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☆ Dollar treads water ahead of Powell testimony; Aussie slips
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SINGAPORE, March 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar was tentative on Tuesday ahead of testimony before Congress by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, while the Aussie slid after the Reserve Bank of Australia hinted that it might nearly be done with monetary tightening. Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar index , which measures it against six major rivals, was flat at 104.24, having slipped 0.26% overnight. "We suspect he will sound noncommittal for now and take his cues from the looming upcoming key data," said Cummins, who expects the Fed to raise rates by 50 basis points. Fed funds futures traders are pricing in a 76% probability the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points at its March meeting. OCBC currency strategist Christopher Wong said Powell's testimony will be one of the last instances of Fed officials speaking before the black-out period commences ahead of the FOMC meeting.

☆ Dollar subdued ahead of Powell testimony; Aussie slips
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SINGAPORE, March 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar was tentative on Tuesday ahead of testimony by U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, while the Aussie slid after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised its cash rate by 25 basis points but tempered hawkishness in its statement. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index , which measures it against six major rivals, fell 0.077% to 104.170, having slipped 0.26% overnight. The Japanese yen was mostly flat at 135.94 to the dollar ahead of the final policy meeting for Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday and Friday. Fed funds futures traders are pricing in a 76% probability the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points at its March meeting. They also expect interest rates to peak at 5.48% in September and still be above 5% at the end of the year.

☆ Dollar subdued ahead of Powell testimony
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, March 7 (Reuters) - The dollar was subdued on Tuesday ahead of testimony by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, which investors will focus on for cues of the path the U.S. central bank is likely to take in tackling sticky inflation. The dollar index , which measures the U.S. currency against six major rivals, was 0.067% higher at 104.31, having skidded 0.26% overnight. The Australian dollar rose 0.01% against the U.S. dollar at $0.673 ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's policy decision later in the day where a quarter-percentage point rate hike is widely expected. The Japanese yen weakened 0.15% to 136.14 per dollar ahead of the final policy meeting for Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday and Friday. They also expect interest rates to peak at 5.48% in September and still be above 5% at the end of the year.

☆ Actor Tom Sizemore, known for tough-guy roles and scandal, dead at 61
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Actor Tom Sizemore, known as much for his struggles with drug addiction and run-ins with the law as for his tough-guy roles in such films as "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down," died on Friday at age 61, said his manager, Charles Lago. Sizemore's first major leading role came in the 1997 horror thriller "The Relic," again playing a police detective. On television, Sizemore won plaudits for his starring role as a police detective in the short-lived CBS television drama "Robbery Homicide Division." He was arrested again on suspicion of domestic abuse in 2016 and the following year pleaded no contest, the legal equivalent of guilty in California, and was sentenced to three year's probation. Sizemore chronicled his turbulent life in the 2013 memoir, "By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There."

☆ Dollar advances as traders consider higher-for-longer rates view
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, jumped 1.8% last month, according to the Commerce Department. The market is now pricing U.S. interest rates to peak at 5.4% in July and remain above 5% through the end of the year. The Fed is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points at its March 21-22 meeting, though some analysts see the possibility of a 50 basis points hike if inflation stays high and growth remains strong. "We now believe it is a much closer call that officials hike by 50 basis points in March than our earlier 25 basis points assumption," said Kevin Cummins, chief economist at NatWest Markets. The Australian dollar rose 0.12% to $0.673, while the kiwi advanced 0.13% versus the greenback to $0.617.

☆ A growing group of lawmakers think TikTok is 'digital fentanyl' and want to ban it. Many others remain skeptical.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Some members of Congress have begun pushing to ban TikTok in the US. "I'm a little less enthusiastic about an all-out ban of it," said Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. "I'm an incrementalist on a lot of things, and I would be on this as well," said Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on social media and the internet's impact on children. Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, another committee member, said she's most concerned about how social media platforms are impacting kids.

☆ UBS says these stocks posted high-quality earnings this season
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Now that Wall Street is about to close the books on yet another earnings season, it's time to see which names posted higher-quality earnings than others, according to UBS. In the S & P 500, about 86% of companies reported quarterly earnings thus far, according to FactSet data. However, UBS' strategist Keith Parker worries that earnings quality is an "overhang," saying the divide between earnings and operating cash flow for companies points to roughly 15% earnings-per-share downside for at-risk stocks. These stocks are in the S & P 1500, have a market cap greater than $3 billion, excluding stocks in financial, real estate and utilities. Meanwhile, Humana demonstrated strong earnings quality because of its leading position in the Medicare Advantage market, according to UBS analyst Kevin Caliendo.

☆ Shareholder votes offer check on unjustified CEO pay at S&P 500 companies, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Feb 16 (Reuters) - Compensation for S&P 500 (.SPX) chief executives has soared in recent years even as investors cast more of their advisory "Say on Pay" votes against management, leading to doubts about the ballots' usefulness. Discovery's total shareholder return for 2021 was minus 22%, versus a gain of 29% for the S&P 500. Warner Brothers Discovery, created last year when Discovery Inc bought AT&T's (T.N) media assets, has not set the frequency of its pay votes. To rank CEOs as "overpaid," As You Sow used criteria including shareholder returns, critical shareholder pay votes and the ratio of CEO to worker pay. It noted the average share of votes cast "against" executive pay at S&P 500 companies climbed to 12.6% last year, from 11.7% in 2021 and 10.4% in 2020.

