Despite Friday’s confirmation of another month of robust job growth, Wall Street couldn’t shake a “relentless decline” that’s going on 6 weeks now and was fueled on Monday “by new data from China that added to concerns about...more
Jobs Report Friday. Let’s see if the numbers give us some reason for cheer after markets whipsawed into the red—hard—a day before. [But best to temper hopes for any market recovery, no matter what jobs are, as early signs...more
New GDP figures in yesterday showed slight, inflation-adjusted contraction of the U.S. economy (just .4%), but the decline “masked evidence of a recovery that economists said remained fundamentally strong.” Especially...more
California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing has filed a state court action against Tesla that alleges “racial discrimination and harassment at the electric-vehicle maker[‘s]” Fremont factory, the company’s...more
Not that far removed from a gangbusters pandemic performance by his company driven by exercise-crazed consumer panic-buying its bikes and treadmills, Peloton founder John Foley has stepped down as company CEO and announced...more
Stronger-than-expected GDP figures for the 4th Quarter and 2021 on the whole was welcome good economic news for the U.S. on Thursday after weeks of volatility and renewed supply-chain issues. Q4 growth clocked in at 1.7%,...more
The Fed delivered on its well-telegraphed plan to raise interest rates as soon as next month in an effort to combat inflation. The central bank has been easing its bond-buying program and appears ready to reduce its balance...more
The release of the Fed’s December meeting minutes (and its discussion of a quickened pace of rate hikes) was all it took to rattle markets, with the S&P 500 dropping nearly 2% on Wednesday—“its biggest drop in weeks.”...more
4.5 million Americans—a new record—voluntarily left their jobs in November, continuing a trend that marked much of 2021 thanks to “strong employer demand” that’s allowing some workers to “pursue better opportunities.” While...more
1/7/2022
/ AT&T ,
Bitcoin ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Economic Downturn ,
Financial Markets ,
FinTech ,
General Motors ,
Goldman Sachs ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Retail Market ,
Telecommunications ,
Toyota ,
Verizon ,
Wells Fargo
Samsung surprised the business world today by replacing the “heads of its three major business units and merg[ing] the company’s mobile and consumer electronics businesses into a single unit.” The moves mean the South Korean...more
12/8/2021
/ Bitcoin ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Mergers ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Samsung ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Tesla
Markets fell again on Friday after the November jobs report failed to hit predicted marks. Still, the news wasn’t all bad, as the numbers also showed that the country’s unemployment rate dropped and “the overall participation...more
Despite proclamations of “best and final offer” after the rejected last round of negotiations, the UAW said last Friday that Deere & Co. “had made modifications to an earlier agreement . . . , setting up another vote over...more
11/15/2021
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Bitcoin ,
Financial Markets ,
General Electric ,
Hospitality Industry ,
John Deere ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Kaiser Permanente ,
Labor Shortage ,
Trade Relations ,
Union Representatives
Just days after U.S. corporate titan General Electric announced that it would divide itself into three companies, another storied American brand—Johnson & Johnson—laid out plans to “break itself up into two publicly traded...more
11/12/2021
/ Banking Regulators ,
Bitcoin ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
E-Commerce ,
European Commission ,
Financial Markets ,
General Electric ,
Johnson & Johnson ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Public Nuisance ,
Regulation X ,
Tesla
A Mozambique-based tuna-fishing deal gone wrong has left Credit Suisse holding the bag to the tune of $475 million—the total in fines it will pay US and UK authorities to a foreign bribery investigation linked to the tuna...more
10/20/2021
/ Bitcoin ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Immigration and Nationality Act ,
IRS ,
Netflix ,
NYSE ,
UK Brexit ,
Unemployment ,
Wire Fraud
An already challenging week for cryptos just got much worse, now that China’s central bank has declared “all cryptocurrency-related transactions . . . illegal, reinforcing the country’s tough stance against digital rivals to...more
Coinbase, the “largest cryptocurrency exchange” in the U.S., revealed on Wednesday that SEC officials are threatening to sue it “over a proposed financial product that would let customers earn interest on digital asset...more
9/10/2021
/ Bitcoin ,
Bonds ,
Coinbase ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Cryptocurrency ,
El Salvador ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Markets ,
Fraud ,
Mergers ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Ford Motors has hired a new senior exec in an effort to further the company’s push into e-vehicles. Doug Field formerly ran Apple’s “secretive car project,” and his “departure could be a blow to Apple’s auto ambitions, which...more
9/8/2021
/ Automotive Industry ,
Bitcoin ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
El Salvador ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Financial Markets ,
Ford Motor ,
PayPal ,
Price Inflation ,
Startups ,
T-Mobile ,
Toyota ,
Unemployment Benefits
Welcome to B-Day, the beginning of the grand cryptocurrency experiment for El Salvador, which “became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender on Tuesday.” Predictably, “the launch got off to a bumpy...more
That CPI data we were expecting yesterday hit analysts’ projections just about on the mark, with prices increasing 5.4% last month compared to a year earlier. Though undeniably high, that figure suggests that “gains are...more
As expected but slightly hard to believe given where things stood just months ago, the U.S. Senate managed to pass a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Tuesday, with 19 Republicans joining Democrats in approving...more
U.S. insurance giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson have shelved their plans for a massive tie-up over an inability to resolve concerns raised by the DOJ’s antitrust division and a desire to avoid the lengthy timeline...more
A pair of the most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges announced this weekend that they’re taking steps to “curb a type of high-risk trading that has been blamed for sharp fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin and the...more
Markets dove at the opening bell and never recovered on Monday, with all three major indices off between 1 and 2%--the most across the board since May. Most market watchers blamed concerns over the economic recovery stalling...more
Johnson & Johnson has reached a deal with NY AG Letitia James to settle the state’s opioid case against the company for a reported $230 million. The deal comes “as negotiations intensify with the company and three drug...more
While the torrid home buying pace is finally slowing, thanks to “a sharp rise in prices and a shortage of houses for sale” resulting in a fourth straight month of declines in the housing market for sales of existing homes ...more