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2023-03-23

Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/block-stock-hindenburg-short-seller-report-legal-action-a7198e?mod=hp_LEAD_5

  • Nostr, the decentralized alternative to Twitter
  • Jack Dorsey
    • co-founder of Block (ticker: SQ)
  • Block (ticker: SQ)
    • facilitates payment through its widely popular Cash App platform

Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/accenture-to-cut-19-000-jobs-2-5-of-workforce-84c1ecdd?mod=hp_lead_pos11

  • Accenture PLC
    • 19,000 jobs or 2.5% of its workforce, over the next 18 months
    • employs about 738,000 people globally
    • Chief Executive Julie Sweet
  • IT positions being cut or automated are those in data-center operations and telecommunications
  • large skills gap remains in areas like cybersecurity and software development
  • Capital One Financial Corp
    • laid off 1100 employees in the “agile” group within its technology department

2023-03-22

Notes from https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20230322a.htm

  • the federal funds rate is raised to 4-3/4 to 5 percent.
  • the Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities

Notes from https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20230322a1.htm

  • Implementation Note

2023-03-20

Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/credit-suisse-bond-wipeout-threatens-250-billion-market-10be7d04

  • AT1 bonds - also known as contingent convertible bonds, or CoCos - were introduced after the financial crisis as a way to transfer banking risk away from taxpayers and onto bondholders.

2023-03-11

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-11/thiel-s-founders-fund-withdrew-millions-from-silicon-valley-bank

  • Founders Fund started a capital call.
  • Capital call - a VC firm asks its investors, or limited partners, to send it money in order to make investments in startups.

2023-03-10

Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/svb-financial-stock-portfolio-outlook-loss-93287f3d?mod=hp_LEAD_1

  • On Friday, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed down Silicon Valley Bank and appointed the FDIC as receiver.
  • The FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara and immediately transferred all insured deposits of SVB to the DINB at the time of closing.
  • FDIC’s standard insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank.
  • SVB Financial Group (ticker: SIVB) is the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank
  • Nasdaq will delist SVB’s stock

Notes from https://www.xtb.com/int/market-analysis/news-and-research/svb-financial-bank-closed-by-fdic-decision

  • SVB was the 18th largest bank in the U.S., with $212 billion in assets

Notes from https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html

  • As of December 31, 2022, Silicon Valley Bank had approximately \$209.0 billion in total assets and about \$175.4 billion in total deposits.

Notes from https://www.semafor.com/article/03/09/2023/some-vc-firms-are-urging-founders-to-pull-money-from-troubled-silicon-valley-bank

  • First Republic and Brex - to transfer money out of SVB
  • SVB CEO Gregory Becker

Notes from https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1428439/000142843923000010/wk-20230310.htm

  • $487 million of Roku's cash is held at SVB. It is all uninsured.

2023-03-07

2023-03-06

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-03-06/silvergate-and-the-problems-of-crypto-related-deposits

  • Silvergate Capital Corp is based in California.
  • money-transfer businesses - MoneyGram International, Western Union
  • 82% of Silvergate's deposit base is crypto customers
  • highly liquid - Deposits at the Federal Reserve or other banks, short-term Treasury bills
  • Large banks must keep enough high-quality liquid assets to cover 30-days’ worth of deposit withdrawals under stressed conditions.
    • JPMorgan Chase & Co., for example, held \$733 billion of such assets at the end of 2022 against \$2.3 trillion of diverse, traditional deposits.
    • Three-quarters of those liquid assets were on deposit at the Fed and other banks, the rest was in a mix of Treasuries, and government-sponsored mortgage bonds.

2023-03-03

Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/crypto-silvergate-bank-bitcoin-ea6943b4?mod=hp_LEAD_1

  • Silvergate Capital
    • ticker = SI
    • warned about its ability to “continue as a going concern.”
    • based in La Jolla, Calif
    • founded in the late 1980s
    • had $14.3 billion in deposits at the end of 2021
    • deposits dropped to $3.8 billion in Q4 2022
    • created the “Silvergate Exchange Network” (SEN)
      • to handle transfers of traditional currency between its customers
      • In Q4 2021, it handled $219.2 billion in U.S. dollar transfers
      • By 2021, it had 94 crypto exchanges and 894 institutional investors as customers
      • Made U.S. dollar loans to customers who posted Bitcoin as collateral
      • The SEN network allowed crypto companies to avoid ACH transfers
  • slippage - the difference between the price at which a trade is expected to happen and where it actually executes
  • Signature Bank (SBNY)
    • Runs a network similar to SEN

2023-02-28

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-28/cash-home-sales-in-us-at-highest-in-almost-a-decade?srnd=premium

  • Augusta, Georgia is known for hosting the US Masters golf tournament
    • two-hour drive east of Atlanta
    • Home to a military base, universities and power plants
    • big market for rentals
  • the median home price in Jacksonville, Florida is less than half that of California
  • Sun Belt states

2023-02-27

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-02-27/us-laws-blocking-chinese-ownership-of-farmland-are-unnecessary?srnd=premium

  • At the end of 2021, China held 383,935 acres of land in the US
  • pork producer Smithfield Foods
  • There is a chart that shows the agricultural landholdings by country at the end of 2021. The source of the data in the chart is US Department of Agriculture.
  • China's population is 4 times that of US.
  • Secretary of Agriculture
  • the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US
    • oversees inbound investment

2023-02-16

Notes from https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-021623?mod=article_inline

  • The producer price index measures wholesale inflation

Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/treasury-yields-bonds-inflation-995b9911

  • The two-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD02Y

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/cash-flow/critical-difference-profit-cash-flow/ - explains the difference between cash flow vs. profit. Easy to understand.

