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☆ The Fed and a big jobs report could drive the market in the week ahead, as investors watch rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The seesaw-like tension between interest rates and stock prices should remain in play in the week ahead, as investors focus on comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the February employment report. There are few earnings in the week ahead, so economic data will likely be a main driver for stocks, along with the comments from Powell. The futures market is pricing in a high chance for a quarter point, or 25 basis point hike in March. Week ahead calendar Monday Earnings: WW International, ThredUp, Trip.com, Lordstown Motor, Ciena, Grindr 10:00 a.m. Initial claims 10:00 a.m. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr Friday Earnings: Embraer 8:30 a.m. Employment report 2:00 p.m. Federal budget

☆ House Passes Bill Taking Aim at ESG Investments
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Eric Bazail-Eimil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Ting Shen for The Wall Street JournalThe Labor Department late last year drafted the new rule under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The House passed a Republican-led bill Tuesday disapproving of a new Biden administration regulation that would allow retirement-plan managers to consider climate change and other factors when they make investment decisions. The legislation to overturn the regulation on environmental, social and governance guidelines, or ESG, passed 216-204. One Democrat joined with Republicans in support of the measure, which was introduced by Rep. Andrew Barr (R. Ky.).

☆ US House Republicans target ESG investments in latest culture war salvo
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The measure is the latest salvo in the Republican culture war against the use of issues that promote environmental interests, social equality and corporate responsibility in business and investment decisions. "Retirement plans should be solely focused on delivering maximum returns, not advancing a political agenda," said Republican Representative Andy Barr, who introduced the House resolution. "If Congress doesn't block the Department of Labor's rule greenlighting ESG investing in retirement plans, retirees will suffer diminished returns on the investment of their hard-earned money." The measure is widely expected to pass the House, where Republicans hold a slim 222-212 seat majority. Two Democratic absences could give Republicans the simple majority necessary to pass the measure and send it to Biden's desk.

☆ Holiday Inn-owner IHG profit jumps on holiday demand, higher room rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 21 (Reuters) - Holiday Inn-owner IHG Plc (IHG.L) reported higher full-year profit on Tuesday, helped by strong occupancy demand during the holidays and higher room prices, and said it would buyback shares worth an additional $750 million in 2023. The Crowne Plaza, Regent and Hualuxe owner said the Americas market saw the strongest recovery, with RevPAR in the year up 3.3% from 2019, while Greater China was down 38% as travel restrictions were still in place. Hotel chains were affected by uneven recovery in China as a rise in COVID-19 infections led to indefinite lockdowns. The latest additional buyback comes after the company said in August it would back shares worth $500 million. Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi AichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ IHG CEO: Demand returning to pre-pandemic levels
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | 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 EmailIHG CEO: Demand returning to pre-pandemic levelsKeith Barr, CEO at IHG, discusses the company's results, the removal of Chinese Covid restrictions, and employment trends in the hospitality and leisure industry.

☆ Hotels share revival shrugs off two crises
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Hotel groups are in restoration mode. Chief Executive Keith Barr reckons the year ahead will continue to see strong demand, boosted by China’s re-opening. In 2019, the People’s Republic accounted for around 10% of the hotel market, and its citizens spent over $250 billion on international tourism, according to the World Tourism Organisation. Yet Covid-19 may still hurt spending in the Middle kingdom, and geopolitical tensions may lead to fewer Chinese people travelling. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Fact Check-Claim that ABC ordered to pay $208 million to Roseanne Barr stems from satire
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A story about ABC being ordered by a jury to pay $208 million to Roseanne Barr for “stealing her show” originates from a satirical website, but users online are sharing the claim as if it were true. A tweet said: “ABC was ordered by The Jury to pay $208 million to Roseanne Barr for stealing her Show...” (here). Some of the posts link to a story on Freedom Fictions that says Roseanne Barr won “a huge court case against ABC” for “stealing her show, ‘The Conners’” (archive.ph/jp4tH). Reuters has reached out to Roseanne Barr and ABC’s The Conners for comment. A story about ABC being ordered to pay Roseanne Barr $208 million originates from a satirical website.

☆ Apple and Google have a symbiotic deal: ChatGPT will pressure the former to evaluate this relationship
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Google has long benefited from a costly deal to be the default search engine on Apple devices. On top of the Apple deal, Google controls Android and Chrome, with roughly 71% and 65% of the smartphone and browser markets, respectively. Based on its understanding of Google's deal with Apple, Bernstein believes that a 3-year default search deal is coming up for renewal later this year. It's unclear whether Apple would want to change the default search engine to Bing, but it's always had a contentious relationship with Google. Apple's services business, which includes the search deal, was a bright spot in the company's most recent earnings report.

