Opening Bell: 6.30.16

Fed Clears 31 of 33 Big Banks to Boost Returns to Investors (WSJ)
Big firms such as Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., which struggled on the tests in recent years, passed this time. Morgan Stanley also passed but received a bit of a rebuke. The Fed said it found “weaknesses” in internal risk- management processes and required the bank to submit a revised capital plan by the end of the year, though it will still be able to return capital in the meantime...The U.S. banking units of two foreign firms, Deutsche Bank AG and Banco Santander SA, were flunked, due to Fed concerns about their ability to measure risks. It was the second year in a row the German bank failed and the third consecutive failure for the Spanish firm.

Carlyle CEO Rubenstein Says Brexit Won’t Cause ‘Calamity’ (Bloomberg)
David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group LP, said Britain’s vote to exit from the European Union will depress U.K. economic growth and mergers and acquisitions activity, but won’t have disastrous effects. “The U.K. economy will slow, but it won’t be a calamity,” Rubenstein, who’s also the co-chief executive officer of Carlyle, said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Erik Schatzker.

Airbnb Plans Dual Stock Sales to Push Off IPO (WSJ)
Airbnb Inc. lined up investors for a new funding round and an employee stock sale that will value the room-rental website at up to $30 billion and help defer an initial public offering, said people familiar with the matter. The San Francisco company plans to raise between $500 million and $1 billion from more than a half dozen large, investors in the coming weeks, the people said. The deal is expected to value Airbnb at about $30 billion, up from $25.5 billion a year ago.

Google Capital Makes First Public Company Investment in Care.com (Bloomberg)
Shares in Care.com Inc soared 18 percent in extended trading, after the home care provider announced a $46.35 million investment from Google Capital, the growth equity arm of Alphabet Inc. Google Capital’s investment makes it the largest shareholder in Care.com, and Laela Sturdy, a partner at the fund, will join the company’s board, Care.com said Wednesday in a statement.

Voodoo Client Made Threats, Man Tells Cops (TSG)
German Padilla-Balderas, 33, contacted investigators earlier this month to report that he was receiving threats from a former co-worker (whose name was redacted from an incident report). Padilla-Balderas, a Bradenton construction worker, said that the suspect “has been having relationship issues which resulted in his wife leaving.” Padilla-Balderas said that the man “came to him to put ‘voodoo’ on his wife in hopes of her returning.” But when a marital reconciliation did not materialize, Padilla-Balderas (seen above) reported, the customer “became upset with his services, claiming that they didn’t work.” The man warned that if his wife did not return by the end of June, “he will kidnap Padilla,” according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report. Fearful for his safety, Padilla-Balderas told cops that he believed the man would carry through on his threat, adding that his former co-worker has “ties.”

Puerto Rico Says It Will Default Even With Congressional Aid (Bloomberg)
“On July 1, 2016, Puerto Rico will default on more than $1 billion in general obligation bonds, the island’s senior credits protected by a constitutional lien on revenues,” Garcia Padilla wrote in a editorial posted on a CNBC website. The lapse will mark the first time the U.S. territory has failed to pay what it owes on general-obligation debt, a $13 billion swath that its constitution says has the top claim to the government’s funds.

A Real Rock of a Diamond Fails to Sell at Auction (NYT)
A 1,109-carat uncut diamond offered in an unusual public auction is still waiting for a buyer. Offered for sale at a public auction on Wednesday evening at Sotheby’s in London, the stone — believed to be the largest still-uncut diamond in the world — failed to sell when it did not meet the minimum reserve, a price that was not specified. The bidding stopped at $61 million. A fee of about 12 percent, known as the buyer’s premium, would have been added to that price, which would have brought the total cost to about $68 million. “If you divide it by 1,109 carats, it is about $62,000 a carat,” said Henri Barguirdjian, president and chief executive of Graff Diamonds. “That is a very high price for a rough diamond, so obviously the reserve was too high.”

US banks in much better shape than years ago, says EY CEO (CNBC)
U.S. banks are in much better shape than they were years ago, EY Global Chairman and CEO Mark Weinberger said Wednesday. "Bottom line is they've got to get back into the business of lending, the business of going ahead and creating capital, and hopefully this will be turning the corner," he said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell" from the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Roomba Beer Pong Is Your Game Of The Summer (HP)
A version of beer pong played with cups on moving Roombas has hit the Internet. In a video posted Tuesday to YouTube by Megan Noll, one gentleman tosses a ping pong ball into a cup despite the added degree of difficulty. That’s right, bros, you can play your favorite drinking game on pricy cleaning robots. But you might want to be well-heeled bros. Wrote one Redditor: “All you need is 12 cups, some beer, and $800 worth of vacuum cleaners.”