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Gary Gensler, pictured here in 2012, has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Alex Wong/Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be Wall Street’s watchdog is returning to familiar ground.
Gary Gensler, nominated to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the campaign announced on Monday, is a former
Goldman Sachs partner and Treasury Department official who led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during President Barack Obama’s administration.
At the CFTC, Gensler helped instill new discipline and rules for governing the multi-trillion-dollar derivatives market, including the 2010 Dodd Frank regulatory reforms enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis.
Here’s what you need to know to navigate the markets today.
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President-elect Joe Biden is planning a flurry of executive orders after his inauguration to roll back some of the most contested policies of the Trump administration, incoming chief of staff Ron Klain said. Hours after he takes office, Biden will end Trump’s restriction on immigration from some majority-Muslim countries, rejoin the Paris climate agreement, and mandate mask-wearing on federal property and during travel. Those initial actions will be followed by a number of executive orders over the course of Biden’s first 10 days in office, including extending the pause on federal student-loan payments and other actions addressing issues like criminal justice, immigration, and climate change that can be taken without congressional approval.
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Rising inflation expectations aren’t likely to kill the stock rally. Here, the scene on the New York Stock Exchange floor on Wednesday. NYSE
Inflation expectations have leapt recently amid the promise of more federal pandemic stimulus and the Federal Reserve’s reiteration of easy-money policies, but the stock rally that kicked off last spring appears primed to power through such concerns.
The 10-year break-even rate or the gap between yields on Treasuries and comparable Treasury inflation-protected securities jumped to just above 2% to start 2021 from just below that level and have risen sharply since early November. Since Jan. 5, just before the Georgia Senate runoff results showed the Democrats would take control of the Senate, Treasury yields have spiked. That’s because the Democrats’ plan for more fiscal spending to support the economy may cause some inflation. Market-implied 30-year break-even inflation rates could