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U.S. biotechnology company was the last of three suitors standing in an auction for Horizon
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Tag: industrial news
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The Stock Market Had a Terrible Week—and Now the Fed Meeting Is on Tap
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Things tend to slow down for the holidays. The stock market isn’t there yet.
With Christmas just a couple of weeks away, it’s easy to look ahead to candy canes, caroling, and presents under the tree, but there’s still work to be done. The coming week certainly won’t be boring, with highly anticipated inflation data and a Federal Reserve decision on back-to-back days. The two events will do much to determine the direction of the market for the coming weeks—a deeper slide or a resumption of the Santa Claus rally.
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The Dow industrials are on the verge of a ‘golden cross,’ even as BlackRock predicts recession like no other
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Despite worries about inflation and an impending recession, there is at least one sign that some bullish market technical analysts might latch onto.
An upbeat golden cross appears to be forming in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.90% ,
more than nine months after a bearish death cross formed back in March, as the hawkish agenda of the Federal Reserve shattered bullishness on Wall Street.A golden cross occurs when the 50-day moving average for an asset price trades above the 200-day MA, while a death cross, comparatively, is when the 50-day falls below the long-term average.
The 50-day moving average for the Dow stands at 32,200.32, at last check Friday afternoon, while the 200-day sits at 32,460.71, a roughly 260-point difference that could be traversed in the coming week or two, based on its current trajectory.
FactSet
A golden cross would mark the first for the Dow industrials since 2020 of August, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The bullish chart formation also would appear at an odd time for investors, with an apparent uptrend materializing in the stock market, even as the threat of a recession in 2023 grows.
See: Goldman Sachs CEO says recession is likely, with 35% chance of a soft landing
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is anticipating a unique recession unlike others that we’ve seen in U.S. history.
“The new macro regime is playing out. We think that requires a new, dynamic playbook based on views of market risk appetite and pricing of macro damage,” wrote BlackRock’s Investment Institute team led by Jean Boivin.
The BlackRock team said markets aren’t necessarily pricing in the recession that is being predicted.
“Central banks appear set on doing ‘whatever it takes’ to fight inflation, making recession foretold, in our view,” the team at BlackRock wrote.
As MarketWatch’s Tomi Kilgore notes, crosses, overall, aren’t necessarily good market-timing indicators.
Check out: MarketWatch’s live blog of the market
On top of that, MarketWatch columnist Mark Hulbert concludes that the U.S. stock market on average has performed no better in the wake of a golden crosses as it did at other times.
In many cases, a golden cross can help put an asset’s move into perspective, however, they tend to be well telegraphed.
Interestingly, the recession is also being widely predicted and some don’t think investors are getting the memo. As BlackRock notes, investors aren’t reflecting the damage that is to come, particularly as earnings expectations from American companies are right-sized.
So, it might be worth it for investors to take any golden crosses in assets with a grain of salt.
So far, the Dow industrials have outperformed over the past three months, up about 5%, compared with a decline of 2.5% for the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.73%
and an 8.2% drop for the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-0.70% .Over the past three months, the Dow industrials have recent in aggregate on the back of gains in shares of Caterpillar
CAT,
-1.56% ,
Boeing Co.
BA,
+0.20%
Merck & Co.
MRK,
-1.86% ,
IBM
IBM,
-0.47%
and Travelers Cos.
TRV,
-1.10% .For the year so far, the Dow is down 7%, while the S&P 500 is off 17% and the Nasdaq is down nearly 30%.
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Sinema ditches Democrats, but analysts say it’s no Senate earthquake, just a re-election gambit
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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Friday that she’s leaving the Democratic Party to register as an independent.
So what does that mean?
The initial reaction from analysts is that the Arizona lawmaker’s move won’t shake up how the Senate functions that much, and that it has more to do with her possible 2024 campaign for re-election.
“At this point, we don’t expect Sinema’s defection to formally change the balance of power in the Senate,” said Benjamin Salisbury, director of research at Height Capital Markets, in a note.
“Two independents, Senators Angus King [of Maine] and Bernie Sanders [of Vermont], formally caucus with Democrats,” Salisbury noted. “While Sinema declined to say which party she would caucus with, she did say that the change would not change how she votes, and she plans to keep her committee assignments, which is an indication to us that she will keep her affiliation with Democrats. In our view, the move is more about positioning herself for a tough 2024 reelection.”
Sinema, who has been criticized frequently by progressive Democrats for moves such as opposing changes to the so-called carried-interest loophole, was expected to face a challenge from the left in a Democratic primary. But as an independent, she can avoid a primary and focus on the general election in her battleground state.
Her calculation is that “the progressive Democratic ‘brand’ won’t help her to reelection in Arizona, but centrists and some from each party will,” Terry Haines, founder of Pangaea Policy, wrote in a note. “So there’s no percentage in doing anything but emphasizing her independence, and this is a high-profile, direct, and effective way of doing it.”
Haines said the senator’s move isn’t an earthquake for the Senate: “Sinema herself says it’s not so, that she’ll continue to do the job in the same way — and there’s no reason to dispute it.”
He also wrote that the “basic result for 2023-24 is as it was before Sinema’s announcement: domestic gridlock, basic fiscal/government spending stability, and continued foreign policy unanimity, particularly on China and Ukraine.”
The Biden White House offered a similar reaction on Friday, saying that Sinema’s decision to “register as an independent in Arizona does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate, and we have every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her.”
Sinema has voted with Democrats 97% of the time, according to Bloomberg Government data.
And see: Republicans clinch slim majority in House, likely signaling 2023 gridlock ahead
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sinema would keep her committee assignments.
“I believe she’s a good and effective Senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, also said. “We will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power, and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes.”
