(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is evaluating the impact of new sanctions on Russia and is prepared to escalate those penalties if the Kremlin fails to rein in hacking attacks and attempts to interfere with the U.S. political process, according to people familiar with the matter.Options available to President Joe Biden include expanding the measures announced Thursday to bar U.S. financial institutions from the secondary market for ruble-denominated bonds issued by Russian state banks, said the people, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.Biden ordered the latest sanctions on Russia -- including limits on buying newly issued sovereign debt -- in response to allegations that Moscow was behind a hack on SolarWinds Corp. and interfered with last year’s U.S. election.The U.S. also sanctioned a number of entities and individuals, while expelling 10 Russian diplomats working in Washington, including some intelligence officers.Yet the moves were calibrated by the U.S. to punish the Kremlin for past misdeeds while keeping relations from deteriorating further, especially as tensions grow over a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.In another sign of worsening relations between the two countries, Russia on Saturday accused a Ukrainian diplomat of stealing information and gave him three days to leave the country on Saturday, the news agency Interfax reported. Ukraine hinted it would respond in kind. Two days before announcing the sanctions, Biden offered to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later this year, even as he warned his counterpart about a litany of transgressions.White House communications staff didn’t immediately offer a comment.For now, U.S. officials are waiting to see how Putin responds. On Friday, Russia expelled 10 American diplomats and imposed sanctions on eight officials in tit-for-tat moves that stopped short of responding to U.S. restrictions on its sovereign debt.Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that Russia could take steps that harm the interests of U.S. businesses but will hold those in reserve for now.Market ImpactThe Biden administration is also watching global markets to see the impact of its latest measures, including on the ruble, and any shifts in foreign ownership of Russian ruble bonds, according to the people. Interest rate decisions by Russia’s central bank and capital flows will also provide important clues, they said.The Bank of Russia’s next interest rate decision is scheduled for April 23.Under the sanctions unveiled Thursday, the Biden administration will bar U.S. financial institutions from participating in the primary market for new debt issued by the Russian central bank, Finance Ministry and sovereign wealth fund. Those limits would take effect starting June 14.Russian bonds fell and the ruble dropped the most since December on news of the impending penalties, but recovered their losses on Friday as investors concluded that the measures were milder than had been feared.White House officials sought to limit the sanctions’ fallout for the U.S. and global financial system while sparing the Russian civilian population from unnecessary harm, the people said. The Biden team now hopes to begin de-escalating tensions and believe that would benefit financial markets and the Russian economy, one of the people said.Still, U.S. officials are holding in reserve other potential escalations, including moves aimed at preventing secondary market trading in any ruble debt for the first 90 days or more after issuance, the person said.(Updates with Russia expelling Ukraine diplomat in fifth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc’s membership in the American Sustainable Business Council was terminated by the advocacy group over the bank’s decision to underwrite a municipal bond for two Alabama prisons owned by CoreCivic Inc., two years after saying it would no longer provide new financing to private prison companies.The council and partner organization Social Venture Circle, which combined represent 250,000 businesses to advocate for responsible practices and policies, announced Thursday they would refund Barclays’ membership dues. Barclays joined the group in 2019.Barclays is the lead underwriter for the bonds offered through a Wisconsin agency to provide financing for a limited liability company owned by CoreCivic. The new prisons will be leased and staffed by Alabama’s corrections department.Because Barclays isn’t arranging the financing directly for CoreCivic, the bank has said that the “commitment we made in 2019 not to finance private prison companies remains in place.” The bonds are being issued for Government Real Estate Solutions of Alabama Holdings LLC, an entity that’s owned by CoreCivic.The bond deal was initially planned to price on Thursday but has been moved to next week, according to two pre-marketing wires viewed by Bloomberg. The bank has cut the total par amount on the publicly offered bonds by about $200 million, the wires show. Barclays has seen strong demand for a private placement portion, according to a person familiar with the matter.It’s the first time the groups have kicked out a member, David Levine, co-founder of the council, said in an interview. The groups in a statement said they “refuse to perpetuate mass incarceration, systemic racism, and human rights abuses through the offering” of the bonds.“This was a big move on our part,” Levine added.A spokesperson for Barclays declined to comment.Alabama officials have said the deal with CoreCivic will help it improve conditions within its prison system. The state was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice in December 2020 for failing to protect male prisoners from violence and unsanitary conditions.Kristi Simpson, a spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections, said in an emailed statement that the new prisons will help provide a safer environment that will “better accommodate inmate rehabilitation and improve the quality of life for all those who live and work in them.”Isaac Graves, interim executive director of Social Venture Circle, said the group wanted to signal to other financial service providers that they shouldn’t find a “creative way” to finance private prison companies -- which is “exactly what they said they would not do.”While the prisons will be publicly-run, Levine said that the structure will still advance the prison system and ultimately profit CoreCivic.“The fact that it is owned by a private company says it all,” he said.Related: Barclays Bond Deal Shows Limits to Vow on Financing Prison FirmsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Nearly a decade since Affirm was started, the BNPL business model is dogged by questions about whether its claims about being interest-free and not charging late fees are too good to be true. Part of it is, and this is where this idea of not charging late fees and being super fastidious about what it is we’re telling our users, disclosing everything, being over-the-top clear and transparent, helps the vast majority of our customers when we survey them about what made them choose Affirm.