2023-02-07

Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackstones-hefty-concession-is-a-warning-to-investors-11672840068 dated 2023-01-04

  • University of California’s endowment, known as UC Investments
    • put $4 billion into BREIT fund, locked up for five years with a two-year limited withdrawal period afterward, for an average of six years
  • BREIT fund
    • fees for small private investors - 1.25% a year and 12.5% of profits
    • chose to focus on Sunbelt housing, warehouses and data centers
    • In December 2022, investors asked for 5.44% of the fund back, but only 0.23% was available because of withdrawals in the two prior months.
  • Blackstone will use up to $1 billion to pay UC Investments if it fails to earn 11.25% a year after fees.
  • During the height of the 2008 financial crisis, Warren Buffet put $5 billion into Goldman Sachs for 10% annual dividend and option to buy discounted shares

2023-02-01

Notes from https://www.barrons.com/articles/gold-prices-gaining-how-to-invest-51675211440?mod=hp_LEADSUPP_2

  • Inflation usually helps gold, but a strong U.S. dollar and rising interest rates can hurt it.
  • State Street Global Advisors, or SSGA
    • manages the $57 billion SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)

2023-01-31

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-31/adani-turns-to-bane-from-boon-for-india-s-swelling-stock-market?srnd=premium

  • The total valuation of India’s stocks has dropped to $3.2 trillion, or 3.1% of the global share market capitalization.
    • So global share market cap is $103.23 (= 3.2 * 100 / 3.1) trillion?
  • Foreigners have been net sellers of India for most of January
  • Global funds pulled a net $784 million from Indian shares on Jan. 25 and Jan. 27
  • Life Insurance Corp. of India, the country’s biggest insurer
  • Anchor investor

Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/whole-foods-asks-suppliers-to-lower-prices-as-costs-ebb-11675115155

  • Whole Foods Market
    • Rival grocers - Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos.
    • discounters - Aldi Inc. and Trader Joe’s
    • Operates more than 500 stores in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
  • merchandising teams that oversee categories of products

2023-01-20

Notes from https://www.reuters.com/business/softbanks-66-bln-sale-arm-nvidia-collapses-ft-2022-02-08/

  • Arm
    • would go public before March 2023
    • SoftBank acquired Arm in 2016 for $32 billion

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-20/google-s-treasured-ai-unit-gets-swept-up-in-12-000-job-cuts?srnd=premium

  • Jeff Dean leads Google’s artificial intelligence and research efforts
  • data platform for care teams, called Google for Clinicians
  • The robotics unit
  • will cut 12,000 jobs (6% of its global workforce)
  • AI is a “key investment area”
  • Google spokesperson Jason Freidenfelds
  • ChatGPT from the research lab OpenAI
  • ChatGPT prompted Google’s management to declare a “code red” within the company

2023-01-17

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-17/investors-seek-to-pull-20-billion-from-core-real-estate-funds?srnd=premium

  • IDR Investment Management - tracks an index of the open-end diversified core equity funds
  • John Murray, head of global private commercial real estate at PIMCO

2023-01-12

Notes from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-11/subway-eyes-sale-of-more-than-10-billion-wsj-reports?srnd=premium

  • Subway
    • based in Milford, Connecticut
    • 37,000 locations in more than 100 countries
    • first shop opened in 1965
    • 20,000 US locations

2023-01-11

Notes from https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-sam-bankman-frieds-1-billion-bet-on-a-bitcoin-miner-on-the-kazakh-steppe-11673453716?mod=hp_lead_pos3

  • Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital
  • venture firms like Sequoia Capital
  • an investor who buys claims from creditors in bankruptcies
  • Genesis Digital
    • one of the world’s largest bitcoin miners
    • two German co-founders
      • Marco Streng and Marco Krohn
    • three Kazakh entrepreneurs
  • commodities giant Trafigura Group

2023-01-03

from https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-is-cardiac-arrest-what-to-know-about-why-damar-hamlin-collapsed-11672767432

  • Cardiac arrest is when the heart abruptly stops beating.
  • It occurs when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions.
  • Abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias can be triggered by congenital defects, heart damage and certain medications
  • arrhythmias can lead to cardiac arrest
  • ventricular fibrillation, a serious type of arrhythmia
  • commotio cordis
  • Both heart attack and heart failure can lead to cardiac arrest. But they are separate conditions.
  • A heart attack occurs when blood flow, which carries oxygen, to the heart muscle is reduced or stopped. It is usually caused by blockages in the coronary arteries.
  • Symptoms of a heart attack can include chest pain, shortness of breath and pain in the arms and back
  • Heart failure is a chronic and progressive condition in which the heart can’t effectively pump blood around the body. Possible contributors include build-up in the coronary arteries, previous heart attacks, high blood pressure, obesity, congenital defects, lung disease and diabetes.
  • Cardiac arrest is sudden and characterized by abrupt collapse and loss of consciousness. A person in cardiac arrest will have no pulse and won’t be breathing.
  • Defibrillator is a device that delivers an electric shock to the heart and can restore a normal heartbeat in cardiac arrest patients
  • While waiting for a defibrillator to arrive, CPR should be administered.
  • Chest compressions can help to manually circulate blood, which can be life-saving to a person whose heart is not beating properly.
  • Everyone should learn how to administer CPR and use an AED (automated external defibrillator).
  • Cardiac arrest is usually fatal. Fewer than 12% of people who have a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive. CPR significantly increases the odds of survival.
public/sotm/reading_2023.txt · Last modified: 2023/03/23 19:28 by raju