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☆ Fed survey: Banks are tightening up their lending standards after rate hikes, turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Survey respondents attributed the changes in lending standards to economic uncertainty, a reduced appetite for risk, deterioration in collateral values and broader concerns about banks’ funding costs and liquidity positions, according to the Fed report. At the time, banks expected that trend of tightening credit, waning demand and deteriorating loan quality would continue. Fed president: Central bank should weigh effectsFederal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said in an interview with Yahoo! Fed officials, including Chair Powell, have previously noted that credit tightening could act similarly to a rate hike. A ‘salient risk’Separately on Monday, the Fed released its semi-annual Financial Stability Report, which assesses the resilience of the US financial system.

☆ Morning Bid: Markets await US banks' take on credit squeeze
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Wayne Cole. In the meantime, everyone is waiting for the Federal Reserve's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey, or 'SLOOS', to see just how much lending has tightened given the strife in U.S. regional banks. The last survey out in January showed a combined 44.8% of respondents saw a tightening of standards for large and middle-market firms. It would also be consistent with levels reached before or during the last four recessions - 1990-91, 2001, 2007-09 and early 2020. This week also sees Chinese data on inflation and trade, while G7 finance ministers meet in Niigata, Japan, from Thursday through Saturday.

☆ Apple and fintechs like Robinhood chase yield-hungry depositors as Fed rate hikes continue
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Last month, the iPhone maker launched its Apple Card savings account with a generous 4.15% APY in partnership with Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs . "It's really a trade-off for consumers, between safety or the appearance of safety, and yield," Laplanche told CNBC. Still, the emerging group of high-yield savings products are much more mainstream than what the crypto platforms were promoting. SoFi launched its high-yield savings account in February of last year. In its annual SEC filing, the company said that offering checking and high-yield savings accounts provided "more daily interactions with our members."

☆ Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Coinbase, Western Alliance, Playboy, SolarEdge & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight Morgan Stanley said Apple is "delivering under pressure" after its earnings report on Thursday. Guggenheim upgrades Portillo's to buy from neutral Guggenheim said it sees multiple expansion for the restaurant chain. Goldman Sachs downgrades Atlassian to neutral from buy Goldman said the company's "cloud transition [is] likely taking longer than expected." UBS upgrades Shopify to neutral from sell UBS said in its upgrade of Shopify that it sees revenue upside. Jefferies initiates Playboy Group as buy Jefferies said it sees "significant upside" for the adult themed global media and lifestyle company.

☆ What to expect from the jobs report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Minneapolis CNN —If the latest employment trends continue and economists’ forecasts prove true, Friday’s jobs report could bring back that pre-pandemic feeling. Economists expect the US economy to have added 180,000 jobs in April, according to consensus estimates on Refinitiv. It could also hammer home the fact that the US labor market has indeed cooled down from its red-hot recovery over the past two years. What a rising unemployment rate meansEconomists are expecting the unemployment rate to tick up to 3.6% from 3.5%, according to Refinitiv. Mixed signalsPayroll processor ADP’s monthly look at private-sector employment activity, released two days before the BLS’ employment report, is sometimes looked at as a preview of what to expect from the federal data.

☆ Here's how the Federal Reserve's latest quarter-point interest rate hike impacts your money
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Federal Reserve Bank building Kevin Lamarque | ReutersWhat the federal funds rate means to youThe federal funds rate, which is set by the U.S. central bank, is the interest rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. On the flip side, higher interest rates also mean savers will earn more money on their deposits. As the federal funds rate rises, the prime rate does, as well, and your credit card rate follows suit within one or two billing cycles. With this rate increase, consumers with credit card debt will spend an additional $1.7 billion on interest, according to an analysis by WalletHub. Interest rates for the upcoming school year will be based on an auction of 10-year Treasury notes later this month.

Wells Fargo's Legal Specialty Group reported a 1.5% drop in demand, calculated as the number of hours lawyers billed. Firms among the 50 highest-grossing U.S. law firms saw a 2% drop compared to the first quarter of 2022, the report said. The average number of hours lawyers billed in the first quarter of 2023 was down 6% from the same period last year, from 1,634 to 1,536 hours, Wells Fargo found. The survey included 66 of the top 100 U.S. law firms by revenue as identified by The American Lawyer. Owen Burman, a senior consultant in the Wells Fargo unit, said it was surprising to see any growth at all.

☆ We need to rethink the entire bank funding model, says former Fed Governor Randy Kroszner
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWe need to rethink the entire bank funding model, says former Fed Governor Randy KrosznerRandy Kroszner, former Federal Reserve governor and economics professor at University of Chicago Booth of School Business, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss the market expectation for the Fed's next rate move.

