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Business News

Simon Property revenue beats on strong leasing demand

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

(Reuters) – Simon Property Group Inc’s first-quarter revenue beat market expectations on Tuesday, benefiting from a strong leasing demand after pandemic-induced store closures.

Despite growing fears of a recession in the United States, mall operators are seeing a rise in leasing demand from tenants occupying mall spaces to cater to customers.

“Tenant demand is excellent, and brick-and-mortar stores are where shoppers want to be,” Chief Executive David Simon said on a post-earnings call. 

Occupancy rate came in at 94.4% in the first quarter, compared to 93.3% a year ago. The company saw base minimum rent per square foot increase 3.1% to $55.84.

During the quarter, store openings included brands such as Steve Madden, Five Below, JCPenney, Starbucks and Hollister, according to UBS data.

Simon Property’s net revenue from lease income rose 3.3% to $1.25 billion in the quarter ended March 31, slightly above analysts’ estimates of $1.24 billion.

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The company also raised the lower end of its 2023 profit and comparable funds from operation (FFO) per diluted share forecasts.

It now expects annual profit in the range of $6.45 to $6.60 per share, mid-point of which is above previous forecast of $6.35 and $6.60.

Simon Property now expects 2023 comparable FFO per diluted share in the range of $11.80 to $11.95, compared with prior outlook of $11.70 and $11.95.

However, it reported a profit of $1.38 per share compared with expectations of $1.39. FFO for the quarter came in at $1.03 billion, or $2.74 per share, compared with expectations of $967.3 million, or $2.81 per share.

(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Arun Koyyur)

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Breaking NewsLottery WinnersPennsylvania News

$350k winning lottery ticket sold at West Mifflin grocery store

by Jessica Woods May 2, 2023
By Jessica Woods

WEST MIFFLIN, PA – A grocery store in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, is now celebrating as it sold the winning Pennsylvania Lottery Cash 5 with Quick Cash ticket for the April 29 draw.

The lucky ticket matched all five balls drawn, 1-3-8-17-20, resulting in a $350,000 win, less withholding. Buttermilk Hollow Shop ‘n Save, located at 4647 Buttermilk Hollow Road, will receive a $500 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

As with all Pennsylvania Lottery games, winners can only be identified after prizes are claimed and tickets are validated. Players have one year from the drawing date to claim a Cash 5 game prize. Meanwhile, any prizes won on any Quick Cash game must be claimed within one year of the purchase date.

The Pennsylvania Lottery reminds winners of jackpot prizes to contact the nearest Lottery office for further instructions or call 1-800-692-7481.

May 2, 2023 0 comments
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Business News

Google, Microsoft CEOs called to AI meeting at White House

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Nandita Bose and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The chief executives of Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and top administration officials to discuss key artificial intelligence (AI) issues on Thursday, said a White House official.

The invitation seen by Reuters to the CEOs noted President Joe Biden’s “expectation that companies like yours must make sure their products are safe before making them available to the public.”

Concerns about fast-growing AI technology include privacy violations, bias and worries it could proliferate scams and misinformation.

In April, Biden said it remains to be seen whether AI is dangerous but underscored that technology companies had a responsibility to ensure their products were safe. Social media had already illustrated the harm that powerful technologies can do without the right safeguards, he said.

The administration has also been seeking public comments on proposed accountability measures for AI systems, as concerns grow about its impact on national security and education.

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On Monday, deputies from the White House Domestic Policy Council and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy wrote in a blog post about how the technology can pose a serious risk to workers.

The Thursday meeting will be attended by Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo among others, said the White House official who did not wish to be named.

The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ChatGPT, an AI program that recently grabbed the public’s attention for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries, in particular has attracted U.S. lawmakers’ attention as it has grown to be the fastest-growing consumer application in history with more than 100 million monthly active users.

“I think we should be cautious with AI, and I think there should be some government oversight because it is a danger to the public,” Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said last month in a television interview.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and David Shepardson; Editing by Josie Kao and Lisa Shumaker)

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Breaking NewsLottery WinnersPennsylvania News

$530,000 winning lottery ticket sold at Chadds Ford Wawa not yet claimed

by Jessica Woods May 2, 2023
By Jessica Woods

Delaware County, PA – If you bought your Match 6 Lotto ticket at the Wawa in Chadds Ford, you might want to take a second look at it.

A Pennsylvania Lottery Match 6 Lotto ticket sold at Wawa, 721 Naamans Creek Road in Chadds Ford, has won the jackpot prize of $530,000 in the Saturday, April 29 drawing.

The ticket matched all six winning numbers, 2-9-15-43-45-37, and has yet to be claimed. Once claimed, the winner will receive the prize money minus applicable withholding, and Wawa will earn a $5,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket. Winners have up to one year from the drawing date to claim their prize.

The ticket has not yet been claimed, according to lottery officials.

May 2, 2023 0 comments
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Business News

Prudential Financial profit misses on lower assets under management

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

(Reuters) -Prudential Financial Inc reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, as the life insurer saw a decline in assets under management.

The respite in the economy after the markets priced in a milder recession was short-lived as a string of high-profile bank collapses sparked a sector-wide turbulence last month and roiled financial stocks.

As a result, assets under management declined 12.5% to $1.42 trillion in the quarter as investors yanked capital from speculative assets and instead sought refuge in safer bets.

Shares of the New Jersey-based company, down 16% so far this year, fell another 2% in extended trading on Tuesday.

The insurer’s after-tax adjusted operating income was $990 million, or $2.66 per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with $1.19 billion, or $3.10 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had estimated a profit of $2.93 a share, according to data from Refinitiv IBES.

Prudential had last year said it was making progress in moving its business focus from market-sensitive revenue segments to more stable and recurring sources of income.

Chief Executive Charles Lowrey said on Tuesday the company was advancing its M&A strategy to expand “alternative capabilities and generate additional fee-based revenue”.

