Opening Bell: 2.3.17
Trump Moves to Kill Off Obama’s Landmark Retirement Rule (WSJ)
“We think it is a bad rule. It is a bad rule for consumers," said White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. “This is like putting only healthy food on the menu, because unhealthy food tastes good but you still shouldn’t eat it because you might die younger.”
Snap lost $514 million last year and warns that it 'may never be profitable' (BI)
"We began commercial operations in 2011 and for all of our history we have experienced net losses and negative cash flows from operations," Snap said in its regulatory filing with the SEC. "If our revenue does not grow at a greater rate than our expenses, we will not be able to achieve and maintain profitability."
Deutsche Bank Set to Slash Equities, Fixed-Income Jobs (WSJ)
Deutsche Bank AG plans to cut as much as 17% of its equities staff and 6% of its fixed-income staff globally, with notices planned for many employees next week, according to people familiar with the matter. The cuts, details of which haven’t been reported, are aimed at bringing the number of people working in the bank’s trading unit in line with a narrower array of products on offer, and reflect disappointing performance, particularly in equities.
US hedge funds start to bet big on Europe (FT)
“When we invest in the US, it’s like fortress America but when you look at Europe, there are all these fissures, all these cracks running through the system, whether it’s the Scottish referendum, or Brexit, or Italy. There are always these breakpoints in Europe that create issues. If you’re an investor like us, it creates some really interesting opportunities.”
Madoff: No one believed me when I tried to come clean (NYP)
“Well they [suspicious investors in 2005] would, they would ask me that, you know, with a smile, ‘You’re not — are you really doing these trades?’ or ‘You know, and so on and so forth?’ ” Madoff testified in a 2012 deposition. “And sometimes, I would say, ‘No, I’m not [making any trades].’ They would laugh, and then that would be the end of it. They didn’t want to believe it.”
English Has 3,000 Words For Being Drunk (BBC)
The concoctions fill a rich lexicon, veering from the euphemistic ‘tiger’s milk’ to the blatant invitation of ‘strip-me-naked’. Add those to the 3,000 words English currently holds for the state of being drunk (including ‘ramsquaddled’, ‘obfusticated’, ‘tight as a tick’, and the curious ‘been too free with Sir Richard’) and you’ll find that the only subjects that fill the pages of English slang more are money and sex.
Trump Leads to Record Trading of Leveraged VIX Securities: Chart (BBG)
With the CBOE Volatility Index heading for its biggest weekly gain of the year, securities tracking its futures are seeing record trading. More than 20 million shares of the ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures and VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short Term ETN changed hands each day on average in the past four days, set to lead to the busiest week ever for the products.
This New Dating App Will Find You Someone Who Dislikes All the Same Things (NYMag)
Hater, a new dating app that publicly launches on February 8, flips the script of its competitors and matches people based on things that they mutually dislike. CEO Brendan Alper, 29, a former Goldman Sachs employee who quit to become a comedy writer, says that Hater was initially a sketch idea. “The more I thought about it, the more I thought ‘Hey even though this was a funny idea, it actually makes a lot of sense,’” Alper tells the Cut.