Shares in US coal producers have jumped after Donald Trump hailed the fuel during his speech to Davos today.

Bloomberg have the details:

Peabody Energy Corp., the top US coal miner, surged as much as 7.6%, the most intraday since the day following the November presidential election.

Core Natural Resources Inc. gained as much as 2.9% and the Russell 3000’s coal subsector index rose as much as 4.2%.

The oil price has taken a tumble following Donald Trump’s declaration to the World Economic Forum that he will ask Saudi Arabia and Opec to bring down the cost of oil.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, has dropped by almost 1% to $78.30 per barrel, as traders anticipate an increase in production that would boost supply and weaken demand.

Trump adds that he hopes China can help us stop the Russia-Ukraine war, as they have a great deal of power over that situation.

Trump says he likes president Xi very much, although their relationship was strained by the Covid pandemic.

And touching on trade, Trump says the US trade deficit with China is “just an unfair relationship.

We have to make it just fair. We don’t have to make it phenomenal. We have to make it a fair relationship. Right now. It’s not a fair relationship.

Trump also shows his prickly side – told that he phoned Xi last week, he fired back “He phoned me”.

Trump then declares the US will demand respect from other nations, and singles out Canada.

We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We’re not going to have that anymore, he says.

Claiming that Canada had been “very tough” to deal with, Trump says menacingly:

I say you can always become a state, that if you’re a state, we won’t have a deficit, we won’t have to tariff you, etc, etc.

Factcheck: An Ipsos poll last week found that a strong majority of Canadians agree that Canada should remain independent.

Turning back to energy, Trump says the US needs to double its energy production, partly to fuel artificial intelligence.

He says he will fast-track the approvals for new power plants, which companies can site next to their plants – something not currently possible under regulations.

Worryingly, Trump declares that companies will be able to fuel it with anything they want, and have coal as a backup, “good, clean coal”.

He then tells Davos that “nothing can destroy coal, not the weather, not a bomb”.

Factcheck: according to the US energy agency, burning coal produces sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates and carbon dioxide.

During his speech, Trump declared that he’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately.

Likewise, they should be dropping all over the world, he adds.

Factcheck: US interest rates are set by the US Federal Reserve – who, like other major central banks, are independent.

The Fed’s next meeting is next week – and it isn’t expected to cut…

Asked about Europe’s “regulatory regime”, Trump claims that the EU treats America”very, very unfairly”, and “very badly”.

Trump complains that Europe don’t take US farm products or US cars, but sent cars to the US by the milions.

Trump says this results in “hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits” with the EU, which nobody’s happy with.

“We’re going to do something about it,” he says, darkly.

Trump goes on to insist that he loves the countries of Europe, even though they treat the US “very, very unfairly with the VAT taxes and all of the other taxes they impose”.

He also takes a swipe at Europe’s regulation of US tech firms, saying they want billions from Apple, Google, and Facebook.

These are American companies, whether you like them or not, they’re American companies, and they shouldn’t be doing that.

Trump claims these fines are “a form of taxation”.

Factcheck: Apple was fined for a “sweetheart” tax arrangement, for example

Onto the military, and Trump says he’s going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.

He tells the World Economic Forum that most nations didn’t meet the 2%/GDP target until he challenged them, during his first term.

I insisted that they pay, and they did, because the United States was really paying the difference at that time.

Factcheck: Just this morning, Nato chief Mark Rutte agreed that European Nato members aren’t paying enough, and warned that the 2% level will not be enough to ensure security in a few years.

Trump then tells Davos he will ask Saudi Arabia and the Opec group to bring down the cost of oil.

Trump says he was “surprised” that this didn’t happen before last November.

You got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election. That didn’t show a lot of love.

Trump then claims that if the oil price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.

Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue, Trump argues, adding:

They should have done it long ago. They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what’s taking place.

[Trump’s point, I think, is that Russia is still bringing in revenus through its oil sales, despite the G7 and EU sanctions on energy sales.