Peer MetLife Inc will report first-quarter results after market hours on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Maju Samuel)

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Breaking NewsLottery WinnersNew York City News

Two winning tickets sold in New York mid-day lottery in NYC

by Jessica Woods May 2, 2023
By Jessica Woods

NEW YORK – The New York Lottery has announced two tickets have won the top prize in the May 1 TAKE 5 MIDDAY drawing. According to the lottery officials, the tickets were sold at Y&Y FARM located at 1572 BATH AVE in BROOKLYN, and NEWS ON 23RD located at 171 WEST 23RD STREET in MANHATTAN, each worth $9,982.50.

TAKE 5 numbers are picked randomly from a pool of numbers one through 39. The drawings are broadcast twice daily at 2:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The winners can claim the prize of any amount within one year of the drawing.

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Breaking NewsNorth Jersey NewsPolice Blotter

North Jersey man charged for running car theft and selling them to unsuspecting buyers

by Charlie Dwyer May 2, 2023
By Charlie Dwyer

HACKENSACK, NJ – A former Bergen County resident has been charged with running a large car theft and fraud ring across multiple states, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger. Warren Guerrier, aged 46 and formerly of Hackensack, New Jersey, was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Guerrier was arraigned today before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini in Newark federal court and pleaded not guilty. Court documents revealed that between November 2016 and June 2020, Guerrier and several conspirators orchestrated a scheme to steal vehicles and then fraudulently sell them to unsuspecting buyers.

They identified vehicles to steal, photographed, tracked and advertised them for sale on the internet, and provided falsified certificates of title and electronically programmed keys for the stolen vehicles to buyer victims in exchange for cash.

Conspirators also utilized fraudulent identity documents to obscure their true identities.

The indictment charges Guerrier and his conspirators with the theft of at least 40 vehicles, out of which approximately 30 were sold to unsuspecting buyers, leading to the collection of approximately $285,000. The conspiracy to commit wire fraud count and each count of wire fraud carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

The aggravated identity theft count carries a sentence of two years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, which must be served consecutively to any other term imposed.

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Business News

Wells Fargo CEO says regional banks are strong, but expects turmoil

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Carolina Mandl and Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co CEO Charlie Scharf said on Tuesday the banking industry is “extremely strong” but added he expects more volatility as market participants assess the health of financial institutions.

“Talking about regional banks as one – it just makes absolutely no sense,” Scharf said at the Milken Institute Global Conference. “Unfortunately, there will be a lot of volatility and turmoil,” he said, adding that “the majority of the banks that we look at are still extremely strong.”

He did not expect more bank failures comparable to the recent collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank. Despite the turmoil, consumers and businesses remain in good financial health, Scharf said.

Peter Orszag, CEO of financial advisory at Lazard Ltd, called on officials to signal their intentions to guarantee uninsured deposits at banks for a six-month period, echoing actions during the 2008 financial crisis.

Such moves would shore up confidence and stop depositors from pulling out money from small and mid-sized banks, said Orszag, who previously served as director of the office of management and budget in the Obama administration.

Lazard advised First Republic Bank before it was seized by regulators and sold to JPMorgan on Monday.

Protections for bank depositors under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp should be raised to $25 million from a current $250,000 per person, per bank, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

Increasing the backstop for bank accounts used for business purposes was a promising potential reform, the FDIC said on Monday.

“I’m all for raising the level of FDIC insurance premium, but I would not go too far,” Scharf said. “This insurance that exists, it’s not the government insurance, it’s the rest of the banking industry coming together and there’s no reason why the banks should subsidize the ills that happened at all of the banks across the system unconditionally.”

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Beverly Hills, California,; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)

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Handcuffs used during police arrest.
Breaking NewsFive Towns NJ NewsOcean County NewsPolice BlotterToms River News

Lakewood man admits to million dollar money laundering scam

by Charlie Dwyer May 2, 2023
By Charlie Dwyer

Lakewood, NJ- An Ocean County resident has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges related to his involvement in a wire fraud scheme that resulted in over $1 million in losses to a financial services corporation. Eli Schamovic, aged 41, admitted to the charges before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty, according to an announcement made by U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.

Court documents revealed that Schamovic created two entities that he used to carry out fraudulent financial transactions, with multiple credit card processing companies.

The transactions resulted in the losses incurred by the financial services corporation, and Schamovic laundered the proceeds of the scheme, which included an approximately $500,000 wire transfer from a bank account he controlled.

The charge of money laundering carries a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross profits or gross loss suffered by the victims, whichever is greater. Schamovic’s sentencing is scheduled for September 8, 2023.

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Business News

Goldman names new COO of global M&A business – memo

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Anirban Sen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs Group Inc has promoted Troy Broderick to be the new chief operating officer of its global mergers and acquisitions business, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Broderick, who currently leads Goldman’s global M&A capital markets business, will continue to hold his current position in addition to his new responsibilities, according to the memo sent by the bank’s co-heads of global M&A, Stephan Feldgoise and Mark Sorrell.

Broderick, who joined Goldman in 2010 as an analyst in UK Equity Capital Markets, has worked on deals in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors within the bank’s investment banking division.

He was on the Goldman team that advised on megadeals including Fox Corp’s $71 billion sale of 21st Century Fox to Walt Disney Co, and AT&T Inc’s $43 billion sale of WarnerMedia to Discovery Inc.

Goldman’s previous COO of the M&A franchise, Russ Hutchinson, left the bank in March to join online banking company Ally Financial Inc as its chief financial officer.

(Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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Business News

PacWest, Western Alliance shares tumble as US regional bank fears persist

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Niket Nishant and Chibuike Oguh

(Reuters) -Shares of U.S. regional banks PacWest Bancorp and Western Alliance Bank plunged on Tuesday as the demise of First Republic Bank triggered investor concerns about the financial health of other mid-sized lenders.

JPMorgan Chase agreed on Monday to acquire a majority of First Republic’s assets in a $10.6 billion deal after regulators seized the lender, which became the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

Investors fear the latest turmoil, which began with the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, could spread to other regional banks.

