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☆ U.S. senators question rail oversight after toxic Ohio derailment
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Two Republican senators sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday questioning U.S. freight rail system oversight in the aftermath of a toxic train derailment in Ohio on Feb. 3. Vance questioned Buttigieg about railroad safety, saying "it is not unreasonable to ask whether a crew of two rail workers, plus one trainee, is able to effectively monitor 150 cars." The Department of Transportation (USDOT) did not immediately comment but Buttigieg addressed the criticism in a series of tweets. Buttigieg responded to Cruz on Twitter that "we could start by discussing immediate steps Congress could take to address rail safety & reduce constraints on USDOT in this area. After railroad crews drained and burned off a toxic chemical from five tanker cars, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Feb. 8 said that residents could return to their homes.

☆ Most Republicans are on the fence about Trump's 2024 re-election bid. Here are the few elected officials backing him so far.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Bryan Metzger | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

As of Monday, five senators and about a dozen House members have announced they're backing Trump in 2024 or expressed support for his bid. As president, Trump maintained an ironclad grip over the GOP. Eric Schmitt — the newly elected senator told Politico last month he's backing the former president in 2024, who also endorsed Schmitt in Missouri's GOP primary last year. Tommy Tuberville — the Alabama senator endorsed Trump in a tweet just days after he launched his 2024 bid, becoming the first Republican senator to do so. 3 House Republican endorsed Trump days before his widely expected 2024 announcement in November.

☆ Howard: People are just too bearish, you have to take out some of this negative news
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | 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 EmailHoward: People are just too bearish, you have to take out some of this negative newsHoward Capital Management CEO Vance Howard discusses why he's bullish on the U.S. markets, even against the backdrop of still stubbornly-high inflation, and highlights a few names in the energy and materials sectors.

☆ Ex-Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Meets With Manhattan Prosecutors Investigating Former President
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen, in a dark jacket, arrived for a meeting with Manhattan prosecutors Wednesday in New York. Michael Cohen , the former personal lawyer to Donald Trump, met Wednesday with prosecutors investigating hush money the former president allegedly steered to an adult-film actress, the latest sign that the Manhattan district attorney’s office has revived its once-dormant probe. Mr. Cohen is a central figure in the hush-money investigation, which began under former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr . and then went quiet as prosecutors shifted their focus and investigated Mr. Trump on other issues—including business practices at his company. The office obtained a tax-fraud conviction of the Trump Organization in December. The company has said it would appeal.

☆ Biden played the State of the Union perfectly, but the raucous GOP proved he's dealing with a whole new kind of opposition
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tuesday's State of the Union address was an at times raucous affair. Tuesday night showed that this is no longer your father's State of the Union address. Parts of Biden's second State of the Union resembled the United Kingdom's raucous "Prime Minister's Questions" sessions that C-SPAN nerds delight in. The State of the Union is not supposed to resemble the real-time grilling of a world leader though. To be clear, opposition party members have long trolled the president during the State of the Union.

☆ Manhattan DA was 'weeks' away from filing criminal charges against Trump in 2020, when he was still president, former prosecutor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Ashley Collman | Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Manhattan DA's office was weeks away from filing criminal charges against Trump at the end of 2020. Pomerantz resigned from the office when new DA Alvin Bragg decided against pursuing a Trump indictment. Pomerantz was initially brought onto the Trump investigation as a consultant at the end of 2020 by the inquiry's leading prosecutor, Carey Dunne. Investigators wanted to charge Trump for allegedly undervaluing his stake in 40 Wall Street, a building in lower Manhattan. The Manhattan DA's investigation into Trump never resulted in charges, after Alvin Bragg took over as the new DA in January 2022.

☆ Here are the big trends to watch at the Exchange ETF conference this week
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

I'm at the ETF Exchange Conference in Miami Beach, where 2,000 registered investment advisors and ETF providers have descended on the city for the industry's largest gathering. Think active, dividend, foreign debt and alternative income ETFs," Tom Lydon, of VettaFi, the conference sponsor, told me. "I believe fixed income ETFs are setup to have a historic year," Nate Geraci from the ETF Store said in January. This year, they're back, but despite the surge in thematic ETF performance to start the year, investors have yet to throw significant sums of money into the game. "Despite the surge in thematic ETF performance to start the year, investors are yet to start allocating again.

☆ FTX has chased politicians like Nancy Pelosi to return donations given before the crypto giant's collapse. They now have a deadline of February 28 to pay.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In total, FTX employees donated $90 million to politicians, per The New York Times, and the debtors are trying to claim that back to reimburse customers. After Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX's Bahamas company, Ryan Salame, donated $23 million – making him the 15th top donor in the US, per OpenSecrets. The lawyers handling FTX's bankruptcy first requested the donations be returned in December. But in January, CoinDesk reported that just five of the 196 politicians who received money from FTX said they had successfully returned it. CoinDesk reports that Vance donated the money to a non-profit, but FTX has warned that this "does not prevent the FTX debtors from seeking recovery."

