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☆ Wondering what the hell just happened at SVB? Here's everything you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Silicon Valley Bank, a once-trusted banker to startups, was closed down by regulators on Friday. SVB became the latest casualty of a bank run as VCs and founders rushed to protect their funds. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. The bank had already been experiencing headwinds from "continued higher interest rates, pressured public and private markets, and elevated cash burn," Greg Becker, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, wrote to investors on Wednesday. As part of the closure, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that helps insure customers' bank funds, has now taken control of SVB.

☆ What to expect from the February jobs report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Minneapolis CNN —January’s jobs report delivered a heck of a surprise when it showed the US economy had added more than half a million jobs and unemployment had dipped to a level not seen in more than five decades. But economists say they are not bracing for another blindside when the February jobs report comes out on Friday morning. “If we get a second strong jobs report [on Friday], it’s no longer an anomaly,” Terrazas added. Seasonality, benchmarking and the interplay of pandemic-era data don’t completely explain away January’s blockbuster jobs report, economists say, noting there are likely influences from the currently tight labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ February jobs report is set to be released at 8:30 a.m.

☆ Read the email billionaire Ron Baron sent Elon Musk telling him to stop tweeting when angry: 'Get an ice cream cone. Just don't use Twitter'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Grace Kay | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tesla investor Ron Baron once emailed Elon Musk and told him to stop tweeting when upset. Baron told CNBC that Musk has made him "$5 billion so far, on a $400 million investment." In his 2018 email, Baron told Musk to turn the other cheek. When an attorney for the plaintiffs showed him the email, Musk offered his own take on Baron's message to him. "He's not saying don't use Twitter, he's saying I shouldn't respond to criticism in the news on Twitter," Musk said on the stand at the time.

☆ February jobs preview: What to expect after January’s blowout report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Minneapolis CNN —January’s jobs report delivered a heck of a surprise when it showed the US economy had added more than half a million jobs and unemployment had dipped to a level not seen in more than five decades. But economists say they are not bracing for another blindside when the February jobs report comes out on Friday. “I think most economists were comfortable dismissing the January jobs data as an anomaly,” Aaron Terrazas, Glassdoor’s chief economist, told CNN. “If we get a second strong jobs report [on Friday], it’s no longer an anomaly,” Terrazas added. Seasonality, benchmarking and the interplay of pandemic-era data don’t completely explain away January’s blockbuster jobs report, economists say, noting there are likely influences from the currently tight labor market.

☆ U.S. regulators investigating Tesla after steering wheels detach from two moving vehicles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A worker checks Tesla Model Y electric vehicles loaded onto a freight trailer at the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. Photographer: Liesa Johannssen/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into Tesla after it received two complaints that steering wheels detached in 2023 Model Y vehicles while people were driving. "Both vehicles were delivered to the owners missing the retaining bolt which attaches the steering wheel to the steering column," the NHTSA said. He later said the Tesla dealership called him and apologized, and the driver shared a photo of a replacement Model Y that he received on Feb. 23. The investigation into Tesla is a first step before the NHTSA could demand a vehicle recall.

March 6 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 made little progress on Monday, closing slightly higher than its session low as U.S. Treasury yields pulled higher with investors braced for this week's testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the February jobs report. Rising bond yields tend to weigh on equity valuations, particularly those of growth and technology stocks, as higher rates reduce the value of future cash flows. "People are worried about the jobs number and the economic data because they're worried about what the Fed will do. According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 2.72 points, or 0.07%, to end at 4,048.36 points, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) lost 12.59 points, or 0.11%, to 11,676.41. Since Powell last spoke strong economic data and hotter than expected inflation have raised concerns the Fed will raise rates higher than expected or keep them higher for longer.

☆ Premarket stocks: What to watch as Fed Chair Powell testifies before Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is on the hot seat this week as he testifies before Congress. Powell will have some good news to report — when he last testified before Congress in June, the inflation rate was at 40-year-highs, nearing 9%. Investors will also be on edge — hawkish language or even an aggressive tone from Powell could lead to market volatility. Some Fed officials agree. Economists, business leaders, investors and even Fed officials aren’t really sure about what’s happening.

Rising bond yields tend to weigh on equity valuations, particularly those of growth and technology stocks, as higher rates reduce the value of future cash flows. "People are worried about the jobs number and the economic data because they're worried about what the Fed will do. And with potential Fed rate hikes their key concern, Monday's data had already dampened investor enthusiasm, said Shawn Cruz, head trading strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. Since Powell last spoke strong economic data and hotter than expected inflation have raised concerns the Fed will raise rates higher than expected or keep them higher for longer. The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 85 new highs and 92 new lows.

Shares of iPhone maker Apple Inc (AAPL.O), last up 2%, were the biggest boost for the S&P 500 index (.SPX) after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a "buy" rating. Correlation between S&P 500 and 2-year Treasury bond yieldsMonday's data likely dampened investor enthusiasm, said Shawn Cruz, head trading strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. Six of 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose. Since Powell last spoke strong economic data and hotter than expected inflation have raised concerns the Fed will raise rates higher than expected or keep them higher for longer. The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 74 new highs and 71 new lows.

