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☆ UBS completes Credit Suisse takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —UBS has finalized its emergency takeover of fallen rival Credit Suisse, creating a giant Swiss bank with nearly $1.7 trillion in assets in the biggest banking tie-up since the 2008 global financial crisis. The government has said that allowing Credit Suisse (CS) — one of the world’s 30 most important banks — to fail would probably have triggered an international financial crisis. Swiss taxpayers are on the hook for up to 9 billion Swiss francs ($10 billion) of losses that UBS may incur from certain Credit Suisse assets, over and above losses of 5 billion francs ($5.5 billion) that UBS has agreed to bear itself. Investors have already sued the Swiss financial regulator over its decision to impose those losses on them, Reuters has reported. Credit Suisse bled customer deposits worth 67 billion francs ($74.3 billion) in the first three months of the year, adding to massive withdrawals at the end of last year.

Persons: FINMA, “ FINMA, “, Sergio Ermotti, Colm Kelleher, Ermotti, Kelleher, ” Organizations: London CNN, UBS, Credit Suisse, Swiss, Financial Times, CNN, Suisse, Reuters, Credit, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank Locations: Swiss, Switzerland, Silicon, United States

☆ ‘Bumps and pain’ coming for the US economy, says Goldman Sachs CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —The US economy has been surprisingly resilient this year, but painful bumps are likely coming, said Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon in an interview with CNBC on Monday morning. In this good-is-bad economy, strong employment and higher wages mean higher inflation as companies pass on increased labor costs by raising the price of goods. Like its Wall Street rivals, Goldman Sachs has been hit by a slump in dealmaking and activity. In January, Goldman Sachs launched much deeper layoffs that were expected to result in the loss of as many as 3,200 employees. Last September, Goldman also let go of underperformers as part of a normal process at the bank.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, ”, Solomon, ” Solomon, “, —, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman, “ We’re Organizations: New, New York CNN, CNBC, Federal, Fed, Silicon Valley Bank, Bank, JPMorgan, CNN Locations: New York, United States, Silicon, underperformers

☆ Millionaires are hoarding cash, betting on higher rates, CNBC survey says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Robert Frank | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Millionaire investors are adding to their mountains of cash, betting on higher interest rates and weak stock markets in 2023, according to the CNBC Millionaire Survey. Of the survey respondents, 28% said they have purchased more fixed income, as they expect interest rates to remain high. Millionaire investors are still betting inflation will persist for years, potentially keeping interest rates higher for longer. Three-quarters of millennial millionaires say inflation will come down to 2% within two years, with one in four saying it will hit the 2% target within a year. CNBC's Millionaire Survey was conducted online in April.

Persons: Elias Ghanem, George Walper, Walper Organizations: CNBC Millionaire Survey, Capgemini Research Institute, Financial Services, Spectrem, Millionaire Survey, CNBC, Millionaires, Millionaire, Valley Bank, First, Signature Bank, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

☆ Binance Moved Billions Through Two U.S. Banks, Regulators Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Emily Flitter | Matthew Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

accountant, Sachin Verma, detailed a tangle of transactions that companies associated with the giant cryptocurrency exchange had made through two banks: Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank, both of which failed this year. separately said it estimated unpaid taxes by Binance over the past four years carried an interest penalty of more than $13 million. Though it estimated that Binance earned almost $225 million from 2019 to 2023, the regulator didn’t say how much the company paid in taxes over the period, or how much it should have paid. sued Binance in federal court in Washington, D.C., accusing the company of mishandling customer funds, lying to regulators and investors about its operations and engaging in manipulative trading. U.S. regulators have asked a federal judge to temporarily freeze assets tied to Binance’s subsidiary in the United States, and Wednesday’s filing was in support of that request.

