Fed Views Rising Yields as Bullish Sign Reflecting 2021 Optimism

1 / 2

Fed Views Rising Yields as Bullish Sign Reflecting 2021 Optimism

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Steve Matthews and Matthew Boesler
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

(Bloomberg) -- Several Federal Reserve presidents argued Thursday that surging Treasury yields reflect economic optimism for a solid recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and stressed that the central bank has no plans to tighten policy prematurely.

“I think the rise in yields is probably a good sign so far because it does reflect better outlook for U.S. economic growth and inflation expectations which are closer to the committee’s inflation target,” St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told reporters after a virtual speech.

Comments by Bullard and two other Fed leaders, Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic and Kansas City’s Esther George, showed that the central bank’s policy makers are solidly united behind Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s patience in making any adjustments to monetary policy.

Powell told lawmakers this week that the nation was still a “long way” from the Fed’s goals for full employment and price stability, signaling the central bank will maintain ultra-easy monetary policy for some time -- despite hopes for a strong economy later this year as vaccinations spread.

The Fed presidents agreed with Powell’s characterization of the rise in yields as “a statement of confidence” in the economic outlook. The 10-year Treasury yield reached 1.61% Thursday, the highest in more than a year, before trimming its gains.

“Much of this increase likely reflects growing optimism in the strength of the recovery and could be viewed as an encouraging sign of increasing growth expectations,” George said in a speech.

Bostic told reporters he was not expecting the Fed to respond to rising yields: “Yields have definitely moved at the longer end, but right now I am not worried about that.”

All three Fed presidents said it was premature to begin discussing tapering of the central bank’s massive bond-buying program, with Bullard noting that Powell would initiate the discussion when it’s appropriate.

Strong Rebound

In separate remarks, a fourth Fed leader, New York’s John Williams, said the economy was poised for a strong rebound. “Indeed, with strong federal fiscal support and continued progress on vaccination, GDP growth this year could be the strongest we’ve seen in decades,” he said, though he added that underlying inflation is likely to remain “subdued for some time.”

Bullard echoed that optimism, noting the Atlanta Fed’s tracking model shows robust growth for gross domestic product in the first quarter. He predicted the U.S. unemployment rate will drop to 4.5% by year’s end, with pent-up demand and elevated savings boosting spending by Americans.

“I gave a rosy outlook today but it’s only an outlook,” Bullard said. As for a policy change, “the chair has wanted to start that conversation only when it’s appropriate and not get ahead of ourselves even though we do have high hopes the pandemic will come to an end.”

Bostic emphasized that the labor market still has considerable pain, especially for lower-income workers and minorities, and that it would take a long time to regain the 10 million jobs that have been lost.

“Just to remind you, our mandate is full employment,” Bostic said Thursday during a virtual speech to the Atlanta Fed’s banking-outlook conference. “It’s not full GDP. It is not the size of GDP. So this disparity is something that is important and something we are going to have to continue to watch closely.”

(Updates with comments by New York Fed president in ninth paragraph.)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Recommended Stories

  • Surging bond yields lead global equities lower

    A jump in benchmark U.S. Treasury yields on Thursday led a gauge of global equity markets to retreat as investors sold the high-flying tech stocks that fueled Wall Street's rally to record highs and took precautions against the threat of inflation. Gold prices fell as much as 2% as the surge in Treasury yields and strong U.S. economic data dented demand for the traditional inflation hedge. Higher bond yields have increased the opportunity cost of holding bullion.

  • Stocks Retreat Amid Rising Treasury Yields

    Meanwhile, an encouraging Initial Jobless Claims report may provide support to stocks.