☆ Morning Bid: Hopeful market awaits Powell testimony
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Coming off its best weekly performance since start of the year, the continent-wide STOXX might aim for another record high as traders await January retail sales data for the Eurozone later in the day. Hawkish rhetoric from Fed speakers continued over the weekend, with San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly the latest to sound a warning on the inflationary threat. The market largely expects Powell to be hawkish this week but given his testimony comes before the jobs report is released, he will likely aim to keep all options open. Over in China, the country's leadership set a 5% target for economic growth this year, which analysts called conservative and pragmatic, as they kicked off the annual session of the National People's Congress. In the corporate world, Italian state lender CDP has bid for the fixed-line network of former phone monopoly Telecom Italia, rivalling an offering from U.S. firm KKR.

☆ Fed's Daly: tighter policy, for a longer time, 'likely' needed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The acceleration of inflation in January "suggests that the disinflation momentum we need is far from certain," Daly said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Princeton Economic Policy Symposium. "In order to put this episode of high inflation behind us, further policy tightening, maintained for a longer time, will likely be necessary." Coming from Daly, whose views are typically in line with Fed leadership, the remarks may add to expectations that Fed policymakers will lift rates higher in coming months than the 5.1% that most of them had penciled in December. Fed policymakers will publish fresh projections for policy and the economy at the close of their upcoming March 21-22 meeting. Daly did not use her prepared remarks to offer a view on how big March's rate hike ought to be, or exactly how high rates should go.

March 1 (Reuters) - Roche's Genentech Inc (ROGING.UL) sued Biogen MA Inc on Tuesday in San Francisco federal court, claiming Biogen owes additional patent royalties from worldwide sales of its blockbuster multiple-sclerosis and Crohn's disease drug Tysabri. Genentech's lawsuit said Biogen owes royalties for all the Tysabri that was produced using Genentech's patents before the patents expired, even if it was sold later. According to Genentech, Biogen has refused to pay royalties on any Tysabri sales since the patents expired more than four years ago. It said Biogen owes royalties for "most or all" of the Tysabri sold in "2019 and beyond," which it said was made with the patented technology before the patents expired. The case is Genentech Inc v. Biogen MA Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No.

Companies Tesla Inc FollowFeb 27 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and its Chief Executive Elon Musk were sued on Monday by shareholders who accused them of overstating the effectiveness and safety of their electric vehicles' Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies. They said Tesla's share price fell several times as the truth became known, including after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the technologies, and reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Musk's Autopilot claims. The share price also fell 5.7% on Feb. 16 after NHTSA forced a recall of more than 362,000 Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving beta software because they could be unsafe around intersections. Monday's lawsuit led by shareholder Thomas Lamontagne seeks unspecified damages for Tesla shareholders from Feb. 19, 2019 to Feb. 17, 2023. Tesla's share price closed Monday up $10.75, or 5.5%, at $207.63, but the stock has lost about half its value since peaking in Nov. 2021.

☆ Elon Musk calls US media and schools 'racist against whites & Asians'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Tesla Chief Executive Office Elon Musk speaks at his company's factory in Fremont, California. In the video, Adams discussed a poll conducted by right-leaning Rasmussen Reports that said 26% of Black respondents disagreed with the statement "It's OK to be white." In his video, Adams called Black people who rejected that phrase as a "hate group." He then added, "For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they're racist against whites & Asians. Musk claimed that the media coverage is "Very disproportionate to promote a false narrative."

☆ Morning Bid: Blue chips cheered up
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] The logo of technology company Nvidia is seen at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California February 11, 2015. Its CEO Jensen Huang said use of its chips to power AI had "gone through the roof in the last 60 days." The Federal Reserve at least seems keen on the higher-for-longer message that's shaken world stock and bond markets this week. And as the minutes pre-date red-hot jobs and retail data for January, the message from Fed officials is probably even sterner now. A Reuters poll of equity analysts showed global stock markets are expected to correct in the next three months.

☆ SEC rebuffs Elon Musk's attempt to get out of 'funding secured' settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

When the SEC charged him with civil securities fraud in response to those tweets, Musk and Tesla settled, signing a revised consent decree in 2019. As part of the settlement, Tesla and Musk each agreed to pay $20 million fines, and Musk agreed to relinquish his role as chairman of the board at Tesla for three years. Among other terms, Musk agreed to a "Twitter sitter," colloquially speaking. With the appeal in the Second Circuit, Musk is trying to unwind at least some terms of the earlier SEC settlement agreement. The SEC lawyers also questioned whether there is any legal basis to consider undoing the settlement all these years later.

An AliveCor spokesperson said the office of the U.S. Trade Representative told the company it would not veto the decision. Any ITC ban is still on hold while Apple and AliveCor continue to clash over the patents. AliveCor accused Apple of infringing three patents related to its KardiaBand, an Apple Watch accessory that monitors a user's heart rate, detects irregularities and performs an electrocardiogram to identify heart problems like atrial fibrillation. Apple Watch Series 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 have ECG technology. AliveCor has separately sued Apple in California federal court for allegedly monopolizing the U.S. market for Apple Watch heart-rate apps, and filed a related patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in Texas federal court.

