Trump Trade: Amazon plans $1M donation to Trump’s inaugural fund

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President-elect Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

TRUMP TEAM LOOKS TO SHRINK BANK WATCHDOGS: The Trump transition team has begun to explore pathways to dramatically shrink, consolidate, or even eliminate the top bank watchdogs in Washington, Gina Heeb of The Wall Street Journal reports. In a recent interview with potential nominees set to lead the bank regulatory agencies, Trump advisors and officials of the Department of Government Efficiency have asked whether Trump could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, FDIC, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. Advisers have asked nominees under consideration for the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency if deposit insurance could be absorbed into the Treasury Department, some sources added. Publicly traded companies in the space include Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JP Morgan (JPM), U.S. Bancorp (USB), Wells Fargo (WFC), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Morgan Stanley (MS).

AMAZON PLANS DONATION TO INAUGURAL FUND: Amazon (AMZN) intends to donate $1M to Trump’s inaugural fund, as founder Jeff Bezos and other major players in the tech industry aim to bolster ties with the incoming administration, the Wall Street Journal’s Dana Mattioli reports. The donation is being prepared as Bezos is set to visit Trump next week at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, the author says, citing people familiar with the matter.

STOCK COVERAGE, RATING CHANGES:

• Truist upgraded Robert Half (RHI) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $90, up from $62. The firm thinks Robert Half will benefit from improving small business sentiment from a “pro-business Trump Administration promising lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government.”
• Barclays lowered the firm’s price target on Booz Allen (BAH) to $140 from $175, lowered its price target on CACI (CACI) to $450 from $625, lowered its price target on Leidos (LDOS) to $165 from $210, and reduced its price target on SAIC (SAIC) to $115 from $150. The firm notes its government services names have underperformed the market by 30% since the election on the potential impact of President-elect Trump’s efficiency initiative–Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. Relative to the market, the group now trades at a 20%-25% discount, down from in line prior to the election. While Barclays sees limited downside to relative valuation for the group from here, current consensus that calls for 6%-8% EBITDA growth on average in 2025-2026 could be at risk on slowing O&M growth, which is where government services get the majority of its funding, along with potential pressure from DOGE initiatives.

OTHER NEWS: Aaron Siri, the lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration, has asked the FDA to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, The New York Times’ Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg report. While Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for health secretary, has said that he does not want to take away access to any vaccines, his continuing close partnership with Siri suggests that vaccine policy will be under sharp scrutiny, the report says. Sanofi makes the polio vaccine that is subject to the petition.