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☆ European Central Bank hikes rates by a quarter-percentage point
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —The European Central Bank raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point Thursday, the smallest increase since it started hiking in July after data this week showed core inflation cooling and banks pulling back sharply on lending. The ECB targets an inflation rate of 2%. “From a historical perspective, the pace of net tightening in credit standards remained at the highest level since the euro area sovereign debt crisis in 2011,” the central bank said. The Fed also pointed to tougher bank lending standards Wednesday, as it raised its benchmark federal funds rate to a level of 5%-5.25%. A key Fed survey of bank lending activity in the first quarter will be published next week.

☆ Global issuance of mortgage-backed securities falls to a 23-year low
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Patturaja Murugaboopathy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

May 4 (Reuters) - The issuance of global mortgage-backed securities (MBS) slumped to a 23-year low in the first four months of this year, highlighting the turmoil in the real estate sector as higher mortgage rates hit property sales and refinancing. According to Refinitiv data, global MBS issuance stood at $100 billion in the first four months of this year, the lowest since 2000. Reuters GraphicsThe property sector, often a leading indicator for other economic activity, has seen a slump this year due to a spike in mortgage rates as global central banks increased interest rates to tame inflation. MBS consist of pools of home loans and other real estate debt and typically carry higher yields than U.S. Treasuries. The refinancing of existing mortgages may also be affected, as there may be fewer lenders available to refinance existing loans leading to private lenders and higher rates."

☆ E. Jean Carroll's friend testifies that they didn't 'scheme' to make up a rape allegation to 'stop' Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Ashley Collman | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Testimony continued in E. Jean Carroll's rape and defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump on Thursday. Carol Martin told jury about how Carroll confided in her about the alleged rape in the mid-1990s. Former President Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll. "I'm here because I want to reiterate and remember what my friend E. Jean Carroll told me 27 years ago. In another message, Martin said she thinks Carroll was "acting a little scary" and was "in too deep" but "loving the adulation."

Both benchmarks fell 5% during the previous session, when they also recorded their biggest one-day percentage declines since early January. "The Federal Reserve is expected to deliver another quarter-point increase later today as part of its long-running battle against inflation," PVM Oil analyst Stephen Brennock said. Oil prices extended losses after government data showed U.S. gasoline inventories (USOILG=ECI) unexpectedly rose by 1.7 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel drop. U.S. crude inventories (USOILC=ECI) fell by 1.3 million barrels in the week, compared with forecasts for a 1.1 million-barrel drop. China is the world's largest energy consumer and top buyer of crude oil.

☆ Premarket stocks: What happens above 5%? The Fed's big risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

However, job openings that month tumbled to their lowest level since May 2021, according to data released Tuesday. The shifting landscape paved the way for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March and First Republic Bank this week. By blessing JPMorgan’s takeover of First Republic Bank, the Democratic US senator fears federal regulators just made the “too big to fail” problem even worse. To the relief of investors and bank customers, the JPMorgan deal protects all of First Republic’s depositors. The decision to invest in food and grocery delivery during the pandemic has become a big advantage for Uber.

☆ A herring fishermen group's lawsuit will give the Supreme Court the chance to hamstring federal climate regulations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US Supreme Court will take up a case brought by a group of New Jersey fishermen. If overturned, the case could have major impacts on federal climate and environmental regulations. The doctrine, established in the 1984 Supreme Court case Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council, calls for courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous federal laws. Cause of Action Institute counsel Ryan Mulvey added that the Supreme Court "has an opportunity to correct one of the most consequential judicial errors in a generation." The conservative-majority Supreme Court is slated to hear the case in its next term.

China's manufacturing activity unexpectedly fell in April, official data showed on Sunday, the first contraction since December in the manufacturing purchasing managers' index. China is expected to be the biggest factor driving oil demand growth this year, he added. The U.S. Federal Reserve, which meets on May 2-3, is expected to increase interest rates by another 25 basis points. The U.S. dollar rose against a basket of currencies, making oil more expensive for other currency holders. Oil prices drew some support from U.S. manufacturing activity pulling off a three-year low in April, as new orders improved slightly and employment rebounded.

☆ Oil drops as economic growth concerns offset OPEC+ cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Alex Lawler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Fed, which meets on May 2-3, is expected to increase interest rates by another 25 basis points. The U.S. dollar rose against a basket of currencies on Monday, making oil more expensive for other currency holders. "The failure to reach more solid ground above $80.50 in Brent points to continued selling interest amid the well known growth/demand concerns," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank. "We believe the oil market will be in deficit through the remainder of the second quarter" following the OPEC+ cuts, said Baden Moore, head of commodity and carbon strategy at National Australia Bank. Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Oil drops as US rate hike concern, weak China data offset OPEC+ cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Alex Lawler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Fed, which meets on May 2-3, is expected to increase interest rates by another 25 basis points. The U.S. dollar rose against a basket of currencies on Monday, making oil more expensive for other currency holders. Weak economic data from China also weighed. "We believe the oil market will be in deficit through the remainder of the second quarter" following the OPEC+ cuts, said NAB's Moore, who added that the bank expected the curbs plus higher demand to drive prices higher. Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

