Yahoo Finance Plus Yahoo Finance's Zack Guzman, Jeanie Ahn, and Dan Howley are joined by Jim Brown, Jim Brown Investing founder, to discuss Senator Elizabeth Warren's new proposal.
(Bloomberg) -- The chief executive officer of a $1.7 billion Canadian private lender closed his personal bank account just days after he was questioned by investigators about receiving undisclosed payments from a client, court documents say.David Sharpe, the former CEO of Bridging Finance Inc., closed a personal checking account at the Bank of Montreal four business days after the Ontario Securities Commission questioned him about his relationship with Sean McCoshen, a Canadian entrepreneur who has proposed an Alberta-to-Alaska railway.McCoshen’s companies borrowed more than C$100 million ($82.6 million) from Bridging-managed funds. During the same period, a separate numbered company controlled by McCoshen transferred C$19.5 million into Sharpe’s personal account, the OSC has alleged. The payments took place between July 2016 and June 2019.In fact, six payments worth C$17.2 million were transferred to Sharpe within five business days of Bridging advancing funds to the railway project and other McCoshen-connected firms, according to a new document filed by the securities commission in an Ontario court.Those transactions and others are at the heart of the case, which has seen a court appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers take control of the Toronto-based firm, a private lender to small- and medium-size companies. The OSC is probing Bridging and former senior executives for allegedly mismanaging funds and failing to disclose conflicts of interest, and has claimed in court documents that Sharpe tried to mislead its investigators.Through a spokesperson, Sharpe declined to comment. McCoshen couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.Sharpe was questioned by the securities commission on Oct. 27, 2020 about his relationship with McCoshen. He closed the Bank of Montreal account on Nov. 2. In February, McCoshen dissolved the numbered company that made the transfers, the court documents say.Sharpe and his wife, Natasha Sharpe, co-founded and ran the firm together. They were fired last week by PricewaterhouseCoopers.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.
Will the man who forecast bitcoin's price rise to $50K last year be heeded or ignored?
The gold markets have shown themselves to be resilient after initially pulling back during the day. In fact, we find ourselves testing a significant downtrend line that could open up a huge move higher.
(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc has been hit by a string of departures among senior credit traders in New York and London unhappy that their bonuses failed to reflect the pandemic profit surge.The bank has offered promotions to some employees and given assurances over future pay in an attempt to address their concerns, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.Departures from the credit desk include Ovie Faruq, director in U.S. high-yield cash and derivatives trading in New York, the people said. Bloomberg News has previously reported that Shrut Kalra, head of European investment grade trading, Taymour El Chammah, global head of macro credit trading, and John Cortese, co-head of U.S. credit trading, left last month. They all declined to comment.Faruq, Kalra, Cortese and spokesperson at Barclays declined to comment, while El Chammah did not respond to requests for comment. Bonuses in credit trading rose by as much as 20% over the past year, the people said. However, the increase did not keep pace with the improvement in some teams’ performances, according to the people.Across the bank, Barclays granted annual bonuses worth 1.09 billion pounds ($1.54 billion), down 3% year-on-year following an overall 30% drop in pretax profits in the wake of the pandemic.Money MakerCredit traders buy and sell bonds and loans issued by corporations and also deal in derivatives linked to their financial health. They thrived as companies were slammed by the pandemic before central banks intervened, sending bonds on a rollercoaster. A record $39 billion of U.S. corporate debt was bought and sold on average every day last year, helping the biggest banks generate the most credit-trading revenue since 2013, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and Coalition Development Ltd.The business is a key money maker for Barclays. Led by Adeel Khan, the unit’s best performers included traders in so-called flow credit and U.S. high-yield bonds, the people said. Khan has recently made several promotions within the team. Last month, London-based Finbar Cooke and Michael Khouri were made co-heads of credit trading for Europe, while Hong Kong-based James Roberts took on the role for Asia.While the bank stopped disclosing results for the unit several years ago, the credit business generated about 38% of the wider fixed-income division’s revenue for 2016 and 2017 combined, filings show. The division, which also houses teams dealing in government bonds and currencies, reported revenue of 5.1 billion pounds ($7.2 billion) last year, the most in almost a decade.On an earnings call last month, Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said the bank has the ability to cut bonuses to address investor concerns about its growing costs. “It’s a very controllable number so if our performance weakens we can take it right down again,” he said.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.
