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Russia paid Hillary Clinton $3M to influence Uranium One deal?

Attorney Victoria Toensing on an FBI informant's allegations related to the Uranium One deal.

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  • U.S. judge rejects SEC bid to expand Rio Tinto fraud lawsuit on Mozambique coal business

    The SEC filed a complaint against Rio in 2017 with allegations that it had fraudulently concealed the decline in value of the business. Rio had acquired Riversdale mining for $3.7 billion in 2011, on the premise it would be able to barge 30 million tonnes of coal per year down the Zambezi river, and rail a further 12-15 million tonnes of coal per year to port. But it failed to secure government approvals, and discovered the resource was lower than expected, still raising more than $5 billion in 2012 before impairing the assets as coal prices fell the following year, when Chief Executive Tom Albanese departed.

  • Oil Sands Give OPEC a Boost With Half-Million-Barrel Output Cut

    (Bloomberg) -- Major oil sands producers in Western Canada will idle almost half a million barrels a day of production next month, helping tighten global supplies as oil prices surge.Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s plans to conduct 30 days of maintenance at its Horizon oil sands upgrader in April will curtail roughly 250,000 barrels a day of light synthetic crude output, company President Tim McKay said in an interview Thursday. Work on the Horizon upgrader coincides with maintenance at other cites.Suncor Energy Inc. plans a major overhaul of its U2 crude upgrader, cutting output by 130,000 barrels a day over the entire second quarter. Syncrude Canada Ltd. will curb 70,000 barrels a day during the quarter because of maintenance in a unit.The supply cuts out of Northern Alberta, following a surprise OPEC+ decision to not increase output next month, could add more support to the recent rally in crude prices. OPEC+ had been debating whether to restore as much as 1.5 million barrels a day of output in April but decided to wait.The Saudi-led alliance closely monitors other major oil producers as it seeks to manage the entire global market, and surging production in North America was its biggest headache in recent years -- especially from U.S. shale but also from Canada.“The U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, Brazil and other well endowed countries with hydrocarbon reserves -- we need to work with each other, collaboratively,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said after the group’s meeting on Thursday.Read More: Saudis Bet ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Is Over in Push for Pricier OilCanada’s contribution to balancing the market with less production, much like slowing output in the U.S., is not a deliberate market-management strategy but significant nonetheless.Even though the output cuts are short-term, the battered oil-sands industry shouldn’t be a concern for the Saudis in the long run either, judging from McKay’s outlook for the industry.“I can’t see much growth in the oil sands happening because there is going to be less demand in the future,” he said. “The first step is we have to get our carbon footprint down.”After years of rising output turned Canada into the world’s fourth-largest crude producer, expansion projects have nearly halted on the heels of two market crashes since 2014.Adding to its struggles, Canada’s oil industry is being shunned by some investors such as Norway’s $1.3 trillion wealth fund amid concern that the higher carbon emissions associated with oil sands extraction will worsen climate change. These forces help make future growth in the oil sands unlikely, said McKay, whose company is among the largest producers in the country.Oil sands upgraders turn the heavy bitumen produced in oil sands mines into light synthetic crude that’s similar to benchmarks West Texas Intermediate and Brent. Syncrude Sweet Premium for April gained 60 cents on Thursday to $1.50 a barrel premium to WTI, the strongest price since May, NE2 Group data show.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • How stimulus checks can give you a $14,000 windfall this year

    Some households are collecting a big pile of federal money in 2021.

  • Joe Biden's stimulus check changes: Do you still qualify for $1,400?

    The president has agreed to a compromise making millions ineligible for the third checks.

  • Getting A Third Covid-19 Stimulus Check Just Got Tougher — But You Might Still Influence How Big Yours Is

    Congress is nearing passage of the third economic stimulus check it will send out to you and other taxpayers as part of its Covid-19 relief bill.

  • Virgin Galactic chairman sold off more than $210 million worth of stock as prices plunged

    Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya sold off a chunk of his shares this week, and played a part of the plunge in prices.

  • Stocks Tumble, Gold Dumps , Dollar Jumps Amid Treasury Yield Spike as Powell Signals Inflation is Ahead

    Powell and his policymakers have until March 17 to regain control of monetary policy or they could face a creditability issue.

  • Texas watchdog says grid operator made $16-billion error

    A firm hired to monitor Texas' power markets says the region's grid manager overpriced electricity over two days during last month's energy crisis, resulting in $16 billion in overcharges.

  • Investors may have a ‘buy’ signal, as these big tech stocks have dropped up to 32% in only three weeks

    Now might be "a golden opportunity" to own the "secular tech winners" for the next 12 to 18 months, according to Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives.

