Author: News Room
We love to get questions from readers, and I recently got one from a CEF Insider member about commercial real estate, after Bank of America BAC (BAC) recently said the sector could be the next one to tumble. Let’s dive into that, because this fear has been driven by the same kind of overwrought media coverage we saw with regional banks (an issue that’s been addressed, by the way, with no depositors or taxpayers losing money). And that fiasco, you no doubt know, gave us a nice “buy the dip” opportunity on, well, pretty well everything. The media has set…
A few months ago, I came across a Tweet that clearly enunciated something that had rankled me for a long time as an early-stage investor: Source: Twitter I believe firmly that, for early-stage startups, TAM is meaningless, and over-focusing on TAM actually ends up being counter-productive in the long-run. For those who aren’t familiar, TAM is shorthand for Total Addressable Market. It is a metric meant to provide a rough heuristic for how many users a company’s product could ever possibly reach, in the extreme upside case. For instance, one could calculate that the TAM of the internet is currently…
What happened with SVB, and what is happening with banks? On March 10, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) closed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. You may have seen that investors are concerned about First Republic Bank, and that UBS has acquired Credit Suisse – a Swiss bank. The failures of SVB and Signature (and current concerns about banks generally) illustrate a fundamental banking problem – a mismatch of expectations between bank depositors and bankers. Depositors want to be sure that their money is safe (as safe as money in the bank!). They subconsciously think that their bank…
By Jan Lopatka PRAGUE (Reuters) – Central bankers across central Europe have doubled down on their hawkish policy messages in the past two weeks in a bid to persuade investors to ditch bets that they will soon begin an easing cycle, and their message is starting to gain traction. Their policy warnings come despite a European market downturn in the wake of Credit Suisse’ demise, which raised bets that global banks would begin to ease monetary policy. As central Europe’s central banks were faster than their major peers to hike rates, they had also been expected to lead the way…
By Hari Kishan BENGALURU (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar will weaken against most major currencies this year as the interest rate gap with its peers stops widening, putting the currency on the defensive after a multi-year run, according to a Reuters poll of foreign exchange strategists. Despite starting the year on a weak footing, the dollar bounced back sharply in February, gaining nearly 3% for the month, on expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve would take interest rates higher than previously thought. However, the failure of two regional U.S. banks in March forced the Fed to temper those expectations, pushing the…
By Barani Krishnan Investing.com — Crude prices struggled again to keep up with their huge weekly opening rally triggered by the OPEC+ announcement on production cuts, as a U.S. weekly inventory report on Wednesday showed the government had drawn down reserves again to add to market supply and limit fuel price hikes. Also weighing on oil was data showing U.S. in March came in at less than 44% of the previous month, emitting potential recession signals even as it indicated relief for inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve who said employment and wage growth have to cool to curb the…
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A worker loads a truck with crates of oranges at a farm in Limeira January 13, 2012. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker By Ricardo Brito (Reuters) -Giants of the orange juice trade in Brazil have become defendants in a class-action lawsuit seeking $2.5 billion in damages over an alleged scheme to fix prices between 1999 and 2006, a prosecutor told Reuters. Federal Prosecutor Karen Kahn said the Sao Paulo Court of Justice will hear claims in a lawsuit filed against firms including Citrosuco, Cutrale and Louis Dreyfus Co (LDC), which account for most of the world’s orange juice output.…
The numbers: The U.S. added a robust 236,000 new jobs in March, defying the Federal Reserve’s hopes for a big slowdown in hiring as the central bank struggles to tame inflation. The consensus economist forecast called for a nonfarm-payrolls expansion of 238,000. The solid increase in employment last month followed a revised 326,000 gain in February and a gain of 472,000 in January. While the increase in hiring was the smallest monthly rise in more than two years, the number of jobs created last month was much greater than is typical. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, slipped to 3.5% from 3.6%…
My girlfriend and I have been dating for approaching two years now and are starting to think about future plans — including buying a bigger place together for a forthcoming family. We currently live in the one-bedroom condo I bought in 2017. I’m 38 and feel confident about my financial situation. I make $130,000 a year, have $200,000 in my 401(k), no credit-card debt, and have roughly $55,000 in savings on top of my condo. My girlfriend, who is about to turn 35, is in a very different place. She earns $80,000 a year, has no retirement account, owns no property,…
Creditors eager to avoid steep losses on half-empty office buildings in the wake of the pandemic have been sending chills through the rest of the roughly $5.5 trillion commercial real-estate debt market. A year later, old and outdated office towers remain a key source of dread, but lenders now also must navigate stress in the banking system, tighter credit conditions, and a Federal Reserve that appears committed to keeping interest rates restrictive, despite cracks in the banking system emerging a year into its interest rate-hiking campaign. “It couldn’t be more tone deaf,” said Jason Callan, head of Columbia Threadneedle’s structured…