Persons: Sachin Verma, Changpeng Zhao, Binance Organizations: Securities and Exchange, Silvergate, Signature Bank, Washington , D.C Locations: Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Seychelles, Washington ,, U.S, United States

June 5 (Reuters) - Tighter lending standards from regional banks are making it harder for U.S. hotel developers to secure funding, slowing construction of new hotels at a time Americans' appetite for travel is ripe. Analysts say slower hotel development will also limit profits of blue-chip manufacturers like Caterpillar Inc. , whose commercial real estate customers account for around 75% of construction sales. Overexposed regional banks are now offloading commercial real estate loans at a discount. Troubled regional lender PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O) announced in May it would sell $2.6 billion worth of real estate construction loans. Banks started to reduce their hotel loan portfolios in the first quarter of 2023, an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence found.

Persons: Joseph Delli Santi, James Hansen, Andy Ingraham, Ingraham, Evens Charles, Banks, Mitchell Hochberg, Bianca Flowers, Caroline Stauffer, Deepa Babington Organizations: U.S, Silicon Valley Bank, Shopoff, Reuters, Build Central Inc, Hilton, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, Marriott International, Caterpillar Inc, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, National Association of Black, Developers, Frontier Development, Hospitality Group, Washington D.C, PacWest Bancorp, P Global Market Intelligence, Lightstone, Thomson Locations: Silicon, California, Florida , Texas, Washington, Arizona, New York, Chicago, Bengaluru

☆ As the crypto lawsuits pile up, Cramer says get out while you can
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Julie Coleman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

CNBC's Jim Cramer discussed market manipulation on Tuesday and advised investors to get their money out of cryptocurrency while they still can. "I want you to be able to protect yourself from scams that are designed to fake you out and part you from your money," Cramer said. [Hedge funds] made tons of money," Cramer said. But unlike the banks, Cramer said, at this point, he believes cryptocurrencies are primarily scams. "Sometimes, you get stocks that are manipulated lower like the regional banks, then you get assets that are manipulated higher on bogus exchanges, like a huge chunk of the crypto ecosystem.

Persons: CNBC's Jim Cramer, Cramer, cryptocurrencies, I'm, Gary Gensler Organizations: Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First, SEC Locations: cryptocurrency, Silicon, First Republic

Persons: Joseph Delli Santi, James Hansen, Andy Ingraham, Ingraham, Evens Charles, Banks, Mitchell Hochberg, Bianca Flowers, Caroline Stauffer, Deepa Babington Organizations: U.S, Silicon Valley Bank, Shopoff, Reuters, Build Central Inc, Hilton, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, Marriott International, Caterpillar Inc, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, National Association of Black, Developers, Frontier Development, Hospitality Group, Washington D.C, PacWest Bancorp, P Global Market Intelligence, Western Alliance, Lightstone, Thomson Locations: Silicon, California, Florida , Texas, Washington, Arizona, New York, Chicago, Bengaluru

☆ JPMorgan upgrades this regional bank stock with limited exposure to commercial real estate, sees 25% gain
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

JPMorgan thinks there's a buying opportunity in regional bank Valley National. The bank upgraded Valley National Bancorp to overweight from neutral Monday with a $10 per share price target. Analyst Steven Alexopoulos noted that Valley National's exposure to the commercial real estate market is reasonably below peers which could shield the firm from loan headwinds. Valley National shares have tanked more than 29% in 2023. The stock dropped with the broader regional banking space after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this year.

Persons: Steven Alexopoulos, Alexopoulos, —, Michael Bloom Organizations: JPMorgan, Bancorp, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank Locations: Silicon

☆ The S&P 500 broke out above a key level. Now what?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The S&P 500 index on Friday closed at its highest level in almost a year. The S&P 500 ended last week up 1.8% at about 4,282, marking its best weekly gain since late March. Now that the index has managed to breach the top level of resistance, that raises the question: Does this rally have legs? An equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 is up only about 1.5% for the year. The good news is that the S&P 500 will likely return to trading within the 3,800 - 4,200 range, meaning any downside — at least in the short term — will likely be limited, according to Turnquist.