For the past two years, Democrats have controlled the 50-50 Senate only because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes.
Following Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s win on Tuesday over Republican challenger Herschel Walker in their closely watched runoff election, Democrats were expected to enjoy a 51-49 majority in the Senate.
There’s talk that Sinema’s announcement on Friday may have changed that, but analysts such as Salisbury and Haines are pushing against that view.
“Sinema’s defection is another sign of the tentative rise of overt bipartisanship in Congress,” Haines wrote. “There’s an increasing view that solving issues is what the vast majority of voters want, and some legislators seem prepared to risk the wrath of their party establishments to achieve it.”
Most U.S. senators have been affiliated with a major political party, but more than 70 have been independents or represented a minor party, according to Senate records.
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is a recent example of that group, as he started out as a Democrat, then became an independent but still caucused with his former party. That’s even as Democratic leaders criticized him for backing the late Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.
U.S. stocks
SPX,
-0.73%
DJIA,
-0.90%
traded mixed Friday and were on track for weekly losses.[ad_2]
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Omicron subvariants are now dominant in the U.S. as COVID cases tick up and New York City becomes a hot spot
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Omicron subvariants continued to account for more new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. in the latest week than did BA.5, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which are sublineages of BA.5, accounted for 67.9% of cases in the week through Dec. 10, while BA.5 accounted for 11.5%, the data show.
Last week, BQ.1.1 and BQ.1 accounted for 62.8% of all cases in the U.S., while BA.5 accounted for 13.8%.
In the New York region, which includes New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the numbers were even higher, with BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 accounting for 73.3% of new cases, compared with 10% for BA.5.
In the previous week, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 accounted for 72.4% of all cases, compared with 6.9% for BA.5.
New York City is again emerging as a hot spot for COVID, according to a New York Times tracker, which shows cases up about 60% in recent weeks and hospitalizations at their highest level since February.
The test-positivity rate in New York City stood at 13% on Thursday, the tracker shows.
Overall, known U.S. cases are up 53% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations is up 30% at 37,066, while the daily average for deaths is up 35% to 460.
For now, the numbers remain far below the peaks seen last winter, when omicron first hit, but with flu and other respiratory infections currently sweeping the country and affecting young children, experts are warning people to take precautions.
Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began
Other COVID-19 news you should know about:
• A rash of COVID-19 cases in schools and businesses was reported by social-media users Friday in areas across China. This comes after the ruling Communist Party loosened its antivirus rules as it tries to reverse a deepening economic slump, the Associated Press reported. Official data showed a fall in new cases, but after the government on Wednesday ended mandatory testing for many people, those data no longer cover large parts of the population. That was among the dramatic changes aimed at gradually emerging from the zero-COVID restrictions that have confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign.
• U.S.-listed shares of China Jo-Jo Drugstores Inc.
CJJD,
+51.20%
rallied on Friday as the stores filled with customers buying cold medicines after COVID restrictions were eased, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. The stock was up 22%. The company, which is based in Hangzhou, China, operates drugstores and an online pharmacy in China. It is also a wholesale distributor of pharmacy products and grows and sells herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine.Some movie theaters in China reopened and COVID-testing booths were dismantled ahead of an announcement by authorities on Wednesday that will scrap most testing and quarantine requirements. The changes come after nationwide protests against Beijing’s zero-COVID policy. Photo: Ng Han Guan/Associated Press
• Pfizer
PFE,
-0.12%
and German partner BioNTech
BNTX,
-0.88%
have received fast-track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a single-dose mRNA-based vaccine candidate targeting both COVID and flu. The companies have already announced that they are in early-stage trials to review the safety and immunogenicity of their combined vaccine in healthy adults. The vaccine will target the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron sublineages, which have become dominant globally, as well as four different flu strains recommended for use in the Northern Hemisphere by the World Health Organization. If approved, the vaccine would be the first to target both COVID and flu.• A bill to rescind the COVID vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military and to provide nearly $858 billion for national defense was passed by the House on Thursday as lawmakers scratch one of the final items off their yearly to-do list, the AP reported. The bill provides about $45 billion more for defense programs than President Joe Biden requested, the second consecutive year Congress has significantly exceeded his request, as lawmakers seek to boost the nation’s military competitiveness with China and Russia. The bill is expected to easily pass the Senate and then be signed into law by Biden.
Here’s what the numbers say:
The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 648 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.65 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. leads the world with 99.4 million cases and 1,084,236 fatalities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 228.6 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.9% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.
So far, just 42 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 13.5% of the overall population.
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Lululemon stock drops 10% after mixed quarterly results, soaring inventories
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Lululemon Athletica Inc. stock fell more than 10% in the extended session Thursday after the athleisure-wear maker reported mixed quarterly results and saw inventories soar.
Lululemon
LULU,
+0.59%
earned $735 million, or $2 a share, in the third quarter, compared with $541 million, or $1.44 a share, in the same quarter last year. Adjusted for one-time items, Lululemon
LULU,
+0.59%
earned $1.62 a share.Revenue rose 28% to $1.9 billion, the company said. Same-store sales were up 22%.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected Lululemon to earn $1.97 a share on revenue of $1.81 billion. Same-store sales were expected to rise 19.1%.
“We are proud to have delivered another quarter of strong sales and earnings growth, despite an operating environment that remains dynamic,” Chief Financial Officer Meghan Frank said in a statement.
The retailer said inventories ended the quarter up 85% to $1.7 billion, compared with $900 million at the end of the third quarter of 2021.
“The company believes its inventories are well-positioned to support its expected revenue growth in the fourth quarter,” it said.
