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[1/2] Block Inc logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, April 10, 2023. Shares of Block, formerly called Square, rose more than 4% in extended trading on Thursday. Prior to market close, its stock was down more than 10% from the beginning of this year. Block has denied the allegations and has said it would explore legal action against the short seller. Short sellers like Hindenburg typically sell borrowed securities and aim to buy these back at a lower price.

Disruptions may hit mine output, leading analysts to trim a forecast surplus for this year to 133,000 tonnes from 165,000 tonnes of oversupply in the previous poll. Analysts have marked up their estimates for an aluminium market surplus this year to 113,500 tonnes from 80,535 tonnes forecast in January. "Due to relentless mined nickel supply growth in Indonesia, and its broad-based nickel-bearing exports, we remain longer-term bears on the global nickel price," said Tom Price at Liberum. Analysts expect LME cash nickel prices to average $22,273 a tonne in the third quarter, down 11% from current levels. They also expect the global nickel market to see a surplus of 112,000 tonnes this year and an oversupply of 89,500 tonnes in 2024.

☆ Where to get the best returns on your savings when rates are high
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The average bank savings rate as of April 26 was a paltry 0.24%, according to Bankrate. At some of the biggest banks, savings rates are as low as 0.01%. For the rest of your emergency fund and other savings, you can get a healthy return just by opening an online high-yield savings account at an FDIC insured online bank. As with most bank rates, high-yield rates are variable so can change at any point. Don’t chase yieldAs attractive as many savings rates are today, they are no substitute for the long-term returns you can earn in a diversified investment portfolio of stocks, bonds and other assets.

HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said the results showed its strengths in a rising rate environment, and played down the risks of further contagion for the banking sector. HSBC posted a pretax profit of $12.9 billion for the quarter ended March, versus $4.2 billion a year earlier. The profit was much higher than the $8.64 billion average estimate of 17 analysts compiled by the bank. Despite the surging profit, HSBC did not raise its key performance target of reaching a return on tangible equity of at least 12% from this year onwards, while analysts were estimating the key metric would be lifted. Reporting by Selena Li ing Kong Kong and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HONG KONG, May 2 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) reported on Tuesday a better than expected tripling of quarterly profit, as rising interest rates worldwide boosted the lender's income and helped it pay a first quarterly dividend since 2019. Europe's largest bank posted a pretax profit of $12.9 billion for the first quarter ended March, versus $4.2 billion a year earlier. The results were better than the $8.64 billion average estimate of 17 analysts compiled by HSBC. It announced a dividend of $0.10 per share, its first quarterly dividend since 2019, following calls of shareholders to increase the dividend payout. Reporting by Selena Li ing Kong Kong and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Dollar dips as job openings fall, Fed meeting in focus
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The dollar fell Tuesday after data showed that U.S. job openings fell in March, a day before the Federal Reserve is expected to hike interest rates by an additional 25 basis points. The dollar index fell 0.22% to 101.93 after earlier reaching 102.40, the highest since April 11. The single currency has risen since mid-March on expectations that the interest rate differential with the U.S. dollar will continue to shrink. The Aussie dollar rose 0.51% to $0.6664, after earlier getting to $0.6717, the highest since April 21. The dollar fell 0.56% to 136.67 yen, after earlier hitting 137.78, the highest since March 8.

FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg has said the report, to be released at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday, will address options on deposit insurance coverage levels, excess deposit insurance, implications of risk-based pricing and the adequacy of the regulator's deposit insurance fund, which will take an estimated $20 billion hit from the failure of SVB and a smaller knock of about $2.5 billion from Signature Bank. The FDIC's deposit insurance fund helps to fulfill the agency's guarantee of bank deposits up to $250,000 per person. In the event an insured bank fails, the FDIC uses the deposit insurance fund to pay back customers who maintained accounts under the limit. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Republican lawmakers in March that Congress should re-evaluate limits on the size of federally insured bank deposits. Some analysts have floated a more targeted change: raising the insurance cap for small business accounts used to manage payroll and other transactions.

