The Bluesky project will eventually allow the creation of new curation algorithms that will show various tweets at the top of users’ timelines from Twitter’s own algorithm. This will give users more choice about the types of content they see, Mr Dorsey said, and could allow Twitter to interact with other social media services.
Bluesky grabbed the attention of many technologists who were already working on decentralization. A small group of them will soon meet with Mr Agraval and Mr Dorsey on Sunday to discuss the project, according to two participants who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings, while others exchanged ideas in an online chat. room.
Some Bluesky contributors have suggested an app that has appeared on all of their social media shows. Others wanted custom algorithms that could prevent them, for example, from seeing spoilers for their favorite TV show. And some have focused on making their online identities portable so that the account can be moved between social media companies the way a phone number can be moved from AT&T to Verizon.
“One of the things Bluesky would offer is a curating and filtering experience that is independent of that offered by social media owners,” said Tim Bray, a pioneer in Internet software and a former vice president at Amazon who is involved in some of the discussions.
Jay Graber, a cryptocurrency developer, was elected in August to lead Bluesky. And in February, Ms. Graber announced that the project was officially registered as a public benefit corporation and was building a prototype.
The project attracted the attention of Reddit engineers, who held preliminary discussions with engineers on Twitter about how their sites could one day interact, said two people familiar with the talks, but the companies did not formally agree on plans to work together.
Some skeptics believe that Twitter is jumping into the web3, joining the modern movement in technology to redirect many services, including social media, to so-called blockchain technology. But executives say Twitter is taking care of what a huge number of users want, while following Mr Dorsey’s decentralization mandate before stepping down as CEO in November.
FRANKFURT / LONDON, March 2 – Shares of European banks halted on Wednesday after falling to their lowest level in nearly 11 months due to the effects of the crisis in Ukraine, which forced Russia’s European subsidiary Sberbank. MM) close.
Russia has shown no intention of halting its attack on Ukraine, which has sparked heavy sanctions against Moscow and led to the eviction of large companies from the Russian market. Read more
US President Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin that the Russian leader “has no idea what’s next.” Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.” Read more
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Sberbank’s European branch, Russia’s largest lender, was closed by order of the European Central Bank. Read more
Regulators are also preparing for the possible closure of the European branch of Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB Bank (VTBR.MM), amid growing concerns about the impact of the sanctions, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Read more .
Sberbank, which reported record profits in 2021, said it was leaving the European market as its subsidiaries there faced large cash flows and threats to the safety of employees and property. Read more
Sberbank operates in Austria, Croatia, Germany and Hungary, among others, and has European assets worth 13 billion euros ($ 14.41 billion) on December 31, 2020.
Sberbank’s depository receipts in London have fallen 99.9% so far in 2022. “Not all sellers have buyers,” a London retailer said on Wednesday.
The impact of the crisis and sanctions are expected to have consequences for European banks.
“The quality of the assets of major Western European banks will be under pressure from the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the credit rating agency Fitch said on Wednesday.
“Banks also face significantly increased operational risk,” he added.
The index of shares of leading European banks (.SX7P) rose 0.1% by noon on Wednesday, erasing early losses, which peaked at 5.6% on Tuesday and 4.5% on Monday. Earlier on Wednesday, the index reached its lowest level since April 2021, down 27% from last month’s highs.
Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI), which operated in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union thirty years ago, was one of the biggest to fall this week.
The bank is considering leaving Russia, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that it would be the first European bank to do so since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Read more
Raiffeisen Bank logo on top of building seen behind statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin Moscow, Russia, June 14, 2016. REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov
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Shares of Raiffeisen, which are half lower than a month ago, fell 4.7%.
Some financial officials are trying to calm the markets.
The capital position of Hungary’s OTP Bank, Central Europe’s largest independent lender, is excellent and the bank can withstand additional possible market turmoil in Russia and Ukraine, the Hungarian central bank said in an email to Reuters. Read more
DISPOSAL OF ASSETS
German market regulator BaFin is closely following Russia’s European division, VTB Bank (VTBR.MM), which no longer accepts new customers. The Frankfurt-based bank had 8.1 billion euros in assets at the end of 2020.
On Tuesday, Russia said it was imposing temporary restrictions on foreigners seeking to leave Russian assets as it sought to halt investor withdrawals led by crippling Western sanctions.
But investors continue to lose assets. Aviva’s fund management business (AV.L) will give up its small exposure to Russia “as soon as we can,” CEO Amanda Blanc said on Wednesday.
Financial companies are struggling to keep up with the situation.
Dubai’s Mashreqbank (MASB.DU) has stopped lending to Russian banks and is reviewing its existing exposure to the country, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Read more
The move is one of the first reported cases of a bank in the Middle East breaking off ties with Russia and highlighting growing global nervousness over violating Western sanctions.
The French BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) said it was working to maintain its operations as much as possible in its Ukrainian branch, Ukrsibbank, which has nearly 5,000 employees.
A working group at Germany’s Commerzbank, which has a subsidiary in Russia, meets several times a day, a board member said.
Aki Hussein, chief executive of Hiscox (HSX.L), said insurer Lloyd’s of London provides coverage for international business in Ukraine.