Lululemon guided for fourth-quarter revenue between $2.605 billion and $2.655 billion, and adjusted EPS between $4.20 and $4.30.
For the full year, the company expects revenue between $7.944 billion and $7.994 billion, and adjusted EPS between $9.87 and $9.97. FactSet consensus calls for EPS of $9.92 on sales of $7.935 billion.
Analysts were relatively upbeat about Lululemon heading into the results, saying the company was able to keep its prices higher, even as other retailers cut their prices.
Retailers have slashed prices on clothing in an effort to clear shelves and entice customers, following an inflation-induced shift in consumer spending to necessities. But Raymond James analysts, in a note this week, said they found that Lululemon “didn’t have broad-based promotions” in the third quarter, or the fourth quarter so far.
They said that the company leaned on its “We Made Too Much” section to iron out its inventories. And they noted a jump in downloads for Lululemon’s app. However, they said business in China “could be a curveball” amid that nation’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Piper Sandler analysts, in October, also said that Lululemon remained more insulated than other clothing retailers from big markdowns.
Lululemon stock is down 4% so far this year. The S&P 500 Index
SPX,
+0.75% ,
by comparison, has slid 17% over that time.Claudia Assis in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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FTC sues to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of game giant Activision Blizzard
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The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued Microsoft Corp. to block its $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard Inc.
The acquisition, which would be Microsoft’s
MSFT,
+1.07%
largest and the biggest ever in the video gaming industry, would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business,” the FTC claimed.“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”
FTC members pointed to Microsoft’s record of “acquiring and using valuable gaming content to suppress competition from rival consoles,” including its acquisition of ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks.
Microsoft President Brad Smith indicated the software giant will fight the lawsuit. In a statement, he said Microsoft has “been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns.”
“While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court,” Smith said.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, in a statement, said the suit “sounds alarming, so I want to reinforce my confidence that this deal will close. The allegation that this deal is anti-competitive doesn’t align with the facts, and we believe we’ll win this challenge.”
Still, In recent weeks Microsoft has taken steps to demonstrate to regulators its acquisition of Activision would not give it an unfair advantage in the gaming market. On Tuesday, Microsoft said it would bring the “Call of Duty” franchise to Nintendo Co.’s
7974,
-1.31%
Switch, a rival of Microsoft Xbox, and Microsoft has said it would make Call of Duty available on rival Sony Group Corp.’s
SONY,
-0.06%
PlayStation.“It’s a bad idea,” Geoffrey Manne, president of the International Center for Law and Economics, said of the FTC’s lawsuit vs. Microsoft. “There may be markets in which some activities of some of these large tech companies cause concerns, but when they are expanding into new markets or enhancing competition in markets where they aren’t leaders, we should be encouraging them, not threatening them with lawsuits.”
The government’s action in administrative court marks the first serious regulatory threat to Microsoft’s business in more than two decades, when the Justice Department brought a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the software giant that took years and was settled in 2002. Since then, Microsoft had sidestepped antitrust scrutiny and Smith in particular has focused the glare on its tech rivals Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+2.24% ,
Apple Inc.
AAPL,
+1.19% ,
Alphabet Inc.’s
GOOGL,
-0.94%
GOOG,
-0.89%
Google, and Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
+1.26% .Read more: Microsoft’s shadowy presence in antitrust push is angering the rest of Big Tech
Shares of Microsoft are up 1% in trading Thursday. Activision’s
ATVI,
-1.33%
stock is down 1.5%.The FTC’s lawsuit comes the same day it is heading to court in San Jose, Calif., in what is expected to be a three-week trial to bloc Meta’s $300 million acquisition of VR fitness app maker Within.
The trial is likely to showcase an intriguing look at the agency’s ability to stifle alleged anticompetitive conduct using largely untested legal theories at a time when Congress is sitting on tech antitrust legislation.
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Landmark bill protecting same-sex and interracial marriages passes House
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House gave final approval Thursday to legislation protecting same-sex marriages, a monumental step in a decadeslong battle for nationwide recognition of such unions that reflects a stunning turnaround in societal attitudes.
President Joe Biden is expected to promptly sign the measure, which requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages, a relief for hundreds of thousands of couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized those marriages nationwide.
The bipartisan legislation, which passed 258-169, would also protect interracial unions by requiring states to recognize legal marriages regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
In debate ahead of the vote, several gay members of Congress talked about what it would mean for them and their families. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., said he was set to marry “the love of my life” next year and that it is “unthinkable” that his marriage might not be recognized in some states.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said he and his husband should be able to visit each other in the hospital just like any other married couple and receive spousal benefits “regardless of if your spouse’s name Samuel or Samantha.”
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., said that the idea of marriage equality used to be a “far-fetched idea; now it’s the law of the land and supported by the vast majority of Americans.”
While the bill received GOP votes, most Republicans opposed the legislation and some conservative advocacy groups lobbied aggressively against it, arguing that it doesn’t do enough to protect those who want to refuse services for same-sex couples.
“God’s perfect design is indeed marriage between one man and one woman for life,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. “And it doesn’t matter what you think or what I think, that’s what the Bible says.”
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., choked up as she begged colleagues to vote against the bill, which she said undermines “natural marriage” between a man and a woman.
“I’ll tell you my priorities,” Hartzler said. “Protect religious liberty, protect people of faith and protect Americans who believe in the true meaning of marriage.”
Democrats moved the bill quickly through the House and Senate after the Supreme Court’s June decision that overturned the federal right to an abortion. That ruling included a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas that suggested same-sex marriage should also be reconsidered.
