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☆ TPG starts a dicey dance with death Down Under
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Antony Currie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Little wonder, then, that TPG is taking advantage of Australia’s InvoCare (IVC.AX) recently losing market share, and earnings, by offering shareholders A$1.8 billion ($1.5 billion) on Tuesday. But the private equity firm run by Jon Winkelried has started a dicey dance with death. At 5%, for example, annual interest payments on the new debt would be almost $50 million – a third of InvoCare’s expected EBITDA next year. Follow @AntonyMCurrie on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSTPG Global, a fund run by U.S. private equity firm TPG, on March 7 made a non-binding, indicative offer for InvoCare which values the Australian funeral-services company’s enterprise at almost A$2.2 billion ($1.5 billion). The private equity firm had the previous day bought an almost 18% stake in the company from a variety of investors at A$12.65 a share.

☆ 0DTE options could turn 5% intraday market decline into 25% rout -JPMorgan
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 6 (Reuters) - Trading in new near-dated U.S. options contracts can supercharge volatility in U.S. stocks, potentially leading to tremendous intraday declines, analysts at JPMorgan said. The U.S. equity options market has seen a rise in the trading of options contracts set to expire at the end of the trading day - dubbed 0DTE (zero day to expiry) options - with their daily notional value rising to about $1 trillion, according to JPMorgan data. Their recent growth has been eyed as one cause of intraday volatility, with JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic last month warning they could spark a massive volatility event under certain circumstances. Such a scenario could occur if the S&P 500 fell 5% in five minutes, triggering $30.5 billion in 0DTE option-related trading that would tack another 20 percentage points onto the index's decline, the bank’s analysts said. Furthermore, JPM noted that retail traders were not the main driver of volume growth in 0DTE options, with individual investors accounting for about 20% of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY.P) options volume and only around 5% of the S&P 500 same-day options.

☆ All-weather stocks that can outperform in any economic 'landing,' according to Evercore ISI
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

As investors weigh the possibility of a U.S. recession or a soft landing, there are certain stocks that should outperform in either scenario, according to Evercore ISI. However, Evercore ISI is among those on Wall Street that have a base-case scenario of a recession in the second half of the year. The other is what he calls " valmentum stocks " — value stocks with momentum — that have high free-cash-flow yield and strong earnings-per-share momentum, he added. Booking Holdings is one of Evercore ISI's valmentum stocks and could rally about 15% from Friday's close, according to the firm's price target of $3,000. Wynn is up more than 40% year to date, while Las Vegas Sands stock has gained more than 26%.

REUTERS/Brendan McDermidORLANDO, Fla., March 5 (Reuters) - Hedge funds entered February holding their biggest ever short position in two-year U.S. Treasuries futures. As of Feb. 7, funds' net short position in two-year Treasury futures stood at a record 658,802 contracts, up by more than 80,000 contracts from the week before. chartA short position is essentially a wager that an asset's price will fall, and a long position is a bet it will rise. FLIP-FLOP ON FEDThe two-year yield last week reached 4.95%, the highest since July 2007. They see the two-year yield falling to 3.55% in the third quarter and 3.15% by the end of this year.

"(But) it feels like I should keep some dollars on hand, as the yuan will depreciate further." Others anticipating a bumpy ride ahead for the Chinese currency include China Southern Airlines (600029.SS). Such moves are perhaps not surprising given yuan volatility since Beijing suddenly unwound its zero-COVID strategy. "Overall, yuan exchange rate will remain basically stable at reasonable levels," he added at a March 3. news briefing. ($1 = 6.9009 Chinese yuan)Writing by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Goldman Sachs' head of digital assets says there's still 'a little bit more pain' to come for crypto startups. Here's how he's looking for the silver lining in the industry.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Bianca Chan | Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Mathew McDermott oversees Goldman Sachs' crypto and blockchain efforts. He says the worst isn't over for crypto startups. The worst isn't over yet for the crypto industry, according to Goldman Sachs' global head of digital assets. "We're going to see a little bit more pain this year as we see more people struggle" in the crypto industry, Matthew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, told Insider. But there may be a silver lining to the crypto carnage: startups running out of runway may be looking for an exit.

