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The NYSE, which is owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N), said it was still investigating and that traders may want to consider filing for erroneous trade claims. "Obviously, there were a lot of stocks that had major issues," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. Saluzzi said there was "zero failure tolerance" among traders for glitches at the key open and close of trading. The NYSE-listed stocks trade on all 16 U.S. stock exchanges, which use the NYSE's prices. In March 2018, the NYSE was the first exchange fined under Reg SCI.

Rising interest rates roiled markets last year and global investment banking revenue sank more than 50% from a year-earlier quarter, according to data from analytics firm Dealogic. SHARPLY LOWERAcross the board, investment banking fees were sharply lower. Morgan Stanley's revenue from investment banking business fell 49% in the fourth quarter while Goldman Sachs's investment banking fees fell 48%. JPMorgan's investment banking unit saw its revenue down 57%, Citigroup Inc's (C.N) investment banking revenue plunged 58% while Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) investment banking fees more than halved. Strength in trading helped offset a slump in investment banking, while interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve helped income.

☆ Morgan Stanley profit beats on strength in trading business
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N) reported a smaller-than-expected 41% drop in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday as the bank's trading business got a boost from market volatility, offsetting the hit from sluggish dealmaking. Revenue from Morgan Stanley's investment banking business fell 49% to $1.25 billion in the fourth quarter, with revenue declines across the bank's advisory, equity and fixed income segments. The investment banking business slowdown weighed on the company's net revenue, pulling it down 12% to $12.7 billion. Morgan Stanley wraps up a mixed fourth-quarter earnings for the big U.S. banks. On an adjusted basis, Morgan Stanley earned $1.31 per diluted share, the bank said.

☆ Wall Street banks stockpile funds for possible recession, show resilience
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo/File PhotoNEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Wall Street's biggest banks stockpiled more rainy-day funds to prepare for a possible recession ahead and reported weak investment banking results, but said consumers remained healthy and higher rates boosted profits. Strength in trading helped offset a slump in investment banking, while interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve helped income. However, Citigroup Inc (C.N) reported a 21% fall in profits with investment banking taking a hit. Global investment banking revenue sank to $15.3 billion in the fourth quarter, down more than 50% from a year-earlier quarter, according to data from Dealogic. Bank of America's investment banking fees more than halved in the quarter.

☆ Goldman Sachs' investment team bullish on equities -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Investment Strategy Group expects U.S. equities to generate positive returns for investors in 2023 even if the economy enters a recession, according to its outlook report released on Friday. The bank's wealth management team expect the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) to end 2023 at between 4,200 and 4,300 points, up to 12% higher than its 2022 year-end level. Last year, the S&P fell 19.4% in its worst year since 2008, reflecting higher interest rates and recession fears. Goldman Sachs's team also considers indexes in Europe, Japan, Britain and emerging markets will deliver gains to investors this year. They said there is a "fog of uncertainty still facing investors", but overall the outlook seems more positive for both equities and bonds.

Spreads indicate the premium investors demand to hold corporate bonds rather than safer government debt. However, some investors expect credit spreads may widen again to reflect a recession potentially ahead. Hedge funds and some asset managers short credit, meaning they are betting on a fall in a bond's price, by buying products like credit default swaps (CDS), which rise in value if the risk of a credit default event increases. Primary markets indicate there is no lack of demand for corporate bonds. They expect credit spreads to widen in the first half of this year.

☆ Macro hedge funds end 2022 on high, many others lose big, investors say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Rokos Capital, run by Chris Rokos and one of a handful of so-called global macro firms, gained 51% last year. Many macro managers sidestepped tumbling equity markets rocked by fast-paced interest rate hikes and geopolitical turmoil including the war in Ukraine to rank among the hedge fund industry's best performers, data from Hedge Fund Research show. The firm's macro index gained 14.2% while the overall hedge fund index dropped 4.25%, its first loss since 2018. Equity hedge funds, where the bulk of the industry's roughly $3.7 trillion in assets are invested, however fared worse with a 10.4% loss, according to HFR data. Tiger Global Management lost 56% while Whale Rock Capital Management ended the year with a 43% loss and Maverick Capital lost 23%.

☆ Hedge funds in 2022 post worst performance since 2018, dragged down by equities -HFR data
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Overall, hedge funds fell 4.25% last year, according to the HFRI 500 Fund Weighted Composite Index, which tracks many of the biggest global hedge fund performances. Equity hedge funds notched the worst performance in 2022 among the four main hedge funds categories tracked by HFR. Despite their massive losses, crypto hedge funds account for a tiny part of the industry's $3.8 trillion in assets. Macro hedge funds outperformed the industry, HFR showed. Macro hedge funds trade globally a broad range of assets, such as bonds, currencies, rates, stocks and commodities.

