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☆ Silly Meta, Roblox isn’t just for kids
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Video-game and social-media hub Roblox (RBLX.N) isn’t playing around when it comes to expanding its audience. The company behind MeepCity and Royale High has been racing alongside Meta Platforms (META.O) to turn the metaverse into more than just a vague buzzword. Despite being unprofitable and considerably smaller than Facebook’s owner, it is putting up a solid fight. Meta is mulling ways to attract younger users, including maybe opening the game up to minors older than 13. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Morning Bid: Interminable anxiety
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The about-turn in rates markets in just two weeks has been extraordinary - with Fed funds futures pricing moving from a terminal rate as low as 4.8% to 5.26% on Wednesday. Two-year Treasury yields soared to a 3-month high of 4.64% on Tuesday - where current Fed rates sit - and only gave back a fraction of that on Wednesday. U.S. stocks held up remarkably well on Tuesday - helped by hopes recession fears are easing even as rate speculation intensifies. Sterling slipped as UK inflation fell faster than expected last month, even though the annual inflation rate remains in double digits. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Chinese firms face embarrassment of listing riches
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Feb 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Global appetite for Chinese stocks is returning. Sensor-maker Hesai shares popped nearly 11% in what is the biggest initial public offering from the People’s Republic in New York since 2021. The country's sudden reopening has boosted economic activity, and regulators are prioritising growth over cracking down on private firms. Hedge funds have increased their exposure to Chinese equities back to 2020 levels, Goldman Sachs data shows. A steady stream of firms are mulling Hong Kong listings too.

☆ Coinbase shares fall as SEC takes crypto staking action against Kraken
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Coinbase shares closed down more than 14% Thursday, after CEO Brian Armstrong voiced concern on rumors that the Securities and Exchange Commission was mulling new enforcement action against crypto staking. Those rumors coalesced on Thursday afternoon, when the SEC announced a settlement with Coinbase's rival crypto exchange, Kraken. The SEC alleged that Kraken had engaged in the unregistered offering and sale of securities through its crypto staking platform. With crypto staking, investors typically vault their crypto assets with a blockchain validator, which verifies the accuracy of transactions on the blockchain. "We're hearing rumors that the SEC would like to get rid of crypto staking in the U.S. for retail customers.

Shares in EnBW rose 5.5% after the news to end the day at their highest level in five weeks. The savings banks in Baden-Wuerttemberg, where EnBW is based, are part of the final bidding round, their president Peter Schneider said last week. KfW, EnBW and CIP declined to comment. EnBW Chief Financial Officer Thomas Kusterer in November said EnBW hoped to conclude the sales process in early 2023. ($1 = 0.9297 euros)Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Markus Wacket Editing by Miranda Murray and Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Billionaire Ken Griffin is raising alarm over his desire to move a 100-year-old home off his $107 million Miami estate
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The billionaire Ken Griffin bought a historic Miami property for about $107 million in September. If the HEPB rejects the plan, Griffin could appeal to the Miami City Commission. A Citadel representative, Zia Ahmed, told the Journal that if Griffin were to move the house, "the utmost care and every precaution" would be taken. To Varas, the idea of moving the property to another piece of land was tantamount to "redacting history." Coconut Grove, the neighborhood in Miami where Griffin purchased a $107 million estate.

☆ Billionaire Ken Griffin wants to relocate a historic Miami home he purchased for $107 million. Preservationists say it could set a dangerous precedent.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The billionaire Ken Griffin bought a historic Miami property for about $107 million in September. A Citadel representative, Zia Ahmed, told the Journal that if Griffin were to move the house, "the utmost care and every precaution" would be taken. To Varas, the idea of moving the property to another piece of land was tantamount to "redacting history." Coconut Grove, the neighborhood in Miami where Griffin purchased a $107 million estate. Preservationists told the Journal that the home was a testament to the grand-estate days of Miami's early history when Coconut Grove experienced an economic boom.

☆ Jim Cramer's Investing Club meeting Monday: Fed speech, Caterpillar, Cisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CAT, CSCO, QCOM. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB.

☆ New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu says Trump can't beat Biden in 2024 because he's going to be 'seen as a very extreme candidate'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Chris Sununu gave a thumbs down to Trump's chances against Biden in a potential 2024 matchup. "The country is going to push back against it," Sununu said of a Trump general election candidacy. Chris Sununu on Sunday said that former President Donald Trump won't be able defeat President Joe Biden in a potential 2024 matchup, arguing that the former commander-in-chief would be seen as an "extreme candidate." Trump is going to be seen as a very extreme candidate. The results showed Trump with a 50%-41% lead among Independents, which helped give him a slight edge in the survey.