☆ Trump called his CFO Allen Weisselberg 'My Jewish CPA' to his face, and threatened him to 'make me happy or else,' according to a new book
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Donald Trump called his CFO Allen Weisselberg his "Jewish CPA," according to a new book. Jennifer described how Allen Weisselberg received lavish benefits from the Trump Organization without paying taxes on them, according to the book. Allen Weisselberg worked for the Trump Organization for decades, rising to the role of CFO and managing the personal finances of Trump's family members. Prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorney's office have sought his cooperation for their long-running investigation into Trump's finances, which remains ongoing. Pomerantz's book, titled "People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account," has drawn criticism from Bragg, who has stressed the Trump Organization investigation is ongoing.

☆ Prosecutors worried they'd have to prove Donald Trump was not 'legally insane,' lawyer's memoir says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

New York prosecutors investigating Trump feared they would have to prove that he was not "legally insane." "To rebut the claim that Trump believed his own 'hype,' we would have to show, and stress, that Donald Trump was not legally insane," lawyer Mark Pomerantz writes in the memoir, seen by The Daily Beast. "Was Donald Trump suffering from some sort of mental condition that made it impossible for him to distinguish between fact and fiction?" The Daily Beast received an advance copy of the book "People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account," which is due to be released on Tuesday. A lawyer for Trump recently sent Pomerantz a letter threatening legal action over the book, according to The New York Times.

☆ The Manhattan DA was skeptical about using Michael Cohen to testify against Trump. He's now helping the office investigate the ex-president's hush-money scandal.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was reportedly skeptical about using Michael Cohen in a criminal case against Trump. Cohen — a former vice president of the Trump Organization and personal lawyer for the ex-president — has his own criminal history. Pomerantz was hired by Bragg's predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr. A legendary defense attorney and former prosecutor, he returned to law enforcement solely for the Trump investigation. Weisselberg pleaded guilty to the fraud charges, and the Trump Organization was convicted at trial late last year. Weisselberg is under pressure to cooperate in the DA's Trump investigation or he could face more charges, the Times reported this week.

☆ Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( J.D. Vance | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

A few days before America’s 2022 midterm elections, Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky accused Russia of firing a rocket into Poland. In making the accusation, Mr. Zelensky was pushing on the dominoes that could start the world’s first war between nuclear powers. The rocket attack, it turns out, came not from Vladimir Putin’s Russia but from Ukrainian air defenses. Even after NATO made that assessment and acknowledged that Russia hadn’t fired the rocket, Mr. Zelensky continued to deny Ukrainian responsibility. The story faded from the headlines, and Mr. Zelensky enjoyed a hero’s welcome in Washington in December.

☆ Focusing on stable earnings growth helps this Olympic gold medalist beat the bear market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

A mutual fund led by a gold-medal winning Olympic swimmer is rare enough, but Joe Hudepohl's Eaton Vance Atlanta Capital Focused Growth is also outperforming the stock market over the past five years. Maybe it's the former athlete's discipline and slavish devotion to patient training that's helping Focused Growth earn handsome long-run returns. " But despite falling 20.4% last year, the Focused Growth fund still enjoys a five-year annual trailing return of 13.97%, according to Morningstar. One of those long-time holdings is health technology company Danaher , which Focused Growth (EAALX) first bought in 2011, according to Morningstar. Morningstar rates the fund with five stars despite its 1.03% expense ratio, and says Focused Growth lands in the second percentile of more than 1,000 large growth funds for its five-year performance.

☆ Manhattan District Attorney to Present Trump Hush-Money Evidence to Grand Jury
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Donald Trump, in South Carolina on Saturday, has said the Manhattan district attorney probe is politically motivated. The Manhattan district attorney’s office is moving to present evidence to a grand jury about hush money Donald Trump allegedly steered to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, according to people familiar with the matter, raising the prospect the former president could face criminal charges in New York. The hush-money investigation began under the prior administration of Cyrus Vance Jr . but went largely dormant before the current district attorney, Alvin Bragg , took office. It gained steam under Mr. Bragg recently after Mr. Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization, was convicted of criminal tax fraud and other offenses late last year, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg established a grand jury for another Trump investigation. The special grand jury is hearing evidence over whether Trump broke laws with his 2016 hush-money payment. The case is being heard by a special grand jury, according to the Times, which sits for six months rather than the standard single month. Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., allowed members of his team to bring evidence to a grand jury over potential tax and bank fraud charges. According to the Times, to bring felony charges against Trump, prosecutors would need to prove he falsified records for the payment to conceal a second crime.

☆ Wall St Week Ahead Recession fears pose challenge to energy shares after stellar year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Lewis Krauskopf | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The S&P 500 energy sector (.SPNY) is up 4.2% year-to-date, slightly lagging the rise for the broader index (.SPX). Goldman Sachs, RBC Capital Markets and UBS Global Wealth Management are among the Wall Street firms recommending energy stocks. He said he is slightly overweight the energy sector, including shares of Chevron and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD.N). But earnings are expected to decline 15% this year, the biggest drop among the 11 S&P 500 sectors. Energy companies executed $22 billion in share buybacks in the third quarter, just over 10% of all S&P 500 buybacks.

