The SEC is reportedly probing whether recent stock sales by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal “violated insider-trading rules.” News of the investigation came less than a week after Tesla accused the Commission of “harassing the company and its chief executive by repeatedly launching new enforcement investigations” - WSJ and Bloomberg and TechCrunch
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley has released some details into regulators’ probe into “various aspects of its block-trading business” as they try “to determine whether any banks’ dealmakers improperly tipped off investors to transactions big enough to move share prices” - Bloomberg
Markets reacted wildly Thursday to Russia’s overnight military action in Ukraine, starting the day down sharply before inexplicably rebounding to close the day. Oil prices briefly topped $105/barrel before falling after the U.S. and other nations announced additional sanctions and the possible opening of strategic oil reserves - NYTimes and Bloomberg
The new round of sanctions President Biden announced yesterday included restrictions “aimed at cutting off Russia’s access to foreign products like semiconductors, computers, lasers and telecommunications equipment” as part of a cessation of all direct tech exports from the U.S. to Russia - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and Law360
Streetwise on what the invasion and its aftermath means for investors - WSJ
As we’ve discussed, the Fed has added the crisis to its ever-expanding list of concerns to monitor, but as yet, the central bank is not planning on changing its carefully choreographed plans to remove additional support from the U.S. economy and hike rates next month in an effort to combat inflation - NYTimes and Bloomberg
Citigroup announced this week that it will axe all overdraft fees this year, “becoming the biggest lender in the nation to get rid of the charges, which regulators have criticized.” The move follows a similar course by smaller lenders like Capital One and Ally Financial - NYTimes
Mortgage rates in the U.S. have pushed up near the 4% level, the highest in three years, a development concerning buyers and sellers both heading into the spring selling season - WSJ
Citadel LLC revealed that it will “par[e] back its $2 billion investment in Melvin Capital” following the hedge fund’s struggles “to recover from a near collapse by surges in GameStop Corp. and other ‘meme’ stocks early last year” - WSJ and Bloomberg
Turns out that even with workforces that are increasingly remote (in every sense of the word), many companies are still pushing for off-site events. Why? Mostly, the search for that elusive “culture” and “investment.” But also, I’m guessing, the chance to encounter a “Hype Guy Todd” along the way - NYTimes
Stay safe, get boosted, and have a great weekend,
MDR
The Robins Kaplan Financial Daily Dose features top stories and latest news headlines in financial markets, banking, securities and technology topics.
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