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According to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, U.S. consumers are “in good shape” and will continue to spend at a high clip, at least in the near term. “Consumers are in good shape, not overleveraged,” Moynihan, CEO of the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, told Bloomberg Television from Davos, Switzerland. Meanwhile, the bank’s customers have checking and savings accounts that are still larger than before the pandemic and are spending 10% more so far in May than the year-earlier period, he said. “What’s going to slow them down? Nothing right now,” Moynihan said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is in the middle of an inflation-fighting campaign that has pummeled markets, especially formerly high-flying growth stocks. With inflation at multidecade highs and a central bank slamming the brakes on easy-money policies, there has been mounting concern the economy will fall into recession. Keeping the economy from falling into recession would be good for American consumers. “The Fed has this typically very difficult thing of getting them to slow down without slowing down too much,” Moynihan said. “I believe they are going to be able to manage this flow, but it’s going to be tricky.” According to Moynihan, more bank CEOs are optimistic that the U.S. can avoid a recession. However, earlier this month, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon put the odds at 66% that the U.S. will have some economic slowdown.

On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon received a rare rebuke following a shareholder vote opposing his massive retention bonus. An estimated 31% of shareholders who attended the New York-based bank’s annual shareholder meeting supported Dimon’s $52.6 million award as part of his 2021 compensation package. This bonus, which is in the form of 1.5 million options that Dimon can exercise in 2026, was designed to keep him at the helm of JPMorgan for another five years. A spokesman for the bank, Joe Evangelisti, stated that its estimated value varies and depends on the bank’s share price appreciation.

“The special award was extremely rare — the first in more than a decade for Mr. Dimon — and it reflected exemplary leadership and additional incentive for a successful leadership transition,” Evangelisti said. Although the results of this “say on pay” vote are not binding, JPMorgan’s board said it takes investor feedback “seriously” and intended Dimon’s bonus to be a one-time event. JPMorgan’s board suffered its first disapproval of a pay package since pay-watch measures were introduced more than a decade ago. Simon, 66, has led JPMorgan since 2006, guiding it through several crises and transforming it into the largest U.S. bank by assets.

As traders struggled to find their footing in an increasingly volatile market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for the sixth consecutive day Thursday. The 30-stock Dow slid 103.81 points to 31,370.30, or 0.33%. The S&P 500 fell 0.13% to 3,930.08. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite yielded a small gain, closing up 0.06% at 11,370.96. The three major averages were on track for weekly losses. Earlier in the day, traders attempted to counteract a decline in the market by purchasing beaten-down stocks. The Dow had reached session highs as high as 80 points, while the Nasdaq had gained 1.61 percent. Dow Jones dropped more than 500 points at session lows, while the Nasdaq declined 2.25 percent.

A new low has been established for the S&P 500 for 2022, closing more than 18% below its 52-week high and moving closer to bear market territory. “Even if you say we’re in a bear market, there’s rallies within bear markets that can be very sharp,” said Truist’s Keith Lerner about the early market moves. “I think, at least short-term, and given how oversold we are and given that we’re starting to see people nibble at some of these areas that have been the most beaten up, I think that’s at least a silver lining in a sea of red and gloom over the last couple of days.” Only the Nasdaq is in the bear market territory after falling about 30% from its record high in terms of major averages. Technology stocks continue to be hammered.

In a new burst of selling in bonds, the 10-year Treasury yield rose well above 3% on Thursday, a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell appeared to calm markets by downplaying the possibilities of a rate hike in the near future. In the U.S. trading session, Treasury yields, which rose when bond prices declined, began climbing early and kept climbing. This contributed to sharp declines in the stock market, which had rallied earlier in the week. The decrease is the latest in a series of downward trends that have affected many assets, from relatively safe corporate bonds to speculative investments such as cryptocurrencies and shares in non-profitable technology companies.

The increasing yields on Treasury securities, which are heavily influenced by expectations regarding future Fed policy, increase borrowing costs throughout the economy. In addition, they may decrease the value that investors place on the future earnings of riskier stocks, thereby reducing their demand. Mohit Bajaj, director of ETF trading solutions at WallachBeth Capital, observed that as the bond crisis deepened, investors shifted from long-term corporate bonds and junk bonds to less risky forms of debt. SPDR Portfolio Long Term Corporate Bond ETF fell 2.7%, its worst one-day decline since the pandemic-induced market sell-off on March 19, 2020. The iShares High Yield Bond Factor ETF declined 1.9%, its worst one-day performance since June 11, 2020.

