Tag Archives: Market News

On Thursday, the ECB increased interest rates for the seventh consecutive time, with the latest figure aligning with analysts’ predictions.   The European Central Bank (ECB) has hiked interest rates for a seventh consecutive time as its war against inflation wages on. Today, the eurozone central bank hiked rates by 25 basis points as expected following its May policy meeting. The latest rate hike decision also sees the main refinancing operations’ interest rate increased to 3.75%. In...

In 2022, the Big Oil companies, including TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell smashed their previous year’s earnings. The Q1 2023 fiscal report by the British oil giant Shell (LON: SHEL) surpassed expectations, cruising analysts’ predictions. In the recent report, Shell announced adjusted earnings of $9.6 billion for the first three months of the year. The performance is in continuation of its current bumper results run after commodity prices surged in 2022 due to Russia’s...

Los Angeles-based PacWest is considering several strategic options, including a sale, amid a banking crisis-induced stock plunge. Bank holding company PacWest Bancorp is reportedly mulling a sale following Wednesday’s 50% stock crash. The regional bank is weighing strategic options amid the US banking crisis, which sank three financial institutions in March. A Bloomberg report said PacWest shelved previous efforts to raise capital to remain afloat and now strongly considers selling all...

Amid the unfolding banking crisis and interest rate hikes, Bitcoin has been showing strong resilience attempting another breakout above $30,000. On Wednesday, May 3, the US Federal Reserve announced another 25 basis points rate hike taking the US funds rate to more than 5% for the first time since 2007. In hours after the Fed announced the rate hike, Bitcoin (BTC) made a quick surge of more than 2% taking the price above $29,000. This Bitcoin price surge amid the recovery in the broader...

PacWest and Western Alliance banks recorded heavy losses on Tuesday as the market is still reeling from problems caused by recent collapses. Shares of bank holding company PacWest (NASDAQ: PACW) led a heavy crash in bank stocks on Tuesday. The stock tumbled nearly 28% as the general banking clime continues to sour following bank failures plaguing the sector. PacWest stock closed at $6.55 after falling 27.78% on the day. In addition to PacWest, Arizona-based Western Alliance Bancorp...

Chegg is facing massive disruptions in its education business amid the rapid growth of AI platforms. To contain this, Chegg is building its own AI platform CheggMate in collaboration with OpenAI. The introduction of ChatGPT by OpenAI has certainly created a massive disruption in the tech world while giving other tech giants like Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) a run for their money. Now, AI chatbot ChatGPt is causing a major disruption in the education industry as well, and online education firm...

Amid lower fossil fuel costs, BP’s profits tanked in comparison to the bumper profits recorded in 2022. On Tuesday, May 2, oil major British Petroleum (BP) reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter (Q1 2023) profits, and rising from the previous quarter i.e. Q4 2022. However, the numbers were down from the exceptional profits that the company recorded during a blockbuster 2022 when fossil fuel prices shot up significantly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. BP Q1 2023...

American multinational banking giant JPMorgan Chase has emerged as the lucky buyer of the embattled regional banking firm, First Republic Bank. As reported by CNBC, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) acquired all of the deposits of First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) and a substantial number of its shares. The acquisition was made possible after regulators took a hold of the bank on Monday. This notably placed the collapse of First Republic Bank as the worst in the US banking ecosystem...

The European market recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.0 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the fourth quarter of 2022. The European economy displayed market resilience during the first quarter despite being cut off from the Russian oil and gas supply since the invasion of Ukraine. The EU market was, however, marred by rising inflation amid bank deposits flight similar to the United States banking crisis. Nonetheless, the European Central Bank has continued to...

Analysts at H.C. Wainwright have said that the crypto winter of 2022 ceases to have any bearing on related stocks.  H.C. Wainwright believes that the crypto winter is over and has called for a buy on Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) stock. According to the New York-based investment bank, Coinbase stands to benefit from global digital asset economy growth sooner rather than later. H.C. Wainwright released a statement on Wednesday that underscored its bullishness on the prices of crypto assets. The...