Trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) is set to acquire portfolio management platform TradePMR in a cash-and-stock deal worth around $300m, the companies said.

The move is Robinhood's latest attempt to grab marketshare from incumbent giants with an expansion of its wealth management arm. TradePMR currently has around $40bn assets under administration, and has been around since 1999.

"The needs of Robinhood customers are evolving and they are seeking advice on how to build and manage their growing portfolios," Robinhood said in a press release. "The registered investment advisors market is a $7 trillion industry and one of the fastest-growing sectors in wealth management."

Vicky McKeever writes:

British luxury handbag maker Mulberry reported a decline in profits and widened losses in its half-year results.

Group revenue had slumped 19% to ￡56.1m, with the biggest fall coming from its Asia Pacific business, where sales had dropped 31% to ￡9.3m.

Mulberry reported a ￡15.7m loss before tax, which was up from a loss of ￡12.8m in the same period last year.

However, Mulberry CEO Andrea Baldo, who took on the role less than three months ago, said that the company had taken "decisive steps to streamline operations, improve margins, reduce working capital, and strengthen our cash position".

"This has also meant reviewing our internal team structure to ensure we become a leaner, more agile organisation," he said. "Additionally, we've made strategic adjustments to our product, pricing and distribution strategies, and we've begun discussions with luxury wholesale partners to ensure we are present wherever our customers shop."

Shares were up nearly 2% on the back of the results on Tuesday morning.

This latest update comes nearly a month after Mulberry rejected a takeover offer from Mike Ashley's Fraser Group (FRAS.L).

“Frasers was right when it implied that Mulberry was in a mess," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“The new boss Andrea Baldo isn’t blind to the problems," he said. "His response is to cut costs, make the company more efficient, improve margins and rebuild the company’s financial strength. Those things won’t happen overnight. It’s now a waiting game to see if new life can be breathed into the business.”

Shares in Trump Media closed Monday's session up more than 16%, following a Financial Times report that the company is in advanced talks to buy crypto exchange Bakkt (BKKT).

Bakkt stock soared more than 162% in the previous session on the back of the news.

President-elect Donald Trump maintains a roughly 60% interest in DJT, which has a market capitalisation of around $7.1bn (￡5.61bn).

Trump's election win has driven cryptocurrencies higher, with bitcoin (BTC-USD) moving closer to the $100,000 mark, trading at $91,681 on Tuesday morning.

Trump has pledged to usher in more supportive regulation around the digital tokens, saying in his election campaign that he wanted to make the US the "crypto capital of the planet" and to accumulate a stockpile of bitcoin.

A spokesperson for Trump Media had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.

Read more on Yahoo Finance UK

• Euro area annual inflation is expected to be 2.0% in October 2024, up from 1.7% in September 2024.

• Core inflation — a measure that strips out volatile components such as energy — has hit 2.7%.

• Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, services is expected to have the highest annual rate in October (3.9%, stable compared with September), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (2.9%, compared with 2.4% in September), non-energy industrial goods (0.5%, compared with 0.4% in September) and energy (-4.6%, compared with -6.1% in September).

Pedro Goncalves writes:

Gold prices rebounded on after suffering their largest weekly decline since 2021, as traders recalibrated expectations for future US Federal Reserve rate cuts. The outlook for monetary policy has been influenced by the return of Donald Trump to the White House next year.

Spot gold rose 1.3% to $2,621.08 per ounce, while US gold futures edged 0.3% higher to $2,624.10 at the time of writing.

The prospect of Trump’s policies potentially driving inflation has led swaps traders to predict a near 50% chance of a Fed rate cut next month, prior to his inauguration. This could benefit gold, as lower interest rates make the non-yielding metal more attractive.

“Whether the Federal Reserve cuts or not, I think gold technically looks like it wants to get back near that $2,700 level,” Daniel Pavilonis, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, told Reuters.

The pause in the US dollar’s rally, which recently surged to a one-year high before retreating, has also made gold more accessible to investors.

Goldman Sachs, in its 2025 commodity outlook, highlighted gold as a top pick, suggesting the precious metal could see further gains during Trump’s presidency. "Go for gold," analysts led by Daan Struyven wrote in a note.

Here's the chart. Nvidia stock is up more than 190% for the year-to-date:

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto writes:

Big competition news coming out from Bloomberg this morning is that the Department of Justice is looking at forcing Google (GOOG) to sell off its Chrome browser, after a judge ruled in August the tech giant had illegally monopolised the search market.

The report, which cited people familiar with the matter, said officials intend to present a plan to Amit Mehta — the federal judge presiding over the case — to suggest imposing data licensing requirements on other products related to AI and its Android smartphone operating system.

The case was first filed under the Trump administration and continued under Joe Biden.

Stocks are making small moves in early trade, with indexes looking set to open in the green later on.

From our US team:

US stocks were mixed on Monday as Tesla (TSLA) shares resumed a post-election rally and investors looked ahead to Nvidia (NVDA) earnings to test the health of the AI trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.2%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose 0.6%, buoyed by a jump in Tesla stock.

Stocks started the week trying to break out of a funk, which saw the S&P 500 reverse around half of its Trump-fueled rally after sharp weekly losses for the major gauges, led by tech.

Signs of a robust economy, combined with comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, have prompted investors to downsize expectations for rate cuts.

Hello from a snowy London. The Yahoo Finance UK team are here, poised to bring you the markets news of the day. Coming up we've got an EU inflation reading and a Bank of England select committee with governor Andrew Bailey.

Over in the US, Walmart (WMT) and Dollar Tree (DLTR) are reporting.

Let's get to it.