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TOKYO, April 7 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) should be cautious about changing its unconventional monetary policy for now, given financial market uncertainty due to problems in Western banks, former top financial diplomat Takehiko Nakao told Reuters in an interview. Nakao made the comments amid speculation the BOJ may abandon its yield curve control policy when new Governor Kazuo Ueda takes over incumbent Haruhiko Kuroda, whose term ends on April 8. U.S. bank failures and the buyout of Credit Suisse by UBS last month have driven financial market risk aversion. Nakao said the BOJ must carefully monitor market developments, for now, although credit anxiety was unlikely to morph into anything like the 2008/09 global financial crisis. "Yet, the BOJ cannot continue unconventional monetary policy, including ETF and REIT purchases and YCC, indefinitely.

☆ Here are Wednesday's top analyst calls of the day: Disney, Apple, Amazon, Dutch Bros, Meta & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Bank of America reiterates Disney as buy Bank of America said Disney remains "best-in-class." Piper Sandler reiterates Apple as overweight Piper said its survey checks show Apple is still a top pick for teens. Bank of America upgrades Livent to buy from neutral Bank of America said the lithium company's "value proposition" has increased. " Wedbush upgrades Dutch Bros to outperform from neutral Wedbush upgraded the coffee chain and said it sees more upside. Bank of America reiterates Apple as buy Bank of America raised its price target on Apple to $168 per share from $158 and said it sees iPhone trends stabilizing.

☆ These well-liked stocks are cheap and set for big earnings growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Alaska Air joins it with expected earnings growth of 31.5% and buy ratings from 86% of analysts. It has the second-largest estimated earnings growth at 72.5%. Ahead of it in earnings growth is Vici Properties , the real estate investment trust. In tech, Microchip Technology 's earnings growth is projected at 30% and potential upside to its stock price at 19%. The other tech name, dating app operator Match Group , ties with Baker Hughes with a forward price-earnings multiple of 17.9.

☆ The UFC-WWE deal could be the boost the M&A market needs to get back into gear
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America were among the banks advising on the deal. Earlier this year, some pegged the merger market getting back into the swing of things by mid-year. When you think about it, the WWE-UFC deal might be the best way to get the market going again. Fight for media rights: Both UFC and WWE have streaming deals with ESPN and NBCUniversal's Peacock, respectively. The crypto community is now pitching itself as playing a key role in AI development thanks to its decentralized nature.

JPMorgan refreshed its list of top stock picks heading into April, including a bank stock that's had a rocky start to the year. To kick off the month of April, JPMorgan added two new names to its focus list: VICI Properties and Regions Financial. The other new name on the list, Regions Financial , has declined 15% in 2023. GM shares are up 6.2% in 2023. JPMorgan removed two names from its list: Intellia Therapeutics and Jones Lang LaSalle .

☆ Read the memo Google CFO Ruth Porat sent to staff about new cost-cutting, including paring back worker perks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Hugh Langley | Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Googlers,This year, one of our important company OKRs is to deliver durable savings through improved velocity and efficiency. Since then, we've continued to rebalance based on data about how programs and services are being used. Improving external procurement is another area where data suggests significant savings — on everything from software to equipment to professional services. We set a high bar for industry-leading perks, benefits and office amenities, and will continue that into the future. Jen, Philipp, Prabhakar, Ruth and Thomas (co-owners of the OKR), on behalf of all PA and Functional leads

☆ DeSantis gets support from some on Wall Street, but Trump looms large in their concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Ron DeSantis, according to people familiar with the conversations. "I think most people favor DeSantis over Trump but it's unclear that [DeSantis] can win," a Wall Street donor strategist told CNBC. Peterffy has even donated more than $360,000 to a pro-DeSantis political action committee called Friends of Ron DeSantis. DiLella has donated at least $80,000 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC, according to state records. Gerson donated $3,000 to DeSantis' 2018 campaign for governor and just over $100,000 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC between 2018 and 2022, according to state records.

☆ Jim Cramer's top 10 things to watch in the stock market Monday: OPEC+ surprise, Macy's lift, Tesla miss
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

How are we approaching the market week ahead? I also explained that we are indeed in a bull market, but that things could get a bit rocky from here. Analyst Matthew Boss also increased his price target by a buck to $29, citing favorable risk-to-reward setup at current stock price. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Tesla, Marathon Oil, WWE, UnitedHealth and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