☆ Elon Musk's lawyer asks court to throw out 'Twitter sitter' deal with SEC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

vFollowing Elon Musk's recent victory in a securities fraud trial, the Tesla CEO's lawyer has once again asked an appeals court to throw out his 2018 deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission requiring a company lawyer to review his Tesla-related tweets before sharing them. On Feb. 3, a jury in a in a San Francisco federal court found that Musk and Tesla were not liable in a class-action securities fraud trial stemming from tweets Musk made in 2018. Trading in Tesla was halted after his tweets, and its share price remained volatile for weeks. Musk and the SEC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Attorneys for the shareholders who sued Musk and Tesla over the take-private related tweets still have time to file for an appeal.

[1/3] Representations of cryptocurrencies are seen in front of displayed FTX logo in this illustration taken November 10, 2022. Sequoia, Thoma Bravo and Paradigm did not immediately respond on Wednesday to requests for comment. The 30-year-old son of Stanford Law School professors has pleaded not guilty to fraud and other charges for allegedly looting billions of dollars from FTX customers. A Manhattan federal court hearing on whether to tighten bail is scheduled for Thursday, after Bankman-Fried allegedly tried to communicate improperly with potential government witnesses. The case is Rabbitte v Sequoia Capital Operations LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

☆ Boies, co-counsel move to grab control of all private FTX cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, that the judge overseeing their Miami cases, U.S. District Judge Michael Moore, has already proven in their brand ambassador cases that he can steer FTX cases quickly and efficiently. Not everyone pursuing claims on behalf of FTX customers agrees with Boies and Moskowitz. (To be clear, these private cases are different from cases that could be brought by a court-appointed receiver or trustee in FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy.) If the cases go to California, the California slate is a likelier candidate. It will be a few months before any ruling on the Boies and Moskowitz consolidation petition.

Meta and Dfinity asked the court Monday to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be revived. Dfinity sued Meta last year, alleging the logo Meta adopted after changing its name from Facebook would cause confusion with Dfinity's infinity-symbol trademarks. Meta is still facing trademark lawsuits from virtual-reality company MetaX and investment firm Metacapital over its name change. The case is Dfinity Foundation v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. For Dfinity: Dennis Ellis, Keith Wesley and Katherine Murray of Ellis George Cipollone O'Brien AnnagueyFor Meta: Bobby Ghajar and Angela Dunning of CooleyRead more:Meta hit with trademark lawsuit over new infinity-symbol logoMeta defeats trademark lawsuit over infinity-symbol logoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"This case ultimately is about whether rules that apply to everyone else should also apply to Elon Musk," the shareholders' lawyer Nicholas Porritt said in his closing argument in San Francisco federal court, with Musk looking on in the courtroom. The trial is a test of whether Musk, the world's second-richest person, can be held liable for his sometimes impulsive use of Twitter. They also accused Musk of lying when he tweeted later that day that "investor support is confirmed." Investors are seeking billions in damages from Musk, Tesla and several of the company's directors. During the three-week trial, jurors heard testimony from witnesses including Tesla directors, Musk's financial advisers and Musk himself.

Elon Musk and Tesla were found not liable by a jury in a San Francisco federal court on Friday in a class action securities fraud trial stemming from tweets Musk made in 2018. The Tesla , SpaceX and Twitter CEO was sued by Tesla shareholders over a series of tweets he wrote in Aug. 2018 saying he had "funding secured" to take the automaker private for $420 per share, and that "investor support" for such a deal was "confirmed." Trading in Tesla was halted after his tweets, and its share price remained volatile for weeks. "I am deeply appreciative of the jury's unanimous finding," Musk wrote on Twitter. During the course of this trial, Musk also said he would have sold shares of SpaceX to finance a going private deal for Tesla, as well as taking funds from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

Liss-Riordan and Twitter made a joint filing in San Francisco federal court on Thursday to update the court ahead of a hearing scheduled for Feb. 9. The workers claim Twitter refused to pay promised severance or give them the advance notice of mass layoffs required by law, which the company denies. In an interview on Friday, Liss-Riordan said Twitter is likely trying to delay the arbitration cases in hopes that some workers drop their claims. “This is just a stupid game that Twitter is trying to play,” she said. Liss-Riordan has filed three other lawsuits against Twitter stemming from the layoffs, including claims that the company targeted female employees and forced out workers with disabilities.

☆ Elon Musk was reportedly cleared by a federal jury's verdict that his 'funding secured' tweet in 2018 didn't harm Tesla investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A jury found investors failed to prove Elon Musk derailed them with his tweet that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private, per the WSJ. Tesla investors had alleged that his public statements resulted in billions of dollars in damages. Those verbal assurances in part led him to tweet that he had "funding secured" for a take-private deal for Tesla, he told jurors last month. Musk's tweet, which he posted in August 2018, read, "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Porritt, the Tesla investors' attorney, had framed the stakes of the case in sweeping, existential terms, arguing that it came down to a question of whether regular investors could trust the public markets.

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