Oil drops below $80 as demand doubt deepens. Global oil prices slid below $80 per barrel for the first time since January on Tuesday, extending a downward trend as growing concerns about global demand offset any bullish effects from an EU-led price cap on Russian oil sales. Brent crude futures settled down 4.03%, to $79.35 a barrel, their lowest since Jan. 4. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell 3.48%, to $74.26 after hitting its lowest level this year. “In this market, the sentiment is more negative,” said Eli Tesfaye, senior market strategist at RJO Futures. “We could be looking at $60-a-barrel WTI the way that things are going. I think $80s are going to be the new high, and I would be very surprised to see any higher than that.” Service-sector activity in China has hit a six-month l

Tech layoffs are not a bellwether for broader cuts in other industries, Morgan Stanley analysts say. Despite large-scale tech layoffs, the broader labor pool is not in true danger yet, given that staffing levels remained below pre-pandemic levels for some time, a Morgan Stanley research note said. Even with a growth slowdown, the number of tech layoffs is minute compared with the larger employment pool, the research report stated. Executives should expect further attention on operating expenses and hiring levels from investors in the coming quarters, analysts said, and should be scrupulous about expenses. The analysts said the large market cap of tech firms and “idiosyncratic” hiring in tech relative to the rest of the labor market have resulted in tech layoffs having an outsized impact on

‘Stocks and bonds are toast’: Robert Kiyosaki warns central banks can’t fix inflation and that ‘fake’ money is forcing state pensions to pivot.  Bank of England recently bought £19.3 billion of U.K. government bonds to prevent a collapse in the country’s pension industry. In the eyes of Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki, that’s a sign to acquire three specific alternative assets. “Bank of England pivot means buy more GSBC,” he says in a recent tweet, referring to gold, silver and bitcoin. “When pensions nearly collapsed it exposed Central Banks cannot fix … INFLATION. Pension have always invested in G&S. Pension funds now investing in Bitcoin. They know Fake $, stocks & bonds are toast.”  “I’m not buying gold because I like gold, I’m buying gold because I don’t tr

Elon Musk says he will reinstate Twitter account of former President Donald Trump after online poll. New Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk announced that he will reinstate the Twitter account of former President Donald Trump on Saturday. Musk had discussed the possibility before taking over Twitter in a $44 billion deal that closed on Oct. 28. At its conclusion, Musk wrote in a tweet, “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” The latter phrase means “the voice of the people is the voice of god.” Trump’s account appeared to be live on Twitter, but the former president had not issued any new posts to the social media platform immediately after Musk removed the ban. Under previous ownership, Twitter had issued a lifetime ban on President Donald Trump’s account in

Treasury yields rise Friday as worries over higher Fed rates simmer. U.S. Treasury yields were higher on Friday as Federal Reserve officials suggested interest rates would go higher still, after recent economic data had given investors hope about inflation easing. On Friday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury traded 4 basis points higher at 3.819%. The 30-year Treasury yield was trading 4 basis points up at 3.932%, after trading above 4% last week. The moves came as a series of Fed speakers indicated that the central bank would continue on its path of interest rate hikes. Many have been concerned about the pace of hikes leading the U.S. economy into a recession and have been scanning Fed speaker comments for hints about a change in policy. On Friday, Boston Federal Reserve Preside

FTX tells court it has evidence Sam Bankman-Fried transferred assets to Bahamas government custody after bankruptcy. FTX in an emergency court filing said it has evidence Bahamian regulators told former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to gain “unauthorized access” to FTX systems to obtain digital assets belonging to the company after it filed for bankruptcy protection. It said Bankman-Fried transferred those assets to the custody of the Bahamian government. In the motion, filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, FTX said the alleged conduct puts “in serious question” a request by Bahamian regulators for recognition as liquidators in the bankruptcy. FTX in a bombshell emergency court filing Thursday said it has credible evidence that Bahamian regulators directed former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to

Elon Musk’s Friday emails to Twitter engineers asking them to come to the office. The mixed messages from Twitter leadership to employees continue as Musk tells engineers to report to headquarters, hours after the company told employees the offices would be closed until Monday. Musk wants engineers to help him “better understand the Twitter tech stack.” The mixed messages on returning to the office come after a wave of Twitter employees resigned on Thursday. After the initial call for engineers to come into the office, he also sent a follow-up encouraging people to fly to San Francisco to present in person. He said, in one of his emails, he would be working late into the night at the company’s headquarters office Friday and again on Saturday morning. Musk said the point of sharing all this

Emoji for expenses, penthouses and slipshod accounting: The most damning details from new FTX CEO’s report. FTX CEO John Ray III’s filing from Thursday morning reveals a culture of laxity and permissiveness at the imploded crypto dealer, where expenses were approved with color-coded emoji and company money bought employee homes In a potentially serious concern, Almeda was granted exemption from “certain” parts of FTX’s auto-liquidation feature, a practice similar to a margin call in traditional finance. The former Enron restructuring CEO called some of the past management practices “unacceptable.” Earlier Thursday, FTX CEO John Ray III filed a declaration with the United States Bankruptcy Court for Delaware, the latest in the implosion of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges

Gemini, BlockFi, Genesis announcing new restrictions as FTX contagion spreads. The lending arm of the crypto investment bank Genesis Global Trading is pausing new loan originations and redemptions. The decision reflects a sign of contagion outside of cryptocurrency lender BlockFi, which is reportedly preparing for a potential bankruptcy filing, according to The Wall Street Journal. “We recognize how challenging this past week has been due to the impact of the FTX news. At Genesis we are entirely focused on doing everything we can to serve our clients and navigate this difficult market environment,” Genesis wrote in a tweet. “Our #1 priority is to serve our clients and preserve their assets.” Later Wednesday morning, the Winklevoss brothers’ Gemini exchange said it was pausing withdrawals o

From $32 billion to criminal investigations: How Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire vanished overnight. Here’s how the biggest collapse in crypto history went down. The year was 2017, and the ex-Jane Street Capital quant trader noticed something funny when he looked at the page on CoinMarketCap.com listing the price of bitcoin  on exchanges around the world. Today, that price is pretty much uniform across the exchanges, but back then, Bankman-Fried previously told CNBC that he would sometimes see a 60% difference in the value of the coin. His immediate instinct, he says, was to get in on the arbitrage trade — buying bitcoin on one exchange, selling it back on another exchange, and then earning a profit equivalent to the price spread. “That’s the lowest hanging fruit,” Bankman-Fried said in Se

Fed Vice Chair Brainard says it may ‘soon’ be appropriate to move to slower pace of rate hikes. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard indicated Monday that the central bank could soon slow the pace of its interest rate increases. “I think it will probably be appropriate soon to move to a slower pace of rate increases,” she told Bloomberg News in a live interview. That doesn’t mean the Fed will stop raising rates, but it at least will come off a pace that has seen four consecutive 0.75 percentage point increases, an unprecedented pattern since the central bank started using short-term rates to set monetary policy in 1990. “I think what’s really important to emphasize is we’ve done a lot but we have additional work to do both on raising rates and sustaining restraint to bring inflation do