Craig Steven Wright—the Australian who claims to be famed Bitcoin mastermind Satoshi Nakamoto—is not exactly being welcomed with open (and unquestioning) arms – NYTimes...
Stocks came booming back yesterday after a tough...more
5/3/2016
/ Baker Hughes ,
Banking Sector ,
Berkshire Hathaway ,
Bitcoin ,
China ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Financial Markets ,
Foreign Currency ,
Halliburton ,
Libor ,
Moody's ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Spain ,
Valeant ,
Virtual Currency
As promised, the Fed and FDIC have rejected the bankruptcy unwinding plans (or “living wills”) of JPMorgan and 4 other systematically important banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, State Street, and BNY Mellon after...more
4/14/2016
/ Argentina ,
Banking Sector ,
China ,
Citigroup ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Credit Suisse ,
Financial Markets ,
Injunctions ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Liquidity ,
Living Will ,
NCUA ,
RMBS
MetLife went to the mats over its SIFI label . . . and it won big. A federal judge in D.C. yesterday rescinded the “too big to fail” designation for the insurer, though the government can appeal the decision. The decision...more
3/31/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Capital Raising ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Dodd-Frank ,
FinTech ,
General Electric ,
HSBC ,
Insurance Industry ,
MetLife ,
RMBS ,
SIFIs ,
Venture Capital
Major news for the extended Blackstone & private equity family yesterday, as federal authorities arrested Wall Street exec Andrew Caspersen on charges of securities and wire fraud in what they’re labeling a “’brazen’ scheme...more
3/29/2016
/ Airlines ,
Banking Sector ,
Blockchain ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FinTech ,
Goldman Sachs ,
Investment ,
OCC ,
RBS ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Valeant ,
Virtual Currency ,
Wire Fraud
Major home-improvement news this weekend, as Sherwin-Williams put up more than $9 billion to purchase Minneapolis-based Valspar. The deal’s expected to close within a year, pending approval from regulators and Valspar’s...more
3/21/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Bonds ,
Coal Industry ,
Default ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Form 10-K ,
Goldman Sachs ,
Investors ,
Kraft ,
Millennials ,
Valeant
The Fed’s patience on rate hikes coupled with surging commodities prices (including oil over $40/barrel for the first time since December) helped push the Dow into positive territory for the year – WSJ...
So apparently...more
The SEC’s been floating an idea that would require mutual funds “to increase their liquidity cushions to accommodate investors looking to leave in a hurry,” but the industry’s pushing back—hard—despite the recent Third Avenue...more
The Federal Reserve is now tossing around a proposal that would “effectively place[] a cap on how much business banks can do with another bank or company”—the idea being to prevent the 2008-era mistake of Wall Street banks...more
3/7/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Board of Directors ,
Diversity ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Crisis ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Foreign Currency ,
Job Creation ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Washington Mutual
The past 2 days saw an incredible and tragic turn of events for former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon, part owner of the OK Thunder and a winery in Bordeaux and “face of the nation’s natural gas boom,” who on Tuesday...more
Solid economic data helped propel US stocks yesterday, with the Dow posting an impressive 350-point gain – WSJ and Bloomberg...
Honeywell has again dropped its merger overtures to United Technologies, a move UT...more
Apple’s gained some welcome federal precedent in its battle to resist unlocking its phones for the federal government, thanks to an EDNY drug case in which federal magistrate judge James Orenstein denied the government’s...more
3/1/2016
/ All Writs Act ,
Apple ,
Argentina ,
Banking Sector ,
China ,
Dodd-Frank ,
FinTech ,
Hedge Funds ,
IBM ,
Insider Trading ,
iPhone ,
Living Will ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
European stocks couldn’t escape the pull of tough news in Asia after a disappointing G-20 meeting of finance ministers sent markets there lower today. In other words, US markets may be wishing that we just kept on leaping...more
It’s a whole new ballgame for Wall Street traders—and one suspects it’s involving a lot fewer actual ballgames and a lot more algorithms, as the advanced-degree coders and their ETF firms take on the old guard – NYTimes...more
2/23/2016
/ Algorithmic Trading ,
Banking Sector ,
China ,
EU ,
Honeywell International ,
Libor ,
Market Manipulation ,
Online Drug Sales ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
UK ,
Yahoo!
With China’s top securities regulator, Xiao Gang, officially on the outs, the Times takes a look at the difficult road ahead for replacement Liu Shiyu in one of the most thankless jobs in China—where “the pay is too low and...more
Barclays has agreed to pay $50 million to settle claims by Plaintiff Axiom Investment Advisors that it “misused a system intended to block stale foreign exchange prices as a way to boost the bank’s profits while hurting...more
2/19/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Barclays ,
Bonds ,
Brokers ,
China ,
Fees ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Markets ,
Foreign Exchanges ,
Interest Rates ,
Iraq ,
Oil & Gas ,
Wal-Mart
If we’ve learned any lessons this year, it’s not to get excited about a 2-day rally. That said, we’ve not had much to cheer about in the 2016 markets, so let’s get crazy. With markets closed on Monday, the Friday-Tuesday...more
Friday’s jobs report was disappointing as compared to the month earlier, but it contained news of a half a percentage point increase in average hourly earnings that pleased some economists who have been worrying about...more
2/8/2016
/ Argentina ,
Banking Sector ,
CFTC ,
Cybersecurity ,
Foreclosure ,
Foreign Currency ,
Hedge Funds ,
HSBC ,
Mortgage Loan Originators ,
Ponzi Scheme ,
Wage and Hour
Beware the toxic debt hangover, a nasty side effect of years of the aggressive stimulus policies governments and central banks around the world have engaged in to ramp up their economies. Trillions of dollars of bad loans,...more
AIG may have shrugged off Carl Icahn for now, but Xerox has succumbed to his calls for breaking up and is expected to announce sometime today [update: it did] that it will separate its legacy hardware side from its services...more
Quick recap: another Monday, another rough start to a trading week in what’s turned into an ugly pattern for the year – WSJ...
Which, coupled with more pessimism about the Chinese economy, helped drive stocks down in...more
So the bull market may be on its way out of town after a nearly 7-year stretch [care to jump on the “blame the Fed” bandwagon?], but even when combined with usual predictors like declines in industrial production and...more
Remember that oil spill on the markets from yesterday? We’re heading into Exxon Valdez territory here, even with a late-day rally on Wall Street that helped somewhat stem monumental losses – NYTimes...
The Upshot’s...more
Incredibly, there’s more news from the FASB this week, which has announced that its dropping the accounting rule (dubbed an “Alice in Wonderland” measure) that “allowed stressed banks to book huge gains simply because they...more
Welcome back. Let’s get right to it.
With the new year only a few days old, there’s still plenty looking back going on. Here’s some analysis of the monumental year in deals—all $4.7 trillion-worth—that was marked not...more
As expected based on earlier rumors, Avon has struck a deal with Cerberus Capital Management to split off its North American business. Cerberus will acquire an 80.1% stake in Avon North America and also kick in a $435 million...more