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☆ WWE girds for insider-betting fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Want to bet on a match where the outcome is fixed in advance? The league is in talks with U.S. state gambling regulators to legalize bets on its staged matches, according to CNBC. For WWE the number of insiders may be bigger: Writers, trainers and wrestlers might be among those with an idea of what’s in store. Overseas bettors can already wager on an upcoming six-woman tag WWE team match, the Eurovision Song Contest and Love Island 2023. Meanwhile, the WWE has put itself up for sale, so some theatrical limbering up for future revenue opportunities is a smart way to juice the price.

☆ In praise of American finance’s regulatory mess
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - There are many issues on which China and the United States are far apart. The People’s Republic this week proposed combining financial regulatory functions into a new super watchdog to govern its financial sector more effectively. China’s proposed new National Financial Regulatory Administration is roughly in this mold. Since 2008, officials in Beijing have criticized the United States’ financial excesses and its “warped conception” of financial discipline. The new National Financial Regulatory Administration would sit directly under the State Council, which serves as China’s cabinet.

☆ Powell leads markets on a needlessly wild ride
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

That’s different from what investors expected from the Fed just two months ago. As investors’ perception of Powell takes a U-turn, upcoming economic data could make for a bumpy transition. Yet investors largely expected the central bank to raise by a little less, and start cutting later in 2023. Powell has repeatedly emphasized that the Fed’s rate decisions will rely heavily on the latest economic data. He repeated the comment to the House Financial Services Committee, adding that the Fed hasn't yet reached a decision on its next rate increase.

☆ Breakingviews: Powell leads markets on a needlessly wild ride
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The market is quickly getting to grips with a new Jerome Powell. That’s different from what investors expected from the Fed just two months ago. As investors’ perception of Powell takes a U-turn, upcoming economic data could make for a bumpy transition. Yet investors largely expected the central bank to raise by a little less, and start cutting later in 2023. He repeated the comment to the House Financial Services Committee, adding that the Fed hasn't yet reached a decision on its next rate increase.

☆ Sterling slips after BoE's Mann warns of risks for the pound
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Joice Alves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - Sterling slipped against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, after a Bank of England (BoE) rate-setter warned that the pound could be vulnerable to Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) outlooks. The pound could depreciate if investors have not yet fully priced in hawkish messages from central bank peers, Catherine Mann told Bloomberg Television in an interview. "The important question for me with regard to the pound is how much of that existing hawkish tone is already priced into the pound," she said. Traders are also attaching a 93% chance of a 25-basis-point rate increase when the central bank meets to decide policy on March 23. There's no probability priced in that the bank could raise rates by more than that.

☆ 500-year-old spices, including saffron and peppercorns, discovered in the king of Denmark's shipwreck
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Archaeologists have found a collection of well-preserved 500-year-old spices in a shipwreck. The ship belonged to King John of Denmark and sank off the coast of Sweden in 1495. The spices, which include saffron, peppercorns, and ginger, would have been a symbol of high status. The royal ship, called Gribshunden, belonged to King John of Denmark, and it caught fire and sank off the coast of Sweden in 1495. King John traveled to Sweden on the ship as part of a mission to unify Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under his rule, according to ABC News.

☆ Your Airbnb is watching you
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Airbnb hosts are hotly debating the appropriateness of security cameras. Some guests and hosts say it's an invasion of privacy for vacationers. Arizona host Zach Narus says cameras provide a "peace of mind" to his guests, just as much as they do for him. Once a guest messaged Narus that there was a loud banging outside the property and asked him to use the security cameras to check for an intruder or wildlife. Disclosing the use of cameras, Narus says, discourages bookings that are looking to throw a party.

☆ Archaeologists find well-preserved 500-year-old spices on Baltic shipwreck
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Tom Little | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Tom LittleLUND, Sweden, March 3 (Reuters) - Archaeologists say they have uncovered a "unique" cache of well-preserved spices, from strands of saffron to peppercorns and ginger, on the wreck of a royal ship that sunk off Sweden's Baltic coast more than 500 years ago. Rediscovered by sports divers in the 1960s, sporadic excavations of the ship have taken place in recent years. Now an excavation led by Brendan Foley, an archaeological scientist at Lund University, has found the spices buried in the silt of the boat. "The Baltic is strange - it's low oxygen, low temperature, low salinity, so many organic things are well preserved in the Baltic where they wouldn't be well preserved elsewhere in the world ocean system," said Foley. Lund University researcher Mikael Larsson, who has been studying the finds, said: "This is the only archaeological context where we've found saffron.

☆ Peloton hires former Twitter executive Dalana Brand to be chief people officer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Peloton said Wednesday it hired former Twitter executive Dalana Brand to be its new chief people officer, as the fitness company continues its transformation and attempts to return to profitability. Dalana's addition is the culmination of that strategy, rounding out and completing the leadership team," McCarthy said. She follows behind Leslie Berland, the former chief marketing officer of Twitter, who took the same job at Peloton in mid-January. "I'm thrilled to join the team at Peloton as the company continues striving to make fitness accessible for all." While at Twitter, she led the company's global workforce and helped speed up its processes to make the workplace more inclusive.

