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Tag: Ownership changes

  • JPMorgan to take over First Republic after regional bank was closed

    JPMorgan to take over First Republic after regional bank was closed

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    JPMorgan Chase has won the auction to take over fallen First Republic Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced early Monday morning.

    The deal will see America’s largest bank JPM assume all the deposits and “substantially all the assets” of First Republic FRC.

    The deal will see First Republic depositors — which include 11 leading…

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  • Deutsche Boerse Makes Offer for SimCorp

    Deutsche Boerse Makes Offer for SimCorp

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    By Sarah Sloat

    Deutsche Boerse SE said Thursday it would make a voluntary takeover offer for Danish software company SimCorp AS for a total 3.9 billion euros ($4.31 billion).

    The all-cash offer of DKK735 ($108.86) per share represents a 38.9% premium over the closing price of DKK529, and a 45.3% premium over the three-month volume-weighted…

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  • Why the U.K. is blocking Microsoft’s deal for Activision and what comes next

    Why the U.K. is blocking Microsoft’s deal for Activision and what comes next

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    A U.K. regulator made the surprising decision Wednesday to block Microsoft Corp.’s deal for Activision Blizzard Inc. in a further sign of resistance to the power of Big Tech.

    The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority announced Wednesday that it would prohibit the $69 billion deal as the merger could hurt competition in the nascent market for cloud gaming. The decision comes after the agency said in late March that it no longer thought the deal would threaten console gaming, which is a vastly larger and more established…

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  • UBS profit halves due to U.S. litigation, but draws billions new money

    UBS profit halves due to U.S. litigation, but draws billions new money

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    UBS Group AG said Tuesday that earnings declined in the first quarter, hurt by litigation, but that the bank drew in billions in net new money at its global wealth-management business following the news of its acquisition of Credit Suisse Group AG.

    The Swiss bank UBS CH:UBSG said its result was affected by $665 million in provisions related to U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities litigation.

    UBS…

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  • From meme stocks to empty shelves: The top 5 reasons Bed Bath & Beyond failed

    From meme stocks to empty shelves: The top 5 reasons Bed Bath & Beyond failed

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    Bed Bath & Beyond went from homeware powerhouse to the retail doghouse over the course of the last decade. 

    But its final push into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday resulted from a mix of bad decisions and forces beyond its control, the company explained in a new court filing. In the 93-page document, Holly Etlin, chief restructuring officer and chief financial officer of Bed Bath & Beyond BBBY, tried to explain how things went so wrong. Here are the top five choices and moments that ultimately spelled the retailer’s…

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  • Bed Bath & Beyond: from home-goods behemoth to bankruptcy

    Bed Bath & Beyond: from home-goods behemoth to bankruptcy

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    It’s the end of the road for Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., a company that was once a shining star of U.S. retail. 

    The troubled home-goods retailer BBBY filed for chapter 11 on Sunday, after spending several months teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The company said it aims to achieve an orderly wind down of its operations, while also seeking to find an interested buyer for some or all of its assets. It has $240 million of debtor-in-possession financing to provide the liquidity needed to support its operations through the process….

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  • Employees asked about their canceled bonuses. The CEO warned them against living in ‘Pity City.’

    Employees asked about their canceled bonuses. The CEO warned them against living in ‘Pity City.’

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    The chief executive of the high-end office-furniture company MillerKnoll has gone viral. And probably not in a manner she would prefer.

    In a leaked Zoom call of a MillerKnoll staff town hall last month, CEO Andi Owen addressed concerns from employees about the company’s decision to withhold bonuses. It quickly descended into her lambasting staff for complaining about the move.

    “Questions came through about, ‘How can we stay motivated if we’re not going to get a bonus?‘ ” she says in the meeting recording. Owen — tapped in 2021 by Fast Company as one of the most creative people in business and celebrated that same year in the New York Times for her navigation of the coronavirus pandemic and swing-state sociopolitics — tells employees of the Zeeland, Mich., company to focus on things the company can control, such as customer service.

    From the archives (April 2021): Herman Miller and Knoll to merge in $1.8 billion deal that will create design leader as companies reimagine office

    “Don’t ask about: What are we going to do if we don’t get a bonus?” she says, growing animated, even, apparently, agitated. “Get the damn $26 million. Spend your time and your effort thinking about the $26 million we need and not thinking about what you’re going to do if you don’t get a bonus. All right? Can I get some commitment for that? I would appreciate that.”