Police in cities across Ontario, Canada's most populous province, on Saturday refused to make random stops greenlighted by the provincial government seeking to impose a stay-at-home order amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. Toronto, the country's largest city, Ottawa, Hamilton, Windsor and at least 19 other municipal police forces said they would not conduct random vehicle or individual stops though they had been given the power to do so. "The Toronto Police Service will continue to engage, educate and enforce, but we will not be doing random stops of people or cars," the force said on Twitter.
With Apple Pay Cash, Cash App, and Google Pay the tech industry leaders have made it easier than ever to exchange money online by integrating money transfer services with personal devices, and social media. For a time, it looked as though smartphones would become the new wallets, but then came Venmo. Venmo is the mobile application that turned personal financing into a social platform.
A global shortage of semiconductors --- chips that power massive data-centers, modern autos and countless digital devices --- has roiled global manufacturing and is not expected to end soon. It isn't a blanket problem, however, as different sectors within the chip industry will continue to be affected by the shortage in different ways.
Ant Group is exploring options for founder Jack Ma to divest his stake in the financial technology giant and give up control, as meetings with Chinese regulators signaled to the company that the move could help draw a line under Beijing's scrutiny of its business, according to a source familiar with regulators' thinking and two people with close ties to the company. Reuters is for the first time reporting details of the latest round of meetings and the discussions about the future of Ma's control of Ant, exercised through a complicated structure of investment vehicles. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Ma had offered in a November meeting with regulators to hand over parts of Ant to the Chinese government.
Bloomberg cited a screenshot of Keith Gill's portfolio showing that he exercised 500 GameStop call options expiring Friday, when the stock closed at $154.69. The screenshots were posted on Reddit by Gill, and his mother confirmed the posts to Bloomberg. His total investment in GameStop is now worth more than $30 million, giving him a profit of nearly $20 million, Bloomberg said.
Housing starts surge to a 15-year high
(Bloomberg) -- The mania that drove crypto assets to records as Coinbase Global Inc. went public last week turned on itself on the weekend, sending Bitcoin tumbling the most since February.The world’s biggest cryptocurrency plunged as much as 15% just days after reaching a record. It was lower by 9% to $55,323 at 10:18 a.m. in New York. Ether, the second-biggest, dropped as much as 18% to below $2,000 before paring losses. Binance Coin, XRP and Cardano each lost more than 12%. Dogecoin, the token started as a joke, was the only gainer among the 10 largest coins.The weekend carnage came after a heady week for the industry that saw the value of of all coins surge past $2.25 trillion amid a frenzy of demand for all things crypto in the runup to Coinbase’s direct listing on Wednesday. The largest U.S. crypto exchange ended the week valued at $68 billion, more than the owner of the New York Stock Exchange.“With hindsight it was inevitable,” Galaxy Digital founder Michael Novogratz said in a tweet Sunday. “Markets got too excited around $Coin direct listing. Basis blowing out, coins like $BSV, $XRP and $DOGE pumping. All were signs that the market got too one way.”Dogecoin, which has limited use and no fundamentals, rallied last week to be worth more than $50 billion at one point before stumbling Saturday. Demand was so brisk for the token that investors trying to trade it on Robinhood crashed the site a few times Friday, the online exchange said in a blog post.There was also speculation Sunday in several online reports that the plunge was related to concerns the U.S. Treasury may crack down on money laundering that’s carried out through digital assets.“The crypto world is waking up with a bit of a sore head today,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto lender Nexo. “Dogecoin’s 100% Friday rally was ‘peak party,’ after the Bitcoin record and Coinbase listing earlier in the week. Euphoria was in the air. And usually in the crypto world, there’s a price to pay when that happens.”Besides the “unsubstantiated” report of a U.S. Treasury crackdown, Trenchev said factors for the declines may have included “excess leverage, Coinbase insiders dumping equity after the direct listing and a mass outage in China’s Xinjiang province hitting Bitcoin miners.”Growing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies has spurred Bitcoin’s rally, as well as lifting other tokens to record highs. Interest in crypto went on the rise again after companies from PayPal to Square started enabling transactions in Bitcoin on their systems, and Wall Street firms like Morgan Stanley began providing access to the tokens to some of the wealthiest clients. That’s despite lingering concerns over their volatility and usefulness as a method of payment.Governments are inspecting risks around the sector more closely as the investor base widens.Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last week said Bitcoin “is a little bit like gold” in that it’s more a vehicle for speculation than making payments. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde in January took aim at Bitcoin’s role in facilitating criminal activity, saying the cryptocurrency has been enabling “funny business.”Turkey’s central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment from April 30, saying the level of anonymity behind the digital tokens brings the risk of “non-recoverable” losses. India will propose a law that bans cryptocurrencies and fines anyone trading or holding such assets, Reuters reported in March, citing an unidentified senior government official with direct knowledge of the plan.Crypto firms are beefing up their top ranks to shape the emerging regulatory environment and tackle lingering skepticism about digital tokens. Bitcoin’s most ardent proponents see it as a modern-day store of value and inflation hedge, while others fear a speculative bubble is building.(Updates prices and context on other cryptocurrencies from 2nd paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
It’s a busy week ahead, with economic data, corporate earnings, and monetary policy in focus. Geopolitics and COVID-19 news will also influence in the week.
The amount represents roughly 1.5% of his holdings.
The direction of the NZD/USD into the close on Friday will be determined by trader reaction to the short-term Fibonacci level at .7145.
(Bloomberg) -- The Reddit user who helped fuel the surge in GameStop Corp.’s stock price this year has doubled down on his bet by exercising his call options and buying even more shares.Keith Gill, who goes by monikers “Roaring Kitty” and “DeepF___gValue,” posted a screenshot of his portfolio showing that he has exercised 500 GameStop call options expiring Friday at a strike price of $12, giving him 50,000 more shares. The stock closed at $154.69 on Friday.On top of that, Gill bought another 50,000 shares of the video-game retailer, effectively doubling his holdings to 200,000 shares from 100,000 at the beginning of the month. His total investment in GameStop is now worth more than $30 million, giving him a profit of nearly $20 million.Gill’s mother, Elaine Gill, reached by phone at his childhood home in Massachusetts, confirmed the Reddit screenshots posted by her son.Gill rose to fame this year as one of the most influential voices on Reddit and YouTube amid an effort by retail traders to squeeze GameStop short-sellers. He testified at a congressional hearing in February, where he said he didn’t call for anyone to buy or sell the shares for his profit.The comments came as he was hit with a lawsuit that accused him of misrepresenting himself as an amateur investor. The suit alleges that he was actually a licensed securities professional who manipulated the market for profit, which he denied.GameStop Chief Executive Officer George Sherman, who is expected to leave, disposed of almost $12 million in shares, with the proceeds earmarked by the company to pay compensation-related taxes, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Earlier this week, he forfeited about 587,000 shares after failing to meet performance targets.The company is looking for a new CEO as part of a shake-up spurred by activist investor and Chewy.com co-founder Ryan Cohen, a person with knowledge of the matter has said.As part of a corporate overhaul spearheaded by Cohen, the company has brought in new executives, including chief officers for growth and technology as it seeks to move away from its brick-and-mortar business.GameStop, based in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas, has suffered with the video-game industry’s shift to online distribution. With gamers downloading or ordering software and gear online, there’s less reason to make a trip to a physical store.Shares of GameStop are up 721% so far this year, though they are less than half of the peak level in January. On Tuesday, the company announced plans to retire senior notes due in two years, leaving it virtually debt free.(Updates with background on company’s debt. A prior version corrected description of GameStop CEO’s stock transactions.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
The next major move in gold will be determined by trader reaction to the major 50% level at $1788.50.