  • Long-End Yields Surge in Biggest Treasury Selloff Since January

    (Bloomberg) -- The selloff in Treasuries sent the yield on the 30-year bond surging on Wednesday, putting the long-end benchmark on track for its biggest one-day advance since early January.Rates climbed across notes and bonds, with the long-end increasing most and the curve steepening. The 30-year yield jumped by around 11 basis points at one stage, hitting a one-year high of 2.29%, while the 10-year rate rose as much as 9 basis points to 1.43%.Global bond markets are suffering this year amid the prospects for U.S. stmulus and a surging reflationary narrative, with volatility gauges climbing to multi-month highs. That’s prompted fears over a potential tantrum in havens, such as Treasuries and German bonds. While Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell this week called the recent run-up in bond yields “a statement of confidence” in the economic outlook, the move raises pressure on central banks to keep financing conditions easy.“The market is nervous about additional stimulus, worried about the risks of higher inflation, and concerned about QE tapering,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, senior U.S. rates strategist at TD Securities. “The selloff is likely being exacerbated by convexity hedging and positioning stop-outs.”(Updates priceing, adds chart and comment.)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.

  • HP Sales Beat Estimates on Work-at-Home PC Demand; Shares Up

    (Bloomberg) -- HP Inc. reported quarterly revenue and profit that topped analysts’ estimates, buoyed by strong sales of personal computers and printers needed for remote work and study. The company gave a forecast that also handily beat Wall Street expectations, sending the stock higher.Sales were $15.6 billion in the fiscal first quarter, the Palo Alto, California-based company said Thursday in a statement. That beat the average analyst estimate of about $15 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Excluding some items, profit was 92 cents a share, also ahead of Wall Street expectations.The company forecast fiscal second-quarter profit, minus certain items, of 84 cents to 90 cents a share. That compares with an average analyst estimate of 61 cents. For the full fiscal year, profit will be between $3.15 and $3.25 a share, well ahead of current Wall Street estimates. HP shares rose 1.3% after the results.HP has enjoyed a surge in demand for laptops needed for study and work at home during the Covid pandemic. The lockdown had dented HP’s printing business as commercial customers left offices empty, but in the latest quarter a surge in consumer demand helped return that unit to growth.Chief Executive Officer Enrique Lores said higher demand for computers and peripherals is sustainable because consumers have learned the importance of this technology during the pandemic. Later in the year, commercial demand will support orders as companies open up facilities and refresh their office hardware.“We think that change is sustainable,” he said in an interview. “Covid has made technology more fundamental in all of our lives.”He also addressed chip shortages, saying “growth would be even stronger if we got more components.” A sudden and large increase in forecasts from HP for 2021 made it difficult for suppliers to respond in a timely manner Lores said, while noting that the company’s supply is sufficient to support its bullish outlook.Revenue from Personal Systems, mostly computers, rose 7% to $10.6 billion. Sales to consumers jumped 34%, while revenue from to corporate customers decreased 6%. Printing revenue rose 7% to $5 billion.As part of an effort to strengthen the diversity of its products, HP is spending $425 million to acquire HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Co.. HyperX makes accessories such as headsets, keyboards and microphones. HP already makes laptops for video game enthusiasts.(Updates with segment results in penultimate 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.

  • Citi Sees Trading Revenue Dropping After Last Year’s Wild Ride

    (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. said trading revenue is likely to fall in the first quarter as the firm’s traders struggle to top last year’s outsize performance.Revenue from trading stocks and fixed-income products will drop by a percentage in the mid-single digits from a year ago, when the coronavirus pandemic sparked volatility in markets, according to Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason. Investment-banking revenue, on the other hand, has been helped by the firm’s business of underwriting initial public offerings and will probably climb by a percentage in the high teens or low 20s, he said.“I think we’re off to a very good start to the year,” Mason said Thursday at a virtual investor conference. “The quarter’s not over.”Citigroup and its Wall Street rivals have begun to warn that trading revenue is starting to moderate amid less market volatility in recent months. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CFO Jennifer Piepszak said at the same conference earlier Thursday that her bank has generated more trading revenue this year than in the same period of 2020, but didn’t want to make predictions for the first quarter because “we’re heading into a much more challenging” comparison to year-earlier figures for March.Shares of Citigroup briefly traded lower after Mason warned that costs would tick up by a percentage in the mid-single-digit range this quarter as it invests in improving risk-management technology. That’s part of the work the company is doing to resolve a pair of consent orders from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve that Citigroup received last year.Mason said Citigroup is continuing to take a clinical look at each of its businesses as it seeks to simplify. As part of that work, the firm recently decided to combine its private-bank and wealth-management operations, and is considering divesting certain consumer units in Asia.“Part of the strategic refresh is to look not just at wealth, not just at Asia, but look across the business,” Mason said. “More to come as we continue to make progress on the work there.”Citigroup shares slipped 1% to $67.95 at 2:40 p.m. after earlier dropping as much as 2.5%. The stock has climbed 10% this year, compared with the 12% advance of the 65-company S&P 500 Financials Index.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.