The KBW Regional Banking Index fell 5.52%, hitting its lowest since December 2020.

“If a ‘confidence crisis’ can happen to First Republic, it can happen to any bank in this country,” said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management.

“This is potentially a big deal, which hopefully won’t materialize to anything significant,” he added.

Los Angeles-based PacWest tumbled by more than 27%. It is ranked 53rd among U.S. lenders with $41.2 billion in assets as of the end of last year, according to Federal Reserve data.

Phoenix, Arizona-based lender Western Alliance, the No. 40 U.S. bank with $68 billion in assets, sank 15% while Cleveland, Ohio-based KeyCorp, the 20th largest bank with $188 billion in assets, fell 9%.

Comerica, a Dallas, Texas-based bank ranked 37th among U.S. lenders with $86 billion in assets, shed 12%. Columbus, Georgia-based Synovus Financial Corp, with $60 billion in assets and ranked the 42nd U.S. biggest bank, lost nearly 7%.

Valley National Bankcorp, which owns Valley National Bank based in Passaic, New Jersey and is the 43rd largest lender with $57 billion in assets, closed 3% lower after shedding more than 20% on Monday.

“Historically, once you see a resolution of one institution, the market tends to go after who they view as the next weakest link,” said Goldman Sachs regional banks analyst Ryan Nash.

The exposure of regional banks to the commercial real estate sector, particularly office buildings that currently have high vacancy rates, has further heightened investor concerns that loan losses could pile up and exacerbate the current crisis amid rising interest rates.

Regional banks with up to $250 billion in assets held about $1.1 trillion of commercial real estate loans with maturities through 2027 as of the end of last year, according to real estate data analytics firm Trepp Inc.

“There could be some haircuts on office loans and that’s a market where regional banks have a lot of exposure,” Nash said.

JPMorgan Chase’s deal for First Republic’s assets has ended risks of a contagion, some analysts said. But others noted the deal makes the biggest U.S. bank even bigger, raising the risk of a heightened “too-big-to-fail” problem that regulators have been trying to solve for years.

“While we think this deal underscores all of JPM’s key strengths, we can’t help but try to read into what it means if our biggest bank is the government’s first line of defense,” analysts at Evercore ISI wrote in a note.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to comment on the regional bank crisis at the end of its Federal Open Markets Committee meeting on Wednesday, with markets expecting a 25 basis point hike.

The selloff was driven by the threat of higher interest rates making the situation worse, said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant, Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat, Ankika Biswas, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Nupur Anand, Matt Tracy and Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Deepa Babington and Jamie Freed)

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US and World News

Protests in Paraguay as losing candidates call for recount

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

(This May 1 story has been refiled to say ‘call’ in the headline)

ASUNCION (Reuters) – Supporters of a right-wing candidate who came third in Paraguay’s presidential election clashed with police outside the electoral court on Monday, amid complaints of fraud in a vote that the ruling Colorado Party won comfortably.

Police put up fences around the court’s headquarters and fired rubber bullets at young protesters who were throwing stones, authorities said, after hundreds of supporters of Paraguayo Cubas gathered.Elsewhere, demonstrators blocked roads with burning tires and destroying billboards with the photo of President-elect Santiago Pena, a 44-year-old economist who won 43% of the vote on Sunday compared with 27% for runner-up Efrain Alegre.

Cubas, who surprised observers by winning nearly 23% of the vote, called in a post on Instagram for a recount and asked his supporters to protest.

“We are not satisfied. The elections were stolen from us. It’s that simple,” Yolanda Paredes, a senator-elect and the wife of Cubas, told reporters.

Cubas was due to travel on Tuesday from his stronghold in Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil, to the capital, Asuncion.

Runner-up Alegre said on Twitter that he too was calling for the electoral court to do a recount and for an international audit of the computer programs used in electronic ballot boxes.

Interior Minister Federico Gonzalez called for “sanity”.

“A procedure is being followed and that must be respected,” he said, referring to the work of the electoral court.

(Reporting by Daniela Desantis; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Business News

Match Group sees signs of Tinder growing

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) -Match Group on Tuesday forecast second-quarter revenue below analysts’ expectations, but said it is seeing signs of growth at Tinder after it made changes at the dating platform.

Tinder has undergone changes to product and marketing execution and though those optimizations are not visible yet in the financial results, it is seeing early signs of greater momentum, Match Group said in a letter to shareholders.

Shares of the company, whose revenue per paying user grew by about 2% from a year earlier, rose 3% in volatile trading after the bell.

Match, which also announced a $1 billion share buyback program, said paying users and direct revenue for its flagship app Tinder were little changed in the first quarter from a year ago, the company said.

“Online dating, though resilient in recent history, is beginning to feel the pressure of tightening wallets and ARPU (average revenue per user) can be expected to decline industry-wide throughout the rest of 2023,” said Nicholas Cauley, an analyst at Third Bridge.

The company forecast current-quarter revenue between $805 million and $815 million, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $822.3 million, according to Refinitiv.

Dating app Hinge introduced a two-tier subscription model, giving users more options, which is expected to increase the average revenue per user and bring in more paying users.

The company said negative foreign exchange impact in the reported quarter was $35 million, $7 million more than it had anticipated in its fourth-quarter earnings call.

Match Group said it saw paying users across its family of dating apps fall 3% from a year earlier to 15.9 million.

The company reported revenue of $787 million in the three-month period ended March 31, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $793.8 million.

Net profit fell to $120.8 million, from $180.5 million, a year earlier.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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Business News

Stocks sink; Treasury yields, dollar fall; Fed, debt ceiling in focus

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Sinéad Carew

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street stock indexes closed lower on Tuesday, a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, while U.S. Treasury yields fell as investors worried the government could run out of cash after June 1 without a debt ceiling hike.

Bank stocks underperformed sharply after the weekend failure of U.S. regional bank First Republic Bank.