If Saudi Arabia and the wider Opec group pumped more oil, the law of supply and demand would kick in….]

Trump then appears to warn that tariffs of some sort could be imposed on a wide range of goods.

Speaking to delegates at Davos, he says:

If you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.

These tariffs will come at “differing amounts”, he says, but they will direct hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, to strengthen the economy and pay down debt.

Factcheck: Tariffs on imported goods are paid by consumers, because they are levied on top of the import price, and thus end up lifting prices in the shops.

Trump begins by saying hello to “everyone in beautiful Davos”.

He says the US has entered the “golden age of America” [someone at the back of the hall guffaws], and claims that his election victory (including taking the seven swing states) was “a massive mandate from the American people”.

The world has witnessed a “revolution of common sense”, he declares, which will lead to a “stronger, wealthier and more united” country than ever before.

The entire planet will be more peaceful and prosperous too, he promises.

In around 15 minutes time, Donald Trump is to address the World Economic Forum by video-link.

Trump has visited Davos twice before – when he was the main event in town (which he clearly loved).

This time, he’ll be beamed onto the big screen at the front of WEF’s cavernous hall.

Queues have been building in the last few minutes, with WEF attendees keen to get a taste of digital Donald…

Sarah Kate Ellis, the President and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, says she found Javier Milei’s speech today “outrageous”, and walked out.

Speaking at an event titled Protecting LGBTQI+ Lives at the Open Forum here in Davos, she said:

We are over here on the sidelines, and on the main stage I had to listen to the president of Argentina who tore down our community, tore down women who want bodily autonomy.

I thought it was outrageous. Outrageous. I walked out.

During his speech, Milei claimed “feminism, diversity, inclusion, equity, immigration, abortion, environmentalism, and gender ideology” are all “various heads of the same beast” to justify the expansion of the state.

Tariffs have been a hot topic in Davos too this week, but the world’s top trade official thinks we should “chill” about the subject.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), told a session at WEF that she senses “a lot of hyperventilation, and we need to take a deep breath.”

Okonjo-Iweala explains that tariffs are a “stroke of the pen” kind of policies.

They are very easy to use…so they are often used for solve problems that are not the fault of trade.

Trade is sometimes unfairly blamed for things that are not the fault of trade.

Trade deficits (something that irks ‘Tariff Man’ Donald Trump) are sometimes not due to trade issues at all, she argues, but , but due to macroeconomic unbalances.

For example, in one country there needs to be more consumption, or in another one there are no savings as everyone is spending all their money.

Okonjo-Iweala also points out that there is “resilience” in world trade, which currently totals $30.4tn, and 80% under WTO rules.

During his Davos speech, Milei also defended Elon Musk over his ‘hand salute’ which some have called an unambiguous Nazi salute.

Milei told the WEF that his “dear friend Musk” has been “unfairly vilified by wokeism in recent hours for an innocent gesture that only [showed] his gratitude to the people”.

As well as savaging feminism (see earlier post), Milei also attacked “sinister radical environmentalism”, claiming economic development is seen as little more than a crime against nature.

And he also attacks “the LGBT agenda”, for “attempting to impose the idea that women are men and men are women, simply based on self-perception”.

Pope Francis has warned Davos that artificial intelligence technologies can exacerbate a growing “crisis of truth”.

In a special message to the World Economic Forum, Francis urged political, economic and business leaders here to maintain a close oversight of the development of artificial intelligence,

It’s a timely warning, given the Davos promenade (outside the Congress centre) is packed with companies promoting their AI skills.

Francis does praise AI’s abilities, but warns that the tech also raises “critical concerns” about humanity’s future.

In a statement read by Cardinal Peter Turkson, a Vatican official, he says:

“The results that AI can produce are almost indistinguishable from those of human beings, raising questions about its effect on the growing crisis of truth in the public forum.

