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
Fed Chair Powell used the Omicron variant’s emergence as impetus to more aggressively target the now-persistently stubborn inflation, telling the Senate Banking Committee during testimony on Tuesday that the central bank...more
The tortuously negotiated and much-anticipated infrastructure bill that will commit $1 trillion to rebuilding the “nation’s roads, ports and power lines” officially became law on Monday. Here’s another look at what the final...more
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
E-truck maker Rivian Automotive, the Amazon- and Ford-backed startup that’s “received roughly $10.5 billion since the start of 2019” as a private company, is seeking a valuation of “just above $60 billion in its initial...more
11/2/2021
/ Amazon ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Institutional Investors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins ,
Startups ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Zillow
Jobs Report Friday! Here’s what analysts are looking for in the numbers, with the Delta variant’s impact on the recovery still looming large - MarketWatch and NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg Elon Musk & Co. are decamping from...more
10/11/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
BlackRock ,
China ,
Comcast ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Economic Injury Disaster Loans ,
Financial Markets ,
Institutional Investors ,
SBA ,
Tax Avoidance ,
Tesla
Recapping Facebook whistleblower’s testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, in which she “gave lawmakers an unvarnished look into the inner workings of the world’s largest social network . . . and detailed how the company was...more
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
Wall Street used the Chinese corporate debt crisis (and property development company Evergrande’s potential coming default in particular) as its reason for a big dive on Monday, with the Dow down 800 point at one point and...more
In welcome news for the Fed and anxious economists who have so-far stuck to their “transitory” inflation guns, Tuesday’s Department of Labor CPI release showed that “price increases for key products—like cars—were beginning...more
9/15/2021
/ Amazon ,
Apple ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
FinTech ,
Instagram ,
Price Inflation ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Startups ,
Tax Haven ,
Uber ,
Whistleblowers
The team behind cryptocurrency Litecoin is scrambling after an employee “retweeted what turned out to be an untrue announcement about a partnership with Walmart Inc,” a move that briefly sent Litecoin and other cryptos...more
9/14/2021
/ Apple ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Paramount Pictures ,
Pinterest ,
Pump and Dump ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Spyware ,
Viacom ,
Wal-Mart
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)
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
A California state court judge dealt Uber, Lyft, and the rest of gig-economy employers a blow on Friday, ruling that the recent Prop. 22-driven state law “that ensures many gig workers are considered independent contractors,...more
The Federal Trade Commission refiled its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook on Thursday 2 months after a federal judge dismissed the agency’s original case. The updated action repeated many of the same allegations against...more
8/20/2021
/ Amazon ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Brick-and-Mortar Stores ,
CFTC ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
E-Commerce ,
Facebook ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Johnson & Johnson ,
Toyota
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on Monday that it’s opening a probe into Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assistance system “because of growing concerns that it can fail to see parked emergency vehicles.”...more
Hyatt Hotels revealed plans this weekend to buy resort company Apple Leisure Group from PE owners KKR and KSL Capital Partners for a reported $2.7 billion. The move is “the latest sign of optimism about a return to vacation...more
8/16/2021
/ Apple ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Markets ,
FinTech ,
Google ,
Huawei ,
Institutional Investors ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
NASA ,
Patent Infringement ,
Startups
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
Robinhood, the trading app that helped facilitate the pandemic-era rise of meme stock craziness, has gone meme-level itself this week, with its shares rising more than 65% at one point on Wednesday before Nasdaq briefly...more
SEC chief Gary Gensler announced this week that his Commission will use its “existing authority” to “regulate cryptocurrency markets to the maximum extent possible” in an effort to address the “fraud, scams and abuse” that...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
As previewed earlier this week, four companies associated intimately with the opioid epidemic—three distributors and one drugmaker—have finalized a deal with state Attorneys General in which they will pay $26 billion to...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