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☆ Sen. Tim Scott kicks off 2024 presidential bid, entering GOP primary field led by Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Trump has easily led the pack since launching his campaign last year, with Florida Gov. "Tim Scott is the real deal, and he will make a great president of the united states," Thune told the crowd in North Charleston before Scott took the stage. "This can't be another presidential campaign. The long-expected campaign kickoff came three days after Scott filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission designating a principal committee for a presidential bid. "Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable," Trump wrote in a social media post earlier Monday.

With only 1% of support among registered Republicans according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, Scott faces an uphill battle in his bid to win the Republican nomination to take on Democratic President Joe Biden next year. Some 49% of Republicans plan to vote for Trump, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Scott, 57, is likely to be the only Republican senator to jump into the race, an oddity given that the Senate has traditionally been a staging ground for Republicans with presidential aspirations. Among his political assets are his popularity in South Carolina, which plays a key role in the Republican race. Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott MaloneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Tim Scott’s Run for President Shines a Spotlight on Black Republicans
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Maya King | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But his candidacy could raise not only his profile, but those of Black conservatives across the country. Black Republicans are a small group of voters and politicians who say they often feel caught in the middle — ignored and subtly discriminated against by some Republicans, ridiculed and ostracized by many Democrats. Those elected to office have expressed frustration that they are viewed not simply as conservatives but as Black conservatives, and they often decry what they describe as the Democratic obsession with identity politics. “We don’t believe we’re oppressed. We don’t believe that we’re owed anything.” He and Mr. Scott share a belief in “hard work and education and self-improvement,” Mr. Elder added.

☆ Opinion: A boast that could sink Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +20 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. CNN —“I’m the one that got rid of Roe v. Wade,” former President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday on Newsmax. Congress has the power to rein in the court, wrote CNN legal analyst and law professor Steve Vladeck, whose new book “The Shadow Docket” focuses on the Supreme Court. Courtesy Boaz FreundIn 2019, then-President Trump issued an executive order requiring hospitals to post the prices of common medical services and procedures. For some, its celebration of a multiracial but purely fictional British aristocracy may even be a big part of its appeal.”As escapism, “Queen Charlotte” is a success.

☆ Biden bets DeSantis’ ‘Florida blueprint’ will help him flip the Sunshine State and win reelection
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Edward-Isaac Dovere | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Shevrin Jones, a Florida state senator and member of the Biden campaign’s advisory board of elected officials, said he’s eager to tell the country the story of what he’s seen under DeSantis’ leadership. Biden and DeSantis and their wives walk to meet with local residents affected by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Florida, on October 5, 2022. The voter registration advantage Florida Democrats had when President Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2012 has flipped to Republicans. An adviser to the former New York City mayor told CNN that so far, there has been no outreach to Bloomberg’s operation from either the Biden campaign or the DNC. There was also a fleeting belief that they could push Biden over the top in Florida – though Trump ended up carrying the state by 3 points.

☆ Markets next week may keep thinking about what could go right
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Scott Schnipper | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

At least that's the thinking of a small but growing chorus of voices on Wall Street who outline the case for further stock market gains after both the S & P 500 and Nasdaq Composite touched nine-month highs this past week. The VIX was trading around 16-17 late this week, signaling no great fear among professional traders. Walmart and other retailers this week highlighted consumers are spending less freely, but they're still spending , and that drives two thirds of the economy. Even Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote late this week that he has to entertain what could go right in markets, despite the fact his own view is fundamentally bearish. If that "upside scenario" happens, UBS sees global stocks moving 13% higher by the end of December, and the S & P 500 surging another 6% — to north of 4,400.

☆ Inside PodCo, the startup cashing in on Nickelodeon and Disney nostalgia, drawing hundreds of thousands of listeners, and scoring brand deals with stars of shows like 'Wizards of Waverly Place'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"Even Stevens" star Christy Carlson Romano and her husband, Brendan Rooney, founded the startup. Since their debut, several PodCo shows have ranked among the top 10 television and film podcasts on platforms like Apple Podcasts, according to Chartable. Along with the hosts, other big-name alums have made appearances on PodCo shows, which are also recorded on video and viewable on YouTube. So when he heard Carlson Romano and Rooney's idea, he leapt at the chance to bring the show back in a new form. Some have written into him personally to say the "Ned's" podcast is leaving them feeling less isolated in their own lives, he added.