If a bank fails, insured deposits will be moved to another FDIC-insured bank or paid out. Checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit are examples of FDIC-insured bank accounts. Single bank accounts and joint bank accounts are examples of different ownership categories. If you want to keep more money in the bank than the FDIC will insure, you could open another bank account at a separate bank. Aside from First Republic, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank, the last bank failure happened in October 2020, when Alamena State Bank in Kansas was shut down.

☆ What every consumer should know about bank failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Let’s be frank: If you have a US bank account, hearing about bank failures in the past couple of months hasn’t felt great. Here’s what you need to know to keep things in perspective despite the recent closures of First Republic, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. How do I know my money is safe? How can I know if my bank will fail? The FDIC will issue information within a day or so of taking over a failed bank to let the bank’s customers know what steps if any they need to take and when.

☆ FDIC sees merits of increasing backstop for business accounts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A key U.S. banking regulator on Monday laid out a range of options for reforming the federal deposit insurance system and concluded that significantly increasing the backstop for bank accounts used for business purposes was the "most promising." In the wake of March's lightning-fast bank failures, expanding coverage for accounts used to cover payroll, invoices and other large business transactions has emerged as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp's preferred route for balancing financial stability and depositor protection, relative to its cost. Keeping the current system, where coverage is limited to $250,000 per-person per-bank, was the third option considered. The FDIC's deposit insurance fund helps to fulfill the agency's guarantee of bank deposits up to $250,000 per person. In the event an insured bank fails, the FDIC uses the deposit insurance fund to pay back customers who maintained accounts under the limit.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: First Republic, JPMorgan Chase, SoFi Technologies & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A view of the First Republic Bank logo at the Park Avenue location, in New York City, March 10, 2023. Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:First Republic Bank , JPMorgan Chase — First Republic shares were halted during premarket trading after falling more than 45%. The move comes after JPMorgan took control of First Republic after the beleaguered bank was taken over by regulators. SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF — The regional banking fund fell 0.4% in premarket trading as investors reacted to the failure of First Republic. Norwegian Cruise Line — The cruise line stock jumped 3% after Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings beat first-quarter expectations on the top and bottom lines.

☆ Analysis: Fed report on SVB collapse could buoy shareholder lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Jack Queen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

FILE PHOTO: The Silicon Valley Bank headquarters seen from the street in Santa Clara, California, U.S. March 13, 2023. The bank’s parent company, SVB Financial Group, entered bankruptcy on March 17. The Fed’s report concluded that SVB did not adequately hedge against risk, failed its own liquidity stress tests, and chased short-term profits at the expense of long-term stability. Rather than address these risks, the bank changed how it measured them, the report found. “I see this (Fed) report as being extraordinarily useful evidence to dangle in front of a judge or jury on class action lawsuits against accounting firms,” Cox said.

☆ What’s next for troubled First Republic Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —First Republic Bank is still an independent bank. The FDIC had already done so with two other similar sized banks just last month — Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — when runs on those banks by their customers left the lenders unable to cover customers’ demands for withdrawals. Nervous major depositorsThe financial report showed depositors had withdrawn about 41% of their money from the bank during the first quarter. In its earnings statement, the bank said insured deposits declined moderately during the quarter and have remained stable from the end of last month through April 21. So when customers lose confidence in a bank and rush to withdrawal their money, what is known as a “run on the bank,” it can cause even an otherwise profitable bank to fail.

The hedge funds said they can share ideas, but cannot reveal their trading positions for regulatory reasons. Reddy said he preferred senior unsecured bank debt, that allowed bondholders payment ahead of some other creditors in the event of an insolvency. Taking bearish positions on banks that lend to smaller and medium sized firms could prove opportunistic if the economy weakens, he added. Trend-wise the Japanese yen should continue to weaken," said Chua, noting that central banks in Asia have slowed or paused rate hikes. Insurers, which holds commercial mortgage-backed securities and property, will likely feel pressures on CRE, he said.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Snap, Intel, First Solar, Exxon Mobil & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That overshadowed a revenue beat for the first quarter. The company beat on adjusted earnings per share with $1.58 against a StreetAccount estimated $1.52. Exxon Mobil's adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.83, topping analysts' estimates of $2.59, per Refinitiv. The oil major's adjusted earnings per share was $3.55 versus the $3.41 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. The company reported 40 cents per share adjusted on $548.29 million in revenue, while a StreetAccount estimate called for 99 cents per share.