☆ Republican senators want Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott to stop their 'petty bickering': 'Can't we all just get along?'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott are feuding over the Florida Republican's "12 point plan" yet again. "I don't think we need petty bickering within the Republican conference," said Sen. Cruz of Texas. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images"They're good at that," observed Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, referring to Biden's use of the plan. mused Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah on Twitter over the weekend. "If you want to go out and say that you want to change Social Security and Medicare, go right ahead," said Hawley.

U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan granted a Justice Department motion to stay the lawsuits filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Prosecutors said it made sense to delay those lawsuits because the cases substantially overlapped, and the outcome of the criminal case would likely affect what issues remained in the civil cases. They also cited the risk that Bankman-Fried could gather evidence in the civil cases to improperly impeach government witnesses, circumvent discovery rules in criminal cases, and tailor his criminal defense. Bankman-Fried consented to putting the civil cases on hold. Stays of SEC and CFTC lawsuits are common when the Justice Department files parallel criminal cases.

A far-right faction of House Republicans is pushing against continued US aid to Ukraine. Those concerns ratcheted up amid House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's tumultuous journey to secure the gavel last month. Kyiv, for its part, has kept a close eye on Congress' dynamics since the GOP won a narrow House majority in the November midterms. "This GOP House majority will demand more oversight, transparency, and accountability to ensure assistance to Ukraine is used as intended," McCaul said in a statement. "Most Europeans don't think that suddenly the US is going to cut support to Ukraine," Araud said, adding that nobody anticipates Washington will "dump Ukraine."

"We're going to see in 2023, there is still going to be volatility around chips," Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said on Thursday. By the end of 2023, almost 18 million vehicles will have been removed from production plans since the chip shortage started, according to Auto Forecast Solutions. Japan's Denso Corp (6902.T), a leading supplier to Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), on Friday slashed its annual profit forecast and warned the chip shortage could cause auto production cuts. Toyota in November cut its vehicle production projection for the current financial year through March due to the chip shortage. The head of another auto supplier, Aptiv Plc (APTV.N), which makes advanced driver assistance systems, vehicle computers and high-voltage cabling, said the impact of the chip shortage is not evenly felt.

Google said the new DOJ case, filed jointly with eight states last month, which also alleges advertising-related abuses, overlaps with multidistrict litigation in New York that formed in 2021. Google has disputed the claims in the new lawsuit, saying it "duplicates an unfounded" one that Texas filed and now is part of the New York litigation. "They just want DOJ versus Google, nobody else," Vladeck said. Fox also said there is a new federal law that gives state plaintiffs their preference for venue in antitrust litigation. The case is In re Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 1:21-md-03010-PKC.

☆ U.S. watchdog identifies $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 loans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. government likely awarded about $5.4 billion in COVID-19 aid to people with questionable Social Security numbers, a federal watchdog said in a report released on Monday. The watchdog, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), said it "identified 69,323 questionable Social Security Numbers (SSNs) used to obtain $5.4 billion from the Small Business Administration's (SBA) COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) program and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)." In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. In September, the inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department said fraudsters likely stole $45.6 billion from the United States' unemployment insurance program during the coronavirus outbreak by applying tactics like using Social Security numbers of deceased individuals. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Laid-off tech workers could find a home at startups trying to solve the climate crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Big Tech layoffs have sweetened the talent pool for climate startups and venture-capital firms. Climate startups now have a growing talent pool to choose from, and hiring is picking up, according to recruiters, venture capitalists, and workers who already made the jump from Big Tech to climate tech. "Over the last year, people were already leaving mainstream tech to come into the climate space," Veery Maxwell, a partner at Galvanize Climate Solutions, a global investment firm focused on climate tech, told Insider. Cianfarini told Insider his salary is $185,000 a year plus a $40,000 stock option grant that vests over four years. This trend makes climate tech an attractive option, she said.

☆ The cast of '1923' explain how the prequel has expanded the 'Yellowstone' universe in the most literal sense: 'If Taylor writes you are somewhere, you're shooting there'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Eve Crosbie | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In a Paramount+ video and Insider exclusive, the cast and crew discuss the drama's global scope. From the very first episode, this compelling new chapter set itself apart from earlier prequel "1883," and the present-day set series led by Kevin Costner with its incredibly ambitious scope that features storylines scattered across several continents. "The scale of what we're doing is so vast," Helen Mirren, who portrays the fearsome family matriarch Cara, says in an exclusive new Paramount+ video that takes viewers behind the scenes on the production. As Brandon Sklenar who plays the show's prodigal son, Spencer Dutton, says: "If Taylor writes you are somewhere, you're shooting there." Check out the cast and crew discussing the global journey of "1923" in the video below:"1923" is streaming on Paramount+.

