largely performative.

Today’s promotions, along with two last week, will expand the group to more than 40 people. It will likely further weaken it. It’s also a reminder that, as Matt Levine often says, a lot of corporate management comes down to seating charts.

The Federal Reserve relies on time-tested economic datasets like unemployment and inflation figures to make decisions about interest rates. But one Fed official warned that those signposts are starting “to become more muddled,” leaving the central bank without the benefit of precedent as it weighs whether to slow its pace of rate cuts.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told Semafor that new tariffs promised by Trump or geopolitical instability could cause, for example, energy or steel prices to spike — a temporary inflation shock that wouldn’t necessarily require a response. “We’re going to be in the business of trying to figure out which part of the inflation number we should respond to,” he said. “So I do feel like the job in the near term is going to be a little foggier.”

Joe Biden’s White House homeland security team urged Trump’s team to focus on a number of major threats that include Iran’s plots against dissidents and current and former US officials, Semafor’s Morgan Chalfant scooped.

Liz Sherwood-Randall, Biden’s top homeland security adviser, briefed the incoming Trump team headed by Stephen Miller on seven top priorities.