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☆ Individual investors are so bearish it’s a contrarian buy signal that should mean a 15% gain, RBC says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Sentiment among retail investors has been almost as bad as it was during the Great Financial Crisis, and that has triggered a reliable contrarian buy signal that points to a double-digit rally ahead, according to RBC. The weekly American Association of Individual Investor survey, which polled individual investors of their thoughts on where the market is heading in the next six months, has indicated a level of bearishness that's close to the level during 2008, RBC said. "Depressed levels of retail investor sentiment are sending a strong buy signal for US equities again," Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC, said in a note. Retail investors have been dumping equities in the face of raging recession fears that have been stoked by rate hikes and a banking crisis. The selling among individual investors reached a new milestone as of late.

☆ JPMorgan shares pop after the bank takes over embattled First Republic. Here's what the experts have to say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Christina Falso | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Market Movers rounded up the best reactions from investors and analysts on JPMorgan Chase 's stock movement. The experts, including Jim Cramer , discussed how the bank, already the nation's largest by several measures, acquired most of troubled First Republic Bank's assets in a weekend auction. Prior to the market's open on Monday, regulators took possession of First Republic , resulting in the third failure of an American bank since March. JPMorgan shares finished the trading day up 2.1%.

☆ JPMorgan takes over First Republic after it's seized by Californian financial regulator
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A view of the First Republic Bank logo at the Park Avenue location, in New York City, March 10, 2023. The Californian financial regulator took possession of First Republic Monday, resulting in the third failure of an American bank since March, after a last-ditch effort to persuade rival lenders to keep the ailing bank afloat failed. JPMorgan Chase acquired all of First Republic's deposits, including uninsured deposits, and a "substantial majority of assets," according to a release. "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," the FDIC said in a statement. "All depositors of First Republic Bank will become depositors of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, and will have full access to all of their deposits."

New York CNN —The collapse of First Republic Bank is unlikely to worsen the US economic outlook, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday. Dimon told CNN’s Poppy Harlow early last month that the stress in the banking system had increased the odds of a US recession. The bank had $100 billion in those deposits withdrawn from the bank during the first quarter, it reported last week. “The American banking system is extraordinarily sound,” he said. But he agreed with Dimon that the seizure of First Republic, however, does not shift those forecasts, he told CNN Monday.

☆ Charlie Munger reportedly warns of trouble for the U.S. commercial property market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Charlie Munger believes there is trouble ahead for the U.S. commercial property market. The 99-year-old investor told the Financial Times that U.S. banks are packed with "bad loans" that will be vulnerable as "bad times come" and property prices fall. "It's not nearly as bad as it was in 2008," he told the Financial Times in an interview. "We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers, a lot of troubled other properties. Read the complete Financial Times interview here.

☆ Big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America asked for final bids on First Republic
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

JPMorgan Chase and PNC are likely bidders for the ailing lender, which would be seized in receivership and immediately sold to the winning bank, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Bank of America is among several other institutions that are weighing a potential bid for First Republic, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Shares of the bank sank 90% last month, and then collapsed further this week after First Republic disclosed how dire its situation is. The biggest banks will bear the brunt of that expense, because member banks will likely be assessed fees to replenish the FDIC fund over several years. Wells Fargo , Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are each unlikely to make a bid, according to people with knowledge of the banks.

☆ Quotes: Fed plans broad revamp of bank oversight in wake of SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

The assertion in the introduction that the Fed should focus on large bank capital requirements is disconnected from the report's conclusions. AMERICAN BANK ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT AND CEO ROB NICOLS"We take any bank failure seriously, and we will review the findings and proposed policy changes in these reports carefully, including where the conclusions may differ. JONATHAN MONDILLO, HEAD OF NORTH AMERICAN FIXED INCOME AT ABRDN"We're likely to see higher capital requirements. What that means for the overall markets is that the devil is in the details: how stringent those capital requirements will be. A potential First Republic Bank failure could similarly present a risk to the long-term investment strategy of high net-worth individuals."

Staffing shortages strained supervisory resources, particularly at the FDIC's New York regional office, in the years leading up to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, both regulators said. Both the Fed and FDIC highlighted that their oversight ranks grew leaner even as the institutions they were tasked with reviewing grew larger and more complex. At the Fed, supervisory hours at SVB declined at the same time the Santa Clara, California-based bank was experiencing rapid growth starting in 2017. While the Fed had 15 full-time employees staffed on the supervisory team for SVB, the bank received fewer supervisory resources through 2021 compared to similar banks. "Examination resource shortages, particularly in the New York region, are a mission-critical risk that will require a sustained whole-of-agency response," the FDIC said.