☆ 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.

☆ University of Chicago's Raghuram Rajan expects the Fed meeting to be dovish
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailUniversity of Chicago's Raghuram Rajan expects the Fed meeting to be dovishRaghuram Rajan, University of Chicago professor, joins 'Closing Bell: Overtime' to discuss the banking sector and its impact on the economy and the next moves from the Fed.

Law Firms Boies Schiller Flexner LLP FollowMay 1 (Reuters) - A lawyer in the Florida attorney general's office has left to join U.S. law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, the firm said Monday. Deputy Solicitor General Evan Ezray has rejoined the firm's Fort Lauderdale, Florida office as a partner, the firm said. Ezray previously worked at the law firm co-founded by prominent lawyer David Boies from 2017 to 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. The solicitor general is the chief appellate attorney for the state of Florida and part of the Florida attorney general's office. Read more:Florida board to countersue DisneyU.S. appeals court upholds Florida voting law that judge found discriminatoryDisney sues Florida's DeSantis for 'weaponizing' governmentFlorida judge blocks Republican-backed voting law as discriminatoryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Summary A relatively small number of law schools dominate federal clerkships(Reuters) - A quarter of Stanford Law School’s 2022 graduates landed federal clerkships—the highest percentage among all U.S. law schools, according to new data from the American Bar Association. The University of Notre Dame Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law round out the top five with 15% and nearly 13% of 2022 graduates in federal clerkships. The latest ABA data shows that just 3% of the 36,078 law graduates in 2022 are clerking for federal judges. Some federal judges hire law students for clerkships that won't begin for a year or two, allowing them to gain experience first. Read more:These law schools aced the job market in 2022Large U.S. law firms love hiring from these schoolsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

(Reuters) - A Kirkland & Ellis partner whose clients have included General Motors Co, BP Plc and auto manufacturer Polaris Inc said he has joined the Chicago office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. R. Allan Pixton told a federal judge in Detroit on Friday that he has joined Quinn Emanuel's Chicago office. Pixton and a Kirkland spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to his defunct Kirkland profile, Pixton's litigation experience covered class actions and mass torts. In 2020, he left Kirkland to lead the new Chicago office of Hilliard Martinez Gonzalez, a Corpus Christi, Texas-based law firm.

☆ Sales, spins and splits — what are the differences and why do they matter for investors like us?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +20 min

Investors may get one share in the spun-out entity for every share of the parent company they owned. What's left of J & J will be focused on pharmaceuticals and medical technologies, which were responsible for over 84% of the company's total 2022 revenue of $94.94 billion. It underscores that once free of the parent company tethers a divested company can chart its own destiny. Those priorities may not have necessarily been wrong when considering J & J as the overall enterprise. We believe J & J and Danaher are poised to deliver two more examples.

☆ Digital “Chicago Plan” fixes many financial woes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The economists’ solution – often called the Chicago Plan – was to remove commercial banks from the money-creating business. One of the main problems of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is that it would compete with old-fashioned bank deposits. With the digital money supply increasing in line with the economy’s potential growth, roughly as Friedman advised, inflation would soon come under control. Non-bank lenders like Apollo Global Management (APO.N) would have an enhanced role under the digital Chicago Plan. At present, there’s little chance of the digital Chicago Plan coming to pass.

☆ 73% of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck, new report finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In this article LC Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowSome good news: Overall, fewer Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Nearly three-quarters, or 73%, of adults ages 27 to 42 are living paycheck to paycheck, LendingClub found. "It's no wonder that almost three quarters of them are living paycheck to paycheck." As of March, 66% of Gen Zers were living paycheck to paycheck — up from 58% a year ago, according to LendingClub. "Generation Z are more apt to face financially life-altering events such as job loss, making them more financially vulnerable than any other generation," Nayar said.

☆ 31% of new crypto buyers influenced by friends. Here’s why that can be 'a horrible idea,' advisor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"I don't imagine friends are talking about when they lost money," said Lee Baker, a certified financial planner and founder of Apex Financial Services in Atlanta. "The sexy sells," added Baker, a member of CNBC's Advisor Council. On one hand, crypto can be an on-ramp to more traditional investing — which is generally a good outcome, Mottola said. There's some evidence of this happening: 36% of new crypto investors said their purchase made them more interested in investing in the stock market, the study found. However, "the friends recommending [crypto], the sources of information on social media, may not be reliable," Mottola said.