Persons: Joe Biden’s, —, José Torres, Adam Turnquist, “ There’s, ”, ” Bitcoin, Saqib Iqbal, ” Iqbal, bitcoin, Iqbal, Smucker Compan, Baker Hughes Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, CNN, Federal Reserve, Interactive, LPL, Treasury Department, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Trading.biz

☆ CFPB warns about storing funds in payment apps like PayPal, Venmo
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Some consumers are using services like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and Apple Pay for direct deposit of paychecks, or simply storing lots of cash in them. Payment apps, however, are not federally insured on the institution level. PayPal Holdings (PYPL), which owns both PayPal and Venmo, did not reply to a request for comment Friday. “Tens of millions of American consumers and small businesses rely on payment apps to better spend, manage, and send their money. The agency also noted the payment apps make money by investing funds their customers store on the apps, similar to how banks invest their customers deposits.

Persons: Rohit Chopra, ” Organizations: New, New York CNN, PayPal, Financial, Bureau, Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Bank, PayPal Holdings, Financial Technology Association Locations: New York

☆ Logs show Fed's Powell in whirlwind of meetings during March banking turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

That was five days before UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse in a deal engineered by Swiss authorities to avoid more market-shaking turmoil in global banking. The bank failed March 10 and a smaller bank, Signature Bank, was taken over by banking regulators on March 12. The schedule shows Powell working two weeks straight from that point. Meetings were scheduled through both of the following weekends to come up with backstops to prevent the turmoil from cascading into a system-wide crisis with wider economic fallout. The pace was reminiscent of his schedule in March 2020, when the onset of the coronavirus pandemic forced the Fed onto a crisis footing.

Persons: Jerome Powell, Powell, Ralph Hamers, Dan Burns, Chizu Organizations: UBS Group AG, Swiss, Credit Suisse, Fed, UBS, Silicon, Bank, Signature Bank, Treasury, Office, Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Federal Reserve, Thomson Locations: U.S, Republic

☆ Commercial real estate will suffer a recession if banks don't start lending again, warns property billionaire Ross Perot Jr.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The commercial real estate sector is at risk of a recession, warned Ross Perot Jr. The real estate billionaire said banks needed to lend to the industry to avoid a sharp downturn. "The key to commercial real estate today though will be banking," the real estate billionaire and son of two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot told Bloomberg on Wednesday. Several commentators including Elon Musk and Bill Ackman have sounded the alarm on commercial real estate in recent weeks. "That is why we will have a real estate recession if the banks do not start lending."

Persons: Ross Perot Jr, —, Ross Perot, Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, stoking, Hillwood Organizations: Service, Bloomberg, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First, Perot Jr, Perot Locations: Silicon, First Republic, —

☆ Premarket stocks: The banking crisis isn't over
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —Amid the US debt ceiling turmoil, a potential recession and the upcoming Fed meeting, Wall Street has a lot on its plate. Even as US lawmakers race to prevent a catastrophic default, the lingering effects of the regional banking crisis have not been completely extinguished. CEO Jamie Dimon said that his company’s emergency intervention had ended the immediate turmoil of the banking crisis. The SPDR Regional Banking ETF (KRE), which tracks a number of small and mid-sized bank stocks, is down about 3% so far this month and over 30% lower so far this year. Analysts are concerned that as rates get higher, the borrowing environment becomes tougher for regional banks, hurting their ability to lend.

Persons: New York CNN —, JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, ”, Janet Yellen, ” Fitch, “, What’s, Goldman Sachs, Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy, Biden’s, Matt Egan Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, JPMorgan, First Republic, Fitch, Governors, Federal Reserve, Banking, PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance Bancorp, Republican, Treasury Department, CNN, Saudi, Wall Street Journal Locations: New York, Banking, EY, ”, Saudi Arabia, Russia, OPEC, China, Vienna

☆ Investors are losing hope for a Fed pause and bracing for another interest-rate hike instead. Here's what 8 experts have predicted.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Investors are losing hope that the Federal Reserve will pause its interest-rate hikes in June. For example, several market experts have warned the commercial real estate industry is at risk if the Fed keeps raising borrowing costs. "But I do think it's possible they're going to raise a little more. Ed Yardeni, market veteran"The market has been remarkably resilient, mostly because the economy has been remarkably resilient," Yardeni said in a CNBC interview. "So I think they're where they want to be – and I think they're going to keep it here."

