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Current Affairs – 11 September 2020


WORLDWIDE : HEADLINES

As Citi taps Fraser, Wall Street’s poor record on diversity is put in focus

NEW YORK – Citigroup Inc’s C.N appointment of Jane Fraser as its next chief executive on Thursday was celebrated on Wall Street as the first woman to lead one of the top U.S. banks. Yet this is a glass ceiling that corporate America shattered decades ago.

It was 1972 when the Washington Post, then a Fortune 500 company, named Katherine Graham as its CEO. While progress for female leaders has been slow, 36 of the Fortune 500 companies are now run by women, including automaker General Motors Co GM.N, chocolate maker Hershey Co HSY.N and Northrop Grumman Corp NOC.N, according to corporate governance services firm BoardEx.

But the male-dominated financial services industry has fared poorly. Even beyond the major banks, only four of the 200 largest public U.S. financial services companies – Synchrony Financial SYF.N, Franklin Resources Inc BEN.N, Nasdaq Inc NDAQ.O and CIT Group Inc CIT.N – have female CEOs, according to BoardEx.

Full coverage: REUTERS

$718 million options unwind signals more caution on tech stocks

NEW YORK – A large options player unwound bets on several technology-related companies on Thursday, offering another sign of the market’s recently diminished appetite for shares in the sector.

The unidentified investor took off around $718 million of notional value in bullish options spreads known as risk reversals in Facebook Inc, Netflix Inc and Adobe Inc, according to a Reuters analysis based on data from Susquehanna Financial Group. The investor partially closed a similar position in Saleforce.com Inc on Tuesday.

The trades were structured differently than positions widely attributed to SoftBank Group Corp, whose big bets on equity derivatives tied to tech firms came to light last week.

Thursday’s unwinds were partial, and the positions still have a notional value of around $1.66 billion, the analysis showed.

Full coverage: REUTERS

WORLDWIDE : FINANCE / MARKET

Dollar finds footing after stocks slide, Brexit fears hammer pound

SINGAPORE – The dollar clung to gains on Friday after a rout in stocks sent nervous investors to its safety, while sterling was poised for its worst week since March as British plans to break a divorce treaty with Europe rekindled the spectre of a no-deal Brexit.

In a volatile session overnight the pound languished while other majors whipsawed in tandem with moves in the euro and the U.S stock market.

The common currency <EUR=EBS at first zoomed 1% to $1.1917 after European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde insisted the bank does not target the exchange rate.

But her subsequent remark that the bank indeed monitors it, and its effect on inflation – together with a tumble in U.S. stocks – brought investors rushing back to dollars and sank the euro back to $1.1825, where it sat in morning trade.

The risk-sensitive Australian dollar tracked the move and was up as far as $0.7325 before retreating to $0.7263 early in the Asian session. The New Zealand dollar fell to $0.6648 and was under gentle pressure on Friday.

Full coverage: Economic Times

Wall Street ends lower as tech struggles resume

NEW YORK – U.S. stocks closed lower after a choppy trading session on Thursday as heavyweight tech-related stocks resumed their decline following a sharp rebound the previous session, while elevated jobless claims reminded investors of a still-difficult recovery ahead.

Names that have rallied since March lows, such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com, all fell at least 2.8%.

Tesla Inc rose 1.4%, initially helping to limit the Nasdaq’s losses before the tech-heavy index’s slide widened.

The NYSE FANG+TM Index, which includes the core FAANG stocks, fell 1.8%, and all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 traded lower.

Wall Street’s main indexes bounced back sharply on Wednesday from their biggest three-day rout since March, as investors returned to tech-focused stocks that are deemed insulated from the current economic downturn.

Full coverage: REUTERS

Oil prices add to losses as supplies swell amid weak demand

TOKYO – Oil prices extended declines on Friday, under pressure from a surprise rise in U.S. stockpiles and ongoing weak demand from the coronavirus pandemic.

Brent crude LCOc was down 8 cents, or 0.2%, at $39.98 a barrel by 0110 GMT, after falling nearly 2% on Thursday, while U.S. crude CLc1 was off by 2 cents at $37.28 a barrel, having fallen 2% in the previous session.

Both major benchmarks were headed for a second week of declines.

In the United States, stockpiles rose last week against expectation as refineries slowly returned to operations after production sites were shut down due to storms in the Gulf of Mexico and wider region.

Crude inventories in the United States rose 2.0 million barrels last week, against expectations for a 1.3 million-barrel decrease in a Reuters poll. [EIA/S]

Full coverage: REUTERS

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