“To navigate the complexities of AI, governments and businesses must exercise due diligence and vigilance.”

Business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds has just been briefing journalists in Davos. He struck an upbeat tone, suggesting he has met several firms considering investment in the UK, while out here.

Reynolds said he does not expect the UK to be badly affected by any tariffs imposed by Trump, because we are not among the countries with which the US has a large trade deficit.

And while their politics are very different, he confessed to some admiration for Donald Trump’s determination to get things done - and his optimism.

“I listened to the inauguration speech. I think there is a test in most countries in the Western world, people asking, ‘can the government deliver for me?’ Can it address the issues?’

And I could see that was part of the picture that he was making. And I also detected a very optimistic message, in a sense. I mean, you start a speech with, ‘a new golden age has begun’. You could see how he was communicating that part of things.

So look, I think it would be, it would be wrong to say we should look at it and say we should be more like Trump. But we do have to show people that government can make a positive difference to their lives.”

Reynolds also appeared open to possible membership of the Pan-Euro Mediterranean Convention, which allows customs free trade across EU countries and a number of other markets - something commission vice chair Maros Sefcovic pointed to in an interview with the BBC.

Welcoming Sefcovic’s comments, Reynolds said, “it is obviously not a customs union,” - ie it would not cross Labour’s red line against joining such an arrangement.

“It’s not EU thing,” he continued.

“I mean Morocco or Algeria, Egypt, I think are all part of as well as Tunisia and Lichenstein, Switzerland. So it’s a wider, set of arrangements that do help in some sectors.”

He added that it would not solve the UK car sector’s challenges with the curent trade and cooperation agreement.

Reynolds says:

“We haven’t ever proposed ourselves that we joined...some sectors would benefit, some wouldn’t. But look, what I really welcome in that positive tone is a recognition that we should be ambitious”.

Following Milei’s crumpet-dropper of a speech, we’ve returned to more traditional Davos fare with a panel discussion on technology in the future.

Marc Benioff, head of Salesforce, tells WEF’s boss class that they are the last generation of CEOs who will only be managing humans.

From this point forward… we will be managing not only human workers, but also digital workers. And that is just incredible.

Benioff explains that Salesforce powers WEF’s information management systems, and has added a AI-powered digital assistant within the WEF app that studies which sessions a user has attended and gives recommendations.

Nicholas Thompson, CEO of the Atlantic, reveals that this agent really works:

“I was out on the Promenade at 2am and I’d had seven drinks and the agent which had studied all my previous Davos visits said “Stop” and sent me to bed.

So thank you very much.”

[some of us were tucked up some time earlier, without the help of an AI agent, M’Lud.]

Javier Milei rounds off his speech to Davos by declaring that “a silent majority is gathering”, and that the world is facing a Copernican shift.

He tells the World Economic Forum that if organisations of its type want to turn over a new leaf, they must acknowledge their role in events of recent decades and make a mea culpa.

Reading what everyone else reads, or saying what everyone else says, is a mistake, he says, adding that the script of the last 40 years has run out:

I say to all global leaders, it is time to break free of the script.

Milei says he is proposing “we make the West great again”.

And then barks out:

“Long live freedom, dammit!”

which rather startled the lady next to me in the hall.

[Milei also ended last year’s speech with the same rallying cry].

Argentina’s president, Javier Milie, is launching an attack on “sickly wokism” at the World Economic Forum.

In his second visit to Davos, fresh from Donald Trump’s inauguration, Milei is giving a special address to delegates – in his unique style.

Milei claims that “woke ideology” is “the great epidemic of our times that must be cured”.

He claims it is a “cancer we must get rid of”, which has infected goverments of leading western nations, non-government organisations, universities and media outlets, and set the tone of the debate over the last decade.

Western civilisation cannot return to a path of progress, and usher in a new golden age, without tackling this woke menace, Milei tells WEF.