Persons: They're, —, Mohamed El, David Solomon, Goldman Sachs, Solomon, It's, Jamie Dimon, Dimon, Ed Yardeni, Yardeni, Doom, Roubini, Mark Zandi, Zandi, Mark Nash, Nash Organizations: Federal, Service, Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic, Fed, Erian, Allianz, CNBC's, JPMorgan, CNBC, Bloomberg, NYU Stern, Jupiter Asset Management

Meanwhile districts reported that the pace of inflation had slowed, with prices rising "moderately" and contacts in most parts of the country expecting a similar pace of price increases in the coming months. But many Fed policymakers since then have signaled they may rather wait before undertaking any further policy tightening. Fed policymakers have said credit conditions are a key input to their calculations for monetary policy-setting. About half of districts reported no change in economic activity in recent weeks, the report showed, while four reported small increases and two reported "slight to moderate declines." At the St. Louis Fed, banking contacts said loan demand had softened and they expected further weakening ahead.

Persons: Louis, Ann Saphir, Andrea Ricci, Chizu Organizations: Federal, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Cleveland Fed, Minneapolis Fed, St, Louis Fed, Thomson Locations: U.S, Silicon

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) - U.S. banks saw total deposits decline by a record 2.5% in the first quarter of 2023, and industry-wide profits were relatively flat after taking into account the effects of two large bank failures, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Wednesday. The FDIC said the $472 billion in deposit outflows in the first quarter was the largest it had recorded since it began collecting such data in 1984. The decline was primarily from uninsured funds, as insured deposits actually rose $255.1 billion, or 2.5%, amid the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. The decline in deposits was offset by increased wholesale funding, which rose 14.4% in the first quarter. The results showed banks shrinking the amount of unrealized losses on their books and maintaining strong capital ratios.

Persons: Martin Gruenberg, Gruenberg, Pete Schroeder, Sinead Carew, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, Comerica, Citizens, Thomson

☆ ECB’s crisis tool works best if it’s never used
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Rebecca Christie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

BRUSSELS, May 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - In the euro zone bond market, unlimited backstops are the cheapest. The European Central Bank has been trumpeting its ability to buy member states’ debt if it comes under attack from investors. The danger here is that too much divergence would lead the euro zone to fracture, creating a powder keg for crisis. The central bank has been deliberately quiet about exactly when and how it might activate the crisis tool, except to say it will be ready if necessary. They have noted that the euro zone central bank has a new instrument to combat any sharp increase in the differential between yields of euro zone government bonds.

Persons: Christine Lagarde, –, Lagarde, Fabio Panetta, hasn’t, there’s, Nils Redeker, Berlin’s Jacques Delors, Philip Lane, Francesco Guerrera, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, European Central Bank, ECB, Italy, Reuters Graphics Reuters, ECB won’t, Reuters Graphics, U.S . Federal, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, ”, European Union, Twitter, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Frankfurt, Italy, Spain, Greece, Lithuania, Silicon, EU, Ukraine

☆ Elon Musk warns house prices are set to plunge - and says commercial real estate is in meltdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Brace for the intense pressure on commercial real estate to spread to house prices, Elon Musk says. "Commercial real estate is melting down fast. Investors are worried about real estate in a period of higher interest rates and tighter lending. "Commercial real estate is melting down fast. JPMorgan estimated that about $450 billion in commercial real-estate debt set to expire this year could default.

☆ Why does Wall Street expect a rate hike in June?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Wall Street expects the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in June. Not only that, it finally believes the central bank when it says it likely won’t cut rates this year. Futures traders expected a roughly 66% chance of a quarter point rate hike in June as of Friday afternoon, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. That’s a drastic about-face from even earlier this month, when Wall Street expected the central bank to slash rates multiple times this year starting as early as this summer. “If it comes in hotter than expected, it almost locks a rate hike in” for June, said Heppenstall.