The House passed a bill to protect the same-sex unions in July with the support of 47 Republicans, a robust and unexpected show of support that kick-started serious negotiations in the Senate. After months of talks, the Senate passed the legislation last week with 12 Republican votes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., presided over the vote as one of her last acts in leadership before stepping aside in January. She said the legislation “will ensure that “the federal government will never again stand in the way of marrying the person you love.”
The legislation would not require states to allow same-sex couples to marry, as the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision now does. But it would require states to recognize all marriages that were legal where they were performed and it would protect current same-sex unions if the Obergefell decision were overturned.
While it’s not everything advocates may have wanted, passage of the legislation represents a watershed moment. Just a decade ago, many Republicans openly campaigned on blocking same-sex marriages; today more than two-thirds of the public support them.
Democrats in the Senate, led by Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, slowly won over key Republican votes by negotiating an amendment that would clarify that the legislation does not affect the rights of private individuals or businesses that are already enshrined in current law. The amended bill would also make clear that a marriage is between two people, an effort to ward off some far-right criticism that the legislation could endorse polygamy.
In the end, several religious groups, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came out in support of the bill. The Mormon church said it would support rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose.
Conservative groups that opposed the bill pushed the almost four dozen Republicans who previously backed the legislation to switch their position. The Republicans who supported the bill in July represented a wide range of the GOP caucus — from more moderate members to Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, the chair of the conservative hard-right House Freedom Caucus, and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 3 House Republican. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy voted against the measure.
Thursday’s vote came as the LGBTQ community has faced violent attacks, such as the shooting earlier this month at a gay nightclub in Colorado that killed five people and injured at least 17.
“We have been through a lot,” said Kelley Robinson, the incoming president of the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. But Robinson says the votes show “in such an important way” that the country values LBGTQ people.
“We are part of the full story of what it means to be an American,” said Robinson, who was inside the Senate chamber for last week’s vote with her wife and young son. “It really speaks to them validating our love.”
The vote was personal for many senators, too. The day the bill passed their chamber, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was wearing the tie he wore at his daughter’s wedding to another woman. He recalled that day as “one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Baldwin, the first openly gay senator who has been working on gay rights issues for almost four decades, tearfully hugged Schumer as the final vote was underway. She tweeted thanks to the same-sex and interracial couples who she said made the moment possible.
“By living as your true selves, you changed the hearts and minds of people around you,” she wrote.
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Feds said to investigate FTX’s SBF over possible crypto price manipulation, while senators want his testimony
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is being investigated by federal prosecutors over whether he manipulated prices of two cryptocurrencies to benefit his companies, according to a new report, and has also been ordered to testify before a Senate committee about the collapse of his crypto platform.
The New York Times reported Wednesday night that Manhattan-based federal prosecutors are investigating whether Bankman-Fried steered prices of TerraUSD and Luna to benefit FTX and his Alameda hedge fund. Terra and Luna saw more than $50 billion in market value wiped out when they collapsed in May. That contributed to a wider crypto crash, and eventually the implosion of FTX.
The Times reported the probe is in its early stages, and is part of a wider investigation into FTX’s collapse and the potential misappropriation of billions of dollars of customers’ funds, which are now missing. Additionally, the Times confirmed a November Bloomberg report that FTX was also being investigated for potentially violating U.S. money-laundering laws months before FTX’s collapse.
FTX, once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, collapsed and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November after running into liquidity issues. Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO, and saw his personal fortune of about $23 billion all but evaporate. About $8 billion remains missing from FTX’s balance sheet; Bankman-Fried said in a Bloomberg interview the funds were “misaccounted,”
Separately, the Senate Banking Committee late Wednesday ordered Bankman-Fried to testify about the collapse of FTX on Dec. 14, and said it is prepared to issue a subpoena if he does not voluntarily agree to comply by the end of the day Thursday.
“FTX’s collapse has caused real financial harm to consumers, and effects have spilled over into other parts of the crypto industry. The American people need answers about Sam Bankman-Fried’s misconduct at FTX,” Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said in a statement.
“You must answer for the failure of both entities that was caused, at least in part, by the clear misuse of client funds and wiped out billions of dollars owed to over a million creditors,” the senators said in a letter to Bankman-Fried.
On Tuesday, Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao called Bankman-Fried a “master manipulator” and “one of the greatest fraudsters in history.”
Read more: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says it’s ‘baffling’ that Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t in custody
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Ex-Theranos exec ‘Sunny’ Balwani sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison
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SAN JOSE, Calif. — A judge on Wednesday sentenced former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to nearly 13 years in prison for his role in the company’s blood-testing hoax — a sentence slightly longer than that given to the CEO, who was his lover and accomplice in one of Silicon Valley’s biggest scandals.
Balwani was convicted in July of fraud and conspiracy connected to the company’s bogus medical technology that duped investors and endangered patients. His sentencing came less than three weeks after Elizabeth Holmes, the company’s founder and CEO, received more than 11 years in prison for her part in the scheme.
The scandal revolved around the company’s false claims to have developed a device that could scan for hundreds of diseases and other potential problems with just a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick.
The case threw a bright light on Silicon Valley’s dark side, exposing how its culture of hype and boundless ambition could veer into lies.
Holmes, 38, could have gotten up to 20 years in prison — a penalty that U.S. District Judge Edward Davila could have imposed on Balwani, who spent six years as Theranos’ chief operating officer while remaining romantically involved with Holmes until a bitter split in 2016.
While on the witness stand in her trial, Holmes accused Balwani, 57, of manipulating her through years of emotional and sexual abuse. Balwani’s attorney has denied the allegations.
The two trials had somewhat different outcomes. Unlike Balwani, Holmes was acquitted on several charges of defrauding and conspiring against people who paid for Theranos blood tests that produced misleading results and could have pointed patients toward the wrong treatment. The jury in Holmes’ trial also deadlocked on three charges.
