Donald Trump Inauguration, IMF On India GDP, Israeli Hostages Released | Rise With Profit

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Investors, political analysts, spectators and the merely curious will all be looking towards Washington DC tonight to watch Donald Trump march back into the White House. He's set to take charge as President of the United States today. Markets globally are in wait and watch mode to see what's announced in the first few days of his new term.

For his part, Trump on Sunday told thousands of his supporters that he would impose severe limits on immigration on his first day in office. That, of course, was one of the central promises of his presidential campaign.

He's also planning to use his executive powers to reduce the regulatory burden faced by cryptocurrency companies and promote digital asset adoption in his first few days in office, according to three people briefed on the plan. That's a Reuters report.

Speaking of crypto, Trump just launched a new one—a meme coin—on Friday. It has a market capitalisation of about $9 billion—after hitting a peak of over $15 billion early on Sunday—marking Trump's latest venture into cryptocurrency and merchandise sales in the lead-up to his inauguration.

A large part of the tokens that have yet to be publicly released are owned by the Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC, a company formed in Delaware on Jan. 7, according to state filings, and both companies will receive an undisclosed amount of revenue derived from trading activity. That's based on a Reuters report. Meanwhile, the token's website includes a disclaimer, noting the Trump meme coin is “not intended to be, or the subject of” an investment opportunity nor a security of any type and is “not political and has nothing to do with” any political campaign, political office or government agency.

In other major international news, Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has caused massive destruction in the Gaza Strip.

The truce allowed Palestinians to return to neighborhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid. Elsewhere in Gaza, crowds cheered Hamas fighters who emerged from hiding. The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent to Gaza and 33 of the nearly 100 remaining Israeli and foreign hostages to go free over the six-week first phase. This is in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.

In international markets, the three early risers in the Asia Pacific region are mostly positive after a strong close to the trading week on Wall Street. Those markets will be shut today for Martin Luther King Jr day.

India's Forex Fall, IMF On GDP 

Back home, India's foreign exchange reserves fell for the sixth straight week to $625.87 billion for the week ended Jan. 10, as per data released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday. The country's forex reserves fell $8.7 billion over the previous reporting week and remain at a 10-month low.

In news on the economy, the International Monetary Fund, in its World Economic Outlook report released on Friday, has retained India's economic growth projection at 6.5% for financial years 2026 and 2027. The forecast is the same as "projected in October and in line with potential".

The IMF, meanwhile, lowered its forecast for India's GDP growth for the current year to 6.5%—50 basis points lower than its earlier forecast made in October.

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