Saturday, February 03, 2018

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
  • Wells Fargo(WFC) Hit With Unusual Ban on Growth in Yellen's Final Act. After markets closed on her final workday in office, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen delivered a blow to one of the nation’s largest banks: Wells Fargo & Co. won’t be allowed to grow until it cleans up. Fed officials said the San Francisco-based lender’s pattern of consumer abuses and compliance lapses called for an unprecedented sanction. Until Wells Fargo addresses shortcomings in areas including internal oversight, it can’t take any action that would boost total assets beyond their level at the end of 2017, without the Fed’s permission. The bank said after-tax profit in 2018 would be reduced by $300 million to $400 million and its stock slumped in late trading Friday. “This is akin to the last scene in ‘The Godfather,”’ said Isaac Boltansky, an analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading. “Chair Yellen decided to handle unfinished business on her way out the door.”
  • Bitcoin Ban Expands Across Credit Cards as Big U.S. Banks Recoil. (video) A growing number of big U.S. credit-card issuers are deciding they don’t want to finance a falling knife. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. said they’re halting purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their credit cards. JPMorgan, enacting the ban Saturday, doesn’t want the credit risk associated with the transactions, company spokeswoman Mary Jane Rogers said. Bank of America started declining credit card transactions with known crypto exchanges on Friday. The policy applies to all personal and business credit cards, according to a memo. It doesn’t affect debit cards, said company spokeswoman Betty Riess. And late Friday, Citigroup said it too will halt purchases of cryptocurrencies on its credit cards
  • Hedge Funds Bet Bitcoin's Pain Isn't Over on Cboe Futures Market. (video) Hedge funds are wagering that Bitcoin’s free-fall will keep going. Leveraged funds, which include hedge funds, held 2,974 short positions in Cboe Global Markets Inc.’s Bitcoin futures as of Tuesday, a fivefold jump from the prior week. Long bets dropped to 895 contracts, down 22 percent from a week earlier, according to weekly data released Friday by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Wall Street Journal: 
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