    Though she didn’t specifically identify the significance of the $26 million figure, the company’s operating expenses rose by exactly that amount in its third quarter due to “voluntary and involuntary reductions in the company’s workforce and charges for the impairment of assets associated with the decision to cease operating fully as a stand-alone brand.”

    MillerKnoll’s third-quarterly filing showed that the furniture maker — the product of a 2021 merger of the Herman Miller and Knoll brands, behind products such as the Eames lounge chair and the Saarinen Tulip table, respectively — expects lower sales in the fourth quarter after posting a decline in orders and sales margins in the three months ending March 4.

    Owen recalls in the video that a past employer told her, “You can visit Pity City, but you can’t live there.”

    “So, people, leave Pity City,” she continues, exclaiming: “Let’s get it done.”

    “You have to be a psychopath to say this stuff to your employees when you are taking a massive bonus. Does she think they won’t find out?” asked one Twitter user.

    “Plenty going on here but one of many things that leapt out to me was that mere moments after she went with the ‘be kind to people’ bit, she was yelling at workers,” another said.

    The company said that the widely shared video clip had been taken out of context.

    “Andi fiercely believes in this team and all we can accomplish together, and will not be dissuaded by a 90-second clip taken out of context and posted on social media,” a spokesman said in a statement.

    Owen made $5 million last year. The company has yet to say how much she will make this year. The company this year has expensed $15.7 million in stock-based compensation.

    MillerKnoll shares
    MLKN,
    -2.38%

    have dropped 12% in 2023, compared with the 8% gain for the benchmark S&P 500
    SPX,
    +0.02%
    .

    Other MillerKnoll brands include Design Within Reach, acquired by Herman Miller a decade ago and recognized as having made the iconic midcentury designs of Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, George Nelson, and others available to a wider, if affluent, audience without engaging an interior designer; the Danish design brand Hay; and Holly Hunt.

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  • Why Snap is suddenly eligible to join the S&P 500

    Why Snap is suddenly eligible to join the S&P 500

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    Snap Inc.’s initial public offering led to changes that barred the company and others like it from joining major stock indexes, but at least one major index provider has decided to drop those limitations after less than six years.

    S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Monday afternoon that a 2017 rule barring companies with multiple share classes from joining indexes such as the S&P 500
    SPX,
    +0.33%

    has been dropped. The move comes after the index manager consulted with “market participants” at the end of last year to discuss several potential changes to the policy.

    Snap
    SNAP,
    +1.78%

    was the poster child for the initial change, after the parent company of the Snapchat mobile app went public in 2017 by selling a class of shares with no voting rights. That unprecedented move ensured that co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy would retain absolute power over their company even while selling shares to the public.

    Snap’s move was an acceleration of an approach used by a generation of Silicon Valley tech companies to ensure that founders retained control of their companies even while selling shares to the public. Companies such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    -1.19%

    and Google parent Alphabet Inc.
    GOOGL,
    -2.66%

    GOOG,
    -2.78%

    used similar structures that provided their leaders with special shares that included increased voting rights, which Snap took further by offering no voting rights.

    From 2017: Snap backlash, Facebook capitulation won’t stop founder-friendly stock structures

    In response, FTSE Russell established rules about putting votes in the public’s hands while selling stock, and S&P Dow Jones Indices completely barred all companies that had multiple classes of stock from joining its core indexes. While FTSE Russell’s rule — which requires that at least 5% of votes rest in the hands of public investors — remains, S&P Dow Jones Indices will now drop its rule entirely, after roughly 80% of respondents voted in favor of a change in 2017.

    There were other options besides completely dropping the rule. Participants in the consultation process were given several options and asked to rank them, including barring companies that only offer nonvoting stock to the public — such as Snap — or allowing companies that establish “sunset” provisions that would eventually revert all shares to equal voting rights.

    Related: Investors want change, but founders like Mark Zuckerberg hold them off

    Snap declined to comment Monday afternoon.

    The change to allow all companies with multiple share classes to join the S&P Composite 1500 and its multiple component indexes is effective as of Monday, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced, though no changes were immediately made to any index. Tracking stocks will still not be eligible for inclusion, according to the announcement.