☆ FTX ex-engineering chief Nishad Singh pleads guilty to criminal charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, arrives at court in New York, US, on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. FTX ex-engineering head Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to criminal charges in New York on Tuesday, becoming the latest member of Sam Bankman-Fried's former leadership team to agree to a deal. The six charges against Singh include conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws. In December, Bankman-Fried was charged with eight criminal accounts, including securities fraud and money laundering. Two of the charges against Singh are related to wire fraud and another is conspiracy to commit commodities fraud.

☆ Indian shares struggle for direction ahead of GDP data
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Bharath Rajeswaran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Indian shares swung between gains and losses on Tuesday, as gains in auto and media stocks were mostly offset by a slide in metals, ahead of the domestic GDP data for the December quarter. Eight of the 13 sectoral indexes advanced with auto stocks (.NIFTYAUTO) adding nearly 1% ahead of the monthly sales numbers, due on Wednesday. Foreign portfolio investors have so far offloaded 325.18 billion rupees ($3.93 billion) worth of Indian equities in 2023, according to official data. Investors now await domestic GDP data for the December quarter, due later in the day, which is expected to show year-on-year growth slowing to 4.6%. ($1 = 82.7150 Indian rupees)Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Dhanya Ann ThoppilOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ These consumer stocks may have underpriced options ahead of earnings, Goldman says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Uncertainty in the consumer sector has created a potential options opportunity for investors in the final weeks of earnings season, according to Goldman Sachs. The average large-cap Consumer Staples stock has moved +/-3.7% on the day of earnings, inline with options implied moves and above the 17-year average of +/-3.2%," the note said. Additionally, Goldman analyzed the components of SPDR's consumer discretionary ETF (XLY) and consumer staples ETF (XLP) and found there are several stocks in both groups whose options are implying unusually low volatility, according to Goldman. "One-month implied volatility on the average XLY stock is only in its 44th percentile relative to the past year, despite upcoming earnings (35th percentile for the XLY ETF). The companies below are scheduled to report earnings before the next monthly options expiration date on March 17 and have options prices that are implying below average volatility.

☆ Warren Buffett’s equity portfolio is focused on just 5 stocks. Here’s what they are
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed that 75% of its equity portfolio was concentrated in just five names. The "Oracle of Omaha" kept his top five holdings unchanged last quarter as the stock market experienced heightened volatility amid rising rates and recession fears. At the end of 2022, Apple remained Berkshire's largest holding by far, with a value of $119 billion. Chevron was the conglomerate's third-biggest holding with a $30 billion value. In August, Berkshire received regulatory approval to purchase up to 50%, spurring speculation that it may eventually buy all of Houston-based Occidental.

☆ India's Zee Entertainment extends fall after insolvency admission
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Shares of Indian media company Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE.NS) extended their decline on Friday after insolvency proceedings were initiated against the company due to a loan default. Zee Entertainment shares fell as much as 5.4% in early trade after closing down nearly 4% in the previous session. Punit Goenka, chief executive of Zee on Thursday challenged insolvency proceedings against the company by India's bankruptcy court, and still expected a timely completion of a merger with the local unit of Japan's Sony Group Corp (6758.T). Meanwhile, the National Stock Exchange on Thursday banned the derivatives trading on Zee's stock effective from April 28. Goenka's petition is coming up for hearing on Friday morning at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal.

☆ Revisiting JPMorgan’s innovative Cazenove deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Peter Thal Larsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

JPMorgan avoided most of these problems by structuring its deal as a joint venture with Cazenove. Though the corporate entity called JPMorgan Cazenove was quietly wound down a few years ago, the name still graces the U.S. group’s UK banking business. At the time of the JPMorgan deal, Cazenove acted as broker to almost half of the companies in the FTSE 100 Index (.FTSE). By 2009, the enlarged business reported a pre-tax profit of 280 million pounds. The Cazenove deal still stands as a case study of how to buy an investment bank without destroying it.