Energy shares tumbled as oil prices fell 5% to a five-week low on concerns about the economy as U.S. politicians argued about how to avoid a debt default and investors prepare for another interest rate hike this week.

The dollar index dipped after disappointing U.S. data a day before that the Fed is expected to hike rates by an additional 25 basis points and give guidance on whether it plans to raise rates further in June.

Top U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to accept their party’s debt-ceiling package or make a counter-offer, while a top Democrat said the Senate might try to advance a “clean” debt-ceiling hike next week. Late on Monday, the Treasury Department had said the U.S. could run out of the cash needed to pay its bills in the next month.

Meanwhile regional U.S. banks posted massive declines, dragging the S&P 500 bank index down 3.2% after the failure over the weekend of First Republic and the agreed sale of its assets to JPMorgan Chase.

Trading on Tuesday reflected growing investor worries that more banks would start to show steep deposit outflows like First Republic, the third major U.S. bank to collapse since March, said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

“Couple that with the Fed’s rate decision tomorrow and you’ve elevated levels of anxiety in financials spilling over the market in general … the debt ceiling limit is part of an elevated anxiety,” James said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 367.17 points, or 1.08%, to 33,684.53, the S&P 500 lost 48.29 points, or 1.16%, to 4,119.58 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 132.09 points, or 1.08%, to 12,080.51.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.96%. Emerging market stocks lost 0.26%.

Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Stamford, Connecticut, said “investors are recognizing that there’s challenges in the near term,” citing headwinds including the Fed meeting, the looming debt ceiling and bank concerns as well as weak economic data.

Data showed U.S. job openings fell for a third straight month in March even as they remained at levels consistent with a tight labor market.

(Graphic: Debt ceiling crisis and U.S. stocks – https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-STOCKS/byprleoqdpe/chart_eikon.jpg)

In currencies, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell 0.245%, with the euro up 0.25% to $1.1002.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.73% versus the greenback at 136.50 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2471, down 0.20% on the day.

U.S. Treasury investors strengthened bets that the Federal Reserve will reverse its interest rate-hiking course sooner than expected, amid a wide sell-off in regional bank stocks and signs that government funds will run short by June.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were down 14.4 basis points to 3.430%, from 3.574% late on Monday. And the 30-year bond was last down 10.7 basis points to yield 3.7101% while the 2-year note was last was down 15.3 basis points to yield 3.986%, from 4.139%.

U.S. crude oil futures settled down $4 or 5.29% at $71.66 per barrel and Brent finished at $75.32, down $3.99 or 5.03% on the day.

Gold extended gains, on track for its biggest daily gain in a month, as yields dropped on renewed fears of contagion in the U.S. banking sector and ahead of the Fed’s rate decision.

Spot gold added 1.8% to $2,016.79 an ounce. U.S. gold futures gained 1.64% to $2,015.90 an ounce.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Mark Potter, David Gregorio and Josie Kao)

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Business News

Biden administration ramps up data exchange program to boost US supply chains

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Tuesday said it was ramping up a program to address supply chain issues by getting truckers, shippers, wholesalers, retailers and other businesses to share information.

The Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program, which was launched in March 2022 with 18 companies, now has 53 firms.

The Department of Transportation helps participants exchange supply-and-demand information that is aggregated and anonymized to better view freight movement.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the program will “help us to smooth out supply chains to make us more resilient to whatever it is that is coming next.”

Companies that are part of the program include Nike Inc, Home Depot Inc, Albertsons Companies Inc, Costco Wholesale Corp, Target Corp, Walmart Inc, Union Pacific Corp, FedEx Corp, United Parcel Service Inc and Maersk.

Data exchange may involve incoming container demand or available supply-side assets to move goods like terminal slots, tractors, chassis, and warehouse space, the Transportation Department said.

White House deputy National Economic Council director Celeste Drake said at a forum the program had evolved its goal from “answering the very simple question of ‘Where’s my stuff?’ to ‘How do we create a forward-looking integrated picture of the supply chain condition in the U.S.?'” Drake said the plan is to expand the program to additional ports.

Buttigieg said the Transportation Department spent $1.5 millon to create the program and is asking for $5.3 million in the current budget request “to keep scaling this, to make it even more useful.” He said officials will keep refining the program and seeking feedback from companies to make it more useful.

Biden created a task force in June 2021 to address high prices and shortages of consumer goods and crucial components, thanks to pandemic-related labor and demand issues.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)

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US and World News

Senate panel explores ethics standards for US Supreme Court as questions swirl

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Democratic-led Senate panel on Tuesday explored the possibility of pursuing legislation to impose ethics standards on the U.S. Supreme Court amid revelations about luxury trips and real estate transactions by conservative justices, but the panel’s Republican members voiced stern opposition.

“The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, who asserted at a hearing that the court’s failure to fix the problem on its own means Congress must do it instead. “That reality is driving a crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court. The status quo must change.”

None of the nine justices appeared at the hearing, with Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday declining Durbin’s invitation for him to testify. Instead, the committee heard from lawyers and academics who differed over whether Congress possessed the authority to impose ethics guidelines on the government’s judicial branch.

The news outlet ProPublica has detailed ties between conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s longest-tenured member, and wealthy Republican donor Harlan Crow, including real estate purchases and luxury travel paid for by the Dallas businessman.

Separately, the news outlet Politico has reported that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch failed to disclose the buyer of a Colorado property in which he had a stake – the chief executive of a major law firm whose attorneys have been involved in numerous Supreme Court cases.

Some Republican committee members sought to portray these revelations as part of an effort by liberals and Democrats to smear the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. Liberals have decried some of the court’s recent major rulings including expanding gun rights and ending its recognition of a constitutional right to abortion.

Senator Lindsey Graham, the panel’s top Republican, expressed reservations about Congress imposing regulations on the justices and said he would not support ethics legislation that has been proposed. But Graham urged the justices to act themselves to improve transparency and “instill more public confidence” in the court.