UnitedHealth — Shares of the health insurance giant gained about 4% after the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Friday announced updated payment rates. The Wall Street firm said Marqueta is facing a "multitude of headwinds" without an ironed-out renewal deal with Block. Extra Space Storage , Life Storage — Shares of Extra Space Storage fell 5% after the company said it would acquire Life Storage in an all-stock transaction for $145.82 per share, an 11.2% premium to where Life Storage closed Friday. Shares of Life Storage shares rose 3%. Ovintiv – The oil and natural gas exploration and production company saw shares jump 10% after announcing it will acquire certain Midland Basin assets from EnCap Investments for about $4.3 billion.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Marathon Oil, Macy's, WWE and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A road is closed after an oil leak at Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery on October 6, 2021 in Texas City, Texas. Energy stocks — Energy stocks rose broadly Monday after OPEC surprised the market by announcing a production cut. Marathon Oil rose more than 7%, while Halliburton , APA and Occidental Petroleum each gained more than 6%. Extra Space Storage , Life Storage — Extra Space Storage said it would acquire Life Storage in an all-stock transaction for $145.82 per share, an 11.2% premium to where the stock closed Friday. Extra Space shares dropped 4.9% following the announcement; Life Storage shares climbed about 1.7%.

☆ Here are Monday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Macy's, Netflix, Sunnova, Intel & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Morgan Stanley initiates Sunnova as overweight Morgan Stanley said it sees 124% upside for the solar company. " Morgan Stanley downgrades First Solar to underweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock mainly on valuation. Bank of America adds Lowe's to the US 1 list Bank of America added the home improvement giant to its top ideas list. Bank of America names Netflix a top second-quarter pick Bank of America said it's bullish on the streaming giant as the second quarter begins. Morgan Stanley downgrades Marqeta to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley said in its downgrade of the card payment and solutions company that it sees too many negative catalysts. "

☆ Extra Space to buy Life Storage for $12.7 bln in self-storage mega deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Pratyush Thakur | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 3 (Reuters) - Real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage (EXR.N) said on Monday it will acquire Life Storage (LSI.N) for $12.7 billion in a deal that will result in the combined company becoming the largest U.S. self-storage space operator by store count. Life Storage, which operates more than 1,150 storage facilities in 37 states and the District of Columbia, in February turned down a $11 billion all-stock takeover bid from Public Storage (PSA.N). Life Storage shares were up 3.5%, while Extra Space shares were down 5.1%. On deal close, Extra Space and Life Storage shareholders are expected to own about 65% and 35% of the combined company. The board of Extra Space will be expanded from 10 directors to 12 and consist of three directors from Life Storage.

☆ Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers for 'multi-year' savings
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google's finance chief Ruth Porat recently said in a rare companywide email that the company is making cuts to employee services. “These are big, multi-year efforts,” Porat said in a Friday email titled: "Our company-wide OKR on durable savings." In separate documents viewed by CNBC, Google said it's cutting back on fitness classes, staplers, tape, and the frequency of laptop replacements for employees. One of the company's important objectives for 2023 is to "deliver durable savings through improved velocity and efficiency." The company declined to pay the remainder of laid-off employees’ maternity and medical leaves, CNBC previously reported.

☆ Play defense with these fortress stocks in the second quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Bahnsen's investment philosophy focuses specifically on high-quality stocks that have a high dividend yield, along with consistent increases. One of his favorite plays is Procter & Gamble , which currently has a dividend yield of 2.5%. EOG has a 2.9% dividend yield and also has been paying a special dividend. Health-care names Names in the health-care sector are generally considered defensive. Quanta Services has a dividend yield on the lower end, at 0.2%.

☆ Google announces a series of cost-saving measures across the company as it cuts some staff perks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Google has announced a series of cost-cutting measures across the company. Google has announced a series of cost-cutting measures as the company continues to tighten its belt and prioritize its work in artificial intelligence. While they wrote that some of these changes would not be noticeable to many staff, they added that other things "will impact some services Googlers use at work and beyond." The note added that Google is continuing to hire at a reduced pace, while redeploying teams to higher priority work. Here's the memo in full:Googlers,This year, one of our important company OKRs is to deliver durable savings through improved velocity and efficiency.

☆ Office Doom Loop: Landlords Face a Reckoning As Companies Move to Fancy Offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles has a sterling pedigree, but even that can't save it from the doom loop facing many older office towers. A huge swath of America's office market is vulnerable to these twin threats of being under-equipped with amenities and underwater financially. This behavioral shift has deeply cut into demand for office space. The amount of sublease space nationally more than doubled from 118.5 million square feet at the end of 2019 to 242.8 million square feet at the end of 2022, Colliers stated. Lenders are often reluctant, he said, to seize office buildings because of the costs and expertise required to operate the properties.