A majority of the 10 global asset and hedge fund managers surveyed by Reuters said commodities are undervalued and should thrive as global inflation stays elevated in 2023. Preqin said just 915 hedge funds were launched in 2022, the lowest in 10 years. "It's the perfect environment for macro hedge funds: central bank policy divergence, interest rate differentials, geopolitical tension, bottlenecks and each country on its own. Macro hedge funds led the industry performance through November, according to financial data firm HFR, up roughly 8%. Lyons is keen to allot more to macro hedge funds and also thinks there are good opportunities in corporate credit.

That works out to a 31.2% return on total average short interest of $973.6 billion throughout the year, according to S3 Partners. Stanphyl Capital portfolio manager Mark Spiegel, who has been short Tesla "constantly, in varying size" since 2014, said a bet against Tesla was his fund's most profitable individual short position this year. While higher interest rates have punished growth stocks, some investors believe Tesla CEO Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter is diverting his time running the electric car company. Long-short hedge funds, which bet on stock prices rising or falling, posted a 9.7% loss through November, according to data provider HFR. Charles Lemonides, portfolio manager at $226 billion hedge fund ValueWorks LLC, believes tight monetary policy will weigh on risk appetite next year.

☆ Hedge fund Citadel expects to return $7 bln in profits to clients - source
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Citadel expects to return about $7 billion in profits to its investors in the first week of January after a stellar performance this year, a source familiar with the matter said. Reuters reported this month that this year was shaping up to be one of Citadel's best years in terms of performance. The hedge fund firm, which manages $59 billion in assets, told investors its flagship Wellington fund returned roughly 32% through the end of November. It has returned more than $11 billion in the last five years as it is more focused on performance, not on capital growth, the source said. The Wall Street Journal first reported the expected capital return earlier on Wednesday.

Some economists have lowered growth forecasts for early next year for the world's second-largest economy, continuing the grim growth numbers this year that were among the worst of the past half-century. "Compared with other developed countries, medical resources in China are somewhat insufficient," said Nie Wen, a Shanghai-based economist at Hwabao Trust, who has cut his China growth forecast for the first quarter to 3.5%-4% from 5% previously. INFLATION SURGEWith China likely facing waves of COVID infections after the relaxations, the benefits of reopening are expected to arrive with a significant delay. "Given the accelerated reopening timeline, we believe growth may stay subpar near term," Morgan Stanley said after the announcement of the latest easing measures. Lurking among the prospects for China's reopening, however, is a potential surge in inflation, which could hit the global economy as well as China itself.

Giuseppe Bivona and Marco Taricco, Bluebell's partners, wrote to Fink, saying they want someone else to run the company. Bluebell was founded in 2019 and has taken on companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Glencore, Vivendi and Danone, where it engineered the ouster of former CEO Emmanuel Faber. "Fink clearly has political ambitions because it is not his job as chief executive of BlackRock to dictate energy policy,” Bivona told Reuters in an interview. BlackRock did not support Bluebell's campaign to oust the CEO of chemical company Solvay or at Leonardo SpA (LDOF.MI), where Bluebell wanted to promote a liability action against the CEO. A BlackRock spokesman said it did not "support Bluebell's campaigns as we did not consider them to be in the best economic interests of our clients."

NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. banks are bracing for a worsening economy next year as inflation threatens consumer demand, according to executives Tuesday. "Those things might very well derail the economy and cause this mild to hard recession that people are worried about," he said. Consumers have $1.5 trillion in excess savings from pandemic stimulus programs, but it may run out some time in mid-2023, he told CNBC. Major banks' shares fell sharply on the day after a lineup of top bankers outlined the risks for the economy. "Economic growth is slowing," Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said at the same conference.

☆ BlackRock has frozen hires, reduced spending, says CFO
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) Chief Financial Officer Gary Shedlin on Tuesday said his firm is freezing most hiring and reducing expenses. BlackRock also said there were some short-term performance challenges and it needed to think about resetting expenses relative to revenues. Shares in BlackRock are down roughly 30% this year, underperforming the benchmark S&P 500 Index. Separately, activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners Ltd said in a letter it has sought to replace BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink after taking a position in the asset manager. Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ BlackRock's Fink says crypto technology still relevant despite FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) Chief Executive Larry Fink said on Wednesday that there appear to have been "misbehaviors" by the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, but that the technology behind crypto is relevant for the future. "We're going to have to wait to see how this all plays out (with FTX)," Fink said. "I mean, right now we can make all the judgment calls and it looks like there were misbehaviors of major consequences." BlackRock invested $24 million in FTX through a billionaire fund it manages, he said. Despite all the problems around FTX, Fink said he considers the technology behind crypto "will be very important."