Another Republican committee member, Senator John Kennedy said the hearing represented “an excuse to sling more mud at an institution that some – not all – some Democrats don’t like because they can’t control it 100% of the time.”

Supreme Court justices are not bound like other federal judges by a code of conduct adopted by the policymaking body for the broader federal judiciary. Other federal judges under that code must avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Roberts has said Supreme Court justices consult that code in assessing their own ethical obligations.

“Justices read the ethics rules in unique and eccentric ways,” Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said, “and when they’re caught out of bounds, they refuse to allow any investigation of the facts.”

Whitehouse has proposed legislation that would impose on the justices new requirements for disclosure and recusal from cases involving conflicts of interest.

Other legislation has been introduced by Senators Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican, that would require the Supreme Court to create a code of conduct and appoint an official to review ethics complaints.

With Republican opposition expected, any such bill faces an uphill battle in a divided Congress.

Witnesses at the hearing included former federal judge Jeremy Fogel and judicial ethics expert Amanda Frost of the University of Virginia School of Law, who both said the justices need a code of conduct.

Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate the ethical standards of the justices, Frost said, just as laws it passes already provide for the court’s funding, size, quorum, staffing and other operations.

Two other witnesses, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and lawyer Thomas Dupree, argued that imposing such a code through legislation would infringe on the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers among the government’s executive, legislative and judicial branches.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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Thomson Reuters profit tops estimates as it plans AI push

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Helen Coster and Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Thomson Reuters Corp on Tuesday reported higher-than-expected sales and operating profit in the first quarter, helped by divestitures and high customer retention rates, as it plans a deeper investment in artificial intelligence.

The news and information company reported adjusted earnings of 82 cents per share, beating analyst forecasts for 80 cents.

Total revenue rose 4% in the quarter to $1.738 billion, beating expectations, according to estimates from Refinitiv.

Thomson Reuters, which owns the Westlaw legal database, Reuters news agency and the Checkpoint tax and accounting service, said organic revenue was up 7% for its “Big 3” segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates and Tax & Accounting Professionals.

“While we acknowledge elevated macroeconomic uncertainty, our underlying business is resilient,” Chief Executive Steve Hasker said in a statement.

Thomson Reuters reaffirmed most 2023 financial estimates, but trimmed its full-year total revenue growth forecast to 3% to 3.5%, from 4.5% to 5%, reflecting the sale of a majority stake in legal business management software company Elite to TPG. 

In an interview with Reuters, Hasker said the company does not expect layoffs this year.

Shares, which reached a record high last month, fell about 1% in both New York and Toronto trading.

The company “delivered a good quarter” but its positives are already reflected in its shares, analyst Matt Arnold of Edward Jones said in a note, adding he saw no catalyst for Tuesday’s stock decline.

Thomson Reuters plans to spend some $100 million a year to invest in artificial intelligence, Hasker said. It will start seeing generative AI incorporated into flagship products in the second half of this year. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that generates new content or data in response to a prompt, or question, by a user.

The $100 million is separate from the company’s M&A budget, which will be about $10 billion from now to 2025, Michael Eastwood, Thomson Reuters’ Chief Financial Officer, said in an interview.

Over the last three years, almost all of the company’s M&A budget has been allocated to artificial intelligence, and executives see that trend continuing. AI features will be incorporated in most major business divisions — legal, tax and accounting, and in the news business.

AI is already embedded in Thomson Reuters products such as Westlaw Edge and Practical Law. In 2022, the company acquired PLX AI, a real-time financial news service powered by the technology.

The company said it sold 24.5 million shares of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in the first quarter for gross proceeds of $2.3 billion. As of April 30, it owned 47.4 million shares of LSEG, worth $5 billion.

Thomson Reuters said it had “increasing confidence” about its outlook but noted there were “many signs that point to a weakening global economic environment” from high interest rates and geopolitical risk.

In April, the company said it would return $2.2 billion to shareholders through a cash distribution and a reverse stock split after selling some of its LSEG shares.

(Reporting by Helen Coster and Kenneth Li in New York, Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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Explainer: How the Fed might act in a US default

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at his press conference on Wednesday is likely to get asked – again – what contingencies he plans for in the event of a U.S. debt default, and he is likely to say – again – that there is no central bank silver bullet to shield the economy from such a damaging event.

The risk of default looms ever larger after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday said the date the government may run short of funds to pay its bills under the current $31.4 trillion debt limit may be as early as June 1. Time is running short and President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans are unlikely even to meet for the first time for another week.

Despite Powell’s protestations, the Fed would have a role in trying to limit the harm to financial stability. In past debt-ceiling standoffs – in 2011 and 2013 – Fed staff and policymakers developed a playbook that would likely provide a starting point.

And the recent banking turmoil has introduced at least one potential new twist.

Here are some of the Fed’s options:

THE BASICS

The U.S. central bank’s basic responses to debt-limit-related market stress were laid out in an August 2011 conference call held by its policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee to discuss what seemed to be imminent trouble.

Two of the key ideas developed then, the use of repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements to ensure liquidity for the most important financial markets, are now permanent Fed programs integral to how it manages interest rates on a day-to-day basis.

If market stress became apparent in short-term interest rates, it could temporarily increase the amounts available for “repos” – short-term sales or purchases of securities that can run into the trillions of dollars each day. Indeed, doing so might be necessary for the Fed to conduct monetary policy if market stress pushed its benchmark target rate outside the range set by policymakers.

SUSPEND QT?

Another quick tool at hand would be to suspend the current “quantitative tightening,” also known as QT, used by the Fed to shrink its balance sheet each month.

While QT is part of the Fed’s move to tighten monetary policy to control inflation, it has a net effect of pulling about $95 billion a month out of financial markets – money the central bank could in effect add back by holding its balance sheet constant until the debt-ceiling standoff ended.

OLD TOOL, NEW TWIST?

The Fed’s most standard tool, acting as lender of last resort to banks through its discount window, would also be available.