  • Crypto Boom Has Been Good to Coinbase Ahead of Planned Listing

    (Bloomberg) -- Coinbase Global Inc. is the latest company that’s taking an unconventional route to becoming a public company. A look at the largest cryptocurrency exchange’s latest financial statements shows something else that sets it apart: It’s making money.About 85% of the 130 companies that went public in the U.S. last year were unprofitable, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that excludes special purchase acquisition companies and real-estate investment trusts. Coinbase, which plans a direct listing rather than a traditional initial public offering, swung from a loss to a profit of $322 million last year on net revenue that more than doubled to $1.14 billion.The gains highlight an underlying tension between the exchange’s business model and the buy-and-hold ethos of many Bitcoin proponents. Some 96% of Coinbase’s revenue last year came from fees on transactions on its exchange, according to its filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. So the less that crypto traders hold -- or “hodl,” as it’s know -- the better Coinbase does.And that appears to have been the case in 2020. Verified users of the exchange rose 34% to 43 million last year, while monthly transacting users jumped 180% to 2.8 million, according to the filing. A majority of its net revenue was derived from trades in Bitcoin and Ethereum.The company’s shares have changed hands in recent private transactions at levels that would value Coinbase at close to $100 billion, a person familiar with the matter said. That could make it one of the biggest companies to go public since Facebook Inc.Break-Through MomentThe emergence of Coinbase as a publicly traded company is anticipated to be a break-through moment for the industry, marking a milestone on the road to maturity for crypto as a mainstream asset class. It also should provide some transparency into the more opaque corners of the market.In its filing, Coinbase detailed an investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since 2017, and disclosed that it has received subpoenas from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and attorneys general of California and Massachusetts.Coinbase Reveals U.S., State Probes as It Seeks to Go PublicCoinbase said it plans to disclose material information over Twitter, potentially including Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong’s account, as well as via LinkedIn and YouTube.The exchange’s plans to go public come as Bitcoin trades at around $50,000 after hitting an all-time high of $57,355 on Feb. 21, meaning its value has increased by more than 400% over the last year.Cryptocurrencies have been buoyed by monetary and fiscal stimulus aimed at fighting the impact of the pandemic, as well as its embrace as a store of value by corporations such as Tesla Inc., MicroStrategy Inc. and Square Inc. Investors such as Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Investment Management, are also bullish. Wood told a Bloomberg panel on Thursday that Bitcoin has the potential to reach trillions of dollars in market capitalization.Among potential risk factors that could affect its plans, Coinbase listed the volatile nature of crypto as the main concern. Another risk is competition from so-called decentralized exchanges, which effectively let people trade coins without an intermediary. Such exchanges are part of so-called decentralized finance movement, or DeFi, in which apps let people trade, lend and borrow coins from each other directly. In the same prospectus, Coinbase noted that it has invested in DeFi protocols -- possibly in potential competitors.One other noteworthy risk factor: “the identification of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous person or persons who developed Bitcoin, or the transfer of Satoshi’s Bitcoins.”In an echo of Robinhood Markets’s mission to democratize access to financial markets, Coinbase’s Armstrong said that the company’s goal is to solve problems in the current financial system and “create more economic freedom.”“If the world economy ran on a common set of standards, that could not be manipulated by any company or country, the world would be a more fair and free place, and human progress would accelerate,” Armstrong wrote in a letter addressing potential investors.Nasdaq DebutThe offering could be the first major direct listing to take place on the Nasdaq. All previous ones, including Spotify Technology SA, Slack Technologies Inc., Asana Inc. and Palantir Technologies Inc., were listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Online video game company Roblox Corp. has also announced that it’s planning a direct listing, after earlier delaying its IPO and raising capital privately.Coinbase won’t raise any proceeds in the transaction, the filing shows. The company didn’t list an address for its headquarters, saying that instead it became a “remote-first” company in May.Started in 2012, Coinbase has raised more than $500 million from backers that include Y Combinator and Greylock Partners, according to its website. The company was valued at more than $8 billion in 2018 after a $300 million funding round led by Tiger Global Management. Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Union Square Ventures and co-founder Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III are listed among its biggest shareholders, the filing shows.Owners of Coinbase’s Class A common stock will be allowed to sell in the listing and will not be subject to lock-up agreements. Class A stock carries one vote per share, while Class B has 20, according to the filing.Coinbase will be listed under the symbol COIN. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Allen & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are advising on the transaction.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.