SummarySummary Companies Silver, platinum, palladium set for monthly gainDollar eyes monthly fallApril 28 (Reuters) - Gold prices eased on Friday as the dollar firmed in the run up to U.S. inflation data, but economic jitters kept safe-haven bullion on course for a second consecutive monthly rise. Spot gold edged 0.2% lower to $1,983.01 per ounce by 0915 GMT, but was up 0.8% for the month. But "a sudden deterioration in the bank sector crisis could trigger a rush to safe-havens likely to see gold prices soar above previous records," Evangelista added. A weaker dollar makes bullion more affordable for overseas buyers. Silver fell 0.5% to $24.82, platinum shed 1% to $1,066.57, while palladium was flat at $1,495.13 -- all headed for monthly gain.

Signature Bank's failure took only marginally longer. "The number 36 has just been, you know, branded in my brain," Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told Reuters earlier this month. "I think that any time you have a bank failure like this, bank management clearly failed, supervisors failed and our regulatory system failed," Barr told U.S. lawmakers in a hearing in March. "It's how do we allow a bank whose failure threatened the financial system to persist without being subject to more aggressive intervention?" "One thing for certain ... this was a very significant supervisory failure," Tarullo said at the Peterson Institute for International Economics event on Wednesday.

☆ Barclays and Deutsche profits defy banking jitters
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Deutsche Bank (DB) gained 2.6%. Deutsche Bank’s shares plunged as much as 14.5% during the March 24 trading session. Deutsche Bank’s profit reached its highest in a decade, vindicating the once-struggling lender’s turnaround plan, launched in 2019. “In the first quarter, we again proved the strength and resilience of Deutsche Bank in challenging conditions,” chief financial officer James von Moltke said in a statement. Barclays and Deutsche Bank’s results contrast with the troubles at First Republic Bank in the United States.

☆ British American Tobacco Is Fined $635 Million for Selling Cigarettes to North Korea
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

British American Tobacco has agreed to pay more than $635 million as a penalty for selling cigarettes to North Korea through an intermediary in Singapore, in violation of American sanctions. A small portion of the amount, about $5 million, was part of a civil settlement with the Treasury Department. The rest, obtained and announced by the Justice Department on Tuesday, was the biggest in that department’s history related to sanctions on North Korea. North Korean clients paid that intermediary, which was not identified in the filing, at least $415 million through front companies over about a decade, in some cases using American banks, according to the court documents. The operation relied on “financial facilitators linked to North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction proliferation network,” Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement issued by the Justice Department.

[1/2] Representations of cryptocurrencies and Voyager Digital logo are seen in this illustration taken, July 7, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationsApril 25 (Reuters) - Binance.US has called off its $1.3 billion deal to buy assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, citing a "hostile and uncertain regulatory climate." "The hostile and uncertain regulatory climate in the United States has introduced an unpredictable operating environment impacting the entire American business community," a spokesperson for Binance.US said in a statement. "We are focused on creating a safe platform where our customers can participate in the digital asset economy." The company had initially agreed to sell its assets to major digital asset exchange FTX, but that deal fell apart when FTX imploded in November.

☆ First Republic's strategic options "very challenging" - Fitch
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Saeed Azhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - First Republic Bank's (FRC.N) strategic options are "very challenging" because any potential sale is unlikely without the lender taking big writedowns on its mortgage loan book and securities portfolio, analysts at Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday. "The options are very challenging and probably very costly, especially for shareholders. The bank said it was "pursuing strategic options" to strengthen the bank, without providing details. "There are still more downside risks until some clarity emerges on what their strategic options can be," Wolfe said. First Republic's total investment securities stood at $34.8 billion at the end of March, rising 9.8% from the fourth quarter, it said on Monday.

First Republic reported a more than $100 billion plunge in deposits in the quarter in the aftermath of the biggest turmoil to hit the banking sector since 2008. Regional bank PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O) fell 9%, Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL.N) 6%, Zions Bancorp (ZION.O) 5% and brokerage Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.N) was down 4%. First Republic said on Monday it was "pursuing strategic options" to quickly strengthen the bank, without providing details. Options include an asset sale of up to $100 billion, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. "So it's tough to even describe it as good asset and bad asset," Chiaverini said.

☆ Banks ‘aren’t out of the woods’ after the collapse of SVB and Signature
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —A month ago, code blue sirens went off at banks across the globe after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. For now, looking at banks’ deposits may lead you to believe that banks are in better shape than they are, but they “are not out of the woods just yet,” said Ana Arsov, managing director at Moody’s. After the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank, record levels of deposits poured into Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank from mid-size and regional banks. A sign is posted on the exterior of a First Republic Bank office on March 16, 2023 in San Francisco. And the Fed’s likely rate hikes at its upcoming meetings will lead to more deposit outflows, said Wolfe.

☆ Credit Suisse withdrawals topped $68 billion as the bank veered towards collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

London CNN —Credit Suisse suffered outflows of 61.2 billion Swiss francs ($68.7 billion) in the first three months of the year and customers are still pulling their money from the bank as UBS races to complete a rescue of its stricken rival. “Credit Suisse experienced significant net asset outflows, in particular in the second half of March 2023. Credit Suisse’s first-quarter earnings could be its last after it was bought last month by UBS (UBS) in an emergency rescue deal orchestrated by the Swiss government. Credit Suisse (CS) reported a 1.3 billion franc ($1.3 billion) loss for the first quarter, extending a losing streak that began in 2021. The bank posted a loss of 7.3 billion Swiss francs ($7.9 billion) in 2022, its biggest annual loss since the financial crisis in 2008.

