Opening Bell: 4.13.16
JPMorgan Profit Beats Estimates on Pay Cuts, Trading Results (Bloomberg)
Net income fell 6.7 percent to $5.52 billion, or $1.35 a share, from $5.91 billion, or $1.45, a year earlier, the New York-based company said Wednesday in a statement. On an adjusted basis, per-share earnings were $1.41, beating the $1.25 average estimate of 29 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Five Big Banks' Living Wills Rejected by U.S. Banking Agencies (Bloomberg)
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and three other major U.S. banks failed to persuade regulators they could go bankrupt without disrupting the financial system and could now face a tighter leash from Washington after government agencies used one of the most significant post-crisis powers bestowed under the Dodd-Frank Act. The banks -- also including Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and State Street Corp. -- must scrap their so-called living wills after regulators said the submissions failed to satisfy their demands. The rejected lenders will have until Oct. 1 to rewrite their plans -- but under the pressure that another failure would give the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. power to subject them to more capital, liquidity or constraints on their businesses.
Fed eyes U.S. rate hike, but second-guesses economic gauges (Reuters)
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has declared that the U.S. central bank's interest-rate decisions will depend on how the economy performs. But Fed officials and their staff are already dismissing large swathes of the most recent economic data because they view it as unreliable, a twist that could make it harder for investors, businesses and households to plan for the central bank's next interest-rate move.
VC Peter Thiel Says Just About Everything Is Overvalued, Not Just Tech (Bloomberg)
“Startup tech stocks may be overvalued, but so are public equities, so are houses, so are government bonds,” said Thiel, speaking Tuesday at the LendIt USA Conference in San Francisco. “Silicon Valley is quite far from it. If the bubble is in cash, illiquid startup investments may be a place to hide.”
Kissing couple oblivious to armed robbery at Montana bar (NYDN)
the Tap Inn bar and casino in Billings, where a pair of masked men pointed a gun at the bartender and demanded an undisclosed amount of cash, according to a local report. The men covered their faces with a bandana. The bartender opened the cash register during the 1:15 a.m. heist and reached for the sky, surveillance footage obtained by MTN News shows. The couple continued to lock lips as the robbers circled the bar, but eventually the love birds came up for air and watched the suspects flee with cash-in-hand.
Want a Higher Salary? It Helps If You're a Man With Rich Parents (Bloomberg)
If you want to earn more money, it helps to be a man with rich parents and to go to the London School of Economics. That’s the finding of a study of 260,000 British graduates in their first years after leaving university. A decade after graduation, the gap in annual earnings between the children of wealthy parents and those from poorer backgrounds was 8,000 pounds ($11,400) for men and 5,300 pounds for women in 2012-13. Even controlling for degree course and university, children of the rich earned 10 percent more than students from an average family.
Oil Drillers Feel the Pain as Banks Slash Their Credit Lines (Bloomberg)
Almost two years into the worst oil bust in a generation, lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are slashing credit lines for struggling energy companies. It’s a tacit acknowledgment that energy prices aren’t coming back, and represents an abrupt turnaround from last year when banks were lenient on struggling drillers in the hope that better times were coming.
Tax-Rule Changes Ripple Widely (WSJ)
Corporate tax lawyers, who have spent the past week trying to understand one of the Obama administration’s most far-reaching tax regulations, say the rules cast aside decades of precedents and force corporations to alter routine cash-management techniques. The rules would also end a strategy used by companies such as Illinois Tool Works Inc. to repatriate foreign profits without paying U.S. taxes.
Mr. Met loves the Mets, despite being denied National League Championship ring (NYDN)
Steven Boldis, the man behind the beloved Mets mascot for the past 12 years, spoke out Tuesday, for the first time since the Daily News reported he was denied a NL Championship ring. “I just wanted to clarify some things on the ring situation, first and foremost I am still a Mets fan and will always be one,” Boldis said in a statement Tuesday. “I worked some of the best seasons and some of the worst but (was) always behind the team 100%." The 26-year-old left the team after last year’s stunning World Series loss to the Royals to take a job in construction during the off-season. “This to me was a slap in the face. I’ll always be a Mets fan but it just won’t be the same,” Boldis said...A rep for the team told The News last week that Boldis, who worked for the team for 15 years total, didn’t fit the bill for the bling.