U.S. job openings remained strong, “with 11.5 million positions listed as available in March, underscoring the continuing strength of the labor market.” The number of workers voluntarily leaving jobs “also reached a high” in...more
The Fed’s March meeting notes dropped on Wednesday, and they detailed the central bank’s plans to “shrink their portfolio of bond holdings imminently” as well as the “many” fed officials auguring for significant rate hikes in...more
JetBlue has made a last-minute $3.6 billion offer to buy Spirit Airlines, “throwing a wrench into Spirit’s plan to merge with Frontier Airlines and create a behemoth budget carrier.” The offer appears calculated to help...more
Jobs Report Friday! Here’s what we’re looking for in the March numbers after reports earlier this week suggested we remain in a period of both high openings and voluntary resignations...more
The European Union is putting the final touches on its latest landmark digital legislation, the Digital Markets Act—one of “the world’s most far-reaching laws to address the power of the biggest tech companies.” The DMA is...more
Back at it. Let’s dive right in. Fed Chair Powell Jay Powell went on the record to start the week with an attempt to prepare markets for the central bank’s big moves ahead “in its quest to cool off demand and temper...more
Consumer Price Index numbers out on Wednesday hit economists’ expectations, an increase of 7% as compared to a year earlier. Though the figure was expected, it was also the first time CPI rose that much since 1982, as strong...more
The release of the Fed’s December meeting minutes (and its discussion of a quickened pace of rate hikes) was all it took to rattle markets, with the S&P 500 dropping nearly 2% on Wednesday—“its biggest drop in weeks.”...more
Apple has officially appealed the September verdict in its years-long battle with Epic Games that was set to “require the tech giant to tweak its strict App Store rules and force it to allow app developers of ways to pay for...more
10/11/2021
/ Apple ,
Banking Sector ,
Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Markets ,
Hasbro ,
Oil & Gas ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Startups ,
Stock Markets ,
Tesla
The Federal Reserve wrapped its September Open Market Committee meetings on Wednesday with the anticipated news that it would soon start to slowly taper its asset purchasing and is prepared to raise interest rates as early as...more
As we anticipated, Fed Chair Powell—appearing virtually at the annual Jackson Hole gathering of Fed officials and watchers—signaled the possibility of central bank bond-purchase tapering as early as this year. More notable,...more
Jobs Report Friday again! Here’s what we’re watching for in the numbers, including some thoughts on recent positive trends and how the Delta variant may upend them...more
Robinhood, the trading app that helped facilitate the pandemic-era rise of meme stock craziness, has gone meme-level itself this week, with its shares rising more than 65% at one point on Wednesday before Nasdaq briefly...more
The Biden Administration has nominated prominent Google critic Jonathan Kanter to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division. Kanter is “a longtime antitrust lawyer who has represented companies that argue they have been harmed by the...more
Stung recently by the collapse of Greensill Capital and Archegos Capital Mgmt (the latter alone which cost it more than $5.5 billion), Credit Suisse recently “dissolved a longstanding personal lending relationship” with Masa...more
The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Tuesday for allegedly “artificially raising prices for products around the web by abusing its monopoly power.” The lawsuit represents yet another sign that regulators “are increasingly...more
This week’s CEO exodus continues, with Juul Labs CEO Kevin Burns taking a hike in the midst of “public and regulatory outrage over the soaring use of teenage vaping.” Altria exec KC Crosthwaite will replace Burns. Altria, the...more
Hiding somewhat in the shadows during the rise of virtual currencies over the past year or two has been blockchain, the ledger technology that undergirds bitcoin and other cryptos, and its potential application beyond digital...more
9/26/2018
/ Apple ,
Arby's ,
Banking Sector ,
Blockchain ,
Capital Raising ,
Community Reinvestment Act ,
Confidential Information ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Digital Currency ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Facebook ,
Fast-Food Industry ,
Financial Markets ,
FOMC ,
Franchises ,
Fraud ,
Futures ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Instagram ,
Intel ,
iPhone ,
Low-Income Issues ,
Market Manipulation ,
Money Laundering ,
Qualcomm ,
Redlining ,
Securities Violations ,
Social Media ,
Software ,
Spoofing ,
Virtual Currency ,
Wal-Mart ,
