SHARE:  

Week InReview

Friday | Mar 1, 2024

Trouble reading this briefing? View as webpage.

What's moving markets.

Still climbing | Wall Street traders fearing another disappointing inflation report got a degree of relief after the Federal Reserve’s favored price gauge, the personal consumption expenditures index, was in line with economists’ expectations. Treasury yields slipped and US stocks moved higher, pushing the S&P 500 to yet another all-time high — its 14th record this year. The Nasdaq 100 rose almost 1% with Nvidia leading gains in megacaps. Bitcoin also rallied again Thursday, a day after the 10 new exchange-traded funds investing directly in the world’s biggest cryptocurrency took in a net $673 million, handily beating their launch day record.


Financial bother | Nearly a year after the US regional banking crisis first rocked markets, concerns linger in some corners of the market, especially around New York Community Bancorp. The lender took a $2.4 billion hit to earnings as it identified weaknesses with its loan review process and wrote down the value of past deals. It also named Alessandro DiNello as chief executive officer, succeeding Thomas Cangemi. Elsewhere in the financial services space, shares in B. Riley Financial plunged after the company posted a wider quarterly loss, halved its dividend, and delayed filing its annual report while it studies transactions with a key client that have drawn attacks by short sellers.


Up & coming | China’s Purchasing Manager Index surveys for February are likely to show activity pulling back due to disruptions from an eight-day Lunar New Year holiday. But don’t read too much into it, said Eric Zhu of Bloomberg Economics. If history is any guide, the seasonal pattern in previous years when holidays fell in February, is for the PMIs to soften and then rebound in March. PMI indicators are also expected out Friday in a bunch of other economies, including the US.

let's recap...

Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters, Washington, DC

US SEC to vote on long-awaited climate disclosure rule, notice says

Wall Street's top regulator will vote on March 6 on whether to adopt rules requiring US-listed companies to report climate-related risks, the agency said in a notice on Wednesday, in a potentially major overhaul of US disclosure rules. The Securities and Exchange Commission rules aim to standardize climate-related company disclosures about greenhouse gas emissions, risks, and how much money they are spending on the transition to a low-carbon economy. The agency says that such information is important for investors. (Reuters | Feb 29)


The pros of the ballooning shadow banking system

You may have noticed that banks aren’t quite what they once were. More and more of the financial system’s heavy lifting is now being done by capital markets. At least in the US. The flipside is an explosion of lending by bond funds and other investment vehicles that are often collectively called “shadow banks”. (Financial Times | Feb 28)


World economy has growing chance of a soft landing, G20 says

The global economy has a growing chance of pulling off a soft landing, finance chiefs said in a draft of the G20’s closing statement at this week’s meeting in Brazil, citing faster-than-expected disinflation as one of the upside risks. Finance ministers in Sao Paulo will finalize a closing statement. (Bloomberg Economics | Feb 27)


CRE and systemic risk

It’s worth reviewing what systemic risk — if any — could come from US commercial property loans. This discussion isn’t all that new. But the slide in office valuations is ongoing. And because New York Community Bancorp has given investors a scare, and as the Fed’s BTFP facility starts to wind down, it’s worth revisiting. It’s probably not going to cause a financial crisis ... but non-bank lenders and investors are still worth a look. (Financial Times | Feb 27)


Treasury markets are losing their shock absorber

Participation is dwindling in a Federal Reserve program that has helped the US government limit its borrowing costs, a development that many investors say presages higher interest rates and larger swings in the $26 trillion Treasury market. The overnight reverse repurchase facility, known on Wall Street as reverse repo, enables large financial firms such as money-market funds to briefly swap extra cash for high-quality securities on the central bank’s balance sheet and pocket some interest. (The Wall Street Journal | Feb 26)

a little bit of cyber

Welcome to the Era of BadGPTs

A new crop of nefarious chatbots with names like “BadGPT” and “FraudGPT” are springing up on the darkest corners of the web, as cybercriminals look to tap the same artificial intelligence behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Businesses are on high alert for a glut of AI-generated email fraud and deepfakes.

— The Wall Street Journal


Beating the drum on cyber risk: the battle for boardroom attention

Cyber attacks on banking giant ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) and asset manager TCW, discovered on the same day last year, had something else in common: ransomware hackers at LockBit had exploited a known vulnerability in Citrix NetScalerone the tech provider had flagged a full four weeks earlierand for which it had already proposed a patch. But both were too slow to react.

— Risk


Cyber-stalking on wheels

The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether it has the authority to step in to help individuals remove domestic abusers from apps and other technology that allows tracking through vehicle data. Nearly all new vehicles have convenience features that use telecommunications to find cars in parking lots, start the engine remotely, and even connect with emergency responders. But those features can also let abusers track the whereabouts of their victims.

— Associated Press

binge reading disorder

Illustration: The Cut | Photo: Getty Images

What it's like to staff the home of a billionaire

If you’ve ever wondered how billionaires actually spend their money in private, few people know better than the director of a London-based recruiting agency that staffs the homes of the super-rich. Within the industry, these ultra-high-net-worth clients (or UHNWs) are known as “principals,” and this headhunter finds the people who “make their lives as easy as possible”

— The Cut


Breaking into the top 1% of wealth in the US is getting harder.

It now takes at least $5.8 million to join the richest echelon in the world’s largest economy, almost 15% more than about 12 months ago, according to research from Knight Frank. Monaco retains the top spot for the highest threshold worldwide at $12.8 million, an increase of 3.2% from a year earlier, while in Luxembourg and Switzerland one needs more than $8 million to make the cut, according to the property broker’s 2024 Wealth Report.

— Bloomberg Wealth


You spend hours a day in your browser. Now make it better.

Artificial intelligence enhancements can prevent tab overload and help you draft messages. The right extensions autofill your logins and help you work, bank, and live faster. Some browsers can reduce battery drain, while built-in privacy protections can stop your web searches from being seen by marketers and others. If any of these are priorities for you and your current browser isn’t making them easy, you might need to jump to a new browser.

— The Wall Street Journal

220 x 128 px