Opening Bell: 6.30.17
Buffett's Berkshire to exercise BofA warrants for shares (Reuters)
Buffett had bought $5 billion of Bank of America preferred stock with a 6 percent dividend, or $300 million annually, in August 2011, when investors worried about the bank's capital needs. The purchase included warrants to acquire 700 million common shares at $7.14 each, less than one-third Thursday's closing price of $24.32.
SEC Said to Scrutinize Hedge Funds’ Handling of Hot IPO Shares (BBG)
The SEC wants to know whether firms are violating disclosure requirements to place IPO shares in funds that manage money for their senior executives, instead of clients, said two of the people. Additional concerns: firms are allowing only certain investors to benefit from IPOs or shares are being used to give an immediate pop to laggard funds to keep clients from pulling their money, the people said.
Traders Who Left Banks for Hedge Funds Now Heading Back to Banks (BBG)
Recruiters say these moves and others aren’t just the usual attrition: banks in New York and London are interesting employers again a decade after the financial crisis, and may get involved in more proprietary trading if President Trump eases regulatory burdens. There’s also another factor: many macro funds just don’t make money anymore.
Goldman Commodity Analysts Ask: How Did We Get It So Wrong? (BBG)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts might not be the only ones to have incorrectly called commodity prices this year, but they are at least trying to figure out how they misjudged the market. Commodities have tumbled 9 percent since their 2017 peak in mid-February, and Goldman acknowledges that some factors weren’t predictable, including rising oil supplies in Libya and Nigeria and the impact of weather on crops. “But this still leaves the question of how did we (and the market) get it so wrong?”
Chip Makers Are Cashing In on Digital Currencies, for Now (WSJ)
While the recent rush of GPU sales will likely help both Nvidia and AMD in their next quarterly reports, investors should still be wary. The cryptocurrency markets have long been prone to wild swings—ethereum is now about 23% off its peak from two weeks ago, according to CoinDesk. And recall that a spike in GPU demand for bitcoin mining in 2013 also proved to be short-lived. There are a lot of good reasons to be positive on the market for GPU chips. Banking on cryptocurrency speculators isn’t one of them.
Deutsche Bank Again Rebuffs Democratic Lawmakers’ Requests for Trump Accounts (WSJ)
Individual members of Congress don’t have the same standing as a full Congressional committee or investigators in a formal Congressional or regulatory inquiry, the bank’s lawyers said. “We respectfully disagree with the suggestion that Deutsche Bank freely may reveal confidential financial information in response to requests from individual members of Congress,” the Deutsche Bank lawyers said in the letter.
U.S. SEC to allow firms to file confidential draft statements before IPOs (Reuters)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday it was expanding the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, by allowing all public companies to file confidentially prior to initial public offerings, in a move designed to revitalize the IPO market. This is the first major policy announcement by new SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, in an effort to help companies raise money more readily.
Oscar Mayer Made a Drone to Rain Hot Dogs Down on Humanity (Gizmodo)
The drone itself appears to be a custom creation, weighing in at 6.5-pounds with a flight time of around 15 minutes, letting it fly about a mile before needing to land for a recharge. It has enough lifting power to carry a single wrapped hot dog during flight, but details on condiment capacity are still unknown. If you prefer those Chicago-style hot dogs piled high with pickle spears, tomato wedges, and peppers, you’ll presumably be limiting the WienerDrone’s flight capabilities.
All the “wellness” products Americans love to buy are sold on both Infowars and Goop (Qz)
There’s Duck Dynasty America and Modern Family America. There’s “gosh” America and “dope” America. Sometimes, though, Americans unite around a common idea. Like the healing powers of eleuthero root, cordyceps mushrooms, and “nascent iodine.”