☆ Short-dated options trade behind Thursday's U.S. stock market choppiness -Nomura's McElligott
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Some 26,000 Feb 23 put options on S&P 500 e-minis futures with a strike price corresponding to the 4,000 level were bought early in Thursday’s session, McElligott said in a note. In addition, as the market declines the options dealers have to sell increasing amounts of stock futures to remain hedged. Those trades generated some $2 billion in selling pressure and likely contributed to the index’s intraday reversal, McElligot said. Selling pressure could rise to as much as $5 billion if market declines accelerate, he added. Trading in short-dated options contracts, or 0DTE- zero days to expiry contracts - have garnered attention on Wall Street in recent months, drawing record volumes and boosting worries about their role in aggravating intraday stock price swings.

☆ Indian shares fall on rate-hike worries ahead of Fed, RBI minutes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Bharath Rajeswaran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) was down 0.86% at 17,674.50, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) fell 0.85% at 60,150.93 as of 10:34 a.m. IST. Both the Fed and the Reserve Bank of India were due to release minutes of their latest policy meetings, giving investors a glimpse of their thinking on future rate-hike trajectories. "Fear of a hawkish Fed has gripped markets and kept investors on tenterhooks." Global markets fell after an unexpectedly strong reading of S&P Global's composite purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed that the U.S. economy was not cooling. ($1 = 82.8330 Indian rupees)Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Nivedita BhattacharjeeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ G20 watchdog says commodity market concentration poses threat to wider economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The FSB, which coordinates financial rules for G20 economies, said that forced governments to offer liquidity to some cash-strapped market participants. But fallout from the surge in nickel prices echoed concerns over large, concentrated positions and opacity in commodities more generally. The commodities market adapted to stress by switching to opaque over-the-counter (OTC) or off-exchange contracts where margin requirements are less strict, making ties between commodities and banks more complex, the report said. FSB Commodities Graphic 1The FSB said vulnerabilities in commodities are similar to those in non-bank financial intermediaries as economies went into COVID-19 lockdowns, and are now being addressed. FSB Commodities Graphic 2Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The debate - which focuses on hydrogen produced from nuclear or renewable energy - has already delayed negotiations on new EU renewable energy targets and threatened a multi-billion-euro hydrogen pipeline. Some EU officials fear it could spill into other green energy policies, potentially delaying laws needed to meet EU climate targets. "There are outstanding obstacles, but they will be resolved," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the climate conclusions on Monday, without specifying what the obstacles were. A draft of the conclusions, seen by Reuters, said: "EU energy diplomacy will promote the increasing uptake and system integration of renewable energy, hydrogen and its derivatives." They says they acknowledge nuclear's low-carbon contribution, but that it should not be put on a level footing with renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

☆ Analysis: Clock ticking for loan market as Libor nears its end
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( John Mccrank | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationNEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) - It's crunch time for the corporate loan market. "The shot clock is on," said Tal Reback, who leads KKR's global Libor transition efforts. The Libor transition began in 2017 and had been smooth until 2022, when rising interest rates, decades-high inflation, Russia's war on Ukraine and recessionary fears rocked markets. "The new issue market shut down," said Ian Walker, head of legal innovation at financial information provider Covenant Review. Libor was phased out for new contracts at the end of 2021, though most existing U.S. dollar-denominated contracts have until June 30 to switch.

☆ Istanbul bourse rises nearly 10% after quake closure, govt measures
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

RAPID NEW REGULATIONSTurkish authorities pushed through new regulations including measures incentivizing company share buyback programs, and increasing obligatory pension fund allocation for stocks. The general assembly decision mandate for share buybacks was also waived, allowing listed companies to start share buyback programmes with just a management board decision. Additional measures could still be needed to stabilize the stock exchange, according to Tunc Satiroglu, strategist and founder of financial consulting firm Kanal Finans. The cancellations followed multiple market-wide circuit brakers in the two trading days following the earthquake, which failed to halt the slide to no avail. "I expect the stock market to be more stable...