  • Portnoy-Backed ETF Sees Third-Highest Volume Ever in a Debut

    (Bloomberg) -- A new exchange-traded fund seeking to ride the companies most loved by investors online has found plenty of its own positive sentiment in its first day of trading.About $438 million worth of shares in the VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF (ticker BUZZ) changed hands on Thursday, making it the third best ETF debut on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“Normally, this kind of blow-the-roof-off volume for the first day is for ETFs that open up a new asset class like gold or Bitcoin,” said Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.The fund, which has been promoted by Barstool Sports Inc. founder Dave Portnoy, follows an index that uses AI to scan online sources like blogs and social media to identify the 75 most favorably mentioned equities.Because of its criteria for inclusion, the hottest names among the day-trading crowd like GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. don’t actually make it into the gauge. Its top holdings currently are Ford Motor Co., Twitter Inc. and DraftKings Inc.Nonetheless, the rapid uptake suggests VanEck has succeeded in tapping into the increasingly powerful retail investing cohort.“Given the explosion of individual, younger retail traders, it makes sense to see a pile of volume,” said Dave Lutz, macro strategist at JonesTrading. “Whether it is the WSB crowd embracing Dave Portnoy’s marketing of the ETF, or institutions playing it to bet on the direction of the trend (or hedge) -- we won’t know for a bit. I suspect it’s a bit of both.”The fund opened at $24.40. It was down 1% at $24.15 at 12:02 p.m.(Updates with latest figures, analyst comments.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Josh Kushner’s Oscar Health Falls After $1.4 Billion IPO

    (Bloomberg) -- Oscar Health Inc., the health insurance startup co-founded by Josh Kushner, fell 11% its trading debut after raising $1.4 billion in its upsized, above-target initial public offering.The company’s shares, which sold for $39 in the IPO, opened their first day of trading Wednesday at $36 and closed it at $34.80, giving the company a market value of about $7 billion.Oscar Health and a selling shareholder sold 37 million shares on Tuesday. It had marketed 31 million shares for $36 to $38 a share, a range that it had elevated from $32 to $34.Kushner, managing director of the venture firm Thrive Capital, is the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law and onetime senior adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump.“We have been growing a lot in the last couple of years,” said Mario Schlosser, chief executive officer and co-founder of Oscar Health. “The thesis works, the company works and we want to show it to the world.”Though with cash in hand and despite being in a crowded sector, there are no plans for Oscar Health to make acquisitions at the moment, Schlosser said. “We have a ton of growth ahead of us just organically,” he said.Kushner and Thrive Capital will control the majority of the voting power, according to the filings. The New York-based company’s Class A shares are entitled to one vote while Class B shares will have 20.Google’s parent Alphabet Inc., Fidelity Management, Founders Fund, General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures are also among the company’s shareholders.Oscar Health trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol OSCR. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Allen & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. led the offering.(Updates with closing share price in second paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Mortgage Rates Are Back Above 3%. Here’s Where They’re Headed Next.

    Mortgage rates have risen past a psychological benchmark for the first time since they fell to historic lows during the pandemic. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.02% this past week, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey—the first time since July that the rate has risen above 3%. “Since reaching a low point in January, mortgage rates have risen by more than 30 basis points,” wrote Freddie Mac’s chief economist, in a release.

  • GameStop spikes as investors eye cryptic tweet by shareholder

    GameStop shares closed up 6.4% at $131.93 after earlier hitting $147.87, their highest since a surge in the heavily shorted stock late last month. One analyst and some Twitter users pointed to a cryptic tweet by Ryan Cohen, a major shareholder of GameStop and founder of e-commerce firm Chewy.com, as a plausible reason for the move, although Reuters could not independently determine causation. The late afternoon rally in GameStop began roughly around the time that Cohen tweeted what appeared to be a screenshot with the puppet dog advertising mascot of Pets.com, a famous casualty of the dotcom bubble two decades ago.