New York/London CNN —JPMorgan Chase is buying most assets of First Republic Bank and assuming all of the lender’s deposits in a deal announced Monday that was arranged by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. JPMorgan said it had acquired “the substantial majority of assets” and assumed the deposits, insured and uninsured, of First Republic Bank from the FDIC, the independent government agency that insures deposits for bank customers. The FDIC took control of the embattled First Republic and then immediately announced a sale of many of its assets and deposits. Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank both were taken over by the FDIC last month following runs on those banks by their customers. “As part of the transaction, First Republic Bank’s 84 offices in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, today during normal business hours,” it noted.

☆ Employee Monitoring and Surveillance
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +50 min

Ensuring Employee Safety and Systems SecurityEmployers may use electronic workplace monitoring and surveillance to protect their:Worksites. Potential Liability for Electronic Workplace Monitoring and SurveillanceEmployers that engage in electronic workplace monitoring and surveillance must comply with various federal and state laws, including:The Wiretap Act. Best Practices for Electronic Workplace Monitoring and SurveillanceTo avoid violating relevant state and federal laws, before conducting workplace monitoring and surveillance, employers should:Consider the purpose and appropriate scope of their monitoring and surveillance activities and what methods will help them achieve their objectives. Determine the Purpose of Workplace Monitoring and SurveillanceBefore conducting any workplace monitoring or surveillance, best practice is for employers to identify the purpose and goals of these activities to:Ensure that there is a legitimate business purpose for the planned monitoring and surveillance activities. Determine the scope of monitoring and surveillance necessary to accomplish the business purpose, and conduct only the minimum monitoring and surveillance necessary to meet that business need.

☆ White House banking headache won’t end with First Republic deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

JPMorgan Chase is buying most assets of the troubled First Republic Bank and assuming all of its deposits in a deal announced Monday that was arranged by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The independent agency’s new forced intervention is likely to fuel concerns about the overall health of the US banking sector. Biden’s new political headacheThe new concerns over the banking sector put the administration back in an unappealing position. Some progressive Democrats have balked at the idea that already mighty banks will get bigger by stepping in to snap up assets of troubled banks. On Sunday, he called for a shift in federal government policy to ensure all bank deposits.

☆ US Fed points finger at Trump-era rollback for SVB demise
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Douglas Gillison | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

According to the Fed, SVB's management bore significant blame and bank examiners also made grave missteps. Randal Quarles, who was appointed to the Fed by President Donald Trump in 2017, oversaw the Fed's bank supervision until his resignation in 2021. Patrick McHenry, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, blasted the Fed report as a "thinly veiled attempt" to justify positions like those of Warren. According to the report, the 2018 law caused the Fed to raise the supervisory threshold for large banks, i.e. those smaller than the "global systemically important banks," to $100 billion in assets from $50 billion -- delaying stricter oversight of SVB "by at least three years."

☆ Senator Patty Murray says it's impossible to keep the economy growing without affordable, well-paid childcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Senator Patty Murray is once again pushing legislation to make childcare affordable and accessible. She told Insider the growth of the US economy relies on workers having access to childcare. Under the Child Care for Working Families Act, families' childcare costs would be capped at 7% of their income, and families that earn under 85% of their state's median would pay nothing at all. "Childcare was a crisis long ago, but it was a silent crisis," Murray told Insider. "Women are in the workforce to provide for their families," Murray said.

☆ The insurance limit on your savings has become a hot global debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures deposits up to $250,000 per person, per account, using a fund that banks pay into. “I don’t think that’s served us well.”Some argue the US deposit insurance limit should be 100 times higher. What is deposit insurance? Deposit insurance is aimed at calming fears, giving customers less reason to pull their cash out in a hurry. The debate over deposit insurance taps into bigger questions about the state’s role in private enterprise.

☆ US Fed plans broad revamp of bank oversight in wake of SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Many commentators linked the lessons learned from the earlier crisis to the ongoing concerns about First Republic Bank. INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL BANKERS CEO BETH ZORC"The IIB commends the Federal Reserve's timeliness of producing its report on SVB. "There are similarities between SVB's situation and what is happening with First Republic Bank: both are affected by the rapid movement of very large sums of money." A potential First Republic Bank failure could similarly present a risk to the long-term investment strategy of high net-worth individuals." "It feels isolated, than the rest of the regional bank system, feels like it's in a different place than where FRC is."

