DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Stocks are getting a boost from a key indicator that's been a reliable sign of more gains to come
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In case you missed it, the European Central Bank Thursday made a half-point interest rate hike, marking its fifth consecutive move as part of its inflation-fighting efforts. Speaking of rates, today we're going over a key economic indicator that suggests more upside ahead for stocks. Ever since the Fed started tightening policy last March, the stock market has been highly susceptible to interest-rate volatility. Specifically, the MOVE Index — which measures volatility of US Treasury yields — has dipped to lows that haven't been seen since the Fed's first rate hike of this cycle. This means potentially smaller swings in the stock market as highly rate-sensitive equities get some relief after big rate moves battered indexes in 2022.

☆ ChatGPT has gone viral. Now Wall Street is flocking to AI.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Today's newsletter covers everything you want to know about how the viral ChatGPT language tool is colliding with the world of Wall Street. Wall Street is clamoring to ride the ChatGPT wave, and investors are pouring into anything that has exposure to the budding artificial intelligence sector. A batch of obscure small-cap bot stocks have made sizable gains, and certain Chinese AI stocks have climbed 60% in a matter of weeks. The stock market just hit a rare trifecta of bullish indicators. The stock market rally will fade as the Fed combats inflation and a recession hits, according to a Credit Suisse strategist.

☆ There's a massive disconnect between markets and the Fed - and Jerome Powell's messaging could fall upon deaf ears
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Let's break down what to know ahead of the Federal Reserve's widely expected interest rate hike today. Today's rate hike decision probably won't surprise anyone, as markets have long priced in a 25-basis-point move for the February and March meetings. Goldman said he'll be watching for three things in Powell's speech:Powell will talk tough: "He's going to push back on financial markets. In any case, according to Reinking, unless Powell musters up some serious aggression, any messaging will ultimately fall upon deaf ears. What will your investment strategy look like following another interest rate hike from the Fed?

☆ Here's what the stock market is facing down this week, from Fed moves to earnings that will set the tone for the rest of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

This is a make-or-break week for the stock market. Not only that, but a slate of mega-cap earnings from Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet are also due later this week. Any negative surprises could derail the January rally, Stockton said, and negate much of the recent recovery from 2022's vicious bear market. "We believe the rally rests on the shoulders of heavyweights Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet, which are showing softness today as the market anticipates their earnings," Stockton wrote. Better-than-expected earnings and the potential for a Fed pivot have fueled a sharp rebound in the stock.

☆ Here's why the housing market could see more action this year - and what it means for affordability
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Now — into the housing market we go. Nadia Evangelou, senior economist for the NAR, told me recently the housing market could turn around in 2023, but unaffordability would remain a prevailing theme. In other news:People sit outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 15, 2016. Elon Musk said he's worried about the Fed "crushing" the value of the entire stock market. The current uncertainty in the housing market can be paralyzing for investors, but there's still opportunities to make money, he explained.

☆ Vanguard's global investment expert explains what traders are doing to kick off 2023 and how markets are reacting to the Federal Reserve's policy tightening.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Today, I'm sharing my conversation with Fiona Greig of Vanguard's Investment Strategy Group. Fiona Greig, global head of investor research and policy for Vanguard VanguardFiona Greig is the global head of investor research and policy for Vanguard's Investment Strategy Group. This suggests a "stay the course" posture, meaning yes there's been volatility, but the longer term outlook they have for the stock market is stable. There's some lower expectations for stock market returns in the short term, but we see pretty clear expectations and optimism for returns in the next 12 months, and even 10 years. The firm's strategists said these companies pay out a healthy dividend and can offset stock market losses in a slow-growth economic landscape.

☆ ChatGPT is about to write BuzzFeed content - and investors are loving it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

BuzzFeed's part of that group too — but it's come up with a peculiar idea to ramp up business (and stock). Similar to other companies, BuzzFeed laid off 12% of its workforce last month, citing a worsening economic environment. The stock also got a boost from news of the media company's partnership with Meta, which will see BuzzFeed bring more content to Facebook and Instagram. It's unclear how ChatGPT's parent, OpenAI, ties into Meta's multi-million dollar deal with BuzzFeed, if at all, but the agreement is meant to boost creator content for Facebook and Instagram. It was the king of viral content and quirky listicles — and Facebook of course had a hand in getting eyeballs on BuzzFeed.

☆ Elon Musk is mulling over ways to whittle down some of his Twitter debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

And speaking of cold hard reality, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk is trying to raise fresh funds to pay off some of the pricier bits of his $13 billion Twitter loan. New fundraising to the tune of $3 billion could help Musk repay the obligations he took on in his Twitter takeover. For every quarter that goes by without refinancing, the interest rate goes up by an additional 0.50 percentage point, regulatory filings show. That said, if Twitter can pay back those unsecured bridge loans, meeting its debt obligations would be much more manageable. What are some ways you think Elon Musk could boost revenue at Twitter?