    For more: As Snap melts down, its founders make sure to protect the people who matter — themselves

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  • 4 signs stocks are headed for a punishing selloff, as even strong performers look vulnerable

    4 signs stocks are headed for a punishing selloff, as even strong performers look vulnerable

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    U.S. stocks just touched their highest levels in two months. Yet, signs of a looming selloff are piling up, according to Jonathan Krinsky, chief technical strategist at BTIG.

    The S&P 500
    SPX,
    +0.33%

    and Russell 3000
    RUA,
    +0.40%

    are both trading just shy of their highs from mid-February, but market breadth hasn’t recovered, as index gains over the past month have largely relied on megacap names like Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    +0.93%

    and Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +0.01%

    helping to offset weakness in other areas of the market.

    As of Friday, only 45% of Russell 3000 stocks were trading above their 200-day moving averages, according to data cited by Krinsky. By comparison, when the broad-market gauge was trading at its highest level of 2023 back in February, 70% of the individual stocks included in the index were trading above their 200-day moving average. Technical analysts use moving averages as a gauge of a stock or index’s momentum.


    BTIG

    Lackluster breath is looking like more of an issue analysts say, especially now that the Nasdaq’s outperformance appears to be fading after leading markets higher since the start of the year.

    Over the last two weeks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    +0.30%

    has outperformed the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    +0.28%

    by the widest margin since the two-week period ending Dec 30, according to FactSet data.

    Krinsky cited exchange-traded funds that feature megacap technology names, including the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF
    IGV,
    +0.45%
    ,
    the Communications Services Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF
    XLC,
    -0.57%

    and Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF
    XLY,
    +0.71%
    ,
    as examples of emerging weakness in this critical sector of the market. Meanwhile, regional bank stocks, small-cap stocks and shares of retailers, all of which have lagged behind the market this year, look weak.

    See: Are tech stocks becoming a haven again? ‘It is a mistake,’ say market analysts.

    Krinsky summed up this dynamic thus: “The weak parts of the market remain weak, while the strong parts now appear vulnerable,” the BTIG analyst said in a Sunday note to clients.

    Furthermore, “[i]n absolute and relative terms, the tech sector looks like a poor risk/reward to us here,” Krinsky added.

    Low implied volatility is another issue for markets, Krinsky said. That can mean investors have gotten too complacent and markets may be heading for a selloff, analysts say.

    The Cboe Volatility Index
    VIX,
    -0.41%
    ,
    otherwise known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” finished Friday at its lowest end-of-day level since Jan. 4, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The Cboe S&P 500 9-Day Volatility Index, which tracks implied volatility over a shorter time horizon, has also fallen to January lows, FactSet data show.

    Such low levels mean volatility could be poised to “mean revert,” Krinsky said, which may portend a selloff in the months ahead for the S&P 500, the most liquid and most closely watched gauge of U.S. stock-market performance.

    Implied volatility gauges measure activity in option contracts linked to the S&P 500 to gauge how volatile traders expect markets to be over the coming days and weeks. Typically, implied volatility advances when U.S. stocks are falling.

    The greenback has shown some signs of life in recent sessions, although the U.S. dollar remains well below the multi decade highs it reached back in September. That the buck bounced off its February lows late last week suggests that momentum could be skewed toward the upside for the dollar, Krinsky said, which could create more problems for stocks given the dollar’s tendency to weigh on markets during 2022.

    The ICE U.S. Dollar Index
    DXY,
    -0.43%
    ,
    a gauge of the dollar’s strength measured against a basket of rivals, was up 0.7% in recent trade at 102.22.

    All of these factors support the notion that stocks could be headed for what Krinsky called the “reverse October playbook.”


    BTIG

    Just as the S&P 500 bottomed following the hotter-than-expected September report on consumer-price inflation, the market’s monthslong rebound rally may have peaked following last week’s CPI report for March, which showed consumer prices rose a scant 0.1% last month, less than the 0.2% increase that had been forecast by economists polled by MarketWatch.

    Not everybody agrees with this assessment. Marko Papic, chief strategist at Clocktower Group, cited market data going back to 1934 to show that U.S. stocks tend to rally after inflation peaks. Consumer-price inflation reached its highest level in more than four decades when the CPI headline number showed prices up 9.1% year-over-year in June.