But now there’s a twist, one perhaps foreshadowed in the 2011 planning discussions but brought back into the light by the failures in March of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

A default would not extend to the nearly $24 trillion stockpile of Treasury securities all at once – it would spread one bill, one note, one bond at a time as interest and principal payments became due.

In 2011, top Fed staff, led by then-head of its monetary affairs division William English, posited the central bank could accept any defaulted Treasury securities as collateral for its standing programs such as the discount window or repos.

That “seems appropriate so long as the default reflects a political impasse and not any underlying inability of the United States to meet its obligations, so that all payments on defaulted securities would presumably be made after a short delay,” English – now at Yale School of Management – told officials, the transcript of the 2011 conference call shows.

English, however, had envisioned the bonds being accepted by the Fed at a market price that would likely be impaired by their defaulted status.

But, following the bank failures in March, the Fed has a new bank lending facility – one that allows securities with impaired prices to be pledged at face value. The same terms apply to discount window loans.

THE ‘LOATHSOME’

The last and most sensitive step for the Fed would involve removing defaulted securities from the market altogether – either through outright purchases that would involve increasing its balance sheet, or “swaps” in which it would trade its own holdings of Treasuries on which interest or principal payments were expected to stay current for those that were in default.

English in the 2011 call warned that approach “would insert the Federal Reserve into a very strained political situation and could raise questions about its independence from Treasury debt management issues.”

When the issue resurfaced during another debt ceiling stand-off in 2013, Powell – then a rather junior member of the Board of Governors with a bit over a year of service at the central bank under his belt – chafed at that idea in particular. But also didn’t rule it out.

After endorsing a range of less fraught options during a briefing that October, the future Fed chief said, “as long as I’m talking, I find 8 and 9 to be loathsome,” referring to the swaps and outright purchases. 

    “I hope that gets into the minutes. But I don’t want to say what I would and wouldn’t do, if we have to actually deal with a catastrophe.”

Ben Bernanke, Fed chair at the time, quipped: “So you are willing to accept ‘loathsome’ under some certain circumstances,” drawing laughter from others on the call.

Powell responded: “Yes, under certain circumstances.”

(Reporting By Howard Schneider and Dan Burns; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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Revlon emerges from bankruptcy after lender takeover

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Dietrich Knauth

(Reuters) -Revlon Inc said on Tuesday that it has emerged from bankruptcy after cutting more than $2.7 billion in debt and handing control of the beauty products company to its lenders.

CEO Debra Perelman said in a statement that Revlon is stronger after bankruptcy and well positioned for long-term growth.

“We look forward to unlocking the full potential of our globally recognized brands and continuing to offer our customers the iconic products they have loved for decades,” Perelman said.

Revlon, which has a 91-year history selling lipstick, nail polish and other beauty products, filed for bankruptcy in June, saying its $3.5 billion debt load and pandemic-related disruptions had left it too cash-poor to make timely payments to critical vendors in its cosmetics supply chain.

Revlon has filled its post-bankruptcy board of directors with experienced executives from the consumer, retail, and beauty industries, including former Bloomin’ Brands CEO Elizabeth Smith and former Sephora CEO Martin Brok.

Revlon’s lenders took ownership of the company in exchange for the debt reduction agreement, wiping out the equity value of existing shareholders.

The company’s largest shareholder was MacAndrews & Forbes, which is owned by Perelman’s father Ron Perelman. MacAndrew & Forbes held 85% of the company’s shares at the time of its bankruptcy filing, and the remaining stock saw a surge in interest from retail investors last year before collapsing in value.

Revlon’s new owners include Glendon Capital Management, King Street Capital Management, Angelo Gordon & Co, and Oak Hill Advisors.

King Street Capital Managing Director Noah Charney said the new owners were proud to “serve as stewards” of a “storied American business.”

The company, which has changed its corporate name to Revlon Group Holdings, said it exited from bankruptcy with $1.5 billion in debt and $236 million in available liquidity. It previously announced plans to raise $670 million by selling new equity shares after its bankruptcy. 

Revlon reported $490 million in net sales for the first quarter, up year on year from $479.6 million.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New York and Nandhini Srinivasan in BengaluruEditing by Marguerita Choy)

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Bleach maker Clorox raises annual forecasts on higher prices

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Granth Vanaik and Jessica DiNapoli

(Reuters) – Clorox Co raised its annual sales and profit forecasts on Tuesday, banking on higher product prices that helped the household staples maker overcome a slowdown in demand for its products.

Consumer product companies over the past year have been bumping up prices to protect profit margins from a stronger U.S. dollar, rising labor, raw materials, and supply chain costs.

While price hikes helped increase gross margins to about 42% from 36% a year ago, it also helped Clorox post a 6% rise in net sales to $1.92 billion for the third quarter ended March 31. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.82 billion, as per Refinitiv data.

During the pandemic, Clorox products were in high demand as people stocked up on its wipes and surface cleaners in an effort to keep their homes clean and infection-free.

However, demand has since begun to ease with Clorox seeing volumes drop in its health and wellness, and household segments in the reported quarter, even as it said earlier this year there will not be any more price hikes ahead.

“We are still watching the consumer closely… we know they are under financial pressure as inflation continues to drag on,” said Clorox Chief Financial Officer Kevin Jacobsen in an interview with Reuters.

Peers Procter & Gamble Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp have also raised their respective forecasts in recent weeks banking on higher product prices.

The Pine-Sol manufacturer now expects fiscal 2023 net sales to increase between 1% to 2%, compared with a previous forecast range of a 2% decrease to a 1% increase.

It now projects annual adjusted earnings between $4.35 and $4.50 per share, compared with prior outlook of $4.05 to $4.30.

(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru and Jessica DiNapoli in New York; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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Analysis-Companies wary as Twitter checkmark policy fuels imposter accounts

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Hardik Vyas and Sheila Dang

(Reuters) – Twitter’s attempt to implement a paid account verification service has attracted imposters spreading misinformation, which experts said could lead major brands to further pull back from the social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

On April 20, Twitter moved to boost profits by removing the once-coveted blue check marks from accounts and charging $8 a month to users who wish to buy a Twitter Blue subscription to retain their verified status.