  • Athene Excludes Gupta-Linked Loans From Greensill Deal Talks

    (Bloomberg) -- Athene Holding Ltd., which is in talks to rescue Greensill Capital from imminent collapse, isn’t planning to take on assets linked to the lender’s biggest customer, Sanjeev Gupta.Athene, backed by Apollo Global Management Inc., is in talks to buy the operating company and continue to provide billions of dollars of funding to Greensill customers, according to people familiar with the matter. But assets linked to Gupta’s GFG Alliance Group are not being discussed as part of the deal, said the people, who asked not to be named while discussing a private sale.The swift disintegration this week of Lex Greensill’s empire is rippling through the financial system and disrupting access to funding at many companies that relied on his firm to provide short-term loans to help them pay their bills on time. Greensill warned that losing insurance coverage for its 40 or so clients could spark corporate defaults and put 50,000 jobs at risk.Greensill told a court in Australia on Monday that about $4.6 billion of working capital lines are at risk after insurance coverage lapsed. The bulk of those lines are linked to companies tied to Gupta, the people said.Greensill’s troubles in turn are piling pressure on the sprawling business owned by Gupta, a British industrialist known as the “savior of steel.” Greensill’s links to Gupta emerged as the focus of a probe at Germany’s financial regulator BaFin, which has shuttered Greensill’s Bremen-based bank and asked law enforcement officials to investigate the lender. The regulator’s probe found accounting irregularities in how Greensill Bank booked assets tied to Gupta’s GFG.The Bank of England asked GFG’s Wyelands Bank to pay back retail depositors, a step that it took because of concerns with Wyelands’ business model and its exposure to the rest of the alliance, according to a separate person familiar with the matter. That move has prompted a fresh cash injection of 75 million pounds ($105 million) from Wyeland’s shareholder.Athene’s exclusion of GFG-linked companies from deal talks highlights the divergence that’s emerging among companies backed by Greensill. On one hand, there are blue-chip companies such as AstraZeneca Plc, which could continue to have access to funding. Customers such as Henkel AG have been working with fintech company Taulia to fund their suppliers’ invoices.If the deal with Athene goes through, about half of the current Greensill supply-chain finance clients in the $10 billion Credit Suisse funds could continue to have access to financing, according to people familiar with the matter.A spokesperson for GFG said on Tuesday the group has “adequate current funds” and that plans to secure new financing were progressing well. The firm also said GFG has benefited from the recovery in steel and aluminum markets and that its businesses were running near full capacity.GFG has never published a consolidated set of accounts, making its financing difficult to track. In October, Gupta told Bloomberg News that Greensill was its biggest lender, a relationship Gupta said he was “proud of.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Tesla Should Sell Its Bitcoin and Buy Back Shares To Create 'Positive Momentum,' Says Analyst

    Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) could create a “positive momentum” if its sold its Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) holdings and initiated a buyback of its stock, according to Gary Black, a private investor and former CEO of Aegon Asset Management. What Happened: Black aired his views on social media Thursday in a series of tweets. “Imagine the positive momentum [Tesla] would create if they announced the sale of their [Bitcoin] position, and authorized a [Tesla] stock buyback instead.” wrote Black. See also: How to Invest in Tesla Stock The investor acknowledged that the prospect was “unlikely” but shareholders would support such a move. Investors who say #btc has less risk than govt bonds or gold haven’t done their research. Govt bonds have ~2% risk, defined as monthly volatility of returns. Gold ~3% risk. US equities ~6% risk. #btc has ~20% risk, further out on the risk curve than almost any other asset class. pic.twitter.com/OjMyWYU0Oa — Gary Black (@garyblack00) March 4, 2021 According to Black, if you asked 100 institutional investors in the Elon Musk-led company if they would prefer to invest $1.5 billion of excess cash in BTC or in Tesla stock, 95/100 would choose the stock. Why It Matters: Black isn’t the only analyst crying foul over Tesla’s investment in BTC. Last month, GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson said the automaker had “run out of viable internal uses” of its capital. “We see this as a sign of desperation from a CEO whose company is facing real competition for the first time ever,” wrote Johnson. Tesla had purchased .5 billion worth of BTC in February, amid increased institutional support for the cryptocurrency. Jack Dorsey-led Square Inc (NASDAQ: SQ) and Tesla combined have spent over billion to buy 151,919 BTC. Those coins are worth almost $7.19 billion as of press time when BTC traded 6.99% lower at $47,347.62. MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR) meanwhile holds 90,531 BTC, purchased at an average price of $2.171 billion, as of late February now worth about almost $4.286 billion. Price Action: Tesla shares fell 3.43% in after-hours trading on Thursday to $600.10 after closing 4.86% lower at $621.44. Click here to check out Benzinga’s EV Hub for the latest electric vehicles news. Latest Ratings for TSLA DateFirmActionFromTo Feb 2021Morgan StanleyMaintainsOverweight Feb 2021Piper SandlerMaintainsOverweight Jan 2021Deutsche BankMaintainsBuy View More Analyst Ratings for TSLA View the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaAnalyst Who Predicted ,000 Bitcoin Sees Key Metric Indicating 'March To 0,000'How Square's Purchase of Jay Z's Tidal Could Popularize Blockchain© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  • The Nasdaq may be close to the end of its correction, according to market-timers’ views

    Stock-market timers, who as recently as two weeks ago were irrationally exuberant, have reacted to the market’s recent correction by beating a hasty retreat. Consider how quickly the Nasdaq-focused stock-market timers that my firm monitors have jumped on the bearish bandwagon. As recently as Feb. 12, their average recommended exposure level stood at 88.9%, which was higher than 97.9% of all daily readings since 2000.