☆ Hong Kong spreads its wings, and its bets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

HONG KONG, Feb 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - For a sign that Hong Kong’s recovery is more than wishful thinking, look no further than the city’s Disneyland. The house of Mickey Mouse is implicitly betting Hong Kong will soon be back, and bigger than before. At its core, Hong Kong’s unique selling point is that it’s China-by-proxy for investors; enterprises in the People’s Republic account for 78% of the market capitalisation of Hong Kong’s main boards. Against such a backdrop, it’s logical that Hong Kong is trying to spread its bets. Hong Kong exchange boss Nicolas Aguzin’s pitch is strengthened by a Chinese plan to let overseas companies listed in Hong Kong be included in the Connect programme.

☆ U.S. dollar strengthens as Fed minutes signal higher rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Laura Matthews | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The dollar index was up 0.40% at 104.57, easing off the high of 104.59 it reached earlier in the day. "The Fed minutes were just released indicating that a few officials could have supported a 50-bps hike in the last meeting, though most backed the 25bps outcome. "The theme throughout February has been a bias towards higher rates, and these minutes are consistent with that perspective." But Fed funds futures traders are now pricing the fed funds rate to reach 5.38% in July, and remaining above 5% all year. "Stronger-than-expected U.S. data releases since the start of this month have reinforced the Fed's messages about stronger for longer interest rates."

Survey data released on Tuesday showed U.S. business activity unexpectedly rebounded in February to reach its highest in eight months. He is the latest Fed official to signal that higher interest rates is likely needed to bring inflation back to desired levels. "Stronger-than-expected U.S. data releases since the start of this month have reinforced the Fed's messages about stronger for longer interest rates." The dollar index up 0.1% at 104.19, but off the high of 104.34 reached earlier in the day. A blockbuster U.S. employment report in early February sparked the rebound in the dollar, which has been helped along by a series of strong data releases.

☆ Robinhood’s stock awards tell a cautionary fable
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The now-abandoned payouts to Tenev and Bhatt were a slab of “market-based restricted stock units” distributed ahead of Robinhood’s initial public offering in July 2021. The system works in reverse, too, however: When executives give back stock awards, the company gains nothing in cash terms. U.S. accounting rules treat stock awards geared to a company’s stock price as a gift that cannot be returned. In short, by handing back their awards, Robinhood’s founders have neither robbed from themselves, nor given to anyone else. Even without this unhappy effect on earnings, shareholders should be wary of the kinds of awards Robinhood doled out at its public company debut.

☆ It's not just the chip shortage — other supply chain disruptions are wreaking havoc on automakers and helping keep prices high
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The pandemic, the shift to EVs, and supply chain problems are all to blame. GM's Bowling Green plant will stop Corvette output this week due to a "parts supply issue." Despite tailwinds like huge profits, high demand, and low inventory, automakers are bracing themselves for more disruptions. The relationship between automakers and their parts companies has never been perfect, but it's especially challenging of late even as the two remain codependent. Now, parts companies are struggling amid macroeconomic concerns, inflation, in addition to the transition to EV components (or risking becoming defunct), and that will impact the automakers they supply to.

☆ Inside Peloton's rapid rise and bitter fall — and its attempt at a comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

"It felt like nothing could get in the way of all that," said a former engineer who attended the party. For this report, CNBC spoke with 16 current and former Peloton employees, the majority of whom declined to be identified because they are not permitted to speak publicly about the company. Foley, meanwhile, spoke briefly with CNBC by phone, saying that while Peloton's stock has fallen, the company has not. Peloton's stock price was slowly sliding down, and employees began to panic as they saw their paper wealth evaporate. By June 30, the end of Peloton's fiscal year, the company's full-year net loss ballooned to $2.83 billion.

☆ Dollar jumps to six-week high on higher rate expectations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The dollar surged on Friday to hit a six-week high against a basket of currencies as a bout of resilient economic data out of the United States raised market expectations that more interest rate hikes were in the offing. The latest data releases gave the U.S. dollar a leg up, knocking sterling to a fresh six-week low of $1.1952 on Friday. Similarly, the kiwi tumbled to a six-week trough of $0.6228, while the euro bottomed at $1.0652, its lowest since Jan. 9. Against a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar index rose to a fresh six-week top of 104.31 and was on track for a third straight week of gains. U.S. Treasury yields have also surged on the back of further hawkish rate repricing, with the two-year yields last at 4.6762%.