The movement to prevent members of Congress from trading stocks has slowed, as many lawmakers agree on the need to prohibit such transactions but have not defined the specifics. As concerns grow that time is running out, a key figure in the talks tells Yahoo Finance that a unity bill may be imminent as the legislature moves steadily towards agreement. In an interview with Yahoo Finance Presents, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), around a dozen lawmakers are negotiating a draft bill, and a final one will be introduced “at some point in the next few weeks.”

In recent years, there has been controversy over whether legislators should trade stocks because they have access to non-public information. The lawmakers’ proposal would mark a significant step in reforming the relationship between lawmakers and Wall Street. Gillibrand told Yahoo Finance that lawmakers are closer to reaching an agreement on one of the key issues – how they can put their money in blind trusts. “We are going to create some provisions for people who come into Congress owning certain portfolios, that they can hold them in blind trust,” she said. “That’s probably going to be the outcome.” According to the most recent draft of the unity bill, she added that cryptocurrency trading would be banned, and for all securities, “we would allow people to own what they own, but they would have to put it behind a blind trust.”

Strategist at the bank of America noted on Friday that Investors pulled $17.5 billion out of global equities over the past week, making the biggest weekly outflow this year. They cautioned that those outflows could well deepen. Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett pointed out that Since Nov. 2021, NASDAQ peak inflows to stocks have occurred in 16 of 20 weeks, for a total of $229 billion, while private clients bought stocks 17 out of 20 weeks.

Investors also pulled $8.7 billion out of bonds and $55.4 billion from cash, pouring $900 million into gold. Before Friday’s stock-market rout, the S&P 500 SPX -2.77% slumped 2.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -2.82% plummeted 981.36 points or 2.8%. The S&P 500 is down 10.4% year to date, while the Dow is off 7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, -2.55%, is down 17.9% so far in 2022, after a 2.5% Friday drop. Breaking down some of the equity outflows, Bank of America strategists noted data showing Europe saw the 10th straight weekly outflow — $2.9 billion, while $1.6 billion exited financials, as money flowed back into buying the technology sector dip. Materials, meanwhile, marked a record 8-weeks of inflows.

President Joe Biden will nominate former Treasury Department official, Michael Barr, to be the Federal Reserve’s top regulator in charge of big banks. Barr is the White House’s frontrunner for the top regulatory job. If appointed, the financial law author perhaps becomes the most powerful U.S. bank regulator: the Fed Vice chair supervision.

Barr helped design the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act during his service as assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions during the Obama administration. That law became one of the most extensive overhauls of financial regulation in U.S. history and came on the heels of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Among its many provisions to protect the economy from future calamity, Dodd-Frank produced both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Fed’s vice chair for supervision. Biden said in a statement Friday morning accompanying the formal White House announcement. “He was instrumental in the passage of Dodd-Frank, to ensure a future financial crisis would not create devastating economic hardship for working families.” “He understands that this job is not a partisan one, but one that plays a critical role in regulating our nation’s financial institutions to ensure Americans are treated fairly and to protect the stability of our economy.”

Shares of HP Inc. on Thursday soared higher after Securities and Exchange Commission filings revealed that billionaire investor Warren Buffet had built a $4.2 billion stake in the Pc and printer maker. According to the SEC filings published late Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway BRK, an investment group, now owns an 11.4% stake in the Palo Alto, California-based group. The move adds to Buffet’s recent buying after new stakes in oil major Occidental petroleum.
Buffet lamented that few companies or deals were able to pique his interest as Berkshire Hathaway posted record fourth-quarter earnings this year and bought back $27 billion in stock over the whole of 2021. Since then, however, the billionaire cautioned that stock buybacks would slow considerably this year to just $1.2 billion, suggesting the Sage of Omaha may be tempted to put his $146.7 billion cash pile to work in finding more companies. Shares of the Pc and printer maker were marked 15.27% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $40.24 each. The company, in the spring of 2020, beat back a $35 billion hostile takeover bid from Xerox (XRX) and has now added video and audio devices maker poly to its stable last month in a deal valued at $3.3 billion, including debt, as it looks to expand product offerings to take advantage of the global shift towards hybrid work.

There is no doubt that any assistance that can be provided to someone who wishes to study is critical to their success, which is why grants and scholarships are such an important means of assisting individuals who choose to pursue studies and research in an academic setting. Read More