All posts tagged: Wall Street

Brent falls below US as Nasdaq drops for 3rd straight day

Brent falls below US$75 as Nasdaq drops for 3rd straight day

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK: Oil prices retreated Wednesday (Jun 24) to their lowest levels since the start of US-Iran war while tech shares continued to show weakness on a mixed day for global stocks. Brent crude dropped below US$75 a barrel for the first time since the start of the Middle East war at the end of February as more tankers returned to the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Iran agreement. “The carnage continues in oil prices,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG. “This delivers relief for consumers around the globe, assuming the oil industry can scramble to fill the gap left by months of disruption,” he added. As of 3pm GMT (11pm, Singapore time) on Wednesday, maritime tracking firm Kpler recorded 25 transits by commodity ships on Tuesday, and 17 so far on Wednesday.  In peacetime, around 120 ships normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz each day, carrying about a fifth of global oil and LNG gas exports. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was committed to …

Charlie Javice reportedly seeking a pardon from Trump

Charlie Javice reportedly seeking a pardon from Trump

Published by Sam Flores

Charlie Javice leaves Manhattan federal court after being sentenced to 85 months in prison for defrauding JPMorgan Chase & Co., in New York City, U.S., Sept. 29, 2025. Jeenah Moon | Reuters Charlie Javice, who was convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase after selling her company, is seeking a pardon from the Trump administration, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Javice founded a startup called Frank that JPMorgan acquired in 2021 for $175 million. Last year, she was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for defrauding the bank by overstating the number of customers Frank had. She is appealing the verdict. Frank, which helped users apply for college financial aid, said it had more than 4 million customers, but it actually had fewer than 300,000, according to JPMorgan. The Trump administration has been considering a wave of 250 pardons to mark the United States’ 250th birthday, the Journal had previously reported. A Javice spokesman declined to comment to CNBC, and JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. Read …

Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and Other Rocket Barons Set to Profit From the SpaceX IPO

Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and Other Rocket Barons Set to Profit From the SpaceX IPO

Published by Sam Flores

At least 10 Trump administration officials have reported stakes in SpaceX or xAI worth as much as $44 million combined, according to Bloomberg. Steve Witkoff, the special envoy leading peace negotiations in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, indirectly holds between $1 million and $5 million in SpaceX. Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration, holds xAI shares through a fund under Valor Equity Partners—the firm run by SpaceX board member and DOGE alumnus Antonio Gracias. Betsy DeVos, the former education secretary, purchased shares in SpaceX through an investor who was mentioned earlier this year in a ProPublica piece about Chinese investment in SpaceX. Anthony Scaramucci, who served as President Trump’s White House communications director for all of 11 days in 2017, took to X to announce, “I own SpaceX. I participated in a private round. I was also an investor in xAI”—before adding that the “cult of personality around Elon Musk gives his companies an excessive premium that is off the charts.” The SpaceX Insiders Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO, told Time in March, “I …

EU’s big 6 pitch a rival to Wall Street – POLITICO

EU’s big 6 pitch a rival to Wall Street – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Back-to-back crises have limited the power of the public purse, so policymakers are hoping professional financiers and savers can do the heavy lifting by putting their money to work in the right places. EU citizens alone have €11 trillion of cash savings sitting in their bank accounts. But vying interests from within the industry and national governments, such as Ireland and Luxembourg, threaten to derail negotiations. That’s convinced the E6 group to agree on the fundamentals among themselves to speed the process along, triggering fears of a two-speed Europe in which some countries are left behind. “I don’t think a separate structure is feasible, because it would conflict with the prevailing perception in all member states today that fragmentation must stop,” Cyprus’ Finance Minister Makis Keravnos, who currently chairs Ecofin meetings, told POLITICO. Devil in the detail The broad strokes of the deal paper over internal divisions within the E6. While all six governments agree on upgrading the EU’s securities regulator into a supercop for the bloc, they disagree on how fast the process should …