☆ Wall Street is still obsessed with Tesla. Here's what experts are saying as the EV-maker's key earnings report looms.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I'm senior reporter Phil Rosen, here to ring in a pivotal Tesla earnings report with you this morning. But his wealth — and the wealth of his shareholders — could whipsaw today, depending on what comes across in a particularly important earnings report. But amid the bearishness (not to mention distractions from Twitter), Elon Musk's car maker is still a favorite on Wall Street. FactSet data shows that 64% of analysts give Tesla stock a "buy" or "overweight" rating. US stock futures fall early Wednesday, after Microsoft earnings delivered a bleak outlook that added to investors' worries about earnings growth.

☆ Disney’s Bob Iger and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff are the latest high-profile execs to come under pressure from activist investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Billionaire activist investors are putting pressure on top CEOs who were previously thought to be untouchable. Leaders of beloved brand names are coming under fire — and Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Disneys' Bob Iger are the two latest execs to feel the heat, as my colleague Matthew Fox writes. That means activist investors, moguls they may be, still face an uphill battle in winning over shareholders and management teams. What's your take on this burgeoning wave of activist investors? US stock futures fall early Tuesday, as investors brace for the next wave of high-profile earnings and despite growing hopes for a mild recession.

☆ Here's why it's time to bet against a key sector of the market ahead of the coming recession
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Today, I'm sharing a research note from one analyst who's eyeing a new bet to place against a corner of the stock market that offered refuge last year. He's talking about the S&P 500 Consumer Staples Sector SPDR Fund. In his view, the consumer staples sector, which served as a haven last year, presents a bubble about to burst. How much credence do you give to chart analysis for stock market outlooks? The stock market is about to be flipped upside down, according to Bank of America.

☆ A top investment chief explains why bonds offer an attractive hedge for a mild and brief recession in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I'm senior reporter Phil Rosen, and below I'm sharing my conversation with Northwestern Mutual's chief investment officer, Brent Schutte. He sees the bond market as this year's best recession hedge. Phil Rosen: You said you're expecting a mild and brief recession this year. Brent Schutte: The good news is that the bond market has repriced, and the bond market is a hedge against that recession. BC: I do think earnings will come down this year, and cheaper equities give a margin of safety against that.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried has serious beef with FTX's new boss, John Ray III
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

John Ray, CEO of FTX Group, described a litany of amateurish business practices used to run the multibillion-dollar exchange. This much we know for certain: Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX's new boss, John Ray III, are not each other's biggest fans. From their comments, we can see that they disagree on how to run a company, where certain cash went, and who can repay who. It doesn't take a stoic to make Bankman-Fried look chatty, given the extensive media tour he embarked on after FTX went under. And strangely, as the boss and former boss duke it out, FTX's native token FTT is quietly skyrocketing again.

☆ FTX money trails leading to politicians, media, and other crypto exchanges point to the deep influence of Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Here's what Bankman-Fried seemed to be aiming at: Stash money with all the right people, while lobbying for policy favorable to FTX. As CoinDesk reported this week, 37% of Congress took money from Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer were among the 196 senators and representatives that received funds. Other lawmakers included some who were just sworn into congressional ranks this month, which points to Bankman-Fried possibly seeking to hold sway over new members. GOLDMAN SACHS stock price on Jan. 19, 2023 Markets Insider10.

☆ Wall Street is feeling bearish, but a rare stock market pattern is hinting at a bull rally to kick off 2023.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Traders gather on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, March 18, 2016. There is little optimism for stocks among Wall Street's foot soldiers, according to the latest fund manager survey from Bank of America. As BofA pointed out, that means the so-called "pain trade" in the stock market is higher, and any sudden rally would catch investors off-guard. But Wall Street survey be damned, stocks seem to be on the brink of a rare, bullish trifecta. The surge has pushed the world's most largest crypto token to levels not seen since before the fall of FTX.

☆ As crypto hackers and thieves make off with billions, there's another kind of fraud lurking in the industry.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I'm sorry to say when you dig deeper into the practices of opaque crypto exchanges, there's little to restore that faith. Timothy Cradle, director of regulatory affairs at Blockchain Intelligence, told Insider that wash trading is market manipulation. NBER researchers estimated that wash trading comprises nearly half of all transactions on Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by volume. Similarly, KuCoin, another top-five crypto exchange, was estimated to have 52.9% of its transactions consist of wash trading (which the company denied). Are you surprised that the researchers found wash trading to be so rampant a practice?