(Bloomberg) -- Stocks exposed to cryptocurrencies slumped around the world after Elon Musk voiced concerns over Bitcoin’s energy usage, delivering a blow to the digital asset’s standing within global markets just a few months after the billionaire CEO of Tesla Inc. became one of its biggest supporters.Crypto shares from the U.S. to Asia slid as Bitcoin plunged as much as 15%, sinking to a low of $46,045 before trimming the decline. Musk said he was worried over the “rapidly increasing” use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, and suspended Tesla purchases with the asset, indicating he might favor other cryptocurrencies that don’t use as much energy.Digital asset technology company Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. fell 14% to the lowest since Jan. 27, as peer Riot Blockchain Inc. tumbled 16%, while Microstrategy Inc., which has put billions of dollars into Bitcoin, sank 9.9% Thursday. Coinbase Global Inc., which runs the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, dropped as much as 6.5% in late trading after quarterly results, adding to its largest ever decline on Thursday.A “shocker from Musk,” Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to clients. “The nature of Bitcoin mining has not changed in the last three months, which speaks to why backtracking on the crypto transaction three months later is a very surprising and confusing move to both Tesla and crypto investors.”Worries deepened after a Bloomberg News report that Binance Holdings Ltd. is under investigation by the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service. Officials who probe money laundering and tax offenses have sought information from individuals with insight into Binance’s business, according to people with knowledge of the matterTesla announced in February that it had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and signaled an intent to begin accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment.In Asia, Monex Group Inc., whose ownership of crypto exchange Coincheck Inc. had made it the second-best performing stock in Japan in 2021, dropped 11%. Nexon Co., which just last month became the first Japanese firm to make a significant bet with a $100 million purchase of the cryptocurrency, slumped 14%, the most since August 2019, though a poor growth outlook given at its earnings also weighed on sentiment.In Europe, crypto-miner Argo Blockchain Plc slid 6.9%, blockchain technology firm On-Line Blockchain Plc lost 9.8% and crypto infrastructure group Northern Data AG dropped 5.8% to its lowest level since Feb. 1.Tesla SlipsTesla’s own shares fell 3.1%, its eighth decline in nine days, adding to a roughly 30% slide since the company announced the Bitcoin investment in February. After last year’s huge rally, the stock has suffered from lofty trader expectations despite posting a record quarterly profit last month. It’s also been among the stocks hit by this week’s selling in tech equities, with concerns around rising inflation fueling fears of higher interest rates.“Not accepting Bitcoin does not change the thesis or growth trajectory for the electric vehicle story, however it does add to the noise and volatility around the name at a time in which risk assets are under enormous selling pressure,” added Wedbush’s Ives.Musk said in his post that Tesla wouldn’t be selling any Bitcoin and aimed to use it for transactions once mining shifted to a more sustainable energy. “We believe it has a promising future,” he wrote, “but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.”That puts Musk at odds with ARK Investment Management LLC’s Cathie Wood, who last month shared research that she said would “debunk the myth that Bitcoin mining” is bad for the environment. Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF, which has been having a miserable month and has Coinbase as its ninth-largest holding, rose 2.2% after closing at the lowest level since November on Wednesday.Bitcoin was down 10% to $48,903 at 4:09 p.m. in New York.(Updates shares with closing prices, Binance probe in fifth 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.
The IRS detailed on how it will handle a mixup involving a tax break for jobless benefits that became law a month after many already filed returns.
Two of the world's most prominent billionaires Tesla Inc.'s CEO Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are facing off over the merits of bitcoin, with the future of the world's No. 1 crypto likely hanging in the balance.
Your stocks to watch for the week ahead include Dow Jones stocks JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Caterpillar. All are just above or below buy points.