☆ Consultancies are coming off a pandemic boom. Are they still worth hiring?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Management consultancies helped design vaccination programs during the pandemic and are currently providing advice on how to rescue one of the world’s biggest banks. The $230 billion management consulting industry is a broad church: it includes companies offering everything from project management expertise to designing new organizational structures. Many big firms — think EY and KPMG — also conduct audits and advise on their clients’ tax issues, though these services are generally seen as distinct from their consulting work. In The Big Con, published in February, prize-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato and her co-author Rosie Collington argue that management consultancies “infantilize” governments by keeping them dependent on their services. Nearly 80% of firms surveyed globally have told the think-tank that consultants’ work is either of high or very high quality, she noted.

☆ Here’s what the SVB report will (and won’t) include, according to top former Fed official
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Randal Quarles, former vice chair of supervision at the Fed, told CNN in an exclusive interview that he doesn’t expect the report to uncover any smoking guns. For instance, SVB was able to opt out of holding capital against its unrealized investment losses. Cole Burston/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesIn Quarles’ view, returning to the pre-2019 requirements “would not have made any difference” in preventing SVB from failing. The real issue that the Fed’s report should address, he said, is why SVB’s uninsured depositors were so quick to flee. That’s why Quarles said he didn’t hear about the red flags Fed officials identified when he was vice chair for supervision.

☆ Microsoft’s blockbuster deal to buy Activision is in jeopardy. Here’s what could happen next
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

UK officials said Wednesday they will block the company’s $69 billion deal to acquire video game giant Activision-Blizzard. It could also complicate Microsoft’s future in the gaming industry and severely upend Activision, which was in the throes of an internal crisis in the months leading up to the deal. By buying Activision, Microsoft would become the third-largest video game publisher in the world after Tencent and Sony. (The UK dropped its concerns about the console market in March, while the European Union reportedly does not oppose the deal.) In a memo Wednesday to employees, Kotick attempted to strike an optimistic note, whatever the outcome of the deal may be.

☆ E. Jean Carroll said she can still feel Trump's 'curved finger' in rape trial testimony
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Ashley Collman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

E. Jean Carroll testified in her rape and defamation lawsuit against Trump on Wednesday. She said she didn't report the rape because she was afraid he's retaliate, but told two friends. Once inside Carroll said Trump closed the door and "shoved me so hard my head banged" against the wall. E. Jean Carroll outside of US Federal Court in Manhattan Getty Images"I didn't want to make scene. He'll bury you," Carroll said Martin told her.

☆ UK blocks Microsoft takeover of Activision Blizzard
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —The UK antitrust regulator has blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, thwarting one of the tech industry’s biggest deals over concerns it will stifle competition in cloud gaming. “The cloud allows UK gamers to avoid buying expensive gaming consoles and PCs and gives them much more flexibility and choice as to how they play. Allowing Microsoft to take such a strong position in the cloud gaming market just as it begins to grow rapidly would risk undermining the innovation that is crucial to the development of these opportunities,” it added. “Alongside Microsoft, we can and will contest this decision, and we’ve already begun the work to appeal to the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement. “Cloud gaming needs a free, competitive market to drive innovation and choice.”The UK cloud gaming market is expected to be worth up to £1 billion ($1.2 billion) by 2026, around 9% of the global market, according to the Competition and Markets Authority.

☆ Ed Sheeran plagiarism trial erupts in laughs over nerdy, computer-generated version of 'Let's Get It On'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ed Sheeran is on trial in federal court in Manhattan, fighting a copyright infringement lawsuit. Laughter broke out Wednesday as an expert played a nerdy 'AI' version of Marvin Gaye's soul classic. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on baby," the voice continued, without apostrophes or groove. "It was hideous," Griffin Townsend told Insider of the robotic rendition of her father's song that was played for jurors on Wednesday. "Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs," he told jurors of the two songs' overlapping chord structure.

☆ The US spent $877 billion on military in 2022, a new report says — more than 10 times federal education spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Peter Gelling | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US spent $877 billion in 2022, which accounts for almost 40 percent of all spending. By comparison, the US federal government allocated just $76.4 billion for education in 2022. "In 2022 the USA allocated $295 billion to military operations and maintenance, $264 billion to procurement and research and development, and $167 billion to military personnel," the report says. Total global military spending reached an all-time high in 2022, the report found. The report found that, in real terms, European military spending had returned to levels not seen since the Cold War.

☆ The creepy secret behind online therapy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Tanmoy Goswami | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Crisis Text Line, now in its 10th year of operations, uses artificial intelligence to respond to people experiencing emotional abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. 'The vast majority of mental-health apps are exceptionally creepy'BetterHelp, a poster child of online therapy founded in 2013, calls itself "the world's largest therapy platform" and says it has over 2 million users. One of the first popular mental-health apps, PTSD Coach, was launched by the US Department of Veteran Affairs in 2011. But for mental-health companies these practices can undermine the very foundations of mental-health care: dignity, trust, and psychological safety. As Crisis Text Line wrote on its website extolling its deal with Loris: "Why sell T-shirts when you can sell what your organization does best?"

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