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Hey, what's news listeners. It's Sunday, December 22nd. I'm Charlotte Gartenberg for the Wall Street Journal.

This is What's News Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom to help explain what's happening in our world.

This week, President-elect Trump's coming term might bring fairer wins

for mergers and acquisitions. We look at how and who might stand to benefit. Let's get to it.

2023 had the lowest number of M&A deals targeting U.S. companies since 2015, and this year is

likely to have an even smaller number of transactions announced,

according to data from Deal Logic.

There's no single reason, but many attribute recent choppy waters and dealmaking

to regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission.

Donald Trump's presidential victory could signal smoother sailing for M&A.

And the optimism's already showing.

The day after the election, banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley saw their

biggest single-day gains in four years. Mega-cap tech companies also saw some big upticks that day.

Here to walk us through what we might see in mergers and acquisitions in the coming year is reporter Ben Dumbett, who writes about dealmaking from the Wall Street Journal's London Bureau.

First off, Ben, when's the optimism?

Trump himself is a big reason, and he's advocated pro-business, relatively light-touch regulatory regime.

One of the big obstacles for M&A, particularly big M&A,

under the Biden administration, has been the FDC,

which is headed by Lena Kahn,

who's taken an unusually aggressive stance to big deals.

Trump and the Republicans, they've already announced they will remove Lena Kahn.

...