☆ Get ready for a sharp rally if debt ceiling is solved, JPMorgan tells clients
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Scott Schnipper | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

U.S. stocks may be setting up for a sharp late spring/early summer rally if the U.S. debt ceiling debate is rendered moot, either by an agreement or a decision to kick the can until after Labor Day, a note from JPMorgan’s trading desk said Thursday. That's a contrarian view running counter to the market's latest doldrums, but JPMorgan said the economic backdrop plus the way in which professional investors are positioned may add fuel to any potential advance. The so-called pain trade that catches the greatest number of investors off guard "is higher, specifically if led by cyclical stocks such as energy, financials, industrials and materials. JPMorgan also looks for a potential reversal in financial stocks if deposits don't flee. It notes that the regional bank ETF is 8% below its April average and 64% beneath its year-to-date high and that short interest in financials has ballooned, possibly paving the way for a huge short squeeze.

☆ Ukraine's military may not be able to retake Crimea, but it can make life hell for Russians there, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Retaking the peninsula would be tough, but Ukrainian forces can isolate it, two US experts say. Supplying Russian forces on the peninsula — including the Black Sea Fleet — would require far more airlift capacity than Russia has. "Rattled by attacks, short of supplies, and somewhat isolated, Russian forces in Crimea could become less capable." It is possible that Russia could devise some defense or countermeasure against USVs, especially if they have naval and air superiority over the Black Sea. Sapping the capabilities and morale of Russian forces by disrupting their supply lines is one thing.

☆ Failed bank execs see blame everywhere, except in the mirror
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —More than two months after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank triggered a financial earthquake, three former executives spoke publicly for the first time in testimony before a Senate committee Tuesday. Here are the key takeaways from the Senate hearing:Everyone else messed upThe executives conducted a masterclass in deflecting blame for their banks’ failures. In his testimony, Becker said he was “truly sorry” for the bank’s collapse, blaming a “series of unprecedented events.”Greg Becker, former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, left, testifies next to Scott Shay, former chairman and co-founder of Signature Bank, and Eric Howell, former president of Signature Bank, during a Senate hearing. “Rumors and misconceptions spread quickly online,” sparking the bank run, Becker told lawmakers. Spoiler alert: Becker didn’t commit to returning any money and Shay said he had no intention to do so.

☆ John Fetterman suggests failed Silicon Valley Bank executives should have the same work requirements 'Republicans want' for families receiving food stamps
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sen. John Fetterman grilled failed banking execs at a Tuesday Senate Banking Committee hearing. He said the GOP is "preoccupied" with spending on food stamps rather than bail-out funds. He suggested that bailed-out bankers should have work requirements like families on food stamps. As part of the debt ceiling bill the House GOP passed last month, Republicans proposed increased work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which offers a monthly stipend to buy food for millions of families nationwide. A hungry family has to have these kind of penalties and same kinds of working requirements," Fetterman said.

May 15 (Reuters) - Greg Becker, the former chief executive officer of Silicon Valley Bank, is set to appear before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, two months after the collapse of his bank sparked panic among bank customers and investors, forcing the government to backstop deposits. California banking regulators moved quickly to shut down Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 after depositors withdrew $42 billion in 24 hours. Becker will testify before the Senate Banking Committee alongside Scott Shay and Eric Howell, the former chair and president, respectively, of Signature Bank. When his manager left to work for Silicon Valley Bank, Becker followed, he said on a 2021 Bloomberg podcast. Before becoming president and CEO of SVB Financial Group, Becker co-founded SVB Capital, the company's investment arm.