Musk’s latest initiative was met with a wave of imposter accounts sharing harmful misinformation. Some organizations have already stopped using Twitter, including the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) with 1.3 million followers. Both AT&T Inc and Volkswagen AG told Reuters they had paused Twitter ads and had not yet resumed as of April.

Twitter has been hit by a massive decline in advertising since the acquisition but Musk told the BBC last month most of the advertisers are returning to the platform.

Data from outside research firms and statements from several advertisers show Twitter’s ad business may not be bouncing back that quickly.

“Twitter Blue is a mess. This is more chaos and confusion for brands who were already wary of impersonation. They don’t want to remain on a platform where they feel vulnerable,” said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Since Musk bought Twitter in October and began making rapid changes, brands have been debating whether they should keep advertising on the platform. Enberg said Twitter’s removal of legacy checkmarks could prompt some companies to stop tweeting and maintaining their profile.

“There’s little incentive for brands to keep an organic presence when they think their brand is at risk, and especially on a platform where it’s not going to drive any meaningful impact,” she said.

Rachel Moran-Prestridge, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, said Twitter’s checkmarks for years gave users confidence an account was legitimate.

“Without this verification, users have to do much more heavy lifting to try to ascertain whether the account is who they say they are,” she told Reuters in an email.

In a move that furthered confusion, Twitter on April 22 appeared to give some high-profile users a verification mark.

Within the next 48 hours, all but 110 of the most-followed Twitter accounts suddenly had verification through Twitter Blue, indicating Twitter likely gifted the check marks, independent researcher Travis Brown told Reuters.

Neither Twitter nor Musk has commented on the return of the verification marks for a select few users.

An emailed request for comment to Twitter returned an automated reply with a poop emoji.

Reuters is a partner of Twitter’s Community Notes fact-checking project. 

A fake account posing as Disney Junior UK, now a defunct TV channel, last week was issued a gold checkmark used for “verified organizations”. The Walt Disney Co told Reuters it contacted Twitter and the account was suspended.

New York’s MTA said last Thursday it “does not pay tech platforms” and would stop tweeting service alerts and information.

“The reliability of (Twitter) can no longer be guaranteed,” the MTA said in a statement.

GRADUAL PULLBACK

Since the initial rollout of the Twitter Blue service in November, imposter tweets have spread harmful misinformation.

U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co watched its stock tumble over 4% and was forced to apologize after a Twitter user impersonating its official account posted “insulin is free.”

Imposter Twitter accounts also tarnished the online reputations of Lockheed Martin Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd. Last month, Twitter told advertisers in an email that businesses spending less than $1,000 per month on Twitter ads must be subscribed to Twitter Blue or pay to be part of the verified organizations program to keep running ads on the platform, according to Matt Navarra, a social media consultant who has worked with Meta and Mozilla.

Eric Yaverbaum, CEO of the New York-based PR agency Ericho Communications, said more brands are likely to pull away if Twitter does not implement a stringent user verification model.

“Brands have already stopped ads on Twitter, many won’t come back, and I have a feeling more companies will put an end to advertising on the platform,” Yaverbaum said in an e-mail to Reuters.

Some brands have already taken countermeasures against online impersonation by retaining the services of brand reputation management companies.

Social Impostor CEO Kevin Long said a number of factors attract online impersonators to a celebrity or brand.

“Just because you had – or will have – a blue verification mark does not deter the imposters from creating accounts,” Long, whose company took down over 8,000 bogus accounts across major platforms, told Reuters in an email.

“The volume of imposter accounts seems to depend on several things — Is the client doing a high profile event that week? Is the client in the news for some reason – good or bad? My experience is this is across all social platforms.”

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Increased green tax-credit costs are a sign of success, White House’s Podesta says

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top White House official said on Tuesday that he was not concerned that President Joe Biden’s signature clean-energy law could cost more than originally anticipated as businesses take advantage of tax breaks that aim to spur green development.

“I think this is evidence that the bill was actually working, that people are making plans, they’re investing money,” John Podesta, a White House adviser who is overseeing implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, said in a Reuters interview.

Podesta’s comments signaled that the White House is not interested in scaling back the law as Biden girds for a budget showdown with Republicans.

Podesta and other administration officials have celebrated a wave of battery plants, solar facilities and other green-energy projects that have been announced since the law’s passage. Goldman Sachs estimated in March that it would drive $3 trillion in private-sector climate investments.

But that success may come at a cost.

Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated last week that the law’s tax incentives will cost $515 billion over 10 years, up from its estimate of $270 billion at the time of passage.

A separate analysis by University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found they would cost $1.045 trillion over the coming 10 years, nearly three times its original $385 billion estimate.

Republicans unanimously opposed the climate bill last year and are now seeking to repeal parts of it.

A bill that passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would repeal the law’s green-energy tax breaks and cut other spending programs as a condition for raising the government’s $31.4 trillion borrowing authority.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, one of the Inflation Reduction Act’s main architects, has said the administration is interpreting its electric-vehicle tax credits too broadly, driving up costs. He has threatened to back the repeal effort.

Podesta said he speaks regularly with Manchin and said other Democrats in the Senate would not support repeal.

“I think what he’s been pushing recently is the question that the bill is kind of overperforming, that he’s worried there’s more takeup than was anticipated,” Podesta said of Manchin. “I think that’s success.”

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Freshworks tops revenue estimates as lower-priced offerings boost demand

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

(Reuters) – Freshworks Inc beat quarterly revenue estimates on Tuesday and posted its first adjusted operating profit as more businesses sought its lower-priced customer engagement software in a tough economy.

Rising interest rates, high inflation and a banking crisis have worsened the global economic outlook in recent months, forcing businesses to slash their technology budgets.

Freshworks, whose products compete with Salesforce Inc and Zendesk, told Reuters that the downturn was driving more companies to its more affordable offerings.

