Author: News Room

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker on Tuesday suggested he might support one more quarter-percentage-point interest-rate hike before pausing. Since last March, the Fed has increased its benchmark rate from close to zero to a range of 4.75%-5%. “My view all along, and I have been pretty public about this, we need to get rates above 5% and then sit there for a while,” Harker said in a speech to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “We’re already seeing promising signs that these actions are working — for example, house-price indexes are cooling,” Harker said. Interest-rate policy works with…

By Kwanwoo Jun South Korea’s central bank stood pat for a second consecutive rate decision amid signs of easing inflation and concerns over weakening economic growth. The Bank of Korea kept the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at 3.50% on Tuesday as expected, continuing a pause in its rate-increase campaign to curb the country’s soaring price growth. All 23 analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal ahead of the bank’s decision had forecast no rate move in April. Inflation has recently eased in South Korea, with the benchmark consumer price index rising 4.2% from a year earlier in March–the slowest…

Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who was freed from Russia late last year after being wrongfully detained, is writing a memoir due out next spring. “After an incredibly challenging 10 months in detainment, I am grateful to have been rescued and to be home. Readers will hear my story and understand why I’m so thankful for the outpouring of support from people across the world,” Griner said in a news release Tuesday from publisher Alfred A. Knopf. The two-time Olympic gold-medalist spent nearly 300 days in Russian custody after being detained in February 2022 and sentenced to nine years in…

In late 2022, as US activist fund Elliott Management was quietly building a large stake in Dai Nippon Printing, the family-run Japanese conglomerate was searching for a new business plan bold enough to lift a stock price that had been stagnant for two decades.Just two months later, DNP announced it would undertake the biggest share buyback in its 147-year history and set a return on equity target of 10 per cent. The company’s shares have risen more than 40 per cent since January 24, when the Financial Times first revealed that Elliott had accumulated a stake of just under 5…

Banking is a very good business if you don’t do anything dumb. – Warren Buffett To My Partners and Friends: Black Bear Value Fund, LP (the “Fund”) returned +0.8% in March and +2.9% YTD. The S&P 500 returned +3.7% in March and +7.5% YTD. The HFRI Index returned +1.2% in March and +4.5% YTD. We do not seek to mimic the returns of the S&P 500 and there will be variances in our performance. Note: Additional historical performance can be found on our tear-sheet. Click to enlarge Our concentrated investments in energy have been a drag on our YTD performance.…

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Bitcoin’s meteoric rise continues to captivate the financial world as the leading cryptocurrency has recently blasted past the critical $30,000 milestone. With this unprecedented surge in value, crypto enthusiasts are keenly watching the market, seeking to predict the future of Bitcoin. As the digital asset’s price trajectory defies traditional market analysis, we delve into the factors driving its growth, explore the potential risks and rewards, and attempt to forecast Bitcoin’s next moves in this rapidly evolving landscape.Key Fundamentals Driving BTC PricesIn the US, 236,000 more jobs were added than anticipated in the nonfarm payroll establishment survey, exceeding expectations of 230,000. Moreover,…

An enormous Whole Foods in downtown San Francisco that opened just last year is temporarily closing. The company said concerns about worker safety forced it to shut down. Incidents of theft in San Francisco have gained national attention, though crime has generally fallen over the past six years. The nearly 65,000-square foot location at Trinity Place in the city’s Mid-Market neighborhood shut its doors Monday to “ensure the safety” of its employees, a Whole Foods spokesperson said. Although Whole Foods did not share any additional information on the conditions that led to the store closing, the spokesperson added that it…

Wall Street is wrong about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path, according to former PIMCO chief economist Paul McCulley.Barring a surprise jump in inflation, he believes mounting economic pressures will convince the Fed to stop hiking interest rates next month.”It would be a pause and then a pivot [later this year],” McCulley told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Tuesday.McCulley delivered his latest forecast less than 24 hours before the government releases the March consumer price index. According to Dow Jones estimates, Wall Street expects a 5.1% year-over-year increase versus 6% in February.”They’re [Fed officials] going to look at the data coming…

(Reuters) – The balancing act between slowing growth and sticky price pressures is top of the agenda ahead of U.S. inflation data and the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington. Kazuo Ueda takes over the helm at the Bank of Japan while U.S. bank earnings kick off and Switzerland’s parliament debates the UBS-Credit Suisse tie up. Here’s a look at the week ahead in markets from Kevin Buckland in Tokyo, Ira Iosebashvili in New York, Jorgelina do Rosario, Naomi Rovnick and Karin Strohecker in London. 1/ BANKS’ BOTTOM LINES The uneasy calm that has settled over the U.S.…