Channelling Harold Macmillan, Milei declares that “the winds of change are blowing”, insisting:

The truth is that there is something badly mistaken about the ideas that have been promoted through forums such as this one.

Milei throws a wide number of themes into this wokist box, including “radical feminism” and “gender ideology”.

Wokism, he claims, is a plot by the state to justify the redistribution of wealth.

Milei tells world leaders here in Davos that he feels less alone than a year ago, because an alliance is building – he cites Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and the US president Donald Trump as leaders who embrace this “new way of telling people the truth”.

Slowly an alliance is building between countires which want to be free.

Hope has been rekindled, he adds.

The new US presidential envoy for special missions has pushed back against Mark Rutte’s talk about Ukraine joining Nato, pointing out many members of the alliance aren’t paying their “fair share” already.

Richard Grenell, appointed by Donald Trump in December, says it is “pretty shocking” that so many foreign ministers in Europe, and so many American politicians, didn’t try to stop the Russia-Ukraine war, and criticises Joe Biden’s handling of the situation.

Grenell warns that “you’re going to run into a big buzz saw in America” if we have the NATO secretary general talking about adding Ukraine to NATO, when the American people are the ones that are paying for the defence.

Grenell declares:

You cannot ask the American people to expand the umbrella of NATO when the current members aren’t paying their fair share, and that includes the Dutch, who need to step up.

[that’s a pop at Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands]

Good morning from Davos, where the third full day of the World Economic Forun is getting underway.

The head of NATO is calling on world leaders to “step up, not scale back” support for Ukraine, so that it can reach eventual peace talks with Russia in the best state possible.

Mark Rutte says it is important to “change the trajectory of the war”, warning that the front line is moving in the wrong direction.

Rutte says there are three important reasons to do this.

Firstly, for Ukraine itself. Rutte says we cannot allow one country invades another country and try to colonize it, in the 21st century.

Secondly, because China, North Korea, Iran and Russia are working together. A ‘bad deal’, would mean the President of Russia “high-fiving” with the leaders of North Korea, Iran and China, Rutte says.

And thirdly, because if Ukraine were to lose the war, Nato members would face “trillions” of extra spending to bolster their military, a “much, much higher price” than is being contemplated today.

Rutte adds that there is a commitment that Ukraine will become a member of Nato.

And if Vladimir Putin can be brought to the negotiating table, the important thing is to ensure a “sustainable peace”, Rutte says, and not repeat the peace talks of Minsk in 2014

For it to be sustainable, we have to make sure that Putin will never, ever, ever again try to get a square kilometer of Ukraine in the future.

Rutte is speaking at a breakfast organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Davos.

Pinchuk, the Ukrainian businessman and oligarch, explains that he loves it when the US president, or other leaders, talk about putting their country first.

If you put the interest of your country first, then it means national security is an absolute priority.

But that means you must not let our crazy, terrible enemy win in Ukraine.

Pinchuk adds that if that happens (and he believes it ‘definitely’ won’t), it would severely damage the national interest of other countries.

Also coming up today

There is a populist feel to Davos today. Even though he’s not attending this year, Donald Trump has loomed over Davos. And at 5pm local time the new president will deliver remarks to delegates via a live video link.

Before that we’ll hear from Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, and also receive a messsage from the Pope.

The agenda

• 7.30am CET / 6.30am GMT: Davos Ukrainian Breakfast

• 9.30am CET / 8.30am GMT: A special message from Pope Francis, delivered by Cardinal Turkson

• 10.15am CET / 9.15am GMT: Special address by Javier Milei, President of Argentina

• 11.30am CET / 10.30am GMT: A debate on tariffs

• 1.15pm CET / 12.15pm GMT: A session on action on Antimicrobial Resistance

• 3pm CET / 2pm GMT: A session on Global Risks 2025

• 4.15pm CET / 3.15pm GMT: A session on Can National Security Keep Up with AI?

• 5pm CET / 4pm GMT: Special Address and Dialogue with Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America