September 16, 2021

Opening Bell: 1.18.18

Shutdown vote imminent; Morgan Stanely beats; Bitcoin fights back; Florida still Florida; and more!
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Congress to vote Thursday for funding bill to avoid government shutdown [Reuters]
Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate and most legislation, including spending bills or an immigration deal, will require 60 votes to pass.
A vote on the bill is expected to come after 2:30 p.m. EST (1930 GMT), House Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber would take up the short-term funding measure as soon as the House approves it.

Morgan Stanley earnings: 84 cents per share, vs 77 cents EPS expected [CNBC]
Morgan Stanley posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue on Thursday that beat analyst expectations, excluding a charge related to the tax bill, as strong results in wealth management offset a big drop in fixed income trading revenue.
Wealth management revenue grew by 10.5 percent on a year-over-year basis, helping offset declines in the bank's trading revenue. Fixed income, commodities and currencies trading revenue decreased by 46 percent. Equities trading revenue fell 5 percent.
The company's stock rose 1.5 percent in the premarket Thursday. Morgan Stanley shares are up 4.1 percent this year, slightly outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 3.9 percent.

Apple to Pay $38 Billion in Taxes on Cash Overseas, Build New U.S. Campus [WSJ]
Apple said it would invest $30 billion in capital spending in the U.S. over five years that would create more than 20,000 jobs. The total includes a new campus, which initially will house technical support for customers, and $10 billion toward data centers across the country. It also will expand from $1 billion to $5 billion a fund it established last year for investing in advanced manufacturing in the U.S.
Apple’s $38 billion tax commitment is the largest such sum announced in response to the major overhaul of the U.S. tax code that President Donald Trump signed into law late last year. That law included an incentive for U.S. companies to bring home offshore holdings, with companies required to pay a one-time tax of 15.5% on overseas profits held in cash and other liquid assets.

Bitcoin Holds Ground as Frantic Rally Sets $10,000 Support Level [Bloomberg]
The world’s largest digital currency climbed 3.9 percent to $11,822 at 7:40 a.m. in New York, Bloomberg composite pricing showed. It steadied in Asian and European trading as investors paused for breath following a frantic 24 hours in which the token swung through a $2,600 range. Rivals ethereum and litecoin rose about 2 percent each, while Ripple jumped 17 percent.

Goldman Sachs Once Looked Invincible. Now It’s Losing Money. [NYT]
The bank’s per-share earnings and revenue were both higher compared with a year earlier without the tax charge. But the results announced on Wednesday also revealed a decline in Goldman’s trading might, which has been drained by a potent combination of placid markets and quiet clients. Revenue in its business of buying and selling bonds, commodities and currencies — historically an engine of Goldman’s results — sank to $1 billion in the fourth quarter, half of what it was during the same period in 2016. For the year, net revenue in that business fell 30 percent.
The drop sent Goldman’s shares down 3 percent on Wednesday.

West Village penthouse owner wants to keep hedgie’s $2M deposit [NYPost]
William Monaghan put it on the market in 2015, and hedgie Eric Cole agreed to buy it on July 28, according to court papers.
Cole put down an $1.8 million deposit, sources said
Everything was seemingly proceeding smoothly until Cole suddenly alerted Monaghan on Dec. 20 that he wanted to back out.
So, Monaghan sued Cole for breaching the contract and has asked the court to order Cole to forfeit the cash.
Cole, 45, a protégé of hedge fund billionaire David Tepper, runs Warlander Asset Management, a $1 billion credit-focused hedge fund launched in 2015.

Burmese python and alligator caught in incredible fight to the death on Florida golf course [Mirror]
A deadly battle between a giant python and an alligator was captured on camera at a Florida golf course when the enormous reptiles raised the stakes on the field of play to a critically high level.
Dr Richard Nadler photographed the battle to the death at the 10th hole as he was playing golf at Fiddler's Creek club in Naples...
"As far as I know the gator won. There was no evidence of either animal the next day. We all assume that the snake was eaten by the gator," he said after photographing the entangled animals.

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Spain Prepares More Austerity, Protesters Battle Police (Reuters) Protesters clashed with police in Spain's capital on Tuesday as the government prepared a new round of unpopular austerity measures for the 2013 budget to be announced on Thursday. Thousands gathered in Neptune plaza, a few metres from El Prado museum in central Madrid, where they formed a human chain around parliament, surrounded by barricades, police trucks and more than 1,500 police in riot gear. Police fired rubber bullets and beat protesters with truncheons, first as protesters were trying to tear down barriers and later to clear the square. The police said at least 22 people had been arrested and at least 32 injured, including four policemen. Facebook's Next Fight: Suits And More Suits (WSJ) About 50 lawsuits have been filed against Facebook, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and underwriters of Facebook's May IPO, according to lawyers involved in the cases. 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Horvath faces trial Oct. 29 in Manhattan federal court along with two other portfolio managers for his part in what Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called a “criminal club:” a conspiracy of hedge fund managers, co-workers and company insiders who reaped millions of dollars on illegal tips about Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp. “The government added four additional co-conspirators,” prosecutors wrote in a Sept. 6 letter filed with the court, with the names blacked out. One of them, the U.S. said, is “the portfolio manager to whom Jon Horvath reported at his hedge fund.” That person was Steinberg, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public. UK Group To Give Up Libor Oversight (WSJ) The council of the BBA, a private trade association, voted earlier this month to give up management of Libor, according to people familiar with the matter. The move clears the way for what is likely to be the biggest change in Libor's 26-year history, and introduces the possibility that British or international regulators could be in charge of overseeing the rate, which is tied to trillions of dollars of financial contracts. Rent-a-reptile: Florida company adds alligators to kids’ pool parties (NYDN) Bob Barrett gives Florida kids pool parties they’ll never forget — because they get to swim with real live alligators. Jump houses? Pizza parties? Boring, says Barrett. “You jump for a while and that’s it, we’ve had that party before,” he told the Daily News. “Clown party, Chuck E. 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Opening Bell: 11.07.12

Obama Wins Re-Election With Romney Defeated In Key States (Bloomberg) Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney, winning at least 303 electoral votes in yesterday’s election with 270 needed for the victory. With one state -- Florida -- yet to be decided, Romney had 206 electoral votes...Obama won the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Nevada and Colorado. He also carried Pennsylvania, where Romney made an 11th-hour bid for support to try to derail the president’s drive for re-election. North Carolina was the only battleground Romney won. Romney Campaigns To The End (WSJ) Hours before Mitt Romney lost his six-year quest to win the presidency, he said he had prepared only one speech—a victory speech...Until the final hour, Mr. Romney and his aides expressed confidence that he would win. The candidate, who prefers data and metrics to chitchat, appeared to be caught off guard by the loss even though he trailed in polls in crucial battlegrounds such as Ohio. 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