    CLOCKTOWER GROUP

    U.S. stocks look set to decline for a second day in a row on Monday, with the S&P 500 off 0.3% at 4,126, while the Nasdaq Composite was down by 0.4% at 12,070, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded marginally lower at 33,881.

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  • Coinbase, Newmont, Tilray, Hexo, Virgin Orbit, and More Stock Market Movers

    Coinbase, Newmont, Tilray, Hexo, Virgin Orbit, and More Stock Market Movers

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  • ExxonMobil: Eyes on the Permian Prize

    ExxonMobil: Eyes on the Permian Prize

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    ExxonMobil: Eyes on the Permian Prize

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  • Is April now the time to activate your sell-in-May-and-go-away stock-market strategy?

    Is April now the time to activate your sell-in-May-and-go-away stock-market strategy?

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    Followers of the “Sell In May and Go Away” market-timing strategy may want to consider selling stocks before the end of April.

    The “Sell in May and Go Away” strategy, which also goes by the “Halloween Indicator,” calls for being in the stock market for the six months between Oct. 31 and May 1, and out of the market the other half of the year. Investors who mechanically follow this seasonal strategy therefore wait until the close of the last trading day of April to sell and to the close of the last trading day of October to…

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  • Credit Suisse chairman apologizes at final shareholder meeting in 167-year history

    Credit Suisse chairman apologizes at final shareholder meeting in 167-year history

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    “We wanted to put all our energy and our efforts into turning the situation around and putting the bank back on track. It pains me that we didn’t have the time to do so, and that in that fateful week in March our plans were disrupted. For that I am truly sorry. I apologize that we were no longer able to stem the loss of trust that had accumulated over the years, and for disappointing you.

    That’s Axel Lehmann, the chairman of Credit Suisse, addressing shareholders after the deal to be purchased at a cut-rate price by UBS, ending 167 years of independence. Shareholders at neither Credit Suisse
    CSGN,
    +1.39%

    nor UBS
    UBSG,
    +1.20%

    will get a chance to vote on the deal.

    Credit Suisse shares were trading at 0.81 francs, just below the 0.84 franc per share offer the UBS bid is now worth. A year ago, Credit Suisse was worth more than 7 francs per share.

    Lehmann, as noted in his speech, was not at the bank for its many scandals and trading debacles, most notably but hardly limited to the losses from the blowup of the Archegos family office and the freezing of funds tied to Greensill.

    “The period from October to March was not long enough. One legacy issue after another had already seen trust eroded – and with it, patience dwindled. At that, we failed. It was too late. The bitter reality is that there wasn’t enough time for our strategy to bear fruit,” said Lehmann.

    He said the deal “had to go through,” or the bank would have to restructure under Swiss banking law. “This would have led to the worst scenario, namely a total loss for shareholders, unpredictable risks for clients, severe consequences for the economy and the global financial markets,” he said.

    CEO Ulrich Körner made a similar apology. “We ran out of time. This fills me with sorrow. What has happened over the past few weeks will continue to affect me personally and many others for a long time to come,” he said.

    He specifically tied the collapse of SVB Financial and Signature Bank to its own demise.

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  • Block Speaks Out Again After Short-Seller’s Claims. The Stock Is Rising.

    Block Speaks Out Again After Short-Seller’s Claims. The Stock Is Rising.

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    Block


    stock rose Thursday after the payments group responded to some of a short seller’s allegations.

    Last week, Hindenburg Research disclosed a short position in the company, alleging that Block (ticker: SQ) had inflated user metrics and didn’t rein in illicit activity by users on its Cash App platform. A short position is a bet that a stock will fall: Traders who try it borrow shares of a company and then sell them, hoping to buy them back later at a lower price.

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  • Sergio Ermotti returns as UBS CEO after Credit Suisse deal

    Sergio Ermotti returns as UBS CEO after Credit Suisse deal

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    UBS Group AG said Wednesday that it has decided to appoint Sergio P. Ermotti as its new chief executive replacing Ralph Hamers, and said the change is a result of its planned acquisition of rival Credit Suisse Group AG.

    The appointment of Mr. Ermotti–who was UBS’s UBS CH:UBSG CEO in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and stepped down in 2020 after nine years in the role–will become effective on April 5, the bank said.