Bitcoin was last trading down 10% at $53,991 as of 1320 GMT, a whopping $12,000 below record highs set on Wednesday. Data website CoinMarketCap cited https://coinmarketcap.com/headlines/news/chinas-xinjiang-blackout-and-bitcoin-hashrate-correction-caused-btc-price-crasha blackout in China’s Xinjiang region, which reportedly powers a lot of bitcoin mining, for the selloff. Luke Sully, CEO at digital asset treasury specialist Ledgermatic, said in an email that people "may have sold on the news of the power outage in China and not the impact it actually had on the network".
Holley merging with SPAC Empower Ltd. (NYSE: EMPW) Leader in $34 billion fragmented auto enthusiast market Profitable company with 113-year legacy Sales in 2020 +25% to $580 million; 3x biggest competitor Trades at just 10x 2021 Ebitda, well below comparable companies Fox , Thule, YETI Expanding into products for performance EVs Active M&A pipeline, recently […]
The catalysts behind gold’s strength were a sharp retreat by U.S. Treasury yields on Thursday and a generally softer U.S. Dollar.
(Bloomberg) -- Investors’ love affair with technology stocks has cooled off noticeably this year.And while the upcoming deluge of earnings from the group may offer an opportunity to rekindle the romance, tech faces an uphill battle in commanding the type of devotion it once enjoyed in the stock market.After trouncing all other sectors in 2020, tech stocks in the S&P 500 Index have drifted toward the back of the pack this year, out-performed by sectors like financials and industrials perceived to have better growth prospects. Bulls are betting that strong results and forecasts from companies like Apple Inc. will help catapult tech back to the forefront, yet lofty valuations pose a challenge.“If these companies want to return to share-price growth, they need to have a good story about where growth is going to come from and when,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.A rally in the past two weeks has returned the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index to a record this month after rising interest rates and concerns the stocks were too expensive sent the benchmark down 11% in early March. While tech is once again leading the market for the month of April, an advance of 9.9% for the group in the S&P 500 this year still trails seven of the 11 other main industries.As is usually the case, the tech group is expected to post strong growth in sales and earnings. What’s different this time is that growth in much of the rest of the market will be even better this year, flattered by comparisons to the same period in 2020 when broad swathes of the economy were shut down.Technology companies are expected to lead the S&P 500 with 16% revenue growth in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.Projections for the rest of the year, however, aren’t quite as bright. Growth is expected to be just 5.6% in the fourth quarter. In terms of profit expansion, tech looks even less appealing with estimates for 2021 at 22% — an impressive performance, to be sure, but one that would lag behind financials, industrials, consumer discretionary and materials.For the bears, even beating those growth projections isn’t enough to support valuations that are the highest in years. At 41 times trailing profits, the Nasdaq 100 is trading at the most-expensive valuation since 2004.Investors who are fretting about valuations are underestimating revenue growth potential for many technology companies like Microsoft Corp. and cybersecurity company Zscaler Inc. that are poised to capture even more spending from companies investing in digital services, according to Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc.“What’s been lost in the noise is the massive underlying fundamental growth stories that are happening as part of the digital transformation,” said Ives. “Across the board, it’s going to be a domination quarter for the tech space.”Trailing the S&PAmazon.com Inc. is the only company among the top five projected to see its revenue growth shrink this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s hardly a surprise considering how much its core businesses like e-commerce and web services surged in 2020 as a result of U.S. lockdowns.Alphabet Inc., Facebook Inc., Apple and Microsoft are all expected to see revenue growth accelerate in their current fiscal years.Amazon and Apple, the two best performing megacap stocks last year, have trailed the S&P 500 in 2021. Amazon has gained 4.4%, while Apple has advanced just 1.1%.Some of the most-expensive software companies, in particular, have taken a beating so far this year. Coupa Software Inc., a maker of expense management software that trades at nearly 30 times this year’s projected sales, has fallen more than 20%.For some investors, elevated valuations are not ignored so easily.“Tech stocks are extremely expensive historically,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at Jonestrading. “Even if the optimistic earnings forecasts are met, the market would still be very expensive.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Taiwan has never sought to use foreign exchange rates to gain an unfair trade advantage, the central bank said on Sunday, after the U.S. Treasury said Taiwan tripped thresholds for possible currency manipulation under a 2015 U.S. trade law. Taiwan's tech-focused exports have soared during theCOVID-19 pandemic because of global demand for laptops, tablets and other equipment to support the work-from-home boom, driving its trade surplus with the United States and jacking up the value of the Taiwan dollar.
| >(loband)- | This page might not display properly. | designed by Aptivate |