White Collar Crimes
In January 2017, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma was proudly promising to create 1 million jobs in America—a heady promise but one not unthinkable given Alibaba’s massive scale. Fast forward 20 months and a growing Sino-American...more
9/21/2018
/ Alibaba ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banking Sector ,
Bear Sterns ,
Big Data ,
CBS ,
CFTC ,
Competition Authorities ,
Corporate Bonds ,
Data Collection ,
Data-Sharing ,
Email ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Google ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Job Creation ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Kokesh v SEC ,
Market Manipulation ,
Money Laundering ,
NYSE ,
On-Demand Services ,
Payment Processors ,
PayPal ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Resignation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Severance Pay ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Spoofing ,
Uber ,
UK ,
Wells Fargo ,
White Collar Crimes
The SEC has taken its first enforcement action against a hedge fund over its cryptocurrency investments—namely, falsely holding itself out as the “first regulated fund in the U.S. focused on crypto assets.” It also targeted a...more
9/12/2018
/ Apple ,
Banking Sector ,
Bitcoin ,
China ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FCC ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Job Creation ,
Misclassification ,
Mobile Devices ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Sprint ,
State Labor Laws ,
T-Mobile ,
Telecommunications ,
Token Sales ,
Trade Relations ,
Uber ,
Unemployment ,
Unregistered Securities ,
Virtual Currency ,
Whistleblowers
As expected based on buzz from late last week, longtime CBS chief Les Moonves is out at the network he’s led for more than 20 years. While his exit has been in the works for some time, a report out yesterday detailing new...more
9/10/2018
/ Alibaba ,
Banking Sector ,
CBS ,
Citigroup ,
Countercyclical Capital Buffer (CCyB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Ether ,
EU ,
Financial Crisis ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Google ,
Job Creation ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Pump and Dump ,
Resignation ,
Right to Be Forgotten ,
Search Engines ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Teva Pharmaceuticals ,
Trading Platforms ,
Unemployment
Big tech (including Facebook, Google [theoretically], and Twitter) is heading back to the Hill (with @jack pulling double-duty, because that’s how he rolls). Here’s what to expect today based on their prepared testimony....more
9/5/2018
/ Amazon Marketplace ,
Argentina ,
Banking Sector ,
Canada ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Fines ,
Corruption ,
Cross-Selling ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Emerging Markets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Financial Crisis ,
Financial Markets ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Google ,
Insurance Industry ,
Market Manipulation ,
Money Laundering ,
NAFTA ,
Settlement ,
Spoofing ,
State Farm ,
Stock Prices ,
Trade Relations ,
Twitter ,
US Trade Policies ,
Wells Fargo ,
White Collar Crimes
There’s falling from grace, and then there’s Elizabeth Holmes. Once compared glowingly to Steve Jobs, Holmes’ well-documented Theranos ills (including exaggerated and faked blood-test results) have landed her with SEC...more
3/15/2018
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Banking Sector ,
Bear Sterns ,
Disney ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Equifax ,
Grocery Stores ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Retail Market ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Theranos ,
Trump Administration ,
Unilever ,
Wal-Mart ,
Xerox
New Fed chair Jay Powell made his first official appearance before Congress in that capacity, relaying to the House Financial Services Committee yesterday that he viewed the country’s economic outlook as improved since...more
2/28/2018
/ Amazon Marketplace ,
Banking Sector ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Breweries ,
Comcast ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Cross-Selling ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Interest Rate Adjustments ,
Libor ,
Wells Fargo
Analysis of the Fed’s January meeting minutes shows Fed officials suggesting that robust economic growth has created the right conditions for higher interest rates....more
2/22/2018
/ Banking Sector ,
Broadcom ,
Class Action ,
Digital Realty Trust Inc v Somers ,
Economic Development ,
FDIC ,
Ford Motor ,
General Electric ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Interest Rate Adjustments ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
LendingClub ,
Libor ,
Olympics ,
Puerto Rico ,
Qualcomm ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Whistleblowers