☆ Fed releases 2023 stress test scenarios for banks, including extra new shock for big firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Pete Schroeder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday released the hypothetical economic strains they will use to test the strength of big bank finances in its 2023 stress test, and floated the possibility of using multiple scenarios in the future. Banks with large trading operations will also be tested against a global market shock, as the Fed has done in years prior. But new this year is an extra market shock applied to the eight largest firms, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup. The Fed did not detail what that market shock would look like, but noted it would not contribute to a firm's capital requirements. The 2023 test marks the first under Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, who had previously floated multiple scenarios as a way to better gauge such risks.

☆ Morning Bid: Powell confesses 'This time it's different'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Any fear of a radical Fed rethink on the back of the jobs numbers seemed wide of the mark. "This cycle is different from other cycles...it has just confounded all sorts of attempts to predict," Powell admitted. And many think last week's jobs report should similarly be treated with care. They included a minimum tax for billionaires and a quadrupling of the tax on corporate stock buybacks. Brands, Eaton Corp, etcUS terminal rateReuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsBy Mike Dolan, Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky <a href="mailto:mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com" target="_blank">mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com</a>.

☆ Morning Bid: The Powell Put
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Wayne Cole. Wall Street must be hoping Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell would speak in public every day. Given a chance to react hawkishly to the bumper January payrolls report, Powell demurred and chose to stay boringly balanced on the rate outlook. Asked if he regretted using "disinflation" 11 times in his media conference last week, he said no, he would do the same again. Hardly earth shattering stuff, but for markets these days if Powell is not all-out in-your-face hawkish, then he's dovish.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has spoken and luckily for bulls and bears, there was something for everyone, so where Asian markets go on Wednesday is something a coin flip. With an expected interest rate rise in India taking center stage regionally, investors in Asia will be digesting the mixed U.S. picture that saw stocks rise but the dollar and Treasuries ease lower on Tuesday. But he also said "it will take some time" to get the inflation genie back in the 2% bottle. The Reserve Bank of India is likely to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 6.50%, which most economists reckon will be the last of the hiking cycle. With the rupee within a whisker of October's record low, however, traders will be on RBI intervention alert.

☆ Morning Bid: Powell's state of the union
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Jerome Powell makes his first speech since the Fed's latest quarter-point interest rate rise last week. More importantly, it's his first chance to comment on Friday's seemingly blockbuster U.S. employment report for January. Perhaps just as significantly, they now price year-end Fed rates higher than the 4.5-4.75% range they are at right now. Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic on Monday said of the jobs readout: "It'll probably mean we have to do a little more work." Investors will watch Biden's State of the Union with one eye on the potentially destabilising debt ceiling standoff with Congress.

☆ Earnings and Fed Chair Powell will again drive markets in the week ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

With few economic releases and the earnings season starting to wind down, an appearance by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Tuesday could be among the newsiest events for markets in the week ahead. The Fed chair is speaking at the Economic Club of Washington D.C. at midday Tuesday. If he wanted to walk back anything, he could have done it then," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley. Economists said Friday's surprisingly strong jobs report should encourage the Fed to push forward with planned rate hikes. Earnings, earnings, earnings But there continues to be earnings news.

☆ The Fed slows down its interest rate hikes again as inflation continues to cool and recession fears loom
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates 25 basis points on Wednesday. This announcement comes on the heels of data showing inflation cooling down in the country. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it is raising interest rates by 25 basis points, marking a slowdown from its December hike of 50 basis points. The Fed's continued actions to slow its interest rate hikes is a promising sign for those concerned about a recession this year. But some Democratic lawmakers have been cautioning Powell on the risks of continuing to raise interest rates because it could lead to a recession.

☆ Irn-bru maker A.G. Barr sees FY profit, revenue beating expectations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 31 (Reuters) - A.G. Barr (BAG.L) said on Tuesday it expects its full-year revenue and profit to beat market expectations, helped by price hikes and steady demand for its cocktail mixes and beverages. The company raised prices last year to deal with surging costs and launched new products as it benefited from greater at-home consumption of food and drinks that held even after the pandemic and despite pubs and restaurants reopening. The maker of the orange fizzy drink Irn Bru forecast revenue of 315 million pounds ($389 million) for the year ended Jan. 28 and said it expects full-year profit to be slightly ahead of market expectations. Analysts expect the group to report an annual revenue of 302 million pounds and a pretax profit of 42.6 million pounds, according to company-compiled estimates. ($1 = 0.8100 pounds)Reporting by Muhammed Husain in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON — It became a regular litany of grievances from President Donald J. Trump and his supporters: The investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia was a witch hunt, they maintained, that had been opened without any solid basis, went on too long and found no proof of collusion. Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office. But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr. Moreover, a monthslong review by The New York Times found that the main thrust of the Durham inquiry was marked by some of the very same flaws — including a strained justification for opening it and its role in fueling partisan conspiracy theories that would never be charged in court — that Trump allies claim characterized the Russia investigation.

