President Biden made fighting inflation one of the cornerstones of his State of the Union last night, highlighting the economic progress the country’s made in the past year while stressing efforts to stem rising prices. The...more
After a weekend in which the West’s major economies made it clear that they’re choosing economic isolation as the desired means of punishing Vladimir Putin and Russia for their invasion of Ukraine, Shell and BP have both...more
3/2/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Amazon ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Russia ,
Supply Chain ,
SWIFT ,
Ukraine ,
Whole Foods
The SEC is reportedly probing whether recent stock sales by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal “violated insider-trading rules.” News of the investigation came less than a week after Tesla accused the Commission of...more
Already at the forefront of personal privacy rules, European regulators are looking to extend their focus in an effort to protect small businesses with proposed legislation called the Data Act. The measure, as the Journal...more
As Russian troops advance into Ukraine, we chew on more of what the conflict there will mean for the U.S. economy—from markets to commodities to “spook[ing] American consumers”...more
The geopolitical morass in Ukraine drove stocks down on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 hitting correction territory—down more than 10% from its January peak. Much of that action today was driven by newly unveiled sanctions against...more
Volkswagen and company shareholders are “in advance talks that could lead to the initial public offering of the iconic Porsche AG sports-car maker.” Spinning off Porsche via IPO would help give VW the “fresh cash” in needs to...more
Recent news of misinformation out of Russia about alleged troop withdrawals (when, in fact, troops and shelling near the border are up) sent skittish markets down on Thursday. Tech companies were again among “some of the...more
DOJ officials are investigating whether some activist investors—including “prominent short sellers . . . Carson Block and Andrew Left”—crossed lines in their efforts to expose “companies with shoddy or even fraudulent...more
The SEC has opened a probe into the relationship between “the U.S. arm of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and two trading firms with ties to Binance’s founder.” Those firms “act as market makers that...more
Texas AG Ken Paxton has sued Facebook parent Meta accusing it of violating “a state consumer protection law by repeatedly capturing and commercializing biometric data in photos and videos for more than a decade without the...more
No surprise here—inflation continues to dominate the economic conversation. New CPI numbers showed prices rising some 7.5% in January, topping projections by .3% and “climbing at the fastest pace in 40 years and more quickly...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
Low-cost American carriers Frontier and Spirit Airlines have reached an agreement to combine forces, a merger that “would create the fifth-largest U.S. airline by market share, putting pressure on the nation’s biggest...more
Jobs Report Friday again, and general consensus is that with the Omicron surge hitting smack dab in the middle of January hiring, these numbers are going to be weird. Very weird...more
We know Zuck’s all in on the metaverse. And a decrease in Q4 profits and full-year accounting help us understand the monetary size of that commitment: some $10 billion in 2021, as Meta poured cash into its Reality Labs...more
Alphabet posted Q4 revenue of $75 billion that resulted in more than $20 billion of profit for Google’s parent company—a 32% increase from a year earlier. The figures topped analyst expectations across the board and sent...more
Sony announced on Monday that it will acquire video-game maker Bungie, the latest in a recent series of big moves in the gaming industry in which the “game market further consolidates around some of its biggest companies.”...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
Tuesday saw another Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde day on Wall Street, with markets diving to start the day before a late rally that petered out and left the Nasdaq down more than 2% and the S&P 500 down about half that...more
Markets pulled themselves back from the brink of a truly devastating Monday of trading to end the day, but their one-day fall of 3-4% yesterday suggests that the volatility that’s marked the first three weeks of 2022 may be...more
The Fed finally made good on its promise to seriously consider a central bank digital currency with a report released on Thursday that “examines the idea’s potential costs and benefits and open[s] the door for public...more
A week after SCOTUS scuttled the Biden Administration’s “effort to enlist large employers in its vaccination campaign,” Starbucks has “become one of the first major retailers to backtrack on vaccine plans” for its employees....more