  • Grid Operator Anticipated Blackout Days Beforehand: Texas Update

    (Bloomberg) -- Texas lawmakers are grilling power-company executives, the state’s grid operator and others about last week’s energy crisis that left more than four million homes and businesses without heat, light and water during a deep winter freeze.Executives from Calpine Corp., Vistra Corp. and NRG Energy Inc. were among the first to testify Thursday at simultaneous House and Senate hearings, during which lawmakers displayed an at-times murky grasp of how the state’s power market works. Republican senators used much of their allotted time to criticize renewable sources as unreliable and fragile, even as the state’s largest power providers cited issues with gas supplies, grid stability, frozen coal and delayed fuel deliveries.The historic outage caused as much as $129 billion in economic losses, and the impact to individual companies is only starting to emerge. Some electricity providers wracked up huge losses, fueling a possible credit crisis. Oil and gas producers saw their output halted. And dozens of people died. Generators, the grid operator and politicians have clashed over who is to blame, pointing fingers at power plants that didn’t prepare for winter, Texas’s highly deregulated power market and issues with the grid itself.“This is the largest trainwreck in the history of deregulated electricity,” Republican Senator Brandon Creighton said.Key Highlights:Calpine, Vistra and NRG all said natural gas shortages affected their ability to operate. Not only did freezing weather shut in some gas production, the blackouts ordered by Ercot compounded the issue as power was cut from pipeline compressors.The companies also said they had plants forced offline after the flow of electricity on the grid -- called frequency -- plunged when blackouts were first ordered. That contradicts the version of events presented by the grid operator known as Ercot.Vistra and NRG chief executive officers both said that their companies would not pass high energy prices from the event onto their customers.All times Eastern.Ercot Saw Blackout Potential Days Beforehand (3:40 p.m.): Grid operator Ercot anticipated that blackouts were possible four to five days before the grid emergency occurred, Chief Executive Officer Bill Magness told lawmakers. Modeling indicated that the state could be short on power supplies on the mornings of Feb. 15 and Feb. 16, he said. A notice to conserve energy was issued publicly on Feb. 13, according to an Ercot presentation. A blackout warning went out on Feb. 14, hours before the outages began.Calpine Says It Wasn’t Warned of Blackouts (3:15 p.m.):Calpine Chief Executive Officer Thad Hill said Texas’s grid operator did not warn the company ahead of time that a grid emergency was possible.“I felt that when I went to bed Sunday night that we were in good shape,” he said. He also said he wasn’t aware of any plan for shifting from rolling blackouts into controlled blackouts. “Nobody communicated to us directly on that.” As a result, Calpine wasn’t able to warn customers in a timely fashion, he said.Vistra, NRG Say Costs Won’t Pass to Customers (1:29 p.m.):Vistra and NRG executives said that their companies would not pass high energy prices from the event onto their customers. Spiking gas prices during the event offset the revenues made from selling electricity at the $9,000-a-megawatt-hour price cap, they said.“There was a significant amount of wealth transfer from power to gas,” Vistra Chief Executive Officer Curt Morgan said. “We’re the guy sitting in the middle, getting it from both ends.”READ ALSO: Texas Cities Fret as Power Bills Mount in Wake of BlackoutsGas-Supply Issues Fueled Outages (12:27 p.m.):Calpine, Vistra and NRG all said gas-supply shortages affected their ability to operate. Not only did freezing weather shut in some gas production, the blackouts ordered by Ercot compounded the issue as power was cut from pipeline compressors necessary to transport the fuel to power plants.“If natural gas is compromised, the power system is going to be compromised,” said NRG President Mauricio Gutierrez. While NRG had contracted gas supplies, low pressure on pipelines feeding the system affected the company’s ability to run plants at capacity. Vistra’s Morgan said that, despite having 90% of plants available to run, “we just couldn’t get the gas.”Calpine’s Hill said in written testimony that the company lost one gas-fired unit after a gas supplier lost electricity. He later said the company lost 40% of its gas supply on Tuesday, after the blackouts were ordered.Grid Operator, Generators Disagree on Grid Issues (11:12 a.m.):Vistra, Calpine and NRG said they had plants forced offline after the flow of electricity on the grid -- called frequency -- plunged during the early morning of Feb. 15, when blackouts were first ordered. Their comments contradict the version of events presented by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, known as Ercot, which manages most of the state’s grid.“We have examined this, we haven’t seen it,” Ercot’s Magness said in testimony before the Texas senate. If plants did go offline in tandem with the dip, it would only have been around 10 units, a number dwarfed by the total that was offline due to weather and gas-supply issues, he said.Maintaining frequency at around 60 hertz is critical to keeping the grid stable. Ercot operating protocols say a deviation of 0.2 hertz “for a long period” could cause damage to generators and customer equipment. On the day of the blackouts, frequency dipped to 59.4 hertz for 4 minutes and 23 seconds, according to an Ercot presentation. It fell as low as 59.3, according to Bloomberg data.NRG’s Gutierrez said the dip “threatened the majority of the fleet” but ultimately only caused one plant to go offline. Calpine’s Hill said in written testimony that two of the company’s natural gas-fired power plants tripped offline for the same reason.Vistra was within three minutes of losing Comanche Peak nuclear plant because of low frequency, Morgan said. “We came dangerously close to losing the system,” 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.