☆ Famed economist David Rosenberg says home prices are set to fall further as buyers retreat to the sidelines and a hawkish Fed means stubbornly high mortgage rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

With mortgage rates unlikely to budge and incomes unlikely to grow, prices are due to drop. Housing affordability is calculated by accounting for three variables: home prices, mortgage rates, and incomes. Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics who said in the 2005 that a housing downturn would spark a recession, made the same argument in recent weeks. Now that's quite striking because mortgage rates are no longer at peak, but applications are still falling. This would send interest rates — and therefore mortgage rates, which trade closely with Treasury rates — higher, further hurting demand and affordability, Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi recently told Fortune.

☆ It’s Not Just the Debt Ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Jeff Sommer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

These include:The potential for economic drag from the more restrictive fiscal policy that House Republicans are demanding from President Biden as a prerequisite for an increase in the debt ceiling. Oddly, the debt ceiling crisis provided temporary relief for many of the nation’s banks, economists for Moody’s Investor Service found in a recent study. “The debt ceiling impasse has been a tailwind for the banks,” Jill Cetina, associate managing director for Moody’s, said in an interview. But once the debt ceiling is lifted and the Treasury begins to raise money by selling large quantities of bonds, those purchases by investors in the open market will drain money from banks. “This may not be what you would expect, but the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis will be a headwind for banks,” she said.

☆ How risky bank debt makes customers safer
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bank watchdogs are mulling changes to deposit insurance schemes after a string of lenders failed. That’s a problem for depositors, since long-term debt acts as a buffer for customers too. Forcing the issuance of more long-term bank debt could make them cheaper too. The trickier part is figuring out who ultimately bears the cost of loss-absorbing debt. Relying more on loss-absorbing debt could make such giant ad-hoc bills less likely in the future.

☆ Premarket stocks: Will the debt ceiling debate finish the Fed's inflation fight?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN —Over the last 14 months, the Federal Reserve has taken a deliberate and economically painful approach to combating elevated inflation rates through interest rate hikes. The regional banking crisis and a possible debt-ceiling induced default on US debt could change all of that. What’s happening: There are two policy options that the Fed can use to address elevated inflation. For the first quarter, Lowe’s said overall sales fell 5.5% to $22.3 billion. Home Depot missed on first quarter sales and lowered its outlook for the year after customers slowed their spending.

Persons: shouldn’t, ”, Laurence Ball, Edward Boehne, Jerome Powell, Ben Bernanke, Powell, Ball, there’s, Austan Goolsbee, “, Julian Brigden, Bernanke, ” Bernanke, Olivier Blanchard, Bryan Mena, Blanchard, David Goldman, Parija, Lowe’s Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Federal Reserve, Johns Hopkins University, ” Former Philadelphia Fed, Fed, Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Yahoo Finance, Partners, International Monetary Fund, Brookings Institution, Target, Walmart, Home Depot Locations: New York, ”, Washington ,, America, California

☆ Hedge funds piled into these stocks in the first quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Wall Street firm analyzed hundreds of 13F filings last week to find the most popular stocks hedge funds picked up over the volatile quarter. Hedge funds piled into Victoria's Secret in the first quarter, buying the dip in the lingerie retailer, which has seen its shares fall 29% this year. Hedge funds also increased their ownership in financial names Western Alliance and Western Union last quarter. To be sure, it's possible that some of the hedge funds were covering their short bets in this position. A number of biotech names were also high-conviction bets for hedge funds, including Syneos Health , Horizon Therapeutics and Ginkgo Bioworks.

May 22 (Reuters) - First Citizens BancShares Inc (FCNCA.O), which acquired Silicon Valley Bank following its collapse, sued HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L) on Monday, accusing it of poaching more than 40 of the failed bank's employees in order to launch its own U.S. venture banking business. The lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court says HSBC violated federal law by hiring away the workers so it could gain access to Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) trade secrets including information about clients in the tech and healthcare sectors. First Citizens in the lawsuit said it is seeking more than $1 billion in damages. First Citizens later in March purchased SVB's assets and deposits for up to $500 million in stock - a fraction of what the bank was worth before it failed. In April, HSBC had said it had hired dozens of Silicon Valley Bank employees to help the bank establish a dedicated practice focused on serving companies in technology and healthcare and investors who support them.

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