    Mr….

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  • First Citizens enters agreement to buy Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, says FDIC

    First Citizens enters agreement to buy Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, says FDIC

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    First Citizens BancShares Inc. has entered a deal to assume all the deposits and loans of the failed Silicon Valley Bridge Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the regulator announced on Monday.

    As of Monday, the 17 former branches of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, National Association, will open as First Citizens
    FCNCA,
    -1.11%
    ,
    FDIC said. The FDIC has been trying to auction off Silicon Valley Bank for about two weeks, since it became the largest U.S. bank to go bust since Washington Mutual in 2008.

    As of March 10, Silicon Valley Bridge Bank had approximately $167 billion in total assets and about $119 billion in total deposits, the FDIC said. The deal included the purchase of about $72 billion of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank’s assets at a discount of $16.5 billion.

    Roughly $90 billion in securities and other assets will remain in FDIC receivership for disposition, and the regulator has received equity appreciation rights in First Citizens common stock worth up to $500 million.

    The FDIC and the Raleigh, North Carolina-based bank entered into a loss–share transaction on the commercial loans it purchased of former Silicon Valley Bridge Bank.  The FDIC said it will share in the losses and potential recoveries on the loans covered by that agreement, which is “projected to maximize recoveries on the assets by keeping them in the private sector,” and minimize disruptions for loan customers.  First Citizens will also assume all loan–related qualified financial contracts.

    The FDIC estimates the cost of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank to its Deposit Insurance Fund at roughly $20 billion, the exact cost of which will be determined when receivership is terminated.

    The FDIC created Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, National Association, following the closure of Silicon Valley Bank by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

    Speculation that First Citizens, which has bought 20 failed banks since 2009, was pursuing an acquisition of Silicon Valley National Bank emerged last week. Bloomberg, which first reported First Citizens would enter a deal for the bank on Sunday, also reported that Valley National Bancorp
    VLY,
    +2.87%

     was trying to purchase the failed bank. It said First Citizens had previously made an offer for the bank immediately after it collapsed.

    First Citizens shares have sunk 23% year to date — mostly over the past month — and are down 15% over the past 12 months, compared to the S&P 500’s
    SPX,
    +0.56%

    3.4% gain in 2023 and 13% decline over the past year.

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  • How First Republic stock’s tailspin started and why it hasn’t stopped

    How First Republic stock’s tailspin started and why it hasn’t stopped

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    Shortly after Silicon Valley Bank disclosed on March 8 that it was running short of cash and needed to raise capital, First Republic Bank’s epic stock slide began.

    The stock
    FRC,
    -15.47%

    has lost 90% of its value in less than two weeks, hitting an all-time low of $12.18 a share on Monday.

    Supportive comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen helped it snap back on Tuesday, but it’s hovering between positive and negative territory on Wednesday as investors await a key Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

    First Republic finds itself in a tough spot with a low share price and fresh debt downgrades and not even efforts to inject $30 billion into the company’s deposits in a scheme backed by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
    JPM,
    -2.58%

    and a backstop from the U.S. Federal Reserve seem to be helping.

    The bank’s troubles stem from its overlap both in clientele and parts of its balance sheet with doomed Silicon Valley Bank, which is being sold off this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after it officially failed on Friday, March 10. Silicon Valley Bank suffered a classic run on a bank, when depositors, nervous that it needed to raise capital, yanked their deposits.

    First Republic has suffered the same deposit flight.

    As a San Francisco bank with a focus on serving high-end clients, First Republic has acted as wealth manager for the greater Silicon Valley region of executives, managing directors and startup CEOs, as well as their counterparts on the East Coast.

    The list incudes Facebook
    META,
    -1.16%

    Founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has a large mortgage courtesy of First Republic, as the Wall Street Journal has reported. Few of its loans ever sour — it had $213 billion in assets at the end of 2022 and $176 billion in deposits.

    With its sophisticated lending products and access to the technology startup world, Silicon Valley Bank was also known for its a customer base from the venture capital and private equity world. 

    Also Read: 24 bank stocks that contrarian bottom-feeders can feast on now

    Those well-heeled clients of both banks started running into problems as interest rates rose last year, pundits warned of an economic slowdown and investors switched to a risk-off strategy of conserving cash and containing costs.