  • Treasury Yields Surge Past 1.6%, Sounding Alarm for Risk Assets

    (Bloomberg) -- Yields on U.S. government debt blew past another set of closely watched levels, with a key part of the Treasury curve surging past an inflection point that’s seen as potentially squelching global speculative euphoria.Yields took off with startling speed, with the rate on 10-year Treasuries reaching 1.61%, the highest in a year. In a telltale warning sign for some strategists, the 5-year Treasury yield soared convincingly above 0.75% on Thursday, a crucial level that was expected to exacerbate selling, as traders pulled forward bets on when the Federal Reserve will start lifting policy rates. The 10-year U.S. real yield -- which strips out inflation and is seen as a pure read on growth prospects -- climbed as much as 25 basis points to a level last seen in June. The latest leg in this frenetic fixed-income tumble came on a sudden wave of selling after demand cratered at the Treasury’s 7-year note auction Thursday. Yields globally are now reaching levels last seen before the coronavirus spread worldwide. Central banks have attempted to soothe markets, with European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane saying the institution can buy bonds flexibly and Fed Chair Jerome Powell calling the recent run-up in yields “a statement of confidence” in the economic outlook. While higher real rates signal growth is gaining traction, investors are becoming uneasy over the sustainability of the recovery, and whether stimulus will feed into ever higher prices.The 5-year note leading the rout “is a warning signal that the rates selloff is going beyond a repricing towards a convexity move,” said Peter Chatwell, a Mizuho International Plc strategist. “This is something which we think is inconsistent with Fed dovish rhetoric on rates.”Convexity FuelAdding to the bond slump are forced sellers in the $7 trillion mortgage-backed bond market, who are likely unloading the long-maturity Treasury bonds they hold or adjusting derivatives positions to compensate for the unexpected jump in duration on their mortgage portfolios. It’s a phenomenon known as convexity hedging, and the extra selling has a history of exacerbating upward moves in Treasury yields -- including during major “convexity events” in 1994 and 2003.Convexity Hedging Haunts Markets Already Reeling From Bond RoutThe 5-year note is of particular interest to many in the $21 trillion Treasuries market. Earlier this week, tepid demand in an auction of five-year notes brought into focus this key part of the curve, which also reflects medium-term expectations for Fed policy. Then on Thursday, a measure of demand for a $62 billion auction of 7-year Treasury notes came in at a record low.The rout comes as investors continue to reprice expectations for Fed hikes as the vaccine rollout and the prospect of additional stimulus foster a rosier outlook for the economy. Yields on 2- and 5-year yields are more influenced by the starting point and speed of normalization, said Bank of America Corp. rates strategist Ralph Axel.