Last week, we witnessed a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” event with the cryptocurrency Dogecoin (CRYPTO:DOGE). Many Dogecoin enthusiasts were hoping that Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s stint hosting the television show “Saturday Night Live” would lead to higher prices. After all, Musk has been known to pump the price of this cryptocurrency on Twitter and has been one of its biggest supporters. With so many Dogecoin holders anxious to see what the Dogefather had to say Saturday, the price of cryptocurrency rallied hard into the event to hit a record high of $0.74. Unfortunately, Doge investors learned that sometimes these types of events simply cannot live up to the hype. The price of Doge dropped more than 30% following the premiere of the show after Musk failed to deliver the praise for the cryptocurrency investors were hoping for. Traders can learn a lot from this story, particularly since this “buy the rumor, sell the news” scenario repeats itself time and time again in financial markets. It highlights just how difficult it can be to trade based on the news and should be viewed as a cautionary tale. With that said, perhaps the most important lesson here is that instead of gambling on Dogecoin, why not learn a trading strategy that can deliver real results? For example, Mindful Trader has created a data-driven swing-trading strategy that can potentially help you grow your account. Because he has analyzed and dissected historical stock market price data to test his trading strategy, you won’t have to worry about trying to guess right on binary events like the one mentioned above. Instead, you can use a statistical approach with proven results to take your trading to the next level. Signing up for the Mindful Trader service gives you access to tutorials and all the trading rules he uses for successfully generating returns with stocks and options trading. He also provides data-driven stock picks that he trades himself, which allows you to learn while following his suggestions. Whether you are a beginner trader or a seasoned veteran, Mindful Trader has something for everyone. Since Mindful Trader uses a swing-trading strategy that relies on price movement, not hope, you will always be confident in making a trade. That means you won’t have to trade the news and rely on hype to potentially generate returns like those unfortunate Dogecoin investors mentioned above. Check out this link to learn more about Mindful Trader’s trading strategy and why it’s such a smart alternative to gambling with Dogecoin. See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaThese OTC Securities Had the Most Trading Activity in April3 Advantages to Binary Options Trading with Nadex© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Institutional investors do not take kindly to inflation and they sold. 1. If indexes fall below their moving averages, take action: Traders and investors alike should watch moving averages, especially the 50-, 100-, and 200-day. When the indexes were sliding a few days ago, the S&P 500 (SPX) for example, did not break its 50-day moving average at 4050.
Here's how to tell if dogecoin's rebound is more bark than bite, according to technical analysts following the popular crypto.
The agency is plagued with setbacks that are causing a major backlog of returns.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) recently saw a major downwards price movement after Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) announced it wouldn't be accepting the cryptocurrency as means of payment over environmental concerns. What Happened: According to a recent Business Insider report, there are seven metrics that traders and investors should check after Bitcoin plunged as much as 17%, to below $50,000 from a high near $58,0-00. The first one of those metrics is the aggregated open interest on Bitcoin futures, which fell from a high of $20.39 billion on May 12 to $18.79 billion on the next day. Business Insider points out that traders of this kind of derivative can often leverage their position up to 125 times and that consequently, "the market moving only slightly can trigger liquidations on those positions." According to a market analyst, in the previous 24 hours, "332 796 traders were liquidated, with a total of $3,640 million in liquidations. $2,210 million of which within one hour before the tweet was published." John Wu, the president of a crypto firm Ava Labs and CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti CEO commented on the open interest metric by explaining that it can inform on future movement in the spot markets. In other words, the higher the open interest, the more one can expect the positions to be leveraged, and the more easily the price could crash due to liquidations. Mognetti also pointed to Bitcoin options data, "You can also look at option implied versus realized to understand the Bitcoin price drop." Crypto hedge fund Alameda Research trader Sam Trabucco recommended checking historical futures premia, historical futures open interest, and spot-price data. He explained that when open interest is skyrocketing and premia are high for a while, it becomes critical to starting watching price data. "When the price data dips down from a local maximum, for instance, all these combinations combine for an environment where liquidations are really likely to drive prices down even more," Trabucco noted. CoinShares' Mognetti also suggested checking the market depth for the BTC/USD trading pair. He pointed out that the chart clearly shows "a rapid decimation of market depth on spot