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.

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.

☆ Adtech company MediaMath has hired bankers to explore a possible sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

MediaMath has appointed investment bank Houlihan Lokey to explore its strategic options. Amid a period of major upheaval, MediaMath has been pursuing a sale since 2020. Adtech company MediaMath has appointed the investment bank Houlihan Lokey to explore its strategic options, which could include a debt restructuring or a sale, according to two people familiar with the matter. It's the third investment bank MediaMath has appointed in three years, amid a period of major upheaval for the company. While MediaMath held serious talks with four companies between 2020 and 2022, including Amazon and the publicly traded adtech firm Tremor, a sale didn't materialize.

☆ How to trade Deutsche Bank and Barclays quarterly results based on history
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Two of Europe's largest banks — Britain's Barclays and Germany's Deutsche Bank — are set to announce their first-quarter earnings later on Thursday. In such a scenario, CNBC Pro's analysis found that shares, on average, outperformed the FTSE 100 index by 2.7 percentage points on the day. The stock also beat the benchmark by 2.5 percentage points over a week since the results, and 13.9 percentage points a month out. BARC-GB 1Y line Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank shares have more often than not performed poorly compared to the DAX index , according to CNBC Pro's analysis. Deutsche Bank shares were trading at 9.52 euros per share ($11.87) on Wednesday afternoon.

☆ Standard Chartered's first-quarter profit rises 21% as interest rates soar
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Standard Chartered on Wednesday said first-quarter pretax profit jumped 21%, beating analyst estimates, as rising interest rates buoyed cash management income and retail product sales of the emerging markets-focused lender. StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said statutory pretax profit for January-March reached $1.81 billion. That compared with $1.49 billion a year earlier and the $1.43 billion average of 14 analyst estimates compiled by the bank. It was the bank's largest single-quarter profit since the start of 2014, as rising interest rates boosted lending income while its financial markets trading division saw frenzied trading from customers amid volatile markets. The earnings update from StanChart showed how rising central bank rates have boosted revenue, as it charged borrowers more interest while not passing through all of the increase to depositors.

[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.

☆ Dollar bonds of India's Adani Ports rise as company starts debt buyback
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MUMBAI, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar-denominated bonds issued by India's Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) rose on Monday, after the company commenced a cash tender offer for a buyback of securities. On Monday, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS), part of the beleaguered Adani Group, said it has floated a tender of up to $130 million of 3.375% 2024 maturity dollar-denominated bonds. The company has engaged Barclays Bank, DBS Bank, Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, First Abu Dhabi Bank, PJSC, MUFG Securities Asia Singapore Branch, SMBC Nikko Securities (Hong Kong) and StandardChartered Bank to serve as dealer managers for the offer. The dollar bonds of Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS), Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) and Adani Electricity Mumbai were trading mixed. However, India's market regulator is looking into Hindenburg's allegations as well as the group's related party dealings following a Supreme Court directive.

☆ Burger King’s secret weapon against McDonald’s is the Whopper
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The plan is still in early stages: Burger King has invested $40 million as of the end of last year. At US Burger King locations open at least 13 months, sales jumped 5% in the quarter, thanks in part to the burger. “I don’t know what his place might be in the future.”The fast food war heats upFor Burger King, the Whopper is more than just a burger. But even if the Whopper isn’t all that different from other fast food burgers, it’s the one Burger King has got. For Burger King, “the challenge is you’re competing against McDonald’s, and McDonald’s is really good,” said Senatore.

☆ Rates on C.D.s Are Soaring, but the High Rates May Not Last
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Ann Carrns | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

You want to be able to withdraw the cash quickly if you need it, without worrying about paying a penalty. You may be better off getting a slightly lower rate in a high-yield savings account, with fewer restrictions on withdrawals. If you have a large expense coming at a known date in the future, however — say, a college tuition payment — a longer-term C.D. The paltry interest rates of recent years punished retirees, she said, so higher C.D. rates of 3 to 5 percent offer welcome relief: “We’re in this golden moment.”But given concerns about the economy and uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve will continue raising rates, it’s unclear how long banks will continue to pay the high rates.

[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.

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