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2022-02-11 16:03:46 CIA has secret program that collects Americans’ data, senators say

WASHINGTON — The CIA has a secret, undisclosed data repository that includes information collected about Americans, two Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday. While neither the agency nor lawmakers would disclose specifics about the data, the senators alleged the CIA had long hidden details about the program from the public and Congress.

Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico sent a letter to top intelligence officials calling for details about the program to be declassified. Large parts of the letter and documents released by the CIA were blacked out. Wyden and Heinrich said the program operated “outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection.”

There have long been concerns about what information the intelligence community collects about Americans.

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2022-02-11 16:01:47 ECB President Lagarde pushes back against acting ‘hastily’ over interest rate hikes

Financial markets that have been pricing in faster-than-expected European interest rate hikes should, as they say, cool their jets.

That’s according to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, who pushed back at speculation in an interview with RND Germany that published Friday. The comments came in response to a question as to why the central bank doesn’t just fight higher prices with interest rate increases.

“This would not solve any of the current problems. On the contrary, if we act hastily now, our economies could recover significantly worse and jobs would be at risk. That wouldn’t help anyone,” she said. The euro EURUSD, -0.18% slipped 0.3% to $1.1392. European stocks lost ground in early action, with the Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.66% slipping 0.6%.

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2022-02-10 17:24:14 Inflation Hits Another Four-Decade High. Prices Rose More Than Expected.

U.S. Consumer prices surged again in January to 7.5% and stayed at a 40-year high, suggesting the upward pressure on consumer prices is unlikely to relent soon and putting more pressure on the Federal Reserve to act.

The consumer price index rose 0.6% in the first month of the new year, driven by big advances in rent, food and energy. The increase exceeded Wall Street’s forecast of a 0.4% gain.

The 7.5% surge in the cost of living in the past 12 months is the biggest since February 1982.

The Fed is on track to raise interest rates in March for the first time in four years to try to snuff out the surge in inflation.

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2022-02-10 00:15:41 FDIC Makes Crypto Evaluation a Priority This Year Citing 'Significant Safety and Financial System Risks'

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has named the evaluation of crypto assets a priority this year. “The rapid introduction of a variety of crypto-asset or digital asset products into the financial system could pose significant safety and soundness and financial system risks,” the FDIC said.

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2022-02-07 22:05:18 Key Events This Week: Markets Eye Multi-Decade High US Inflation and the Fed’s Next Move

Investors faced up to a worrying shift in gears by central banks last week as policymakers in Europe either set the groundwork for a tightening in monetary policy or voted for stronger rate rises earlier than many expected.

Tightening monetary conditions will be a key driver for 2022 and how risky assets deal with this new era of rising interest rates and reduced liquidity.

Prognostications over the next policy moves by major central banks will serve as the framework for interpreting the following economic events over the coming days.

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2022-02-05 16:22:26 Peak everything — growth, inflation and COVID — may soon mean calmer markets ahead, economist says

For better or worse, we’re at the summit — of everything.

Andy Cates, senior economist at Haver Analytics, in a presentation said it’s looking like the world is simultaneously reaching peak COVID, peak growth and peak inflation.

“Many of the macroeconomic drivers of asset prices in recent times are peaking and either already moving into reverse or about to move into reverse,” he said.

The first part, COVID, is obviously welcome. He pointed to a big drop in global COVID deaths relative to cases, and the declines in South African cases and U.K. ventilations. Both countries were among the first to be hit by the Omicron variant of Coronavirus.

“A lot of the heavy lifting in the early recovery phase in the pandemic era has already unfolded. And it won’t therefore be as easy in the next few months for economic growth to surpass the pace that we’ve seen in that phase.”

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2022-02-05 00:26:17 America the Land of Opportunity

America is known as the "Land of Opportunity", where one could achieve anything they put their mind to, no matter who they are. Thousands of people immigrate to the United States every year from different parts of the world to have access to these kinds of opportunities. This is what is known as "The American Dream". One of the many reasons America is such a great country is the diversity you see all around. America is one big melting pot of citizens from different backgrounds to provide for their family a great chance for a better life.

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2022-02-04 22:35:38 As Mark Zuckerberg suffers $30 billion paper loss, Jeff Bezos set to rake in $20 billion

As investors punished Meta Platforms for its first-quarter sales guidance miss, CEO Mark Zuckerberg felt it where it mattered — his wallet.

According to Forbes data, Zuckerberg lost $29.7 billion on Thursday, since he owns nearly 13% of the Facebook FB, -26.39% parent. Zuckerberg is now a mere two-digit billionaire, with a net worth of $84.8 billion.

Jeff Bezos, however, is set to see an extraordinary wealth gain. By Reuters calculations, the Amazon AMZN, -7.81% founder and chairman is going to see his wealth shoot up by $20 billion, after the e-commerce giant reported a surge in profit and said it would hike the cost of its Prime subscription service.

Those gains will help narrow the gap between Bezos and LVMH MC, -0.79% Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault for second-richest human, though they both trail Tesla TSLA, 4.44% CEO Elon Musk by a considerable distance.

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2022-02-04 22:31:47 European stocks slide as investors weigh up week of central bank meetings

European stocks fell Friday, with losses driven by autos, while investors continued to weigh up policy decisions by central banks this week.

At Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting, President Christine Lagarde would not rule out the possibility of a 2022 interest rate hike, as she acknowledged that inflation pressures in the eurozone are now “tilted to the upside.” She indicated the central bank would assess inflation pressures in detail and any response needed at the next meeting in March.

“Highly indebted eurozone governments look better placed to cope with tighter monetary policy than they were when the ECB last raised interest rates, in 2011,” said Jack Allen-Reynolds, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics, in a note. “That said, there is still plenty of scope for even-higher-than-expected inflation or a policy error to cause renewed turmoil in the bond markets.”

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2022-02-04 15:31:46 Troubles might come in three … or more months

Misfortunes don’t come singly, so the idiom goes, and markets are being whiplashed by a whole slew of negatives, that could see this month turn again into the nightmare that was January.

For now, stocks are attempting to claw their way higher, after a profits-beat by Amazon lifted its shares 17% after-hours, following a 7% decline during Thursday’s trading session.

Some other tech peers saw similar gyrations, with buoyant earnings boosting Snap shares 50% after close of trade.

Asia choses to take its cue from Wall Street’s after-hours upswing, rather than the earlier 3.7% Nasdaq drop, European markets are opening higher and U.S. indexes are tipped to open with gains on Friday.

But will it last?

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