☆ The banking crisis is doing Fed's work and creating a window for stocks to rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +19 min

Work from home has in part jacked up food prices, and the increase is about 14% above just last year. The only bank that looks like Silicon Valley Bank is First Republic Bank (FRC) because it, too, has suffered huge deposit withdrawals. Nike (NKE)said China orders were good, so did Club stock Starbucks (SBUX). As counterintuitive as it is, the banking row will give the 4.8% fed funds rate a chance to cool consumer spending. This gives stocks a window to advance until we begin earnings season with what will no doubt be a cautious banking sector.

☆ New York Fed board member warns of commercial real-estate risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The real-estate sector has also been hard hit by Fed rate rises and commercial real estate has also been hobbled by the shift away from in-office work during the pandemic. Rechler serves as what’s called a Class B director on the 12-person panel of private citizens who oversee the New York Fed. Each of the quasi-private regional Fed banks are also operated under the oversight of the Fed’s Board of Governors in Washington, which is explicitly part of the government. The boards overseeing each of the regional Fed banks are made up of a mix of bankers, business and non-profit leaders. Their most visible role is helping regional Fed banks find new presidents, although bankers who serve as directors are by law not part of this process.

☆ Real estate leader on NY Fed board warns on commercial real estate risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Both Goldman and Fitch did not specify which small lenders were most vulnerable. The total exposure of the U.S. banking system to CRE loans was $2.5 trillion at the end of December, Fitch said. HEADWINDSThe CRE market faces headwinds that could hobble small banks. Rising interest rates have also depressed demand for CRE loans, while weighing on real estate investment trusts (REITs). Goldman's Viswanathan cited several indicators that reflected a weakening market for office real estate: declining occupancy rates, falling appraisal values and rising defaults.

☆ Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls: Tesla, First Republic, Coinbase, Boeing, Pinterest & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Here are Thursday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley reiterates Tesla as overweight Morgan Stanley said Tesla could eventually be a solution to vehicle affordability. Truist upgrades BellRing Brands to buy from hold Truist said the time is right to buy shares of the food products company. Citi moves First Republic to an under review rating Citi moved to an under review rating on First Republic due to too much uncertainty. Piper Sandler reiterates Meta and Pinterest as top picks Piper said it's standing by shares of Meta and Pinterest. Oppenheimer downgrades Coinbase to perform from outperform Oppenheimer said it sees an "unhealthy regulatory climate" for Coinbase.

☆ Here are Tuesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Meta, Harley-Davidson, Exxon, Amazon, Roblox & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Here are Tuesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley upgrades Meta to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it sees a more "structurally" disciplined company. " Morgan Stanley upgrades Emerson Electric to overweight from neutral Morgan Stanley said shares of the multinational tech company are too attractive to ignore. Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight Morgan Stanley said Microsoft is a long-term threat to Apple that's worth watching. Morgan Stanley upgrades Harley-Davidson to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the stock is attractive at current levels. Morgan Stanley reiterates Exxon as overweight Morgan Stanley said it likes the oil and gas giant's robust "competitive positioning."

☆ Bed Bath & Beyond is closing hundreds of stores. But they won’t be empty for long
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Bed Bath & Beyond is stripping down its big blue signs, clearing out aisles of linens and closing 400 stores as it tries to stave off bankruptcy. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY)’s real estate is a precious, scarce resource for retailers, gyms and anyone else who needs ample space. “A lot of great real estate is going to come available into a market where there’s been no vacancies. “Bed Bath and Beyond sites are interesting to us, and we are exploring available opportunities with our franchisees,” a spokesperson told CNN. He also believes Bed Bath & Beyond may not be able to avoid bankruptcy or liquidation, which would lead to more vacancies.

☆ A leading fund manager warns that regional banks could cause 'financial Armageddon' — unless the government makes 2 crucial moves immediately
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( James Faris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Financial stress stemming from Silicon Valley Bank's collapse could spread, a top fund manager said. But that in itself is becoming an under-the-radar issue, he noted, as large banks' strength is now coming at the expense of regional banks — even those without issues. Since most regional banks aren't classified as "systemically important," their clients would be out of luck in the event of a bank failure, Hatfield noted. Unless the FDIC insures all deposits at all banks, Hatfield said that there will be no reason to put money in a non-protected regional bank. So they'll have a negative interest margin, they'll lose money, they'll get downgraded, and they'll go out of business."

☆ China's post-Covid year gets off to a disappointing start
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Most categories within retail sales rose, but big-ticket items of autos and home appliances saw sales decline. Online retail sales of physical goods rose by 5.3% for the first two months of the year from a year ago. But within that category, investment in real estate fell by 5.7% in January and February from a year ago. That follows a 10% drop in real estate investment for all of last year. Infrastructure and manufacturing investment rose at a slower pace in the first two months of the year than in 2022.

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