  • Bitcoin Could Reach $1 Million or More, Kraken CEO Says

    (Bloomberg) -- As the leader of crypto exchange Kraken, Jesse Powell is bound to be bullish on Bitcoin. Yet he’s projecting a disruptive future that would stretch the imagination of even the most ardent crypto fans.In a Bloomberg Television interview, Powell said Bitcoin could reach $1 million in the next decade, adding that supporters say it could eventually replace all of the major fiat currencies.“We can only speculate, but when you measure it in terms of dollars, you have to think it’s going to infinity,” he said. “The true believers will tell you that it’s going all the way to the moon, to Mars and eventually, will be the world’s currency.”The CEO also said San Francisco-based Kraken is considering going public, possibly next year.Extreme predictions are nothing new in the world of Bitcoin, where adherents stand to profit from convincing a wider audience that crypto is a legitimate asset class, rather than a speculative fad. The dollar remains the world’s reserve currency and is the benchmark for global trade, though its value has softened in the past year.Powell said Bitcoin bulls see it one day exceeding the combined market cap of the dollar, euro and other currencies.The dollar “is only 50 years old and it’s already showing extreme signs of weakness, and I think people will start measuring the price of things in terms of Bitcoin,” he said.The digital currency slipped 3% in early U.S. trading on Thursday, hovering around $49,000. Prices have surged almost 600% since the start of 2020 on the back of wider mainstream adoption, with bulls seeing it as both an inflation hedge and speculative asset.Critics argue that Bitcoin is in a giant, stimulus-fueled bubble destined to burst like the 2017 boom and bust cycle.Kraken benefits from higher prices as it reaps fees from increased trading. Bloomberg reported last month that the exchange was in talks to raise new funding, which would double the company’s valuation to more than $10 billion.“Personally, I think $10 billion is a low valuation,” Powell said. “I wouldn’t be interested in selling shares at that price.”The CEO did acknowledge the potential for wild market swings, saying prices can “move up or down 50% on any given day.” That kind of volatility has long been one of the negatives of Bitcoin, relegating the market to one of speculation, rather than a means of doing business.“If you are buying into Bitcoin out of speculation, you should be committed to holding for five years,” Powell said. “You have to have strong convictions to hold.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Tesla Stock Update: Meltdown in Tesla Beginning as Forecasted

    It appears the breakdown is underway, and this could turn into an outright collapse into mid-March.

  • Oil Prices Spike on OPEC Surprise. How to Play It.

    Oil prices shot as much as 5% higher on Thursday as OPEC and its allies agreed to extend most of their production cuts through April, a sign that high prices could be here to stay. Oil company stocks jumped, too, often much more than the commodity, because prices this high will give many of them operating leverage. Because capital costs are high in the industry, oil company margins expand considerably once prices rise above $50 and companies have fully paid for the cost of the equipment and labor they need to extract oil.

  • Analyst Who Predicted $50,000 Bitcoin Sees Key Metric Indicating 'March To $100,000'

    Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) may be headed for the $100,000 mark by the end of this month, according to Mike McGlone, a Bloomberg analyst. What Happened: McGlone, who previously ascribed a $50,000 plus level for the cryptocurrency, said in a March outlook report that if the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC) closing at its steepest discount ever is an indicator, then it may “signal [Bitcoin’s] march to $100,000.” The Greyscale premium, a metric watched closely, ended February with a 2.7% discount. McGlone pointed to March 2017, when BTC backed up to nearly $1,000 on the way to its peak near $20,000 in December of that year. “Sharp reductions in the GBTC premium have often marked bottoms in Bitcoin,” wrote McGlone. See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC) “The increasing probability of [exchange-traded] funds in the U.S., on the back of launches in Canada are adding pressure to the trust price, but we see sustaining the upward trajectory as the more likely outcome.” Bitcoin traded 8.48% lower at $47,120.70 at press time. GBTC closed 10.31% lower at $41.40 on Thursday. Why It Matters: The Grayscale premium is a reference to the difference between the value of the holdings of GBTC versus the market price of its holdings. McGlone also noted the increased replacement of Gold in portfolios with BTC. “In 2020, the benchmark crypto gained legitimacy with declining volatility vs. the opposite in most assets. In 2021, we see little to stop the process of old-guard gold allocators simply focusing on prudent diversification,” wrote the analyst. On Thursday, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said that BTC could replace all of the world’s currencies and hit a million-dollar price target within the next ten years. “The younger demographic is certainly taking notice of it and they see it as a better version of gold,” said Powell. Read Next: 'Morons:' Crypto Enthusiasts Burn Banksy's Real Artwork To Turn It Into Digital Token See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaHow Square's Purchase of Jay Z's Tidal Could Popularize Blockchain'Morons:' Crypto Enthusiasts Burn Banksy's Real Artwork To Turn It Into Digital Token© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.