Balwani was convicted on all 12 felony counts, and his lawyers sought a far more lenient sentence of just four to 10 months in prison. Prosecutors for the Justice Department asked for 15 years. A probation report recommended nine years.
Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense attorney, described Balwani’s bid for a light sentence as “utterly unrealistic.” Levin suspects the judge may give greater weight to the Justice Department and the probation office recommendations, which mirror the sentences those agencies sought for Holmes.
The judge ultimately gave her 11 1/4 years in prison and recommended that the sentence be served in a low-security facility in Byran, Texas.
Federal prosecutors also want the judge to order Balwani to pay $804 million in restitution to defrauded investors — the same amount sought from Holmes. Davila deferred a decision on restitution during Holmes’ Nov. 18 sentencing until an unspecified future date.
In court documents, Balwani’s lawyers painted him as a hardworking immigrant who moved from India to the U.S. during the 1980s to become the first member of his family to attend college. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1990 with a degree in information systems.
He later moved to Silicon Valley, where he first worked as a computer programmer for Microsoft before founding an online startup that he sold for millions of dollars during the dot-com boom of the 1990s.
Balwani and Holmes met around the same time she dropped out of Stanford University to start Theranos in 2003. He became enthralled with her and her quest to revolutionize health care.
Balwani’s lawyers said he eventually invested about $5 million in a stake in Theranos that eventually became worth about $500 million on paper — a fraction of Holmes’ one-time fortune of of $4.5 billion.
That wealth evaporated after Theranos began to unravel in 2015 amid revelations that its blood-testing technology never worked as Holmes had boasted in glowing magazine articles that likened her to Silicon Valley visionaries such as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Before Theranos’ downfall, Holmes teamed up with Balwani to raise nearly $1 billion from deep-pocketed investors that included software mogul Larry Ellison and media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
“Mr. Balwani is not the same as Elizabeth Holmes,” his lawyers wrote in a memo to the judge. “”He actually invested millions of dollars of his own money; he never sought fame or recognition; and he has a long history of quietly giving to those less fortunate.” Balwani’s lawyers also asserted that Holmes “was dramatically more culpable” for the Theranos fraud.
Echoing similar claims made by Holmes’s lawyers before her sentencing, Balwani’s attorneys also argued that he has been adequately punished by the intense media coverage of Theranos, which has been the subject of a book, documentary and award-winning TV series.
Balwani “has lost his career, his reputation and his ability to meaningfully work again,” his lawyers wrote.
Federal prosecutors cast Balwani as a ruthless, power-hungry accomplice in crimes that ripped off investors and imperiled people who received flawed results. The blood tests were to be available in a partnership with Walgreen’s that Balwani helped engineer.
“Balwani presented a fake story about Theranos’ technology and financial stability day after day in meeting after meeting,” the prosecutors wrote in their memo to the judge. “Balwani maintained this façade of accomplishments, after making the calculated decision that honesty would destroy Theranos.”
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Does Tesla Have a Demand Issue? This Wall Street Analyst Thinks So.
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Headwinds for
Tesla
—and its stock—appear to be growing. The latest may be among the biggest concerns of all for the company.Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi wrote Tuesday that
Tesla
(ticker: TSLA) “increasingly appears to have a demand issue.”[ad_2]
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Aaron Judge signs $360 million deal with Yankees — at $40 million a year, he’ll be the highest paid position player in MLB
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Aaron Judge has agreed to return to the New York Yankees on a $360 million, nine-year contract, according to Tuesday reports from the MLB Network and Fox.
Judge will make $40 million per season on his new deal with the Yankees, the highest average annual payout for a position player in MLB history. The new deal is the third largest overall contract in MLB history in total value, only behind Mike Trout’s $426.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels and Mookie Betts’ $365 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
See also: Athletes like Tom Brady and Odell Beckham took crypto as compensation. As of now, that’s backfiring.
Judge, 30, turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million extension from the Yankees before this season, according to Yankees President Brian Cashman, in hopes of earning more in free agency. He appears to have done that with this agreement.
Judge is coming off his best season as a professional after winning the American League MVP award and leading the Yankees to a division title. While an MVP award is usually a telltale sign that a player just had a special season, it was actually even more magical than that.
See also: Dropping Aaron Judge’s 61st home-run ball might have cost this fan $250,000 or more
Judge broke the American League home-run record of 61, set by Roger Maris in 1961, when he hit 62 home runs last season. The only players in history who have hit more than 61 home runs in a single season played in the National League — and they have been linked to steroid use.
Before his new reported deal, in his seven seasons as a big leaguer, Judge has earned a total of just $36 million from his contracts, according to Spotrac, for a career average annual salary of $5.14 million, not appreciably higher than the game’s current average of $4.4 million. He was the 54th highest paid player in the MLB last season at $19 million.
See also: Cristiano Ronaldo will reportedly join Saudi club Al-Nassr for historic $210 million per season
Judge, was selected by New York in the first round of the 2013 MLB draft and made his big league debut in 2016.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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Microsoft to bring ‘Call of Duty’ to Nintendo if Activision merger approved
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Microsoft Corp. said late Tuesday it has made a “10-year commitment” to bring the massively popular “Call of Duty” videogame series to Nintendo Co. consoles, when — and if — its merger with Activision Blizzard Inc. is completed.
In a tweet late Tuesday night, Xbox head Phil Spencer announced the deal. “Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play,” he said, adding: “I’m also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on @Steam simultaneously to Xbox after we have closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King.”
Microsoft is awaiting federal approval of its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision.
A deal to share one of Activision’s
ATVI,
-0.29%
most lucrative videogame titles could appease some antitrust concerns from regulators. Spencer told Bloomberg News that a similar offer had been extended to rival Sony Corp.