BTC-USD order books aggregated across 6 exchanges." Ava Labs' Wu also highlighted the importance of anecdotal insights and news, providing an example about the mid-April crash: "For example, since the drop, I have had a lot of friends from traditional finance ask me if this is the dip they were waiting for to get involved. [...] I am not sure if this is scientific, but based on my conversations with traditional finance people, this will invite new players into crypto and continue the trend of more players in the space of crypto." Mognetti also recommended checking the divergence of the prices of the spot markets, pointing out that at the time of the mid-April crash, "the divergence in spot prices between Coinbase and Binance reached nearly 3% at one point." He explained that this is significant because it shows that "most of the sell-off was coming from the Asia market, not the US or Europe" and said: "Futures traded at significant discounts to spot, with the annualized rolling 3-month basis on Binance falling to -37% according to data provider Skew." The last metric, also recommended by Mognetti, is total liquidations. This data shows that on May 12, $3.46 billion of longs were liquidated in the cryptocurrency market, the highest number reported since April 17. See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaCiti Considers Launching Bitcoin Custody, Crypto Trading© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
(Bloomberg) -- Credit traders who feel stiffed after a banner year are finding a hot market for their services.Hedge funds fresh off their best performance in years are aggressively hiring, recruiters say. Banks including Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc have suffered senior defections to the buy side in recent weeks. Barclays has tried promotions and pay promises to stem defections.“Whoever writes the biggest check is the winner,” Jason Kennedy, chief executive officer of U.K.-based recruiting firm Kennedy Group, said in an interview. “There is no loyalty left.”While spring moving season is nothing new on Wall Street trading desks, observers say star performers in the world of corporate credit are in particularly high demand. Adding to the turnover is discord after banks that saw trading revenue surge in 2020 kept a lid on pay because of struggles in other parts of their business. Hedge funds are trying to follow up a divisive period of pandemic-driven earnings with new strategies that benefit from outside expertise.“This year, they have targeted the credit space,” Kennedy said. “That’s why the market is moving so much.”The pressure has been felt at HSBC, where a swath of senior traders left the U.S. business in recent months as the bank restructures operations in New York and around the world. At least 10 traders are leaving the credit desk, and a spokesman has said the group was actively hiring.At Barclays, departures from the credit desk have included Ovie Faruq, director in U.S. high-yield cash and derivatives trading in New York; Shrut Kalra, head of European investment grade trading; Taymour El Chammah, global head of macro credit trading; and John Cortese, co-head of U.S. credit trading. Several are joining hedge funds.In response, the London-based bank has offered some of the team promotions and assurances about future pay. However, the tone at the top is one of caution on costs. CEO Jes Staley increased bonus accruals across the bank in the first quarter, but has said that this spending “is a very controllable number so if our performance weakens we can take it right down again.”Goldman’s head of European macro credit trading Jasdeep Singh Aneja is leaving to join hedge fund Millennium Management.“Hedge funds are hot, they have had a good few months and they’ve raised a tremendous amount of money,” said Alan Johnson, managing director of the Wall Street compensation consultancy Johnson Associates. “If you’re a trader, they’re an attractive destination. They’re real competition for the really good or the really great traders.”Credit trading was a boon for investment banks last year as the pandemic sent bonds on a roller coaster. The trading desks buy and sell bonds and loans issued by corporations and also deal in derivatives linked to their financial health.A record $39 billion of U.S. corporate debt changed hands on average every day last year, helping the biggest banks generate the most credit-trading revenue since 2013, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and Coalition Development Ltd.Hedge funds are also pursuing these gains. Oaktree Capital Management this week teamed up with investment manager Schroders to launch a global multi-strategy credit portfolio.The strategy is not without its risks: Earlier this month a slew of hedge funds took out short positions on European bonds they saw as overstretched.The turnover “isn’t specific to credit,” and traders have been on the move for some time, said Ilana Weinstein, who runs Wall Street recruitment firm IDW Group LLC.“Migration of sell-side to buy-side has been happening since the crisis with disappointing bonuses, cost-cutting and reduced ability to take risk at the banks,” she said. “The question is why someone is still sitting on sell-side if they want to be in a risk-taking versus franchise trading seat. I would argue much of the best trading talent left long ago.”(Updates with Johnson’s comment in 10th 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.
The Tesla CEO sent the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies plummeting. But he may be aiming to turn crypto-mining green in ways that benefit Tesla.