In prepared testimony published on Monday by the Senate Banking Committee, Becker said he believed the bank was responsive to regulator concerns about managing risk and working to address issues before an "unprecedented" bank run led to its failure. Becker said he did not believe "that any bank could survive a bank run of that velocity and magnitude." The former executives for New York-based Signature Bank, which also failed in March, maintained the bank could have survived had regulators not chosen to close it, according to separate testimony. California banking regulators moved quickly to shut SVB down on March 10 after depositors withdrew $42 billion in 24 hours. Regulators closed Signature on March 12 after it also experienced liquidity issues following SVB’s collapse.

☆ Stocks week ahead: SVB and Signature Bank execs are set to testify next week
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is holding three hearings this coming week centered around the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March. ET : Greg Becker, former chief executive, Silicon Valley Bank; Scott Shay, former chairman and co-founder, Signature Bank and Eric Howell, former president, Signature Bank. ET : Mark Bialek, inspector general, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Paul Kupiec, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute and more. Since then, the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have released reports detailing management missteps at SVB and Signature Bank, as well as federal regulators’ own mistakes in properly addressing red flags preceding the banks’ demises. A separate report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Friday shows that American households are becoming increasingly frugal.

☆ Good news for markets next week. Everyone agrees the debt ceiling 'X-date' is not here yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Scott Schnipper | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Good news for markets next week: no default, no credit agency downgrade, no apocalypse. Worrying 2011 precedent Recent history tells investors that stocks will move more violently during a debt ceiling standoff. Retail sales update Debt negotiations aside, investors get updates next week on the state of American consumer spending when April retail sales are reported Tuesday alongside earnings from Home Depot. Deutsche Bank estimates that April retail sales expanded month over month by 0.7%, the market consensus. Credit Suisse is less optimistic, forecasting that April retail sales grew by 0.6%, but, excluding vehicles, were unchanged.

Aaron Smith, CEO of the National Cannabis Industry Association, speaks during a news conference on the Safe Banking Act outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sept. 14, 2022. The Senate banking committee is holding its first-ever hearing Thursday on a bipartisan bill that would allow the cannabis industry to access traditional banking services, which marijuana businesses see as critical to their survival. The meeting, titled Examining Cannabis Banking Challenges of Small Businesses and Workers, will hear testimony from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Sens. Thursday's hearing will determine next steps in getting the bill to the Senate floor for a vote, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other key lawmakers express support for it. "Without full access to the banking and payments system, legal cannabis businesses are forced to operate in the shadows," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who is also chair of the committee.

☆ Student-loan borrowers need more 'individual responsibility,' a top GOP lawmaker says as the House advances a bill to block Biden's debt cancellation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A GOP resolution to block student-debt cancellation advanced out of the House education committee on Wednesday. The bill heads to a full House vote, but it's unlikely to pass a Democratic-controlled Senate. 45 is the first step in restoring individual responsibility and solving the root challenges of the student loan system." Republicans have expressed similar sentiments since the lead up to Biden's announcement of broad debt relief. "Let's be clear: this resolution to eliminate student debt relief would hurt millions of student borrowers and their families," he added.

☆ DeSantis signed a bill into law that creates new hurdles for undocumented workers and patients in Florida. It provides $12 million to relocate migrants to blue states
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

DeSantis signed a bill into law to crack down on undocumented workers in Florida. The legislation includes $12 million to relocate migrants to blue states. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping bill into law Wednesday that will make it harder for undocumented people to work in Florida, even though the measure fell short of his demands. DeSantis boasted about the stunt during a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday, saying officials in blue states expected border states to "grin and bear" the care of an influx of migrants. DeSantis signed the immigration measures into law a day before before the federal Title 42 is set to expire.

☆ Stock dislocation is no longer tethered to underlying fundamentals, says Piper Sandler's Siefers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | 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 EmailStock dislocation is no longer tethered to underlying fundamentals, says Piper Sandler's SiefersScott Siefers, Piper Sandler managing director, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss the equity market's trading dynamics, the three stocks Siefers is highlighting today and how the managing director factors in new regulation for bank stocks.