☆ Tips for investing in 2023 as a potential recession looms large
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Callie Cox: The biggest risks include whether the Fed can get inflation down, and whether we enter a recession. The job market and corporate earnings are the two catalysts that make me think we can avoid those risks. CC: The Fed will be more responsive to what's happening in the job market, because the job market directly impacts inflation. Services inflation — think rent, haircuts, insurance prices — is still growing at a 7% clip annually, which is way too high in the Fed's mind. And the kicker here is that services inflation is the type of inflation that the Fed can best control through the job market.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried is now writing his own newsletter while under house arrest at his parents' $4 million property: 'I didn't steal funds'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Presumably writing from his parents' $4 million property in Palo Alto, California near Stanford, Sam Bankman-Fried published a lengthy newsletter yesterday, titled "FTX Pre-Mortem Overview." One statement stood out to me: "I didn't steal funds, and I certainly didn't stash billions away." In the note, Bankman-Fried highlighted that both FTX and Alameda Research were raking in billions in profits in 2021. A key to the collapse, he explained, was 2022's crypto bear market that left just about every token worth dramatically less than the year prior. Well, Bankman-Fried yesterday outlined two versions of the hedge fund's balance sheet, one from each of the past two years.

☆ December inflation data: Here's how it could move markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"Like we saw following November's CPI report, markets rallied and then pulled back," Conzo explained. The central bank remains "worried about the overheating labor market," and the CPI report is "unlikely to quell those concerns." If the inflation data shows further cooling today, how does that impact your economic outlook for the year? Along with CPI data, investors are also bracing for the release of the number of US jobless claims. Coinbase stock price on Jan. 12, 2023 Markets Insider10.

☆ An oil historian explains China's impact on a key Russian oil product — which is now trading far below the EU's price cap
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In December, a $60-per-barrel price cap was established to limit how much cash Moscow could pull in from oil exports. But the country's key oil product is trading far below that level, which in one sense makes the cap moot. Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, speaks to workers while visiting the Rosneft oil refinery in the Black Sea port of Tuapse, southern Russia. But to Gregory Brew, a Kissinger Visiting Scholar at Yale, rather than being a direct consequence of any sanction measure, the steep discount reflects the easing global market. It isn't about what Russia can produce or how badly it's revenue is impacted by sanctions, but instead the focus should be on what kind of market Russia will be operating in.

☆ The December jobs report sent mixed signals. Here's what it means for markets.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The December jobs report is another data point that signals the Fed has more work to do to cool the economy. "A labor market this strong means an imminent recession is highly improbable," Indeed Hiring Lab economist Nick Bunker wrote in a note. While stocks usually sell off after these strong reports, fearing the worst from the Fed, Friday saw a strong rally. History suggests there are very strong odds the stock market gains 20% this year after last year's bludgeoning. Tesla stock has tumbled to multiyear lows.

☆ Here's where Invesco's global market strategist says to put your cash in 2023 and why stocks look poised to stage a rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Today's newsletter features my conversation with Invesco's global market strategist, Brian Levitt. After that, I've rounded up some of the very best stories from a busy week in markets, just for you. Invesco's global market strategist, Brian Levitt InvescoBrian Levitt is the global market strategist Invesco. What likely starts to happen as the Fed pauses with inflation coming down, the market starts to price in a new cycle. Read the 5 biggest takeaways from my conversation with Invesco's Brian Levitt.

☆ Thought last year was bad for crypto? From FTX to Silvergate, the red flags are flying for the year ahead.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Those realizations came to head repeatedly in 2022 as crypto hacks and a wintry bear market crescendoed with the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX. On a macro level, persistent recession fears make speculative assets such as tokens or tech stocks less enticing. More notable is crypto bank Silvergate's nearly 50% plunge Thursday, and the company's announcement it would cut 40% of its staff. Job cuts at Amazon and Salesforce signal the first necessary step in staging a turnaround for tech stocks. All told, analysts predict layoffs could catalyze a 20% rally for tech stocks in 2023.

☆ Apple is coming off a terrible year and Wall Street is torn on whether it's set for more pain or about to skyrocket.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

While the meeting minutes don't tell us exactly what the Fed will do next month, generally they are worth paying attention to for hints into the thinking of central bankers. Shares fell further on Tuesday and Wednesday after a Nikkei report said demand for MacBooks, AirPods, and Apple Watches is weakening. But Loup Funds' Gene Munster said Apple stock should be worth double its current value, given that it's one of the world's greatest companies. What's your outlook for Apple stock this year? This hedge fund manager has returned 163% over the last year, and he's anticipating more pain to come for stocks.

☆ Elon Musk's Tesla, the world's leading EV maker, is capping off 2022 as one of the S&P 500's worst-performing stocks.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But to Musk, prices have already started dropping, which eliminates the need for the Fed to keep rates so high. If it was all [interest] rates, NDX would be down a similar amount," Black tweeted at Musk. Ultimately, Tesla investors shouldn't feel alone in their pain amid downtrodden stock prices this year. How has your view of Tesla stock changed since October? Their managers told us how they overcame a brutal year for the stock market, and shared the stock picks that worked best.

Search resuls for: "Max Adams"

25 mentions found