The Fed’s patience on rate hikes coupled with surging commodities prices (including oil over $40/barrel for the first time since December) helped push the Dow into positive territory for the year – WSJ
So apparently the awful 2015 and start to 2016 for hedge funds won’t be enough to slow down shareholder activism long term—at least according to Evercore’s Roger Altman, who spoke yesterday at the Tulane Corporate Law Institute—though spinoffs may take a back seat for awhile – NYTimes and WSJ and Law360
Despite central bankers’ best efforts to drive them down, global currencies are on the rise, with the euro, yen, and Norwegian krone all up against the dollar this week – WSJ
The Fed’s given JPMorgan the go ahead for its plan to buy back an additional $1.88 billion in stock through June, pushing its buyback total to well over $8 billion ahead of this year’s Fed stress test – Bloomberg
It wasn’t exactly Ocean’s 11 stuff, but the mix of new school cybercrime and old school theft are making the $101 million siphoning of funds out of Bangladesh’s account at the NY Fed a very lively tale indeed – WSJ
With Moody’s and Fitch announcing plans to pull out of the local-ratings game in Russia for fear of violating international sanctions, another ratings agency has announced plans to jump in and fill the void. Nope, not S&P. Not perennial kids’ tabler DBRS, either. Why, it’s Vladimir Putin (via his ACRA venture), of course – Bloomberg
Google’s next big project (via Alphabet, that is)? Sorting out the great human tangle that is everyday traffic. Expect to hear more from Sidewalk Labs, Intersection, and Flow in the coming years – NYTimes
Have a great weekend.