☆ The bad loan term that's back for banks trying to spot a recession
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Tim Mullaney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

If there wasn't enough banking jargon to blind you, it's time to learn a new piece of it: Welcome to the industry's era of the "criticized loan." "Criticized loans could be paying or performing but a loan could be singled out because of its collateral." At Bank of America, criticized loans to office building projects rose to $3.7 billion out of $19 billion in office loans. But office buildings represent only a quarter of the bank's commercial real estate loans, and all CRE is just 7% of the bank's total loans and leases. "It's almost impossible for us to see office [losses] more than 4 or 5 percent of office loans.

[1/4] A view of the Park Avenue location of the First Republic Bank, in New York City, U.S., March 10, 2023. FDIC regulators had raised the specter of systemic risk from the failure of large regional banks months before the SVB and Signature Bank collapses, records reviewed by Reuters show. SECRETS REVEALEDThe Fed will release its report on SVB at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Friday. FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg has not provided much detail about the supervision of Signature, which like SVB had grown rapidly in recent years. The Fed's inspector general will have a report on each bank in the third quarter.

April 19 (Reuters) - IBM Corp (IBM.N) missed Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue on Wednesday, hurt by shrinking corporate spending on IT services and a strong dollar. IBM cut its full-year consulting revenue growth forecast to 6%-8% from earlier expectations of high single-digit percentage growth. IBM, which receives over 75% of its revenue from its software and consulting business units, said its consulting revenue rose 8.2% at constant currency to $4.96 billion in the quarter ended March 31. Accenture signaled to a wider slowdown last month, when it decided to slash about 19,000 jobs and trimmed revenue growth and profit forecasts. Total revenue in the first quarter rose 4.4% at constant currency to $14.25 billion, compared with analysts' estimate of $14.35 billion.

☆ Goldman Sachs misses revenue estimates after taking $470 million hit on Marcus loans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Unlike its more diversified rivals, Goldman gets the majority of its revenue from Wall Street activities, primarily trading and investment banking. Bad compsFixed income trading revenue fell 17% to $3.93 billion, roughly $230 million below the StreetAccount estimate, on lower activity in currencies and commodities. Despite the decline, it was still one of the Equities trading revenue slipped 7% to $3.02 billion, edging out the $2.9 billion estimate. While investment banking revenue remained weak, falling 26% from a year earlier to $1.58 billion, that was better than the $1.44 billion estimate. The bank's platform solutions business generated $564 million in revenue, a 110% increase from a year earlier and topping the $535.1 million estimate.

☆ Fed Governor Bowman casts doubt on the need for a U.S. digital dollar
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman expressed skepticism over the possibility of a digital U.S. dollar, noting Tuesday the multiple risks such a system could impose. For the past few years, Fed officials have been studying whether to join a handful of other central banks to implement its own type of cryptocurrency. However, she said an interest-bearing Fed digital dollar could provide harmful competition for banks, limiting their ability to lend. Like other Fed officials, Bowman said the looming implementation of the FedNow payments system also will address many of the needs cited by central bank digital currency promoters. Perhaps the CBDC's biggest Fed advocate has since left the central bank: Former Governor Lael Brainard is now director of the National Economic Council.

April 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex Inc and its former CEO William Shihara with operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. The SEC also charged Bittrex's foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH, for failing to register as a national securities exchange in connection with its operation of a single shared order book along with Bittrex. Shihara and a representative for Bittrex did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Seattle-based Bittrex had previously announced it would shutter its U.S. operations effective April 30 due to "continued regulatory uncertainty." Gensler has previously said that companies that help facilitate transactions in the cryptocurrency market should register with the SEC like other market intermediaries.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's Board of Governors on Friday said it has approved UBS Group AG's acquisition of the U.S. subsidiaries of Credit Suisse, clearing another major hurdle for the completion of the Swiss-brokered rescue deal. UBS has committed to give the U.S. central bank an implementation plan for combining its U.S. business and operations with those of Credit Suisse within three months of consummating the deal, the Fed's Board said in a statement. UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.3 billion), a fraction of its earlier market value. UBS has said it expects the deal to create a business with more than $5 trillion in total invested assets. Under the takeover deal, holders of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds will get nothing, while shareholders, who usually rank below bondholders in compensation terms, will receive $3.23 billion.

[1/2] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler testifies before a House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's budget request for the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2023. Many in the industry have said existing securities regulations are inappropriate and the sector needs fresh rules. Some DeFi platforms may fall under the proposed definition, but others may already be considered exchanges by the existing one, SEC officials said this week. "Make no mistake: many crypto trading platforms already come under the current definition of an exchange," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in prepared remarks published on Friday. Most crypto trading platforms meet that definition, regardless of whether they call themselves decentralized, Gensler said.

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