    The collapse of FTX and strain in the crypto world also fed the need for cold, hard government-backed currency. Rising interest rates made it more expensive to borrow and put a chill on the deal-making environment.

    All of this and other factors led to a drain on deposits at Silicon Valley Bank and others as it faced “elevated client cash burn” at a rate that was double pre-2021 levels, even as venture capital and private equity funds were slowing down their capital raising activities, the company said in an ill-fated mid-quarter report.

    On March 8 after the market close, Silicon Valley Bank said it planned to sell $2.25 billion in common stock and a type of preferred stock, with one of its major clients, private equity firm General Atlantic, in line to buy $500 million worth. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
    GS,
    -1.14%

    was handling the deal.

    The company also disclosed that it had lost $1.8 billion on the sale of $21 billion in available-for-sale securities on its balance sheet to cover deposit withdrawals.

    It was this last part that caused big trouble for First Republic. Not only did its clientele overlap with Silicon Valley Bank, its holdings included some of the same securities that Silicon Valley Bank sold at a loss.

    Wall Street investors quickly started bidding down shares of First Republic and other regional banks and the credit rating agencies moved in, cutting the bank’s rating from investment grade deep into junk in just a few days.

    None of this helped First Republic hold on to its deposits.  

    As one longtime banking official said recently, money from Silicon Valley types typically comes in the form of uninsured deposits, which means they’re in excess of the $250,000 that the FDIC will guarantee if a bank goes out of business. This so called hot-money is great for banks when times are good, but can move away quickly if the environment changes.

    “When hot money gets nervous, it runs,” former FDIC chairman Bill Isaac told MarketWatch recently.

    While an unprecedented effort on March 16 by 11 banks to inject $30 billion into First Republic’s deposits temporarily provided a lift to its stock, the move apparently wasn’t enough.

    First Republic said last Thursday that it had borrowed between $20 billion and $109 billion from the Federal Reserve during that week. It also increased short-term borrowing from the Federal Home Loan Bank by $10 billion at a rate of 5.09%.

    Jefferies analyst Ken Usdin said the numbers revealed that First Republic’s total deposits had dropped by up to $89 billion in the week ended March 17 past week—or about three times more than the $30 billion injection from the bank.

    “With [First Republic’s] earnings profile clearly impaired, the new deposits effectively bridge the estimated $30.5 billion of uninsured deposits still on [the bank’s] balance sheet, providing time for [it] to likely explore a sale,” Usdin said.

    Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tim Coffey said First Republic’s stock drop in recent days reflects uncertainty around what a potential second bailout would look like, or how the bank’s balance sheet is faring after a steep run in deposits and the falling value of its long-dated securities.

    Another unknown is the company’s latest Tier 1 capital Ratio, a key measure of a bank’s balance sheet strength.

    Like Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic’s balance sheet has had more than the usual exposure to long-dated securities, which have been falling in value as interest rates rise. 

    A typical mix for a bank of comparable size is to hold about 72% of securities as available for sale. The remaining 28% are held to maturity. First Republic’s mix is reversed with 12% available for sale and 88% held to maturity.

    The bank’s mix of longer-dated assets now commands a lower market value, given where interest rates are. The bank’s emphasis on long-dated securities provided a better return when interest rates were near zero, but they have been a liability in the current environment.

    “They’ve had duration risk where the value of their securities started going down as interest rates rose,” Coffey told MarketWatch.

    Another problem for First Republic is that many of those long-dated securities are in the mortgage business, which has been ailing as interest rates rise.

    Plenty of questions remain about First Republic’s situation and whether it could have been avoided. The challenges facing First Republic as well as the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will be the focus of hearings on Capitol Hill next week.

    Wall Street is also awaiting comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve when it updates its interest rate policy later on Wednesday.

    And JPMorgan Chase continues to work with First Republic on a potential bailout, even as the bank has reportedly hired Lazard
    LAZ,
    -2.17%

    to weigh strategic alternatives.

    All of these factors add to the uncertainty swirling around First Republic, giving investors little reason to go long on the stock for now.