☆ Astronomically high regional bank yields are safe (for now), Goldman Sachs says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Scott Schnipper | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

And the list of regional banks with sky-high dividends goes on and on. But Goldman Sachs is out Monday with a note from analysts led by Ryan Nash saying that although regional banks as a group yield 6.5% — the most since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 — not to worry. Examining bank dividends and bank capital "suggests companies should be able to maintain their current payout: Dividend payouts totaled ~40% of EPS in 1Q23 and are expected to remain around those levels for the remainder of 2023 (~39%) and 2024 (~41%) by consensus," Goldman said. KEY (~53%) and TFC (46%) screen as having the highest payouts," as a percentage of earnings in 2023, the investment bank said. Capital One (~24), M & T Bank (~29%) and Zions Bancorp (30%) have among the lowest payout ratios.

☆ Wall Street analysts like these regional bank stocks if you can withstand the chaos in the market
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Jesse Pound | In Jesse-Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The continued slide for regional bank stocks after the failure of First Republic last week has created some buying opportunities in the sector, according to Wall Street analysts. "We believe this recent stock reaction is overdone as there is currently no evidence of accelerating deposit outflows. We see accelerating deposit costs, not accelerating deposit outflows, as the most significant headwind for the midcap banks over the next several quarters," Gosalia wrote. Huntington and Webster also rise to the top of the heap for RBC Capital Markets analyst Jon Arfstrom. Both Huntington and Webster are down about 30% for the year, which is better than the SPDR S & P Regional Banking ETF (KRE).

☆ Republicans dismiss fears that their debt ceiling bill would make the housing crisis worse for 1 million families as 'scaremongering'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

House Republicans' debt ceiling bill would cut significant funding from federal housing services. HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge said the agency would suffer "the most devastating impacts in HUD's history" if the funding cuts in the bill are made law. He went on, "It's being positioned as congressional Republicans are heartless because they want to pass these spending cuts. "The House bill reduces spending to the levels we had in 2022. The last I checked, 2022 was not a horrid apocalypse sweeping across our country," Cruz told Insider on Wednesday.

☆ How Fashion Got So Crazy: A Brief History of Dressing for ‘Likes’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Faran Krentcil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

THE LOUD CROWD Guests in blinding-bright outfits at Copenhagen fashion week in 2021. Photo: Getty ImagesIN SEPTEMBER of 2009, Laurel Pantin, then 24, was late to a show during New York fashion week. “I’d been out the night before at the Alexander Wang party,” said Ms. Pantin, now a 37-year-old consultant and stylist in Los Angeles. When his site posted Ms. Pantin’s photo, she was flooded with messages from friends and acquaintances—many of whom had no connection to fashion at all. Ms. Pantin compared the effect of being photographed on the street to “being the heroine in a movie, except it’s your real life,” she said.

☆ ‘You’re not alone’: CNN Heroes share advice for Mental Health Awareness Month
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Gabriel Kinder | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and this year it seems to coincide with a flurry of violent headlines. “One of the things that we underestimate as a society is how our global mental health impacts us as individuals. Some of them marked Mental Health Awareness Month by sharing advice and insight with CNN’s Elizabeth Belanger about what is working for their communities. CNN Hero Michele Neff Hernandez Sam Comen/CNNWe have to model good mental health care by learning about mental health with the same vigor we use to learn about physical health. It takes all of us to realize mental health needs to be talked about, not buried under the rug.

☆ Regional bank stocks could be a market afterthought in the week ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Scott Schnipper | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

For the immediate economic and earnings and growth outlook, it almost seems irrelevant whether regional bank stocks rally, steady or sell off more next week. Regional banks were top of mind for investors this past week, as First Republic failed , the SPDR S & P Regional Banking ETF tumbled more than 10% — twice the five-day loss in the S & P 500 Energy Index, the hardest hit S & P sector — and lenders such as PacWest Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp lost billions in market value. And, for all that, the S & P 500 only fell about 0.75% this week. Now the conventional wisdom on Wall Street is that regardless of how the regional bank stocks trade, it's a given that bank lending officers are going to pull in their horns and risk management desks will grow more risk averse. But stocks still face a host of issues, none of which are going away next week.

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