“Everything that we see keeps pushing us into sooner, faster, more in terms of removing accommodation,” Axel said.The surge in yields is hurting riskier assets. Emerging-market currencies such as the South African rand and Mexican peso sold off sharply against the dollar, and the S&P 500 Index dropped as much as 2.6%.In Europe, peripheral countries have led a bond sell-off, with Italy’s 10-year yield spread over Germany climbing back above 100 basis points. Core debt wasn’t spared, with yields on France’s benchmark debt turning positive for the first time since June.Officials’ DisquietEconomic leaders are making clear their disquiet. Apart from ECB’s Lane, Executive Board Member Isabel Schnabel weighed in, saying in an interview published Thursday that the central bank has a close eye on financial markets because a sudden rise in real rates could pull the rug out from under the economic recovery.Elsewhere, the Bank of Korea warned it will intervene in the market if borrowing costs jump, while Australia’s central bank resumed buying bonds to enforce its yield target. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Wednesday promised a prolonged period of stimulus even as the economic outlook there brightens.“You have to look at real yields,” Christian Nolting, chief investment officer at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. “If real yields are really rising and rising fast, that in the past has always been an issue for stocks.”(Updates levels throughout.)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.

  • Primark gears up for April reopening as sales slump

    The High Street-only retailer says it has lost £1.1bn in sales due to the recent lockdown.

  • CEO of Bill Gates-backed EV battery startup expects major breakthrough in 2021

    QuantumScape founder Jagdeep Singh chats with Yahoo Finance Live on what his company has on tap this year.

  • Golden Globes scandal: We should not allow awards show to continue if 'rigged,' says Color of Change president

    The L.A. Times’ recent bombshell investigation of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the non-profit organization that selects Golden Globe winners, revealed allegations of corruption.

  • Have Australians fallen out of love with Sydney and Melbourne?

    Figures show Australians are moving out of the large cities in search of a better quality of life.

  • Insight: Carbon offsets gird for lift-off as big money gets close to nature

    An expected dash by big corporations for offsets to meet their climate targets has prompted financial exchanges to launch carbon futures contracts to capitalise on what could be a multi-billion dollar market. Carbon offsets, generated by emissions reduction projects, such as tree planting or shifts to less polluting fuels, have struggled for years to gain credibility, but as climate action has become urgent, their market is expected to grow to as much as $50 billion by 2030. Among the major corporations that say they expect to use them to compensate for any emissions they cannot cut from their operations and products are Unilever, EasyJet, Royal Dutch Shell and BP, which all have climate targets.

  • California’s net neutrality law is broadband companies’ worst nightmare

    A federal judge cleared the way for California to implement its 2018 net neutrality law, creating a nightmare scenario for broadband companies.

  • Aston Martin says back on the road to profitability after 2020 loss

    Aston Martin expects to almost double sales and move back towards profitability this year after sinking deeper into the red in 2020, when the luxury carmaker was hit by the pandemic, changed its boss and was forced to raise cash. The carmaker of choice for fictional secret agent James Bond has had a tough time since floating in 2018, as it failed to meet expectations and burnt through cash, prompting it to seek fresh investment from billionaire Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll. For 2021, it expects "to see the first steps towards improved profitability" but is still likely to post a pre-tax loss, the carmaker said.

