What you need to know on Wall Street right now

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Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.

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Three days before Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as the 45th US president, a world power with which he has taken an at-times adversarial approach has become the unlikely leader at the world's most visible gathering of economic elites.

Xi Jinping on Tuesday became the first Chinese president to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"Whether you like it or not, the global economy is the big ocean you can't escape from," Xi said in delivering the forum's opening plenary speech, introduced by the forum's founder and chair, Klaus Schwab.

Elsewhere in geopolitics, it's going to be a "Hard Brexit" in the UK. There's reason to believe the trade wars have already begun. And the two biggest tail risks listed by fund managers have a single source: US President-elect Donald Trump.

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Former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague is joining investment bank Citi as a senior advisor to help the bank make sense of it all.

In Wall Street news, Morgan Stanley just reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat on the top and bottom lines. And one of Deutsche Bank's top sales executives is leaving.

The money management business could reach "a turning point" in 2017, according to Morgan Stanley. We could be heading for "a stock pickers' paradise." And these are the 10 best stock pickers that you should have listened to in 2016.

A key fundraiser for Barack Obama and a Chinese conglomerate are buying Anthony Scaramucci's investment firm. A bunch of funds just got fined by the SEC for violating "pay-to-play" rules. And here's how to play the Trump presidency, according to hedge fund legend David Einhorn. In related news, Einhorn is making a big bet on GM.

In deal news, the accessory retailer Claire's has withdrawn its plans to go public.

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In the healthcare sector, the GOP's Obamacare repeal could leave 27 million people without health insurance and cause premiums to skyrocket, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Incidentally, Obamacare is now more popular than ever.

And in tech news, Evan Spiegel is selling his vision to investors ahead of Snap's huge IPO. AT&T CEO says he won't need to spin off CNN for the $85 billion Time Warner merger to go through.

And Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's next job should be a tech investor - her track record proves it.

Lastly, the world's 8 richest people have the same wealth as half of humanity combined.

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Here are the top Wall Street headlines from the past 24 hours

TIFFANY & CO.: Trump Tower is killing our business - The heavy security around Trump Tower in New York to protect the president-elect is crushing its neighbors.

The world's CEOs are more worried about a burgeoning jobs problem than Brexit or populism - The bulk of the world's CEOs are more concerned about the burgeoning workers' skills gap than political uncertainty from Brexit, US President-elect Donald Trump's policies, or the rise of populism across Europe.

The maker of Ray Ban is merging with a rival in a €50 billion deal - Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French corrective eye lens maker Essilor have agreed on a €50 billion (£44 billion, $53.16 billion) merger.

Dow 20,000 is overrated - For much of the past month, investors have been fixated on the Dow Jones Industrial Average's quest for its first print above 20,000. And while the index hit a high of 19,999.63 on January 6, it has yet to breach the psychologically important level.

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Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and five other big banks are collaborating on a blockchain project - Seven major banks have signed up to a new project aimed at increasing global trade among small and medium-sized businesses using blockchain, or distributed ledger, technology.

Trump's top health official is facing ethics questions for investments in healthcare companies - Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is facing ethics questions over investments he made in medical companies while serving in Congress.

Blockchain tech could save top investment banks $8 billion a year - Blockchain technology could save leading investment banks up to $12 billion (£9.8 billion) a year in back office cost, according to a new analysis from consultancy Accenture and operations benchmarking company McLagan.

Here's how much it would cost to buy the White House - The White House is worth $397.9 million, according to the real-estate listings firm Zillow.

Manhattan's first micro-apartments just won a prestigious design award - here's what it's like to spend a night in one - People often assume that New Yorkers live in shoe-box-sized apartments.

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