☆ Buy these 20 cost-cutting stocks that are set up to post strong growth and outperform, according to Wall Street firm Evercore
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Investors have sometimes rewarded companies that are cutting jobs or spending recently. Evercore says these 20 stocks have lagged, but should be able to turn their performance around. In the past, companies that announced those job cuts have sometimes been rewarded. Companies that announce job or spending cuts are getting ahead of that, which can be positive for their share prices. The following 20 companies have all announced job cuts since late September and have all underperformed the market since then.

☆ Chicago Property Developer Scores With Audacious Interest-Rate Bet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Will Parker | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The sudden surge in interest rates has been a nightmare for most commercial real-estate owners. David Scherer is the rare property developer who has been able to cash in on it. About a year ago, Mr. Scherer wagered interest rates would rise. This bet had nothing directly to do with his portfolio of multifamily buildings. His firm bought a type of derivatives contract more commonly used by large financial institutions and hedge funds to balance risk from their investments.

☆ U.S. gas producers skimped on price hedges and now face a reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Arathy Somasekhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

HOUSTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A rout in natural gas prices will hurt first-quarter earnings and cash flows at gas producers as hedges - the industry's version of price insurance - were inadequate to offset the expected losses, analysts and industry experts said. About 36% of 2023 gas production was hedged at the end of September, according to consultancy Energy Aspects, which tracked 40 publicly traded gas producers. EQT Corp (EQT.N), the top U.S. producer of natural gas, last month said it expects a $4.6 billion loss on derivatives for 2022, and net cash settlements of $5.9 billion. These transactions have a producer buy an agreement to sell natural gas at one price, called a put, while also selling a put at a lower price in hopes of pocketing the premium from its buyer. Were gas prices to average $2.36 per mmcf, the company would pay out 14 cents per mmcf, reducing the gains from the hedge.

☆ Philippe Laffont's Coatue adds to bets on Big Tech and Moderna
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Meanwhile, Coatue's stake in Moderna grew by 12%, bringing the value of that position above $1.1 billion as of the end of December. The firm added several new positions in the quarter, taking relatively small stakes in Alphabet and Charter Communications , among others. Coatue also added to its stake in Tesla , a reversal from the third quarter r when it reduced the size of that position. The listed equity positions were worth $8.9 billion at the end of December, according to a CNBC calculation. Coatue also exited smaller positions in several stocks during the fourth quarter, including Palo Alto , Paramount Global, Shopify and Visa .

☆ CPI remains 'crucially important' to data-dependent market, says RBC's Amy Wu Silverman
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | 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 EmailCPI remains 'crucially important' to data-dependent market, says RBC's Amy Wu SilvermanAmy Wu Silverman, head of Derivatives Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the upcoming CPI report, unlikely stocks making rallys, and rotation within the sectors dampening volatility.

☆ Watch CNBC's full interview with RBC's Amy Wu Silverman on upcoming CPI data
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | 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 EmailWatch CNBC's full interview with RBC's Amy Wu Silverman on upcoming CPI dataAmy Wu Silverman, head of Derivatives Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the upcoming CPI report, unlikely stocks making rallys, and rotation within the sectors dampening volatility.

☆ Crypto markets are undergoing a 'flight to quality,' says Goldman Sachs digital assets chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Talia Kaplan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In this article GSGSBD Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowLast year's havoc in the cryptocurrencies space has allowed for a "flight to quality" among crypto investors, Mathew McDermott, Goldman Sachs' global head of digital assets, said on CNBC's "Crypto World" on Friday. “We do have a crypto trading desk at the firm," he said, noting that the bank only trades cash-settled derivatives, options and futures. Three key areasSpeaking with CNBC's "Crypto World," McDermott pointed to the bank's three key areas of focus in crypto: tokenization, remaking the plumbing of financial markets and the "profound" effect that digital money will have across markets. Collaborating with two other banks, Goldman Sachs launched a tokenization platform that processed a $100 million dollar eurobond from the European Investment Bank. "This we felt was a really important kind of feature for the market," McDermott said, describing Datonomy.

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