☆ Indiana's Senate race will show the depths of the fault lines within the GOP. Early signs show it's still Trump's party.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Mitch Daniels would have been an ideal GOP Senate candidate. Daniels' decision offers a look at the obstacles that the party continues to face headed in 2024. Mitch Daniels would have been seen by most traditional conservatives as an ideal candidate to run for the Senate. Eric Holcomb is a potential candidate in the 2024 Indiana Republican Senate primary. AP Photo/Manuel Balce CenetaIndiana could drive the GOP Senate roadmapAhead of the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans anticipated making major gains in Congress, which eventually didn't come to pass.

☆ Santander is not interested in potential acquisition of Orange Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MADRID, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Spain's Santander (SAN.MC) is not interested in the potential acquisition of Orange Bank (ORAN.PA), the mobile banking unit of Orange, chairman Ana Botin said on Thursday. Les Echos reported on Wednesday that French banks BNP Paribas , Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) and Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) were mulling a bid for Orange Bank. The newspaper added that Spanish bank Santander and U.S. private equity fund Cerberus were also considering a bid. "We are not interested in Orange," Botin said during the annual earnings press conference in Madrid. Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Jesus AguadoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HONG KONG, Jan 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China’s first big vacation of 2023 offers shallow relief to investors. Passenger car sales dropped 21% from the same festive period last year, per Nomura analysts, and real estate keeps plunging. Central bankers terrified that China’s reopening will fuel more global inflation will be relieved. Chinese consumers enjoyed their holiday but there was little sign of dramatic “revenge consumption.” Scarred consumers have too many reasons to avoid splurging for the foreseeable future. The opinions expressed are her own)Follow @ywchen1 on TwitterloadingCONTEXT NEWSMainland China’s Lunar New Year holiday runs from Jan. 21 to Jan. 27 in 2023.

☆ Elon Musk is mulling over ways to whittle down some of his Twitter debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

And speaking of cold hard reality, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk is trying to raise fresh funds to pay off some of the pricier bits of his $13 billion Twitter loan. New fundraising to the tune of $3 billion could help Musk repay the obligations he took on in his Twitter takeover. For every quarter that goes by without refinancing, the interest rate goes up by an additional 0.50 percentage point, regulatory filings show. That said, if Twitter can pay back those unsecured bridge loans, meeting its debt obligations would be much more manageable. What are some ways you think Elon Musk could boost revenue at Twitter?

☆ It's not all gloom and doom on Wall Street. Here's where finance firms are still hiring.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

For many on Wall Street, those questions are top of mind. Insider's finance team canvassed more than a dozen recruiters to get their takes on the job market. From investment banking to hedge funds to fintechs, here's who's hiring and who's at risk of making more cuts. Click here to read more about the hiring landscape across Wall Street, from banks to hedge funds and fintechs. We've got a list of the best and worst US airlines, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Potanin is estimated to be Russia's richest or second richest person thanks to his stake in metals giant Nornickel (GMKN.MM). Maksut Shadaev, the head of Russia's ministry of digital affairs, told parliament in December that around 100,000 IT specialists had left Russia in 2022. Other hawkish politicians have advocated hitting remote workers and emigres with higher taxes and stripping them of their passports and Russian assets. Potanin said Moscow badly needs remote workers including computer programmers to help its battered economy recover. "No-one is convinced these measures will work," said the doctor, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried has serious beef with FTX's new boss, John Ray III
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

John Ray, CEO of FTX Group, described a litany of amateurish business practices used to run the multibillion-dollar exchange. This much we know for certain: Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX's new boss, John Ray III, are not each other's biggest fans. From their comments, we can see that they disagree on how to run a company, where certain cash went, and who can repay who. It doesn't take a stoic to make Bankman-Fried look chatty, given the extensive media tour he embarked on after FTX went under. And strangely, as the boss and former boss duke it out, FTX's native token FTT is quietly skyrocketing again.