☆ California authorities want to disbar John Eastman for trying to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

California legal authorities want to disbar John Eastman for trying to keep Donald Trump in power. Following Trump's loss in the 2020 election, Eastman, a former professor at the Chapman University School of Law, drafted legal memos that purported to offer avenues to keep him in office. The former law professor is one of many lawyers allied with Trump who has faced professional consequences for pursuing false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Giuliani has also been sued by election technology companies he implicated in false conspiracy theories about the election results, and has lost his ability to practice law in New York. Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump Administration Justice Department official who tried to overturn the election results, is also facing charges from the DC bar.

☆ The inquiry Trump launched to clear his name on Russia collusion ended up investigating him for potential financial crimes: NYT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Special counsel John Durham's team reportedly opened up a criminal probe into Trump's financial dealings. It is not clear what happened to the probe, which started as a result of a tip by Italian officials. Instead, a tip from Italian officials led the Justice Department to quietly open a probe into shady financial deals linked to then-President Donald Trump. But, according to the Times, Italian officials responded by telling Durham's team about allegations of financial crimes that were serious enough that the DOJ opened a criminal investigation. At the time, vague reports about Durham's new criminal probe lit up conservative media.

☆ Prosecutor appointed by Trump Justice Department used claims from Russian intelligence to obtain emails from a George Soros aide: NYT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

John Durham used Russian intelligence claims to obtain a US citizen's emails, per The New York Times. Durham was appointed by former Attorney General Bill Barr to examine the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. But Durham pursued a dubious claim from Russia involving Hillary Clinton and an aide to George Soros. They "were said to make demonstrably inconsistent, inaccurate or exaggerated claims," the Times reported, "and some US analysts believed Russia may have deliberately seeded them with disinformation." As Russian intelligence analysts themselves had told it, Moscow had hacked Leonard Benardo, executive vice president of Soros' Open Society Foundations, and in doing so uncovered a plot at the highest level to sway the 2016 election.

☆ Trump advisors are shocked that they can't get Republicans to show up to his events, NYT reporter says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Aides to Donald Trump are surprised that few allies are coming to his events, Maggie Haberman said. Some former allies have turned against Trump, and his 2024 campaign has struggled to gain momentum. Trump is planning to gear up his campaign at an event in South Carolina this week. Speaking on CNN Tuesday, Haberman discussed how Trump's 2024 campaign has gotten off to a slow start, and his plans to gear it up at a campaign event in South Carolina on Saturday. Some former allies, including Bill Barr, the former Attorney General, have called on Trump to step aside and allow a new generation of Republicans to take power.

☆ Congress Must Halt Big Tech’s Power Grab
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( William P. Barr | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Big Tech has far too much power. Lawmakers from both parties agree, but for years Congress has been all talk and no action. Meanwhile, tech giants are threatening to use their control over digital platforms to gain unfair advantage in other markets where competing products depend on access to those platforms. Over the past 20 years, the scope of commercial and personal activities relying on access to digital platforms has mushroomed. A few giant companies—Google, Apple , Amazon , Facebook—have achieved monopoly or near-monopoly control over key platforms, among them online search and advertising, mobile operating systems, online marketplaces, maps and social media.

☆ Fed directs big banks to disclose how they are preparing for climate change risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"The Fed has narrow, but important, responsibilities regarding climate-related financial risks – to ensure that banks understand and manage their material risks, including the financial risks from climate change," Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr said. "The exercise we are launching today will advance the ability of supervisors and banks to analyze and manage emerging climate-related financial risks." A financial stability report in late 2020 first discussed the possibility of the Fed examining how prepared the institutions it oversees are for economic impacts from climate change. In addition, banks are being asked to "consider the impact of additional physical risk shocks for their real estate portfolios in another region of the country." The final report will focus on aggregate information provided by the banks about how they are incorporating climate risks into their financial plans.

The White House said some material was found in a locked garage at Biden's home and an adjacent room, and pledged to cooperate. "People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously," he added. Biden's attorneys said they have found fewer than a dozen classified documents and turned over the relevant papers after finding them. Trump resisted doing so until an August FBI search turned up about 100 classified documents, raising questions about whether Trump or his staff obstructed the investigation. "People know I take classified documents, classified material seriously," Biden told reporters on Thursday.

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