EU’s big six reach deal on key markets package – POLITICO

EU’s big six reach deal on key markets package – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

One of the thorniest issues involves giving more supervisory powers to the EU’s markets body, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). France and Spain pushed to give ESMA sweeping new powers immediately, while Italy and the Netherlands pushed for a transition period of up to eight years. The discussions ended with the E6 agreeing to expand ESMA’s powers “as soon as possible” but without including a specific timeline, said two of the officials. In the final stages of the negotiations, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil left the room to consult with his aides in the gardens of the countryside mansion in Berlin where the meeting was being held. Earlier in the day, Klingbeil told reporters that he was “ready to make concessions” to secure a deal. The signatories of the agreement now face an uphill battle to advance a broader political agreement among the EU’s 27 countries, including arch skeptics Ireland and Luxembourg. In order for the EU to finalize a deal, it must be approved by 15 countries representing at least 65 percent …

Stocks up, oil down over week on guarded optimism for Iran

Stocks up, oil down over week on guarded optimism for Iran

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose sharply over the week and oil prices fell as a fragile truce was struck between the United States and Iran, with ceasefire talks due to start in Islamabad on Saturday (Apr 11). For the week, all three major US indices advanced by more than three per cent. Oil prices retreated once again on Friday. For the week, they tumbled by approximately 13 per cent. The New York Stock Exchange closed mixed for the day Friday – the Dow Jones shed 0.6 per cent, the Nasdaq gained 0.4 per cent, and the broader S&P 500 index was flat, slipping 0.1 per cent. “Markets are trading on a cautious tone ahead of the US-Iran ceasefire talks,” Elias Haddad of Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) said in a note. “For financial markets, the key issue is whether peak shipping security fear is now behind us.” Official sources say the talks in Islamabad will cover Iran’s nuclear enrichment and the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Since the ceasefire took effect, …

Trump’s Iran ceasefire doesn’t mean Europe’s economy is out of the danger zone – POLITICO

Trump’s Iran ceasefire doesn’t mean Europe’s economy is out of the danger zone – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

But the damage done to the world’s supply chains, especially for energy, will simply not be undone overnight, even if — and it’s a big ‘if’ — the ceasefire holds, analysts say. “A temporary pause is just that — and both sides of the conflict have established a renewed reputation for unpredictability,” said Simon French, chief economist with London investment bank PanmureLiberum, via X. Moreover, said Peel Hunt chief economist Kallum Pickering, “Even if this truce marks the genuine end of fighting, some economic damage is already baked in.” He warned that whatever happens from here on, inflation will be higher and growth will be slower in the second half of this year, relative to what was expected in February, before the war started. While the two sides have agreed to start peace talks in Pakistan on Friday, both still seem far apart on key issues, notably the terms on which oil, gas and chemicals can pass in and out of the Persian Gulf, the most important shipping lane for world energy supply. The two …

Europe cannot afford to leave Alzheimer’s patients behind – POLITICO

Europe cannot afford to leave Alzheimer’s patients behind – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

New medicines to treat Alzheimer’s disease have achieved efficacy and safety profiles on par with leading cancer and multiple sclerosis treatments, yet they face more skepticism. 4 Part of the problem is that diseases long considered untreatable suffer from underinvestment in care pathways. When treatments finally arrive, it is families who bear the consequences of health systems that are slow to adapt. This is where leaders can act. When assessing whether these treatments are worth paying for, policymakers must consider the full economic picture, one that captures the long-term value that early intervention delivers, not just short-term direct costs. Science is moving. Europe can lead or fall behind. At a time when European leaders are debating competitiveness, biotech leadership and fiscal sustainability, Alzheimer’s disease is not just a health issue. It is a test of whether Europe can adapt its systems to demographic reality, or allow the gap between scientific progress and patient access to widen further. European policymakers should give people this choice to know and act early. That begins with two priorities: enabling …