☆ How Elon Musk upended Twitter and his own reputation in 6 months as CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

But it’s not clear just how and when Musk might return Twitter to growth. Musk’s primary plan to grow Twitter’s business through an overhauled subscription strategy has resulted in much chaos but only a limited number of actual subscriptions. In the process, Musk has also upended his own reputation. Disrupting the digital town squareFor years, what differentiated Twitter from other social platforms was that it served as a central hub for real-time news. Tesla (TSLA) shareholders recently complained to the company’s board that Musk appears “overcommitted.”“His reputation has been diminished significantly with Twitter … and once you lose it, it’s very difficult to recover,” Klepper said.

Kids in Hammond, Indiana, are forced to climb over and through stopped trains block their way to school. Jamie Kelter Davis for ProPublicaState lawmakers have tried to curb blocked crossings by restricting the lengths of trains. Spielmaker, the Norfolk Southern spokesperson, said: "We work with first responders on a daily basis to assist however we can. A favorable court opinion could allow other states to finally enforce their laws on blocked crossings. Among those who hope to voice their concerns about the blocked crossings are rail workers themselves who worry about the kids.

☆ Virginia Governor Youngkin 'humbled' by talk of possible presidential run
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Tim Kelly | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin did not rule out a run for president in 2024, saying on Thursday that he was "humbled" by the question of whether he would seek the Republican nomination. Youngkin was in Japan as part of an Asian trip, including stops in Taiwan and South Korea, to promote his state. In Tokyo, he met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who on Monday sat down with would-be presidential candidate Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis. Biden, 80, on Tuesday said he will seek re-election in 2024 in a contest that could once again pit him against leading Republican candidate former President Donald Trump. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday, 44% of Democrats said Biden was too old to run.

☆ Progressives Convinced Us to Get a Gun
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Gerard Leval | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Wonder Land: When we began to devalue conscience, blurring a pragmatic understanding of right from wrong, we unleashed the whirlwind that engulfs us now. Our father wouldn’t allow it. He had his reasons: In depriving us of the revolvers, he often would cite his experience during World War II. During that service, a rifle shot grazed the back of his neck and came close to taking his life. He made it clear that, having been wounded and seen the horrors wrought by firearms, he didn’t believe anyone should think of such weapons as playthings.

☆ The Janes 1960s underground abortion network
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +28 min

The group was officially created in 1969 as the “Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation.”But after running ads in an underground newspaper: “Pregnant? “It wasn’t just abortion,” Barron explained. “Vacuum aspiration was much easier to do, and I think it’s less difficult for the woman,” Scott said. We had to keep the service running.”Laura Kaplan volunteered for the Janes, later immortalizing the group in her book, "The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service." Each Jane was charged with 11 counts of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion, with a possible sentence of up to 110 years in prison.

☆ Are gas-powered or electric vehicles a better deal? EVs may win out in long run, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

They would pay about $84,000 total, versus $87,000 for the gas car, Woody said. Thirty-five percent of Americans say reducing their personal impact on climate change is a major reason they would buy an electric car — the No. Ingrid Malmgren policy director of Plug In AmericaSince they don't burn fossil fuels, fully electric cars don't emit planet-warming greenhouse gases from their tailpipes. "Electric vehicles are the key technology to decarbonize road transport," the International Energy Agency said. Such a vehicle costs consumers 45.3 cents per mile over a 15-year ownership period, beaten out only by hybrid electric vehicles, according to Argonne.

About half of the new gun owners were female, 20% were Black, and 20% were Hispanic. Overall, gun owners were 63% male and 73% White. “The face of gun ownership is changing somewhat and the people who are becoming new gun owners today are less likely to be male and more likely to be non-White, more likely to be somewhat younger than existing and long-standing gun owners,” Miller said. “Most people are coming in as new gun owners looking for something for personal defense or we spend a lot of time with inquisitive people. “I have a Ruger and a Rossi – both rifles,” Shelby said.

☆ Opinion | Tim Scott Faces Long Odds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Scott is obviously not the first Black person to vie for the Republican presidential nomination. That distinction goes to Frederick Douglass, who received one vote at the 1888 Republican convention. Alan Keyes ran for the Republican nomination in 1996, 2000 and 2008; Herman Cain ran and withdrew in 2011; and Ben Carson ran in 2016. Tim Scott, however, would be the first Black Republican officeholder to run for the party’s presidential nomination, should he move past the exploratory phase. Even then, there were few Black people elected to national office, with a total of eight serving between 1914 and 1965.

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