☆ Cellnex shares soar on report that American Tower, Brookfield mulling possible bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MADRID, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Shares in Spain's Cellnex (CLNX.MC) jumped 8% on Friday after a media report that said American Tower (AMT.N) and asset manager Brookfield (BN.TO) were weighing a possible takeover bid for the mobile phone tower operator. Spanish online outlet Okdiario quoted unidentified sources close to the operation saying Goldman Sachs was advising Cellnex, while Morgan Stanley was advising American Tower and Brookfield. Cellnex, Brookfield, American Tower and their advisers declined to comment. Cellnex shares were up 8.3% at 12.21 GMT to lead gains in Spain's blue chip index Ibex-35 (.IBEX). Reporting by Andres Gonzalez and Emma Pinedo; additional reporting by Jesús Aguado; editing by Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

On a larger exchange like Binance or Coinbase , for example, many customers opt to let the platform custody their crypto tokens. In the four years that Bitzlato operated, only $52 million moved directly from the exchange to Binance, the same dataset shows. CNBC reviewed transaction data for the ten largest recipients of Bitzlato outflows, which collected over $45 million in Bitzlato-originated funds. Those wallets also received millions more in funds from other exchanges, including Huobi, FTX, Poloniex, Nexo, and WhiteBIT, a Ukrainian exchange. We also asked whether Binance was aware that Bitzlato was allegedly used to launder money and, if so, why funds from Bitzlato were custodied on its platform.

☆ Layoffs might cause workers who are left behind to quit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

As layoffs creep upward, the findings have implications for firms that have let go of employees. Visier published a study about turnover contagion following resignations, and later detailed its finding related to layoffs in a recent LinkedIn post. After all, managers might not be fully aware of their team member's social ties, particularly if employees work remotely or have a hybrid setup. Bosses might be on team Zoom calls, but they don't see, for instance, that their team members regularly text each other on and off the clock. But they need to think about their team member's salary, growth, and market value.

Ron DeSantis is proposing legislation to permanently ban Covid-19 health measures aimed at mitigating the virus in the state. The legislation would prohibit vaccine and mask requirements in schools, masking requirements at businesses, and so-called vaccine passports showing proof of vaccination. “When the world lost its mind, Florida was a refuge of sanity, serving strongly as freedom’s linchpin,” DeSantis said in a press release. The Florida Supreme Court approved DeSantis’ request late last month. DeSantis first drew ire from Trump last year when he refused to say whether he received a Covid booster shot.

☆ Here are the 12 top power players at Google leading the fight in AI against the smash hit ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The internet has been mesmerized by ChatGPT, an AI bot that can answer just about any question. Here are 12 leaders heading up AI initiatives at Google that can help it take on ChatGPT. That last piece of information has people asking whether ChatGPT could prove a threat to Google's dominance. If a chatbot can return coherent responses to any query, why would anyone sift through a page of blue links? At the same time, Google has already produced much technology that could help it compete, including a chatbot called LaMDA.

CNN —More than half of all US states have partially or fully banned TikTok from government devices, according to a CNN analysis, reflecting a wave of recent clampdowns by governors and state agencies targeting the short-form video app. The accelerating backlash by states against TikTok, which has at least 100 million users in the United States, extends to states governed by Republicans and Democrats, and spans all regions of the country. Many of the states have singled out TikTok for executive action, with governors prohibiting the social media platform from government networks and devices. A handful of states are mulling legislation to restrict TikTok, mirroring similar efforts at the federal level by US lawmakers. Nearly two dozen states announced restrictions late last year amid reports that a negotiation between TikTok and the US government had stalled over whether the company could continue offering its services in the United States.

The “three red lines” policy on debt ratios has begun aggravating market stress and impairing balance sheets. Those on the wrong side of those lines found themselves almost entirely locked out of credit markets. In short there are now more property firms on the wrong side of the red lines than when the policy was first rolled out, and even the most financially healthy are struggling. They are also mulling letting companies in good financial condition raise debt by more than the current 15% annual limit, per Bloomberg. However, the three red lines remain in place for now.

NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Microsoft (MSFT.O) is mulling a heads-I-win, tails-I-also win, AI deal. A mooted $10 billion investment, reported by Semafor, in the maker of the popular ChatGPT, could reshape Microsoft’s software business. And the investment is a pittance compared to Microsoft’s market capitalization of $1.7 trillion and $107 billion of cash on hand. Even then, Microsoft’s investment may not be wasted. The proposed investment means OpenAI can grow its business faster, which also benefits Azure, a part of Microsoft that investors value highly.

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