(Bloomberg) -- DBS Private Bank started Asia’s first bank-backed trust solution for cryptocurrencies as demand for digital assets increases.The offering will allow private banking clients to invest, custodize and manage these assets in a safe, secure, and structured manner, DBS Group Holdings Ltd. said in a statement on Friday. It builds on the DBS Digital Exchange, which launched in December, and offers institutional investors and accredited investors a fully-integrated tokenization, trading and custody ecosystem for digital assets.The service applies only to cryptocurrencies hosted on the digital exchange: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and XRP.Traditional financial companies are ramping up their crypto offerings as digital assets mature and soar in price, creating client demand. UBS Group AG is reportedly in the early stages of planning to offer crypto investments to wealthy clients. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are boosting their offerings. DBS has already joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Temasek in creating a blockchain payments platform.Read more: Rich Crypto Investors Going Alone Gets Goldman Off Sidelines“Our trust structure allows clients to conveniently hold these assets, with a peace of mind that they will be safely managed and passed on to their intended beneficiaries,” said Joseph Poon, group head of DBS Private Bank.As of the first quarter, DBS’s digital exchange held S$80 million ($60 million) in assets under custody, with trading volumes up 10-fold to S$30 million to S$40 million, the firm said. The exchange has 120 clients and “a robust pipeline awaiting onboarding.”DBS said the digital exchange is working on efforts to conduct its first security token offering, and to expand operating hours from Asian time zones to round-the-clock.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.
Anyone with a stock account can now make a savvy, albeit risky, bet on GBTC pricing disparities that were previously exclusive to big players.
Dogecoin will likely transition from a proof-of-work protocol to proof-of-stake, speculated Alex Mashinsky, the chief executive and founder of The Celsius Network on Friday during a webcast hosted by his lending platform on YouTube.
Shares of Plug Power Inc. surged Friday, after they hydrogen and fuel cell systems company completed its restatement, removing a "shroud of uncertainty" that has been weighing heavily on the stock the past couple months.
(Bloomberg) -- Stock sales are reaping a windfall for the world’s richest shareholders.Corporate insiders including Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have ramped up stock sales recently, cashing in on a 14-month long bull market that’s helped boost fortunes to the tune of trillions.U.S. public company insiders offloaded shares worth $24.4 billion this year through the first week of May, with about half sold through trading plans, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s almost as much as the $30 billion total they disposed of in the second half of 2020.Large shareholders frequently sell stock in planned intervals, often through pre-arranged trading programs. Yet the prolonged rally in equities markets has made the value of these disposals, whether planned or opportunistic, strikingly high.There are multiple reasons an investor of any size might be motivated to sell. After the pandemic-defying rally, valuations are increasingly under pressure from rising inflation. Investors are wary the post-Covid recovery could prompt tightening measures from the Federal Reserve. And President Joe Biden’s proposed tax hikes -- including a near doubling of the capital gains rate -- have created uncertainty.Bezos, EllisonWhatever the reason, the sales are flooding the market with yet more liquidity, the consequences of which will ripple through philanthropy, the art market, real estate and other niches.Bezos has sold $6.7 billion worth of Amazon shares this year. While a relative pittance for the world’s richest person, it’s more than two-thirds the value of shares he sold in 2020. Larry Ellison unloaded 7 million Oracle shares in the past week for total proceeds of $552.3 million. Charles Schwab has sold $192 million worth of shares of his eponymous brokerage this year.Brin, who has signaled that he intends to sell as many as 250,000 Alphabet Inc. shares, has disposed of $163 million worth of stock in recent days, his first sales in more than four years, filings show.Mark Zuckerberg and his charitable foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, meanwhile, accelerated their sales of Facebook stock in the fall. Zuckerberg or his charity has divested shares at a near-daily clip since November, for a cumulative total exceeding $1.87 billion.The surging markets have exacerbated the concentration risk of the single-stock-dominated fortunes typical of many tech billionaires, said Thorne Perkin, president of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management.“From a portfolio-management perspective, it makes sense to spread it around,” he said.Covid EconomyAlso among the biggest sellers are some noteworthy beneficiaries of the Covid economy. Zoom Video Communications founder Eric Yuan and used-car retailer Carvana Co.’s Ernest Garcia II have together received more than $1.75 billion from stock sales since March 2020, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. George Kurtz, chief executive officer of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has sold shares worth at least $250 million over that period.Zoom founder Yuan -- the poster child, in many ways, for the coronavirus economy -- has stepped up his sales this year as the firm’s share price slumped. In 2020, he typically offloaded about 140,000 shares a month through a trading plan, which generated more than $350 million over the course of the year.Since March, he’s sold almost 200,000 shares a month on average, yielding him about $185 million. He also donated more than a third of his stake in the San Jose-based company as part of “typical estate planning practices,” according to a spokesman. Some of the cash from his share sales fund donations to unspecified “humanitarian causes.”(Updates with Charles Schwab’s sales in seventh 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.
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