Activist investor Dan Loeb is agitating for sweeping changes at Disney, including a shake-up of its board, a spin-off of the sports television network ESPN and aggressive cost-cutting after rebuilding a stake in the entertainment and media group. The head of the Third Point hedge fund also recommended that the company take full control of
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Municipal bond issuance in the Southwest shrank in the first half of 2022, while in Texas some big Wall Street banks dropped out of the top underwriter rankings in the wake of two state laws restricting access to government contracts. In the first six months, municipal bond issuers in the eight-state region sold $40.8 billion
Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Monday’s key moments: Oil’s decline is good news We want confirmation that inflation’s peaked Quick mentions: JNJ, LLY, LIN Disney’s real problem is its balance sheet 1. Oil’s decline is good news Stocks
Miami-Dade County, Florida, is getting set to sell almost $480 million of revenue bonds this week to fund some of its transit infrastructure needs. The $479.735 million of Series 2022 transit system sales surtax revenue bonds will go out for bids at 10:30 a.m., ET, on Tuesday. PFM Financial Advisors is the financial advisor. Squire
Britain’s cost of living crisis is deepening by the day. Millions worry about how they will pay their winter heating bills. The UK government, meanwhile, is frozen in inaction as it waits for the result of a two-month, presidential-style campaign to elect the next Conservative party leader and prime minister. The two candidates have sparred
When the UK’s new prime minister forms a government on September 6, he or she will need a rapid plan to address soaring household energy bills this winter. With estimates that the annual average combined gas and electricity bill will rise from £1,971 in the summer to £3,582 at the start of October, and more
If I scatter broken glass on the ground and someone else walks over it and cuts their feet, does it matter “when” they cut their feet? That’s the thought experiment at the start of the philosopher William MacAskill’s forthcoming book, What We Owe The Future. MacAskill’s argument is that harm is harm, whether my littering
A pedestrian uses an umbrella to get some relief from the sun as she walks past a sign displaying the temperature on June 20, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. Ralph Freso | Getty Images Heat records are falling around the world this summer, and scientists expect that climate change will make the problem worse in coming
A worker drills plywood on a single family home under construction in Lehi, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022. George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Images Builder sentiment in the market for single-family homes fell into negative territory in August, as builders and buyers struggle with higher costs. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo
While the amount of debt wrapped by bond insurance fell 6.5% in the first half of the year, the percentage of insured debt gained compared to the first half of 2021. All municipal bond insurers wrapped $18.306 billion in the first half of 2022, a decrease from the $20.842 billion insured in the first six
Throughout the first half of the year, supply has fallen below market participants’ expectations, with the drop in issuance being driven by rising interest rates that have stymied refunding and taxable volumes. Continued market volatility, inflation hitting decade highs, and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions kept issuers on the sidelines. Total volume in
Heavy competition for a significantly lower volume of municipal bonds drove a sharp decline in overall underwriting spreads to $3.54 in the first half of 2022, the lowest level in 20 years. The latest data from Refinitiv representing the first six months of 2022 underscores what has been a steady and developing trend over the
At times in its long history, the New Jersey waterfront setting of Port Imperial, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, has been highly sought for very different reasons. Early in the 20th Century, the port’s prime location along the river so near Midtown made it a prime place to establish humming manufacturing plants and busy
In a period where all other municipal bond sectors shrank in volume, electric power and healthcare expanded strongly in the first half. Electric power bond volume increased 49.9% and healthcare grew 26.9% compared to the first half of 2021. Overall municipal volume was down 11.2% in the first half. All data is from Refinitiv and
Dinner parties in the Indian capital tend to start late and end late, sometimes stretching into the wee hours. In the posher households, the seemingly endless rounds of snacks are typically washed down with generous measures of premium booze. But Delhi, one of India’s megacities (population more than 18mn) is running short of places to
Stock markets were subdued on Monday as disappointing Chinese economic data and an interest-rate cut by the country’s central bank complicated the global outlook. US equity futures declined, with contracts tracking the S&P 500 falling 0.5 per cent. The broad Wall Street index on Friday closed out its fourth consecutive week of gains. Contracts tracking
For a man who had been held up at gunpoint the previous evening, Mmusi Maimane was on surprisingly good form, when I met him in Cape Town this month. Maimane, one of South Africa’s leading opposition politicians, was in a suburban restaurant when armed men entered, forced all the diners to lie on the floor
Hong Kong’s accounting watchdog has launched an investigation into Evergrande Property Services, a major subsidiary of the embattled Chinese property developer, and its auditor PwC over a $2bn loan scheme that led to an executive clear-out last month. The investigation will put more scrutiny on Evergrande, the world’s most indebted real estate developer, after it
Serial entrepreneur Bill Smith launched Landing in 2019. The furnished apartment rental firm expects $200 million in revenue this year by catering to the work-from-anywhere generation. Bill Smith steers his black Tesla X through the streets of downtown Birmingham, Alabama, and pulls into a low-rise apartment complex. “This used to be a brothel 100 years
China has cut a crucial lending rate in an effort to shore up growth as the world’s second-biggest economy is buffeted by repeated lockdowns and a worsening property downturn. The People’s Bank of China on Monday reduced the medium-term lending rate, through which it provides one-year loans to the banking system, by 10 basis points
A decade or so on from the financial crisis, the singular sense of purpose that drove a frenzy of regulatory interventions has faded. Banks and insurers are so much safer now that regulators seem nonplussed about their resilience even as countries including the US and the UK flirt with recession, and the fallout from Russia’s