DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have been publicly criticizing each other for years — but now Meta is mirroring Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

With the launch of Meta Verified, Mark Zuckerberg is appearing more like Elon Musk by the day. Now, let's look at why people are starting to say that Zuckerberg "idolizes Elon Musk." With the announcement of Meta Verified, Meta's new verification subscription service for Facebook and Instagram, many have drawn comparisons between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Schilsky added: "I think it's clear that Mark Zuckerberg idolizes Elon Musk." Black VCs like Beta Boom's Kimmy Paluch are addressing long-standing diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in the industry head-on.

☆ Private equity is finally stepping up its tech game. Here's who is leading the charge.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the term "private equity?" PE firms do plenty of things quite well (and they are certainly compensated for their work), but their internal tech has never been a top priority. What I find most fascinating about the so-called "digitization" of PE isn't so much the actual tech but the culture. Click here to learn more about the 12 executives helping PE firms get up to speed on cutting-edge tech they can use to source and close deals. Silicon Valley Bank, which is the go-to bank for tech startups, is under pressure amid the market downturn, the Financial Times reported.

☆ Fed economists say the central bank will have to cause serious pain to Americans and the economy if it sticks to its current path
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In the Fed minutes released this week, the central bank's own economists have started to sound the alarm on a recession. Jerome Powell, for his part, has insisted that the Fed's 2% inflation target is set in stone. The jobless rate today stands at 3.4%. We will have other things to worry about at that point besides whether the Fed's inflation target should be 2.0 or 2.75 percent." How realistic do you think the Fed's 2% inflation target is?

☆ Young VCs thought the good times would never end. They did, and now they're pissed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insider's Stephanie Palazzolo and Madeline Renbarger have a fascinating report on how young venture capitalists who came from investment banking and consulting are not having a good time. I encourage you to read Stephanie's and Madeline's story, which has all the juicy details about the current environment for young VCs. I've written a lot about how young investment bankers view their jobs as a means to an end, as opposed to an actual career. Timing has a lot to do with why young VCs are feeling like they've gotten such a raw deal. Click here to read more about why some young investment bankers are regretting their move to venture capital.

☆ Speculative bets are cool again and Reddit's army of retail investors is partying like it's 2021
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

And yet, despite the dip this week, markets right now are brimming with bullishness — and Reddit-loving retail investors are partying like it's 2021. Retail investors are rebuffing Jerome Powell in piling into speculative assets. Remember, at the start of the pandemic, government stimulus and near-zero interest rates gave retail investors the perfect opportunity to lay down speculative bets. "With all of these headwinds, retail investors are jumping in on maybe some ill-conceived optimism," Goldman said. But economic data be damned, retail investors are still piling into the riskiest corners of the market.

☆ Citadel joins a growing number of firms rolling out internships for undergrads looking for a fast track to the buy side
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Investment banks, you've been put on notice: The buy side is coming for your young talent. Insider's Emmalyse Brownstein has a full rundown on an undergrad internship at hedge fund Citadel for aspiring fund managers. The Citadel Associate Program (CAP) is a tough nut to crack, with an acceptance rate of only 1%. Click here learn more about Citadel's ultra-exclusive associate program, along with tips to get ahead during the application process. And if you're wondering who is left leading the world's largest hedge fund, look no further than our list of the fund's top 11 executives.

☆ Wall Street analysts are warning stocks are about to come crashing down
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Today's Fed minutes release should provide more insight on what's to come in March. So according to Wilson, stocks have entered this death zone after climbing too high too fast in hopes the Federal Reserve is about to pull back on its aggressive monetary policy. He's reiterated several times this year that the rally will lose steam, and he expects sticky inflation to push the Fed to hold interest rates higher for longer. The bank's analysts now see the Fed raising rates by 25 basis points in June, which would bring the terminal rate to a target range of 5.25-5.5%. "As [stocks] have reached even higher levels, there is now talk of a "no landing" scenario – whatever that means," Wilson noted.

☆ PayPal's CEO search amid an uncertain economy will be no easy task
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In case you missed it, PayPal CEO and President Dan Schulman announced his plan to retire at the end of 2023 earlier this month. Coming off an extremely difficult 2022, and with competition seemingly coming at them from every which way, PayPal has to find a new CEO. I hesitate to compare this to the seemingly never-ending CEO search at Carlyle, but it's easy to see how a difficult quarter or two could complicate this entire search. The rich stay rich thanks to another loophole that helps them save on taxes. Elliott Management's Paul Singer and Two Sigma's David Siegel both played second fiddle to Haidar Capital's Said Haidar in 2022 when it came to comp.