The San Mateo, California-based company’s revenue rose 20% in the first quarter ended March to $137.7 million, compared with analysts’ estimates of $134.3 million, according to Refinitiv.

It posted an adjusted operating profit of $3.9 million. Net loss narrowed to $42.7 million, from $49.1 million a year earlier.

The company forecast second-quarter revenue largely in line with estimates, while its forecast for adjusted profit was above estimates.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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No charges for Memphis officer who will testify in Nichols death trial

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Tyler Clifford

(Reuters) -One of the former Memphis police officers involved in the attempted arrest of Tyre Nichols will not face criminal charges and is expected to testify against five others accused of brutalizing the Black motorist to death, a prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said his office declined to charge the 26-year-old officer, Preston Hemphill, because he was not at the scene where five other officers battered Nichols, a 29-year-old Black father.

“We’re not endorsing what happened, but we do not believe that criminal charges are appropriate,” Mulroy told reporters. “He had to make his decisions based on what he knew or what he thought was happening and following the lead and in support of the other officers.”

Hemphill, who is white, could be seen on bodycam video arriving at the initial traffic stop and deploying a Taser on Nichols next to his vehicle. While Hemphill was not involved in the pursuit of Nichols, his bodycam recorded him saying, “I hope they stomp his ass.”

The five former officers charged with second-degree murder are all Black.

An autopsy will be available soon and is expected to confirm that Nichols died of injuries from the beating, Mulroy added.

Police video of the incident showed officers kicking, punching and beating Nichols with a baton on Jan. 7. Nichols died of his injuries three days later.

The beating came after the car Nichols was driving was pulled over and officers tried to arrest him. He ran to a second site where the beating took place.

Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, attorneys for the Nichols family, said in a statement that they understood Hemphill will continue to assist in investigations.

“In light of this, we are supportive of no charges for this individual,” the statement said.

Hemphill, along with those accused of murder and a seventh officer, were relieved of their duties by the Memphis Police Department.

In firing Hemphill, the department said he was not truthful and violated multiple department policies, including Taser use. Hemphill possessed “personally owned” handcuffs and lied that he saw Nichols driving recklessly and putting up a fight with officers.

Prosecutors will not charge any other officer who arrived after the beating but are still investigating fire department staff, Mulroy said.

Three members of the Memphis Fire Department were fired and one was suspended.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Lisa Shumaker)

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LIBOR successor in home stretch for transition in giant US swaps market

by Reuters May 2, 2023
By Reuters

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and John McCrank

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A decade after a manipulation scandal turned global regulators and investors against the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) as the global interest rate benchmark, major clearing houses are in the final weeks of the nearly $50 trillion transition of the U.S. rate swaps market to its successor.

The U.S. interest rate swaps market, with daily turnover of about $1 trillion, is in the last phase of its conversion into the risk-free rate called the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), from dollar LIBOR, which is set to expire at the end of June.

Interest rate swaps, a measure of the cost of exchanging fixed rate cash flows for floating rate ones over a specific period, give businesses a way to manage interest rate risk and are used by investors to express views on where borrowing costs will go.

Since its introduction in 1986, LIBOR grew to become the dominant reference rate on loans and derivatives. Regulators, however, mandated LIBOR’s termination after fining the banks that set the rate billions of dollars for rigging it.

In contrast, SOFR is a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by U.S. Treasury securities in the repurchase (repo) market.

The two main derivatives clearing houses, the CME Group and LCH, have started converting cleared U.S. dollar LIBOR swaps into cleared SOFR swaps this year. LCH will finish this month and the CME by July.

CME’s and LCH’s conversion followed successful transitions of Swiss franc, euro, sterling and yen LIBOR-listed derivatives in 2021.

LCH, which clears more than 90% of global rate swaps, converted the first part over April 22 to 23, with an aggregate notional value of $1.5 trillion worth of contracts. The total value of contracts for conversion by LCH is $45 trillion.

“What we did was a contractual conversion of a portion of LCH’s U.S. dollar LIBOR-linked cleared swaps,” said Phil Whitehurst, head of service development and rates at LCH.

“We made an explicit change to those contracts, about 50,000 of them. We explicitly changed the floating rate benchmark on those contracts from U.S. dollar Libor to U.S. dollar SOFR.”

LCH’s second conversion will take place on May 19.

The CME, meanwhile, converted some LIBOR swaps on March 24, as well as 7.5 million contracts in Eurodollar open interest and $4 trillion in cleared U.S. LIBOR swaps to corresponding SOFR derivatives in April.

It will then convert zero-coupon swaps on July 3 along with any U.S. LIBOR swaps cleared after the primary conversion.

“The conversion of Eurodollar futures, options, and USD LIBOR cleared swaps was successfully completed according to fallback procedures incorporated into the products’ respective Rulebooks, and after extensive consultation across market participants,” said Agha Mirza, CME’s global head of rates and over-the-counter products.

Eurodollar futures, which tracked short-term funding rate expectations over several years, was one of the most heavily-traded assets in the world. Investors hedged interest rate risk in this market.

Eurodollar futures last traded on April 14, with the CME converting those contracts into SOFR units. The April, May and June 2023 eurodollar futures and options will still be available to trade until their contract’s expiration.

“The conversion was well-telegraphed, but is still meaningful given the importance of eurodollars in curve construction and interest rate risk hedging,” wrote TD Securities analysts in a research note.

“Trading activity has mostly transitioned across to SOFR. So 94%-95% of risk changing hands in swaps these days are being pegged to SOFR as a benchmark already,” said LCH’s Whitehurst.

SOFR swaps have consistently accounted for more than 85% of daily volumes on average of interest rate risk traded in the outright swaps market since June 2022.

LIBOR swaps, on the other hand, have accounted for less than about 10% of the overall volume, according to a report from the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC), a group of private-market participants convened to help with the transition from USD LIBOR to SOFR.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and John McCrank; Editing by Alden Bentley and Josie Kao)

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