Opening Bell: 8.16.18
SEC ramps up Tesla investigation after Elon Musk’s Tweets [Fox Business]
The San Francisco office of the SEC has sent subpoenas to Tesla regarding its privatization plans and Musk’s statement to determine whether the billionaire inventor intentionally misled investors, Gasparino said….
“They’re between a rock and a hard place on this one,” Gasparino said. “[On one hand] it looks like what Elon Musk said when he said funding was secured, particularly after his statements recently, was not accurate. They don’t have the funding actually secured.”
Deutsche Bank, Barclays Fortunes Differ in Turkish Turmoil Bets [Bloomberg]
Deutsche Bank AG traders generated a $35 million profit in two weeks as economic turmoil in Turkey triggered a slump in assets across emerging markets. That same volatility cost Barclays Plcsome trading losses, according to people with knowledge of the matter…. Deutsche Bank’s trading gains may provide some respite for Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing, who is overhauling the fixed-income business after years of underperformance and fines for misdeeds.
Banks Say No Thanks to Volcker Rule Changers [WSJ]
Last week, lawyers representing JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and six other banks met with the Federal Reserve to complain about the recent proposal to revise the regulation designed to curb risky trading by banks, people familiar with the matter said….
“I can’t imagine this aspect of the proposal being preferable to the original and current Volcker 1.0 regime," said Gregg Rozansky, a senior vice president at the Bank Policy Institute, an industry trade group representing the nation’s largest banks. “It could raise prices for student loans, credit cards or auto loans,” he added.
Elizabeth Warren has a plan to save capitalism [Vox]
Warren’s plan starts from the premise that corporations that claim the legal rights of personhood should be legally required to accept the moral obligations of personhood….
Warren wants to eliminate the huge financial incentives that entice CEOs to flush cash out to shareholders rather than reinvest in businesses. She wants to curb corporations’ political activities. And for the biggest corporations, she’s proposing a dramatic step that would ensure workers and not just shareholders get a voice on big strategic decisions.
U.S. Pursues One of the Biggest Mortgage-Fraud Probes Since the Financial Crisis [WSJ]
Still in its early stages, the investigation has so far yielded a fraud-conspiracy indictment against four real-estate executives in upstate New York….
The tally of suspect loans could grow larger because FBI agents have reviewed deals involving several upstate New York developers with ties to Robert Morgan and to Mr. Giacobbe, the mortgage broker Mr. Morgan’s firm sometimes used.
Ex-NYC union head convicted of taking bribe for investing in hedge fund [Reuters]
Norman Seabrook, who once led the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, was convicted by a Manhattan federal jury of one count of fraud after his second trial on the charges. An earlier trial ended with a hung jury in November….
Federal prosecutors had accused Seabrook of steering $20 million of union funds into Platinum in exchange for a $60,000 bribe from the fund. Prosecutors said the payment had been arranged by Platinum co-founder Murray Huberfeld and delivered to Seabrook in the form of cash stuffed into a Ferragamo bag by real estate developer Jona Rechnitz.
Hedge Funds Pile Into Camping World and Other RV Stocks [Bloomberg]
Hedge fund moguls may be more likely to own a jet than a motorhome but that isn’t stopping them from piling into recreational vehicle stocks.
Camping World Holdings Inc. was one of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend in the second quarter with new stakes from funds including Dan Loeb’s Third Point and David Rosen’s Rubric Capital…. Other funds like Scopus Asset Management and Carlson Capital LP added to their positions in the quarter…. Shares of the Lincolnshire, Illinois-based company have fallen 54 percent this year, including a 23 percent slide in the second quarter amid concerns about production cuts and a retail slowdown.
Police in Slovakia Reportedly Arrest Opera-Blasting Woman [NPR]
She played an aria by Verdi to drown out a neighbor's dog, and then she repeated the same tune all day long for 16 years. The Hungarian news site says neighbors finally had arrested for malicious persecution.