☆ U.S. Forced Labor Crackdown Is Tough, But Opaque
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

The U.S. has mounted an aggressive crackdown on imports over concerns about Chinese forced labor, but the campaign is an opaque one, with little detailed data on which companies or sectors are being targeted. January alone saw 282 shipments stopped over forced labor concerns, according to Customs data. Luis C.deBaca helped lead the U.S. fight against forced labor in the Obama administration and now teaches law at the University of Michigan. Photo: Luis C.deBacaChina has rejected allegations that it uses forced labor in Xinjiang. The agency added that it is “committed to transparency” and is developing an interactive web-based tool to provide forced labor enforcement statistics.

☆ Disney clash with activist Peltz will have sequel
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Activist investor Nelson Peltz often plays a long game. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger unveiled $5.5 billion of cost cuts last week when the $200 billion theme-parks-to-streaming company released fourth-quarter earnings. "The proxy fight is over,” a spokesperson for his outfit Trian Fund Management told Reuters. Could Peltz still end up on the Disney board? "The proxy fight is over.

☆ Lyft is second horse in a one-horse town
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Lyft (LYFT.O) shares skidded 35% on Friday morning after the company reported dismal quarterly results. Lyft’s net loss of nearly $600 million in the fourth quarter was twice what it lost a year earlier. Uber dominates ride-sharing because it has five times as many monthly active drivers and couriers as Lyft. The ride-sharing firm recorded a quarterly net loss of $588 million compared to a net loss of $283 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Lyft rival Uber Technologies reported on Feb. 8 that fourth-quarter revenue increased 49% to $8.6 billion.

But unlike ICBC and its peers, Ant neither took deposits, nor piled risky loans onto its balance sheet. Free from the red tape that binds regular banks, the loans facilitated by Ant ballooned. Digital offerings accounted for half of overall consumer loans in China, Fitch Ratings calculated in 2021. Ant is set to become a licensed financial holding company, putting it under the close watch of China's main banking regulator. Beijing wants Chinese consumers to consume, so is likely to indulge controlled growth of consumer credit.

☆ Chegg gets schooled in AI downside
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Its stock slumped nearly one-fifth on Tuesday, after it forecast shrinking revenue in 2023. The chief problem for companies like Chegg is that tumbling undergraduate enrollment already means fewer future customers. To grow, Chegg must win an ever-bigger share of a shrinking market. Rosensweig argues that Chegg can use the technology to its own advantage, matching students with the right content and constructing personalized study plans. By contrast, other companies that have started putting AI to work, like online publisher BuzzFeed (BZFD.O), have seen their stock soar.

☆ Carlyle's new boss will be virtuoso second fiddle
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

That’s the best way of interpreting the private equity firm’s appointment of former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker Harvey Schwartz on Monday. He never quite made it to the CEO job at Goldman, though served in a number of high-level roles like chief financial officer and chief operating officer. They felt that the ousted Lee, who pushed hard to diversify Carlyle’s business, hadn’t adequately consulted them on big moves, according to Reuters. The firm’s co-founder Bill Conway, also one of Carlyle’s two co-chairmen, has been filling the role on an interim basis. Schwartz previously held various senior roles including chief financial officer and chief operating officer at investment bank Goldman Sachs, which he left in 2018.

☆ U.S. snowboarders sue former coach alleging sexual abuse
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 2 (Reuters) - Three former U.S. snowboarders sued their former coach, the national snowboarding federation and the U.S. Olympic Committee on Thursday alleging sexual abuse that was covered up by the two sporting bodies, court documents showed. Rosey Fletcher, Erin O'Malley and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof sued former coach Peter Foley, U.S. Ski and Snowboard (USSS), and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in U.S. District Court for the central district of Los Angeles. The suit alleges Foley exploited his position of trust with the athletes to "coerce sexual acts through force, manipulation, emotional abuse, intimidation, and retaliation". The U.S. Olympic Committee said at that time it had followed protocol and reported the allegations to the U.S Center for SafeSport, which handles reports of sexual abuse within the Olympic movement.

☆ Goldman’s Marcus is a lesson in self-made failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Being a consumer bank was a good idea when Goldman’s leaders cooked it up eight years ago. Fast forward to 2023, and consumer banking is still highly lucrative. The practice of working through the night is common in the investment banking division Solomon once headed but rare in consumer banking. For example, Goldman’s engineers had to fight to host consumer banking systems on the cloud rather than on the bank’s own servers. That year, nobody from the consumer bank was promoted to the firm’s prestigious partner level.

☆ Apple tries to be both desirable and predictable
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

In 2018, the company’s enterprise value was equivalent to 3 times estimated revenue for the year ahead, according to Refinitiv. One way to make sense of that is to break Apple’s valuation into parts. Deduct that from Apple’s enterprise value, and investors are pricing the services business at $1 trillion, around 10 times forecast revenue. Whether it’s justified, though, depends on what services Apple is peddling, and how steady and subscription-like they are. If 20% of Apple’s services are cyclical, for example, and investors put the same multiple of sales as those peers, the company's fair share price drops 5%.

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