☆ A 26-year-old founded a medical startup — the same year he lost almost half his vision
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Goh Chiew Tong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Kevin Choi, who is Medi Whale's CEO, said he is a firm believer that his diagnosis is "not a coincidence." MediwhaleAs a rifleman in the Republic of Korea Marine Corps who endured harsh training as part of his national service, Kevin Choi had "no doubt" about the state of his health. Long patient journey is a big hurdle to get past. "Long patient journey is a big hurdle to get past. Every conversation I have with doctors or experts … is a lesson to be learnt," said Kevin Choi.

☆ Caron: The stock market has reset, so the investing environment is now better in the long run
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCaron: The stock market has reset, so the investing environment is now better in the long runWashington Crossing Advisors' Kevin Caron gives his thoughts on earnings and the stock market.

The FBI has infiltrated and disrupted a major cybercriminal group that extorted schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure around the world, a law enforcement official told NBC News. As of Thursday morning, its website on the dark web showed a message saying it had been seized by an international law enforcement coalition, including the FBI and Justice Department. The FBI had secretly gained access to Hive’s network for months and provided victims keys to unlock their data, the law enforcement official said. Previous ransomware attacks have resulted in the release of sensitive information about law enforcement officers and schoolchildren. But as is often the case with such groups, Hive’s core group spoke Russian, said Allan Liska, a ransomware analyst at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

WASHINGTON — Republicans, newly empowered with a House majority, are demanding spending cuts as a price for lifting the debt ceiling and averting a catastrophic default on U.S. debt. Republicans are divided over whether Medicare and Social Security spending should be on the chopping block. Jose Luis Magana / APLuna said she wants to do it without tax increases or Social Security or Medicare cuts. The White House has vowed that Biden won’t grant concessions on the debt limit and that paying the country’s bills is non-negotiable. But I think we’ve got to also honor our commitment to Americans when it comes to Social Security and Medicare,” Garcia continued.

☆ Hopes of slowdown in rate hikes bolster shares ahead of U.S. GDP
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Oil prices were steady after U.S. crude stocks rose less than expected, while gold hit a 9-month peak. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) climbed 1.1% and was set for its fifth straight day of gains. The report could mark the last quarter of solid growth before the lagged effects of the Fed's jumbo rate hikes kick in. Oil prices were steady after U.S. crude stocks rose less than expected. Gold prices touched a nine-month high, with spot gold at $1,941 per ounce, after hitting $1,949.09 earlier in the day.

☆ Shares in Asia hit fresh 7-month high, U.S. GDP data awaited
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) climbed 0.9% to 557.65 and was set for its fifth straight day of gains. Trading was thin on Thursday with Australia closed for a holiday and certain parts of Asia, including China, still away for the Lunar New Year. Investor attention will also be on the Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings due next week, with traders looking for clues as to when the central banks are likely to turn dovish. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 0.09% to $80.22 per barrel, while Brent was at $86.05, down 0.08% on the day. Gold prices touched a nine-month high, with spot gold at $1,945.55 per ounce, after hitting $1,949.09 earlier in the day.

☆ Strong U.S. economic growth expected in fourth quarter, outlook darkening
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Lucia Mutikani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Retail sales have weakened sharply over the last two months and manufacturing looks to have joined the housing market in recession. While the labor market remains strong, business sentiment continues to sour, which could eventually hurt hiring. According to a Reuters survey of economists, GDP growth likely increased at a 2.6% annualized rate last quarter after accelerating at a 3.2% pace in the third quarter. Trade, which accounted for the bulk of GDP growth in the third quarter, was seen either making a small contribution or subtracting from GDP growth. While the labor market thus far has shown remarkable resilience, economists argue that deteriorating business conditions will force companies to slow hiring and lay off workers.

☆ GDP report could show solid fourth-quarter growth but still signal a recession is coming, economists say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Economic growth is expected to have slowed slightly in the fourth quarter but was still solid, driven by a strong consumer. According to Dow Jones, economists expect that U.S. gross domestic product grew by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, down from the 3.2% pace in the third quarter. While economists see a strong fourth quarter, they are divided on where the economy goes from here and a key is the consumer. The slowdown in residential investment has taken a full percentage point off of growth in the fourth quarter, he said. Some market strategists see a strong fourth quarter as another sign the economy could avoid falling into recession, and a better-than-expected report could reinforce that view.

☆ How investors are playing the China reopening — from beer to travel stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Seema Mody | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

China is reopening and investors are ready for it. After a bruising 2022, hedge funds have been adding positions in Chinese stocks. Carter points out that even with China's outperformance this year, the MSCI China ETF is trading at 12 times earnings versus a Nasdaq valuation of 22 times earnings. HBSC analysts are recommending Yum China , saying the company is set to benefit from restaurants reopening. With the Lunar New Year underway, travel analyst Jake Fuller at BTIG raised his estimates on Booking Holdings for the first quarter citing "strong trends so far in January" and "China's reopening."

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