☆ The stock market has been flipped and investors are taunting the Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

As my colleague Matthew Fox writes, the stock market has been completely flipped upside down so far in 2023. This is the type of trading behavior you'd expect to see when interest rates are closer to 0% than 5%. To Kolanovic, the errant investor behavior foreshadows a plunge in the stock market. US stock futures fall early Tuesday, as investors stay worried that persistent inflation means interest rates will stay higher for longer. SoFi's Liz Young warned that a lack of reserve funds could stop this year's stock market rally: "What the equity market is not pricing in at this point, or is not worried enough about, is consumer spending."

☆ 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.

☆ These bankers got deals done despite a dismal environment
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Top M&A bankers of 2022. That's why you could argue that this year's edition of "The Rainmakers" — Insider's annual list of the 20 M&A bankers who handled the largest deals of the year in North America — is more impressive than previous editions. What's interesting about this year's list is how it was made up of bankers almost entirely from the bulge-bracket. Check out our list of the top-20 M&A bankers who made the most during a difficult year for dealmaking. Jeff Bezos' $500 million yacht finally hit the open water.

☆ Europe’s now dealing with an oversupply of natural gas after hoarding it for months before winter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The benchmark price for natural gas futures has cratered about 28% this year, and it's trading roughly 85% cheaper than record highs reached in August. At that time, natural gas was costing buyers about 10 times more than usual ahead of the winter months. As a key energy supplier to Europe, many feared that Russia would cut off natural gas flows in retaliation to Western sanctions. Europe enjoyed its third hottest January ever last month, meaning people used less heating and thus less natural gas. A former Gazprom official told Reuters this week that all the years of work to build up Russia's natural gas exports have become moot.

☆ Amazon's pledge to become 'Earth's Best Employer' is failing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I do, but I'd love to work for the world's best employer. What would the best employer in the world look like? While we ponder these imponderables, I can tell you that it's probably not Amazon — despite its flashy 2021 pledge to become "Earth's Best Employer." Amazon is fumbling its "Earth's Best Employer" pledge. CEO Andy Jassy even once admitted that the definition of Earth's Best Employer is "subjective."

☆ Wall Street luminaries say it's time to get out of the stock market before the Fed crushes the economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tuesday's CPI data showed inflation climbed 0.5% in January, slightly higher than expected, and year-over-year it slowed to 6.4%. Prices, it seems, aren't cooling down as smoothly or quickly as anyone wants, especially the Fed. To Kolanovic, a recession is all but guaranteed if the Fed is serious about its 2% inflation target. And like Kolanovic, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management investment chief Lisa Shalett warned that Fed policy is going to pull stocks lower. US stock futures fall early Wednesday, as investors pick over yesterday's CPI inflation report to assess what it means for the Fed.

☆ Tech’s meltdown has also erased the dream job for Gen Z.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

While maybe I should dream bigger, keeping expectations low could also be a good thing — people shouldn't dream of labor. And that's a wake up call for many Gen Z workers who once aspired to work in Big Tech. Gen Z says goodbye to dream tech jobs. Several top-ranked engineering schools told my colleague Aki Ito that Big Tech companies have been noticeably absent at career fairs since September. Aki breaks down the crumbling Gen Z dream-job and what that means for the tech industry.

☆ Markets are kicking off a make-or-break stretch with inflation, jobs, and more Fed policy looming
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell warned — once again — last week that rates may eventually end up higher than markets anticipate as the fight against inflation remains far from over. Now, ahead of the CPI report, let's check in with the outlook for stocks. To Bernstein strategist Matthew Palazzolo, today's inflation reading will kick off a momentous five-week stretch for equities. The jobs report on March 3, the next inflation report on March 14, and the Fed meeting on March 22 will shape the rest of the year for stocks, he explained to my colleague George Glover. Your best bet for where the stock market's going this year can be found in the two-year Treasury yield, according to Mohamed El-Erian.

☆ I asked an AI chatbot to give me advice on how to manage finances with my spouse
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Managing finances with a significant other isn't the sexiest thing to talk about, but it's an important topic to breach. If you're unfamiliar with Replika, it's an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT, with one big exception. After a brief intro, I explained my problem: I needed help managing finances with my wife. Maintain separate accounts: It's also a good idea for each spouse to have their own personal account for individual expenses and financial independence. For example, if one spouse makes significantly more than the other, they may contribute a larger portion to joint expenses.