☆ BlackRock's Fink says there may have been misbehaviors at FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - BlackRock's Chief Executive Larry Fink said on Wednesday that it seems there were some misbehaviors at crypto firm FTX, but that the technology behind crypto is relevant for the future. "We're going to have to wait to see how this all plays out (with FTX). I mean, right now we can make all the judgment calls and it looks like there were misbehaviors of major consequences," Fink said, at an event hosted by the New York Times Dealbook, adding BlackRock invested $24 million in FTX through a fund of funds it manages. Reporting by Carolina Mandl, in New YorkOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen in Zurich, Switzerland October 26, 2022. Credit Suisse declined to comment on the market moves. Credit Suisse rights for its 2.24 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion) share issue were down 8%, having reversed initial gains. Credit Suisse bonds also weakened, with additional tier 1 dollar bonds down over 4 cents and many sinking below the levels seen during a sell off in the bank's shares and bonds in early October, Tradeweb data showed. Battered by a series of scandals and mounting losses, Credit Suisse last month embarked on a turnaround plan.

☆ Meta's Zuckerberg says some of Elon Musk's Twitter content approach 'might work'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Nov 30 (Reuters) - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday he was keen to see how Elon Musk's management of content moderation on Twitter would fare, arguing it was good for platforms to take different approaches. "You can agree or disagree with what Elon is doing, or how he's doing it, but I do think it's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out," said Zuckerberg, speaking at the New York Times Dealbook conference. "I would guess that not everything is going to work, but I think some things might work," he said. Reporting by Carolina Mandl and Lananh Nguyen in New York and Katie Paul in Palo Alto; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Silicon Valley leaders welcome Elon Musk's management of Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 30 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley leaders welcomed Elon Musk's management of Twitter, with Netflix (NFLX.O) co-founder Reed Hastings going so far as to call the billionaire "the bravest, most creative person on the planet." Meta Platforms (META.O) CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said he was keen to see how Elon Musk's management of content moderation on Twitter would fare, arguing it was good for platforms to take different approaches. "I would guess that not everything is going to work, but I think some things might work," he said. Hastings said Musk has a different management style than his own but added: "I'm 100% convinced he's trying to help the world with all of his endeavors." "It's not how I would do it, but I'm deeply respectful," said Hastings.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried says he 'didn't ever try to commit fraud'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"I didn't ever try to commit fraud," Bankman-Fried said in the hour-long interview, adding that he doesn't personally think he has any criminal liability. The liquidity crunch at FTX came after Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. At least $1 billion in customer funds had vanished, the people said. Bankman-Fried told Reuters in November the company did not "secretly transfer" but rather misread its "confusing internal labeling." Bankman-Fried said he was speaking from the Bahamas and that the interview was against the advice of his lawyers.

A "substantial majority" of policymakers agreed it would "likely soon be appropriate" to slow the pace of interest rate hikes, the minutes showed. Since the Fed's last meeting on Nov. 1-2, investors have been more optimistic that price pressures have started to ease, meaning smaller rate hikes could curtail inflation. Heavyweight stocks, including Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), rose 1.00% and 0.72%, respectively. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.97-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.61-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 21 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 97 new highs and 126 new lows.

☆ Wall Street slips as concerns rise of stricter China COVID curbs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

U.S. casino operators with businesses in China including Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN.O), Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS.N), MGM Resorts International (MGM.N) and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd all fell at least 2%. [1/2] Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., November 21, 2022. Energy was the only major S&P 500 sector eying gains for the year, surging around 63%. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.60-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 96 new highs and 220 new lows.

[1/2] Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., November 21, 2022. "That's a piece of what's driving the tech stocks down because we rely so much on China and Taiwan for critical components." Energy was the only major S&P 500 sector eying gains for the year, surging around 63%. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.26-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.57-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 76 new highs and 194 new lows.

[1/4] The Wall Street entrance to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is seen in New York City, U.S., November 15, 2022. Equities were boosted by Tuesday's inflation report that showed producer prices rising 8% in the 12 months through October against an estimated 8.3% rise. The gains built on a rally that was kicked off late last week by a cooler-than-expected report on consumer prices. "The decline was triggered by reports of a Russian missile landing in Poland," said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. About 13.1 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 12.2 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

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