Opening Bell: 1.30.17
JPMorgan Chase to use customer spending history to sell products (FT)
The system works by linking clients’ phone calls to profiles of the customers’ previous trades and trading behaviours, using the same technology that call centres have employed for decades. JPMorgan then overlays an analytics programme to help the salesperson suggest trades that would be most suited to the client. “It’s a little bit like how Amazon suggests what you might like to buy next,” the person said.
The first 10 days: what economists make of Trump (FT)
“President Trump’s signing of an executive order restricting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries looks to be behind this dip in risk appetite as investors question to what extent they can continue to trade a glass-half full view of the new US administration in focusing upon a hoped for Keynesian demand boost and look through the negative geopolitical implications of its clear isolationist and protectionist leanings.”
FX Guru John Taylor Is Back, Minus the $12 Million-a-Year Salary (BBG)
Taylor’s compensation is now on a dramatically different scale: He says he pulls in about $300,000 annually, compared with making $12 million several years in a row during the halcyon days. “I’m not starving, but I also am not taking vacations at the Villa d’Este,” he says, referring to a luxury hotel on Italy’s Lake Como.
Former Goldman Employee Alleges Co-Workers Knew of Plans to Get Fed Secrets (WSJ)
Rohit Bansal said in a 2016 deposition that four other Goldman executives had direct knowledge of conversations about him obtaining confidential Fed materials. Three of them still work for Goldman; a fourth is no longer employed by the firm. The revelations in the deposition constitute the latest twist in the Fed’s lengthy investigation of the 2014 leak that stoked concerns about close ties between the regulator and Wall Street, and of employees who move between the two in what critics have called a “revolving door” pattern.
The 1966 Pro Bowl Halftime Show Featured A Goose-Stepping Swastika Being Eaten By A Church (Deadspin)
If you’re unversed on decades-old Pro Bowls, you’d be forgiven for thinking Fall Out Boy’s 2014 performance was the most offensive halftime show in the history of the NFL’s all-star game. But no!
Starbucks CEO Schultz plans to hire 10,000 refugees after Trump ban (Reuters)
The hiring efforts announced on Sunday would start in the United States by initially focusing on individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in the various countries where the military has asked for such support, Schultz said. Schultz has been outspoken on various issues and has put Starbucks in the national spotlight, asking customers not to bring guns into stores and urging conversations on race relations.
Ex-Microsoft COO Kevin Turner is already out from his hedge fund job (BI)
Kevin Turner who left the Microsoft COO position in July to become CEO of hedge fund Citadel Securities, is already out at Citadel, the company says.Turner is being replaced by long-time Citadel exec Peng Zhao who currently serves as vice chairman of Citadel.
IMF claims on ‘explosive’ Greek debt hits bond yields (FT)
Here we go again. Greek bonds are getting dumped today in the wake of the International Monetary Fund’s latest claims about the country’s “explosive” debt dynamics.In an escalation of its previous warnings on Greece’s debt pile, the Fund’s latest annual report on Greece (as seen by the FT) throws fresh doubt on its continued presence in Athens’ latest bailout programme, claiming that “Greece cannot grow out of its debt problems”.
France's wild hamsters being turned into 'crazed cannibals' by diet of corn (Guardian)
A diet of corn is turning wild hamsters in north-eastern France into deranged cannibals that devour their offspring, researchers have reported. “There’s clearly an imbalance,” Gerard Baumgart, President of the Research Centre for Environmental Protection in Alsace, and an expert on the European hamster, said on Friday. “Our hamster habitat is collapsing,” he said.