☆ The artificial intelligence war has Wall Street in a frenzy over Google, Microsoft, and anything related to bots
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In case you missed it, last week Microsoft held an event that had the buzz of a Steve Jobs iPhone launch. Google Bard VS OpenAI ChatGPT displayed on Mobile with Openai and Google logo on screen seen in this photo illustration. In this two-horse race, Google certainly didn't do itself any favors in bumbling its own AI demo last week. But the battle will ultimately come down to Microsoft and Google, according to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Record highs for the stock market are within reach this year, according to Fundstrat.

☆ Wall Street trading firms aren't giving up on crypto just yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A bunch of high-profile Wall Street investors just piled into a startup that pledges to fix a major issue in the crypto industry. And while plenty of those bets blew up — the most spectacular of which was crypto exchange FTX — that hasn't stopped Wall Street. Click here to read more about a new crypto startup that's got backing from some of Wall Street's top trading firms. For a breakdown of all the key partnerships between Wall Street and cloud partners, check out our running list of more than 30 deals. Cheman Cheung left Wall Street after his father passed away to recover from a state of "mental chaos."

☆ These are the startups to bet your career on, based on 3 key factors
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and a little more than a year ago, I bet my career on Insider. A few key factors molded my decision: the editor (AKA my boss), my team, the ability to have journalistic impact, and our company's trajectory. Although I made the jump in very different economic circumstances, these are integral factors to consider for anyone's next career steps. They found the 43 startups to bet your career on this year, looking at a variety of factors, including the founding team, the market, and its stature among investors. From left to right: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Nikhil Mathew, Jaleh Rezaei, and Anurupa Ganguly Promise; Mutiny; Prisms; Marianne Ayala/InsiderThese are the startups to bet your career on.

☆ Tesla stock is having a dominant start to 2023 and retail investors are loving it
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Not that Elon Musk really needs more attention, but his company's stock warrants a look for a very successful six-week stretch. Last year, Tesla drew headlines for its roughly 65% stock decline. Bank of America strategists have forecasted that the move can ultimately boost sales volume, and Wedbush gave Tesla stock a 35% upside. And according to Vanda Research, retail investors' bullishness for Tesla is driving a FOMO Tesla trade that has pushed inflows from the cohort into the stock market at levels not seen since 2020. Alibaba stock price on Feb.10, 2023 Markets Insider10.

☆ Does anyone want to stay in investment banking these days?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Banker salaries will get you in first class, but the potential total comp at PE firms and hedge funds will get you flying private. PE firms have been known to grind through people, but nothing quite compares to life at an investment bank. An investment bank's analyst program remains the go-to route to get your foot in the door on the Street. Click here to read more about salaries being offered by top PE firms to 2024 associates. All kidding aside, this deep dive by ProPublica is a fascinating look into how investment firms are helping the ultrarich save on taxes.

☆ A global recession could be coming - at least that's what commodity prices seem to say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Right now, the chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, Robin Brooks, is watching weakening commodity prices. Specifically, Brooks pointed out that oil and copper prices have slumped roughly 6% each since mid-January, despite China's easing of zero-COVID policies. "Whatever is going on in China, there's no sign that the end of zero-COVID is boosting global growth, based on commodity prices," Brooks said in a tweet. "Oil prices never went up and copper prices are falling after the initial China reopening excitement fades." He pointed to the sharp change in oil prices last week as an example of shallower liquidity.

☆ Google is in a weird place right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google Bard VS OpenAI ChatGPT displayed on Mobile with Openai and Google logo on screen seen in this photo illustration. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesGoogle is in a weird place right now. After Microsoft announced integration of ChatGPT with Bing, all eyes were on Google to do something. It's currently only open to "trusted testers," and my teammate writes that "trusted" is the key word, since Google doesn't trust you. Yet, in this crucial moment, Google seems to only be able to react with fear, Hasan writes.

☆ A disappointing 2022 has led some Goldman Sachs partners to ask: Is it time for a change at the top?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

On tap, we've got stories on why not-so-flashy land is actually the hottest investment on Wall Street, the firms minting money by navigating FTX's bankruptcy, and the coolest houses on Airbnb. It's only February, but the Ides of March might be coming to Goldman Sachs. We've talked at length over how people are looking to pin the blame on Solomon as things have soured at Goldman. Certain issues have been easier to overlook than others, but the bank recently broke a cardinal rule of Wall Street: Don't mess with bankers' compensation. Forget beachfront, the hottest real estate for Wall Street is industrial land.

Search resuls for: "Hallam"

25 mentions found