Signature Bank Insiders Sold More Than $100 Million In Shares

Jamie Dimon is probably hoping a few more banks have trouble so he can scoop up their assets for cheap.

Prices as of 4 pm EST, 4/3/23

Today may be a good day to mute “Trump” on your Twitter feeds. The former president is in New York where he’s expected to plead not guilty to charges relating to hush money payments made before the 2016 election to cover up an alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow real GDP estimate for Q1 growth moved down to 1.7% yesterday, its lowest reading since February’s 0.7%. Since March 21 (3.5%), the model’s estimates have been on a steady decline as economic data increasingly point to a slowdown in consumer and business activity.
US manufacturing activity declined for the 5th straight month in March, falling to its lowest level since May 2020. For the first time since 2009, every single subcomponent of the ISM purchasing managers index came in below the 50 threshold, indicating contractions across the board as the economies show further signs of slowing.

In the years following the bank’s pivot to embrace crypto firms, insiders at Signature Bank sold more than $100 million in shares. More than half of the sales were made by the bank’s chairman, former CEO, and his successor who kept the transactions quiet by filing them with the FDIC rather than the SEC.
Google is making cuts to employee services and equipment in an effort to reduce costs. Some of the areas the $1.3 trillion company will be cutting back on to deliver “durable savings” include laptops, fitness classes, and staplers.
Walmart plans to cut over 2,000 jobs across 5 of its e-commerce fulfillment centers in California, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Affected workers, however, may be reshuffled into other roles at the company which could reduce the overall impact of the layoffs.
Shares of AMC dropped more than 20% yesterday after the company agreed to settlement terms relating to litigation around a stock conversion. The terms would allow for the conversion of its Preferred Equity units (aka APE shares) into shares of common stock alongside a reverse stock split and the capacity to sell more shares.

After shocking markets over the weekend, OPEC revealed its surprise production cut was aimed, at least in part, at punishing short sellers. Prior to the announcement, traders had reduced net positioning in WTI crude to the lowest level since February 2016, with long positionings outnumbering bearish ones by the lowest ratio (1.39:1) since August 2016.
The White House will allocate hundreds of millions to turn coal communities into clean energy hubs. The administration will send $450 million for projects on former mine lands and will channel $16 million towards creating a facility that can extract rare earth minerals from coal mine waste streams.

BREIT: Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust faced $4.5 billion in withdrawals in March despite the executives touting opportunities in the real estate sector.
eSports: The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust suit against Activision Blizzard, alleging it limited competition and suppressed wages for players by imposing a “Competitive Balance Tax”.
Banking crisis: In his annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that the current banking crisis is not yet over and would have repercussions in the years to come.
Banks stabilizing: Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says US banks are stabilizing even as regulators remain ready to take extraordinary actions if necessary.
Interest rates: Investors are betting the Fed isn’t done hiking with probabilities of a 25 bps at the May meeting now over 60%.

Prices as of 4 pm EST, 4/3/23

Doge: Dogecoin DOGE/USD rose more than 30% yesterday after Elon Musk changed Twitter’s logo to that of a shiba inu—the meme crypto token’s mascot.
BTC derivatives: The positive correlation between Bitcoin’s BTC/USD market value and its implied volatility is making call options tied to the cryptocurrency more attractive than ever.
Recovered: The hacker who drained nearly $200 million from DeFi platform Euler Financial has returned all “recoverable funds”.
DeFi: The market cap of decentralized finance as a percentage of the global crypto market cap hit its lowest levels since July.
Flows: After seeing the largest inflows ($160 million) since July in the week prior, flows into digital asset investment products totaled just $2.5 million last week.

Rejected: The FTC has ordered Illumina to undo its $7 billion acquisition of cancer-test developer Grail, saying the merger would stifle innovation and competition.
Worth it: L’Oreal has acquired Australian luxury cosmetics brand Aesop from Natura & Co. for $2.5 billion–its biggest acquisition in decades.
Buyout fund: KKR has closed its 6th and largest European private equity fund–which will target investments in developed economies in Western Europe–at $8 billion.
Wind: Brookfield Asset Management has started the process of selling a 50% stake in one of the world’s largest wind farms.
Signature: The FDIC has announced the sale process for Signature Bank’s ~$60 billion loan portfolio which is comprised primarily of commercial real estate loans, commercial loans, and some single-family residential loans.