SONY,
-2.62%
for its PlayStation consoles, but said that offer had so far been rebuffed.A “Call of Duty” title has not been available on Nintendo since 2013.
In an interview with the Washington Post published Tuesday, Spencer said there was no Nintendo “Call of Duty” release date set yet, but that if the merger closes — it has a June 2023 target date — future “Call of Duty” games would be released for all platforms at once. “Once we get into the rhythm of this, our plan would be that when [a Call of Duty game] launches on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, that it would also be available on Nintendo at the same time,” he told the Post.
Nintendo shares
7974,
+0.33%
rose slightly in Tokyo trading following the news. Microsoft shares
MSFT,
-2.03%
fell Monday, and are down 17% year to date, compared to the S&P 500’s
SPX,
-1.44%
17% decline this year.[ad_2]
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Democratic incumbent Warnock wins Georgia’s Senate runoff election — here’s why it matters
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Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia has defeated his Republican challenger Herschel Walker in their closely watched runoff election, according to an Associated Press projection.
While Democrats already had maintained their grip on the Senate by winning other crucial races in last month’s midterm elections, Warnock’s win means his party will have a 51-49 majority in the Senate for the next two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
That’s an upgrade from their situation over the past two years, when the chamber has been split 50-50, and they’ve controlled it only because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes.
Democrats now are expected to adjust ratios on Senate committees so they have a one-vote majority on each panel. Currently, committee ratios are set at 50-50 to reflect the chamber’s split.
A Stifel analyst has warned investors that committees next year could end up issuing subpoenas without Republican support, increasing headline risk for some sectors such as tech
XLK,
-2.14% ,
social media
SOCL,
-2.05% ,
financials
XLF,
-0.88%
and healthcare
XLV,
-0.76% .A 51-49 Senate also is expected to lessen the influence of two moderate Democratic senators — West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema.
Manchin derailed Biden’s Build Back Better package a year ago, and Democratic-run Washington ended up passing a scaled-back measure in August. Sinema’s recent moves, meanwhile, have included successfully opposing changes to the so-called carried-interest loophole that allows private-equity firms to pay lower tax rates.
Walker’s loss is another blow for Donald Trump as the former president ramps up his 2024 White House campaign. Trump already saw other allies flop in their Senate midterm races, with, for example, Mehmet Oz coming up short in Pennsylvania and Blake Masters going down in Arizona.
Warnock had been favored to win by betting markets such as PredictIt, but Cook Political Report said the contest would be close and rated it as a toss-up.
Walker faced criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for his past treatment of women and gaffes while campaigning.
Related: Second woman claims Herschel Walker pressured her to have abortion
The former football star’s loss means the 2022 midterms end on a downbeat note for Republicans, and that’s after their hopes for a red wave were dashed. The GOP took control of the House of Representatives, but will have a slim majority in that chamber.
Analysts had said voters appeared increasingly focused on issues on which Republicans claimed high ground such as inflation. But exit polls on Nov. 8 suggested the party performed worse than expected because many Democrats and independents voted partly to show their disapproval of Trump — and those voters were energized by the Supreme Court’s June decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
See: Anti-Trump vote and Dobbs abortion ruling boost Democrats in 2022 election
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Exclusive: San Francisco city attorney looking into loss of Twitter janitors’ jobs
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San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said Tuesday that he will look into the loss of Twitter janitors’ jobs, which appears to be in violation of San Francisco law.
Members of the SEIU Local 87 went on strike Monday as their contract was set to expire Dec. 9. The contractor that employed them is set to be replaced by another contractor that Twitter would not disclose to the union, according to Olga Miranda, president of the union local. Twitter then moved up the janitors’ last day on the job to Monday, she said.
According to San Francisco law, when a company changes contractors for security or janitorial services, the contractor is supposed to rehire workers for at least 90 days after the transition.
When contacted by MarketWatch on Tuesday, Chiu said: “Elon Musk has a long history of flouting labor laws. While I’m not surprised this happened, I feel for those workers as well as all Twitter employees and contractors who have been laid off. We will be looking into this further.”
Miranda said 48 janitors in total are affected, 30 of whom were waiting to go back to work because many Twitter employees had been working from home and not as many janitors were needed.
San Francisco-based Twitter, whose communications team was reportedly almost entirely laid off at the beginning of November after Musk bought the company, has not returned a request for comment. Musk has cut about half of the company’s pre-acquisition workforce of 7,500 since he took over.
Also Tuesday, Ted Goldberg, a senior editor at KQED, San Francisco’s public radio station, tweeted that the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection is launching an investigation into news reported by Forbes that Twitter has set up bedrooms for employees at its headquarters.
“We need to make sure the building is being used as intended,” a representative of the department told KQED News.
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Interactive: Here are the politicians who received money from FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried
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Sam Bankman-Fried opened up his wallet to Washington in a big way during the 2022 election cycle, donating about $40 million publicly.
So which politicians got money from the founder and former CEO of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX?
MarketWatch has compiled an interactive list below of the candidates and committees who received funds from Bankman-Fried based on the latest disclosures to the Federal Election Commission.
Overall, he gave almost all of the $40 million to Democratic politicians or groups, and just over $200,000 to Republicans, according to the disclosures.
In a wide-ranging interview at the New York Times Dealbook Summit last week, Bankman-Fried said donations were made to candidates who voiced support for pandemic prevention.