  • GameStop shares soar as 'meme stocks' rally again

    GameStop Corp shares soared again on Thursday after doubling in the previous session, triggering a series of NYSE trading halts and leading a surprise resurgence of so-called "stonks" championed by passionate retail investors on various online forums. GameStop shares hit $160 at the open before being halted after several minutes of trading and fell to around $129 before the second halt. GameStop was up almost 70% at one point in a blistering rally that lifted other "stonks" or "meme stocks" popular on sites such as Reddit's WallStreetBets, even as the broad S&P 500 index fell more than 2%.

  • Crypto Exchange Asks Customers To Return Bitcoin After Selling It At 88% Discount

    What Happened: The largest crypto exchange in Southeast Asia, Philippines-based PDAX, experienced a technical failure that led to Bitcoin trading at $6,000 – an 88% discount to its current price. Following the incident, PDAX asked its customers to return their Bitcoins, threatening legal action, a local news outlet Bitpinas has reported. According to the exchange’s CEO, the system error was not due to a hack but a technical “glitch” caused by a massive surge in trading activity. Why It Matters: The initial outage is said to have taken place on February 18; however, since then, reports have surfaced on social media of customers being locked out of their exchange accounts and being asked to “return their Bitcoin.” “After almost 24 hours, they sent me a demand letter and SMS, requesting me to transfer back the BTC, or they “may” be compelled to take legal actions against me.” said one trader who believed his purchase was well within his rights without violating any laws or regulations of the trading platform. See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC) Rafael Padilla, an attorney representing the affected users who are currently locked out of their accounts, commented on the issue on Facebook. “Our client’s trade transaction was legitimate under applicable laws, decided cases, and of course according to PDAX’s very own terms and conditions/user agreement.” According to Padilla, PDAX has opted to lock users out of their accounts because it cannot unilaterally reverse the transactions. An official statement from PDAX claims that 95% of accounts have been restored, but according to the report, many users are still locked out of their accounts. “It’s very understandable that a lot of users will feel upset they were able to buy what they thought an order was there for Bitcoin at very low prices. But unfortunately, the underlying Bitcoins were never in the possession of the exchange, so there’s never really anything there to be bought or sold, unfortunately.”, said PDAX CEO Nichel Gaba in a press conference earlier today. Image: vjkombajn via Pixabay See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaElon Musk's Tweet About Dogecoin Sends Price Up 10% In 30 Minutes AgainMicroStrategy Buys Additional .026B Worth Of Bitcoin, Surpasses Tesla's Bitcoin Holdings© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Aussie Hits Multi-Year Peak as Interest Rate Spread Widens

    Fed Chair Powell reiterated this week that U.S. interest rates will remain low and the Fed will keep buying bonds to support the U.S. economy.

  • StanChart restores dividend, reaffirms targets as COVID-19 halves profit

    Standard Chartered PLC on Thursday restored its dividend and reaffirmed its long-term profit goals, in a show of confidence about its ability to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic even as its annual profit more than halved. The Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused bank however warned that income in 2021 is likely to be close to last year, showing the challenge it faces to meet its modest profit goals in a world of rock-bottom interest rates. Boosting revenue has been Chief Executive Bill Winters' main headache in recent years, as slowing growth in many of the bank's key markets, a commodities downturn and low central bank rates all conspired to crush income.

  • Oil mixed, U.S. crude hits highest since 2019 as refineries restart

    Oil prices were mixed on Thursday with U.S. crude edging up to its highest close since 2019 as Texas refineries restarted production after last week's freeze, while Brent eased on worries that four months of gains will prompt producers to boost output. Earlier in the day, an assurance that U.S. interest rates will stay low and a sharp drop in U.S. crude output last week due to the winter storm in Texas, helped boost both U.S. crude and Brent to their highest intraday prices since January 2020. Brent futures for April delivery fell 16 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $66.88 a barrel.