    Also Read: 24 bank stocks that contrarian bottom-feeders can feast on now

    Related: Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown sees bipartisan support for changes to deposit insurance

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  • Credit Suisse, UBS, First Republic, and More Stock Market Movers

    Credit Suisse, UBS, First Republic, and More Stock Market Movers

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  • Asian stocks tumble after Credit Suisse takeover

    Asian stocks tumble after Credit Suisse takeover

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    BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets fell Monday after Swiss authorities arranged the takeover of troubled Credit Suisse amid fears of a global banking crisis ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting to decide on more possible interest rate hikes.

    Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong declined. Oil prices retreated, and U.S. equity futures were tilting lower after initially rising on the takeover news.

    Swiss authorities on Sunday announced UBS would acquire its smaller rival as regulators try to ease fears about banks following the collapse of two U.S. lenders. Central banks announced coordinated efforts to stabilize lenders including a facility to borrow U.S. dollars if necessary.

    Investors worry banks are cracking under the strain of unexpectedly fast, large rate hikes over the past year to cool economic activity and inflation. That caused prices of bonds and other assets on their books to fall, fueling unease about the industry’s financial health.

    “Investors are waiting to see where the dust settles on the banking saga before making any bold moves,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a report.

    The Hang Seng
    HSI,
    -2.65%

    in Hong Kong lost 3% to 18,920 and the Nikkei 225
    NIK,
    -1.42%

    in Tokyo shed 1.2% to 26,990.25.

    The Shanghai Composite Index
    SHCOMP,
    -0.48%

    lost 0.2% to 3,241 after the Chinese central bank on Friday freed up additional money for lending by reducing the amount of money commercial are required to hold in reserve. Hong Kong shares of HSBC
    5,
    -6.23%

    dropped over 6%.

    The Kospi
    180721,
    -0.69%

    in Seoul retreated 0.6% to 2,382.03 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200
    XJO,
    -1.38%

    lost 1.4% to 6,900.00.

    India’s Sensex opened down 1.1% at 57,341.79. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets also declined.

    The Swiss government said UBS will acquire Credit Suisse for almost $3.25 billion after a plan for the troubled lender to borrow as much as $54 billion from Switzerland’s central bank failed to reassure investors and customers.

    U.S. regulators have also sought to calm fears over threats to banking systems. The Federal Reserve said cash-short banks had borrowed about $300 billion from the Federal Reserve in the week up to Thursday.

    Separately, New York Community Bank
    NYCB,
    -4.66%

    agreed to buy a significant chunk of the failed Signature Bank in a $2.7 billion deal, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said late Sunday. The FDIC said $60 billion in Signature Bank’s loans will remain in receivership and are expected to be sold off in time.

    Concerns persist about other lenders with shaky finances. Credit Suisse is among 30 institutions known as globally systemically important banks. Ahead of its takeover, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    -1.10%

    lost 1.1% on Friday to 3,916.64.

    Shares of First Republic Bank
    FRC,
    -32.80%

    sank nearly 33% to bring their plunge for the week to 71.8%.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -1.19%

    lost 1.2% to 31,861.98. The Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    -0.74%

    fell 0.7% to 11,630.51. Dow futures
    YM00,
    -0.70%

    fell 0.3% early Monday, while S&P 500 futures
    ES00,
    -0.60%

    and Nasdaq-100 futures
    NQ00,
    -0.33%

    were steady.

    The unexpectedly large, fast rate hikes by the Fed and other central banks to cool inflation that is close to multi-decade highs have caused prices of bonds and other assets on their books to fall.

    Traders expect last week’s turmoil to push the Fed to limit a rate hike at its meeting this week to 0.25 percentage points. That would be the same as the previous increase and half the margin traders expected earlier.

    A survey released Friday by the University of Michigan showed inflation expectations among American consumers are falling. That matters to the Fed, which has said such expectations can feed into virtuous and vicious cycles.

    In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude
    CL.1,
    -3.27%

    sank 93 cents to $64.81 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.61 on Friday to $66.74. Brent crude
    BRN00,
    -3.29%
    ,
    the price basis for international oils, declined $1.05 cents to $71.92 per barrel in London. It retreated $1.73 the previous session to $72.97.

    The dollar
    DXY,
    +0.13%

    gained to 131.83 yen from Friday’s 131.67 yen. The euro
    EURUSD,
    -0.11%

    declined to $1.0676 from $1.0681.

    MarketWatch contributed to this report.

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