At least two Democratic senators received over $20,000 each from Bankman-Fried through joint political action committees tied to their candidacies. Those are Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow and New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan. New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand got at least $10,000. Gillibrand is the co-sponsor of a crypto bill that would have the Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversee bitcoin, ether and most other digital assets and give a secondary regulatory role to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the wake of FTX’s collapse, politicians have been saying they will donate or have donated the money that they received from SBF to charities or other groups, or they’re giving it back.
Gillibrand spokesman Evan Lukaske said the senator donated her funds to Ariva Inc., a Bronx-based nonprofit that offers free financial counseling. Stabenow, whose own bill empowering the CFTC to regulate crypto was backed by Bankman-Fried, plans to donate the contributions to a local charity. A representative for Sen. Hassan did not respond to requests for comment.
Related: ‘Bedazzled by money’: Democratic ties to Sam Bankman-Fried under scrutiny after FTX collapse
While 50 Democratic House and Senate candidates received donations, only eight Republican Senate candidates received money from the former CEO.
SBF — known for being a Democratic megadonor — has claimed he made contributions that don’t show up in FEC disclosures. He told video blogger Tiffany Fong that he donated as much to Republicans as he did to Democrats, but the GOP donations were “dark-money” contributions, making his claim difficult to verify. Such secret contributions, allowed by the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, wouldn’t show up in the FEC disclosures used to compile MarketWatch’s list.
Another FTX exec, Ryan Salame, became known as a Republican megadonor earlier this year, with a MarketWatch analysis in October finding that he publicly gave about $17 million to GOP groups.
Use our interactive below to search through donations as reported to the FEC.
Donations also filtered into committees associated with Bankman-Fried himself — Guarding Against Pandemics and GMI PAC.
MarketWatch’s Victor Reklaitis contributed to this story.
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Trump Organization found guilty in executive tax-fraud scheme
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NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s company was convicted of tax fraud on Tuesday in a case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney, a significant repudiation of financial practices at the former president’s business.
A jury found two corporate entities at the Trump Organization guilty on all 17 counts, including conspiracy charges and falsifying business records.
The verdict came on the second day of deliberations following a trial in which the Trump Organization was accused of being complicit in a scheme by top executives to avoid paying personal income taxes on job perks such as rent-free apartments and luxury cars.
The conviction is a validation for New York prosecutors, who have spent three years investigating the former president and his businesses, though the penalties aren’t expected to be severe enough to jeopardize the future of Trump’s company.
As punishment, the Trump Organization could be fined up to $1.6 million — a relatively small amount for a company of its size, though the conviction might make some of its future deals more complicated.
Trump, who recently announced he was running for president again, has said the case against his company was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” waged against him by vindictive Democrats.
Trump himself was not on trial but prosecutors alleged he “knew exactly what was going on” with the scheme, though he and the company’s lawyers have denied that.
The case against the company was built largely around testimony from the Trump Organization’s former finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, who previously pleaded guilty to charges that he manipulated the company’s books and his own compensation package to illegally reduce his taxes.
Weisselberg testified in exchange for a promised five-month jail sentence.
To convict the Trump Organization, prosecutors had to convince jurors that Weisselberg or his subordinate, Senior Vice President and Controller Jeffrey McConney, were “high managerial” agents acting on the company’s behalf and that the company also benefited from his scheme.
Trump Organization lawyers repeated the mantra “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg” throughout the monthlong trial. They contended the executive had gone rogue and betrayed the company’s trust. No one in the Trump family or the company was to blame, they argued.
Though he testified as a prosecution witness, Weisselberg also attempted to take responsibility on the witness stand, saying nobody in the Trump family knew what he was doing.
“It was my own personal greed that led to this,” an emotional Weisselberg testified.
Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to dodging taxes on $1.7 million in fringe benefits, testified that he and McConney conspired to hide that extra compensation from his income by deducting their cost from his pre-tax salary and issuing falsified W-2 forms.
During his closing argument, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass attempted to refute the claim that Trump knew nothing about the scheme. He showed jurors a lease Trump signed for Weisselberg’s company-paid apartment and a memo Trump initialed authorizing a pay cut for another executive who got perks.
“Mr. Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud,” Steinglass argued.
The verdict doesn’t end Trump’s battle with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat who took office in January.
Bragg has said that a related investigation of Trump that began under his predecessor, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., is “active and ongoing.”
In that wide-ranging probe, investigators have examined whether Trump misled banks and others about the value of his real estate holdings, golf courses and other assets — allegations at the heart of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ pending lawsuit against the former president and his company.
The district attorney’s office has also investigated whether any state laws were broken when Trump’s allies made payments to two women who claimed to have had sexual affairs with the Republican years ago.
Near the end of his tenure last year, Vance directed deputies to present evidence to a grand jury for a possible indictment of Trump. After taking office, though, Bragg let that grand jury disband so he could give the case a fresh look.
On Monday, he confirmed that a new lead prosecutor had been brought on to handle that investigation, signaling again that it was still active.
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$3,000 gold and more outrageous market predictions investors shouldn’t brush aside.
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Monday served as another smackdown for investors who are banking on a Goldilocks economy and a less aggressive Fed.
Some are now not ruling out a Grinch-like turn from the central bank — a 0.75% hike next week instead of the 0.50% markets have been pinning hopes on — following strong data on services, jobs and wages.
It all goes along with the theme of 2022 — expect the unexpected. The relief of moving out of a crippling pandemic was quickly replaced by the biggest war on Europe’s shores in decades, that sparked worldwide inflation surges.
What comes next is anyone’s guess and that brings us to our call of the day via Saxo Bank’s annual “Outrageous Predictions” for 2023.
While some of these will sound crazy, note that the Saxo team, led by Chief Investment Officer Steen Jakobsen, have nailed a few wild prophecies in the past decade. Those include: a Brexit prediction in 2015, a 25% drop for the S&P 500 from its 2007 high in 2008, a tripling of Bitcoin’s value forecast in 2017.