☆ Elon Musk has been in several TV shows and movies over the years. See his 11 cameos from 'South Park' to 'Rick and Morty'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Elon Musk has become a media personality in his own right, from his viral tweets to appearances on a slew of TV shows and movies. Elon Musk has been featured in several TV shows and movies over the years. Musk is close friends with Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, one of Hollywood's most powerful agents and the inspiration for the character of Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage." The billionaire is also reportedly friends with comedian Nathan Fielder and the creators of "Rick and Morty," to name a few of his Hollywood connections. Sources: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Insider

☆ Wall Street Week Ahead Recession fears pose challenge to energy shares after stellar year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Lewis Krauskopf | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

☆ A 45-year-old biotech CEO may have reduced his biological age by at least 5 years through a rigorous medical program that can cost up to $2 million a year, Bloomberg reported
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bryan Johnson, a biotech founder, aims to have the body of an 18-year-old, Bloomberg reported. He and a team of experts started a program called Project Blueprint to unlock the key to aging. Test results show that Johnson has the heart of a 37-year-old, according to the report. While it's still in its experimental stage and is constantly being tweaked, the health program consists of an intense daily regimen of carefully curated supplements, meals, exercise, and a slew of bodily tests. He exercises daily, with three high-intensity workouts a week, and goes through blood tests, MRIs, and colonoscopies each month, Bloomberg reported.

☆ Wall Street succession plans: The case for why all 6 big banks could consider a leadership change this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman confirmed what everyone already presumed: There are three executives in the running for his job. It turns out you could make the case for every top US bank making a change in leadership, either with or without the consent of their CEO. At 64 years old, he's the second-oldest CEO among the big six US banks. When discussing succession plans with Bloomberg on Thursday, Gorman acknowledged he doesn't want this job forever. And at 63 years old, he's not exactly a spring chicken.

☆ As water dries up in Arizona community, residents use rainwater to flush toilets and plastic plates to avoid dishwashing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Deon J. Hampton | Deon J. Hampton Is A National Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Another 200 homeowners in Rio Verde get water from wells on their property that are running dry, forcing them to periodically rely on water haulers, as well, residents said this week. The municipal utility Scottsdale Water decided to cut off Rio Verde Foothills to reduce its consumption as drought persists throughout the West. Arizona relies on water from the diminishing Colorado River, which supplies water to about 40 million people in several states. The utility informed Rio Verde Foothills in November 2021 that its water would be cut off starting this year. Scottsdale’s conservation efforts have left nearby residents of Rio Verde Foothills without enough water for basic necessities, such as doing laundry and washing dishes.

☆ Morgan Stanley CEO says the bank's push for more stable revenue streams has worked. It's a key reason we own the stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Acquisitions were a big part of how Morgan Stanley maneuvered its way into the middle of that money flow. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman Economic outlook Gorman was also asked about his thoughts on the global economy, inflation and the Federal Reserve. The Club's take Despite widespread recession fears since last year, the Club has maintained its belief in Morgan Stanley. As of right now, we've got a 2 rating on Morgan Stanley, meaning we'd wait for a pullback before buying more shares. Morgan Stanley shares carry a roughly 3.3% dividend yield, and it bought back $1.7 billion worth of stock in the fourth quarter.

☆ Morgan Stanley's Q4 results show the Club holding is firing on all cylinders, as the stock soars
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Those deals — valued at roughly $13 billion and $7 billion, respectively — pushed Morgan Stanley further into the money management world. Expense efficiency ratio is a measure of efficiency that is calculated as total non-interest expenses divided by net revenue. Segment results Institutional securities net revenue of $4.8 billion for the fourth quarter missed analysts' forecasts of nearly $5.09 billion. Wealth management net revenue of $6.63 billion for the quarter exceeded Wall Street's expectations of $6.29 billion. Investment management net revenue of $1.46 billion for the quarter outpaced the $1.29 billion consensus estimate.

CLEVELAND — Matt Dolan, who lost a raucous Republican Senate primary in Ohio last year, will run again in 2024, this time seeking to unseat longtime Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. Dolan will announce his candidacy this week, he told an Ohio GOP official in a voicemail Sunday that the official shared with NBC News on the condition of anonymity. Dolan, a state senator whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians, would likely be the first candidate on the GOP side to officially declare. Other Republicans closely looking at the race include Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Bernie Moreno, a businessman who briefly was a Senate candidate in 2022. Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, speaks in Cleveland, on April 28, 2022.

[1/2] Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Commerce, Georgia, U.S. March 26, 2022. Trump's company faces only a maximum $1.6 million penalty, but has said it plans to appeal. Bragg and James are Democrats, as is Bragg's predecessor Cyrus Vance, who brought the criminal case. "The whole narrative that Donald Trump was blissfully ignorant is just not real," Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told jurors in his closing argument. State law limits the penalties that Justice Merchan can impose on Trump's company.

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