The focus for 2023’s prediction is that “a return to the disinflationary prepandemic dynamic is impossible because we have entered into a global war economy, with every major power across the world now scrambling to shore up their national security on all fronts; whether in an actual military sense, or due to profound supply-chain, energy and even financial insecurities that have been laid bare by the pandemic experience and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” says Jakobsen.
As for those predictions, here we go:
- Gold crosses $2,075 then rockets to $3,000 on unstoppable inflation. “Fed policy tightening and quantitative tightening drives a new snag in U.S. treasury markets that forces new sneaky ‘measures’ to contain Treasury market volatility that really amounts to new de facto quantitative easing,” says Saxo. And China’s end of zero-COVID drives up demand, commodity prices and inflation.
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Widespread price controls to cap official inflation due to war economy mentality. “In 2023, expect broadening price and even wage controls, maybe even something like a new National Board for Prices and Incomes being established in the U.K. and the U.S.,” said Saxo. Market fallout? Fuel for gold’s
GC00,
+0.19%
climb. -
There’s a new reserve asset in town. Non U.S.-allied countries move away from the U.S. and IMF to create an “international clearing union (ICU) and a new reserve asset, called the Bancor (currency code KEY)” that borrows from economist John Maynard Keynes idea of resisting U.S. power over the international monetary system. Nonaligned central banks slash U.S. dollar reserves, Treasury yields soar and the dollar
DXY,
+0.09%
drops 25% against a basket of currencies that trade with Bancor. -
Japan pegs USDJPY to 200. Pressure intensifies on the already weak yen
USDJPY,
+0.04%
into 2023 as currency intervention fails and inflation soars. The government resets the financial system, erasing all debt, recapitalizing banks, as trillions of yen return to Japan shores. But the yen still weakens by year-end. - A $10 trillion-dollar Manhattan project. A team of major tech leaders form a mega research-and-development effort for energy infrastructure and ground-breaking technologies — the Third Stone. Companies tied to the project soar in an overall weak environment for investing.
- Tax haven ban kills private equity. The OECD launches a full ban on the biggest tax havens in the world in 2023 and in the U.S., carried interest tax as capital gains is shifted to ordinary income. It’s a body blow for private equity and venture capital — the valuation of publicly listed private-equity firms fall 50%.
The rest of their predictions are here, such as the formation of an EU Armed Forces in 2023 and an “UnBrexit” referendum.
Read: Why Monday’s stock-market rout should be a wake up call for investors
The markets
MarketWatch
Stocks
DJIA,
-0.96%
SPX,
-1.40%
COMP,
-1.77%
are drifting into the red, with Treasury yields
TMUBMUSD10Y,
3.571%
TMUBMUSD02Y,
4.395%
steady, the dollar
DXY,
+0.09%
lower and oil
CL.1,
-3.43%
BRN00,
-3.73%
also down.For more market updates plus actionable trade ideas for stocks, options and crypto, subscribe to MarketDiem by Investor’s Business Daily.
The buzz
BioVie stock
BIVI,
-18.43%
is climbing after positive results from the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company on a drug for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.NRG Energy
NRG,
-15.79%
agreed to buy Vivint Smart Home
VVNT,
+32.31%
in a $5.2 billion deal. Vivint shares are soaring.MEI Pharma
MEIP,
-33.52%
shares are tumbing after drugmaker said it would stop developing cancer treatment zandelisib outside of Japan and announces job cuts. Herbalife shares
HLF,
-18.85%
are down 10% after an offering of convertible notesPowell Industries
POWL,
+19.11%
stock is up 9% after the electrical equipment maker’s well-received results and new orders. Within software Sumo Logic
SUMO,
+11.65%
and GitLab shares
GTLB,
+5.71%
are surging on upbeat results and forecasts.Layoffs extending beyond tech? PepsiCo
PEP,
-0.86%
is reportedly cutting hundreds of workers at its North American headquarters.Home builder Toll Brothers
TOL,
-1.56%
will report results after the close.The October trade deficit jumped 5.4% to $78,2 billion.
The U.S. and EU are reportedly considering fresh steel and aluminum tariffs on China to fight carbon emissions.
Best of the web
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Morocco’s World Cup team leans on its secret weapon of parents in the stands.
Why human composting could be the next big thing.
The chart
Headed into the holidays, consumers are using savings and credit, says a team of Jefferies analysts led by Corey Tarlowe. “The savings rate continues to trend lower and credit card balances are growing +15% Y/Y. We believe these trends indicate that the consumer is stretched.”
Against this backdrop, they like Costco
COST,
-1.34% ,
Dollar General
DG,
-1.52% ,
Target
TGT,
+0.13%
and Walmart
WMT,
-0.98% .
FactSet/Jefferies
The tickers
These were the top-searched tickers on MarketWatch at 6 a.m.:
Ticker Security name TSLA,
-2.00% Tesla GME,
-5.32% GameStop AMC,
-9.00% AMC Entertainment NIO,
+2.37% NIO BBBY,
-8.86% Bed Bath & Beyond AAPL,
-1.83% Apple APE,
-5.40% AMC Entertainment Holdings preferred shares COSM,
-17.49% Cosmos AMZN,
-2.26% Amazon.com MULN,
-3.08% Mullen Automotive Random reads
Tributes pour after “Cheers” star Kirstie Alley dies at 71.
Happy 190th birthday to the world’s oldest tortoise.
A green Grinchy dog for Christmas? Not everyone’s heart grew three sizes.
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Listen to the Best New Ideas in Money podcast with MarketWatch reporter Charles Passy and economist Stephanie Kelton
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