“We have insured these offices and some of the people there and worked closely with our clients for the last eight weeks and effectively – as much as they want – we are helping them leave the country and evacuate their staff.”
(1 dollar = 0.9022 euros)
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Additional reports by Gergely Szakacs, Zuzanna Szymanska, Saeed Azhar and Yousef Saba Edited by Paul Carrel, Tomasz Janowski and Jane Merriman
Americans who invest in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds are largely isolated from financial exposure to Russia amid the conflict with Ukraine.
There are two reasons: First, stock managers who buy Russian debt or shares of Russian companies usually do so in small quantities; second, the funds that buy these securities (which are usually focused on the developing world) are often the final part of the overall portfolio of investors.
“The reality is that most people in 401 (k) may have really low exposure to Russian stocks and / or bonds, probably below 1%,” said Karin Anderson, director of fixed income strategies in North America at Morningstar, who tracks data on mutual funds and ETFs.
However, according to data provided by Morningstar Direct, there are a handful of equity and bond funds with much larger stakes in Russia. Some have been hit hard in recent days by Western sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s economy, which could grow even stronger.
The 10 fund funds with the largest exposure distribute at least 9% of their assets in Russia, according to Morningstar. The two largest, the iShares MSCI Russia ETF and the VanEck Russia ETF, hold 95% and 94% of their assets in Russian companies, respectively, according to Morningstar.
The most exposed bond funds are distributed to Russia in much smaller shares than the fund funds. The top 10 hold approximately 4.5% to 8% of their total assets in Russian debt, according to Morningstar. The Western Asset Macro Opportunities Mutual Fund has the largest distribution, at about 8.4%, it said.
More from Personal Finance: Russian-Ukrainian crisis: How to avoid fundraising scams You can subsidize the fees of a colleague 401 (k). Biden reiterated his promise of a $ 400,000 tax to fund the program
Equity and bond funds are a combination of actively managed and index funds. The latter try to reproduce a specific indicator for stocks or bonds, while fund managers in the first category have more freedom to choose securities according to a specific strategy of the fund.
Importantly, Morningstar data reflects the latest publicly available data on the fund’s stock (as of December 31 or January 31, depending on the fund). Since then, active fund managers may have changed their holdings in Russian stocks and debt due to the invasion and the resulting economic sanctions.
For example, the disclosures determine the distribution of GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund shares in Russia to more than 16% of the shares. However, the company said on Friday that it had only about 3.7% of its assets on Russian stock, according to Morningstar.
To some extent, the decline in the fund’s share in Russia will occur naturally if the value of these assets falls. (In other words, active decisions by fund managers may not be the main reason.)
Benchmarks that include Russia could eventually eliminate the country, effectively depriving the country of exposure to certain index funds. An official at the MSCI index provider hinted at the possibility on Monday, for example, citing the inability to trade in Russian securities.
“Sanctions imposed on Russia have significantly increased the likelihood of the government’s defaulting on hard currency bonds,” JPMorgan’s emerging market strategists wrote in a note to customers on Wednesday.
Russia may have the money to pay off its debts. Russia’s central bank has a staggering $ 643 billion in international reserves.
However, JPMorgan said that the sanctions imposed by the United States against Russian government structures, countermeasures in Russia to limit payments abroad and disrupt payment chains “are major obstacles for Russia to make payments on bonds abroad.”
For example, sanctions against Russia’s central bank and the exclusion of some banks from SWIFT, the highly secure network banks used for communications, will affect Russia’s ability to access foreign currency to pay off debt, according to Capital Economics. This includes Russian reserves of reserves, as well as cash from export earnings.
Capital Economics estimates that about half of Russia’s international reserves will be affected by sanctions – and much of the rest is in gold, which may not be so easily converted into money.
“This would be a logistical bankruptcy rather than a lack of defaults,” said Peter Bukvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group.
According to JPMorgan, Russia has more than $ 700 million in payments in March, mostly with a 30-day grace period.
Although Western sanctions against Russia do not restrict secondary trade in the country’s existing bonds, JPMorgan noted that there were problems with the settlement of some bonds, as Russia’s national settlement depositary blocked the accounts of a Belgian-based settlement provider, Euroclear.
Some believe the Kremlin could set the stage for deliberate failure to punish the United States and Europe for crushing their economies.
“Putin is 100% bankrupt,” hedge fund manager Kyle Bass said in a telephone interview with CNN on Wednesday. “The West is suffocating him. Why would he agree to pay interest to the West right now?
Capital Economics noted that the Russian authorities have already banned the transfer of coupon payments on government debt in local currency to foreigners, emphasizing the fact that the authorities “act with little attention to Russian assets owned by foreigners.”
“Russia can use default as revenge against Western sanctions to inflict losses on foreign creditors. It is no exaggeration to think that the Russian authorities may ban the repayment of foreign debt,” Capital Economics reported.
Russia, currently the world’s 12th largest economy, last failed to pay its debt in 1998, sparking a crisis that has spread abroad.
It is not clear how wide the impact of non-compliance would be today. The global financial crisis of 2008 and the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020 showed how interconnected the global economy and the financial system are.
However, foreigners held only $ 20 billion of Russia’s debt in dollars and ruble-denominated government bonds worth $ 41 billion at the end of last year, the Financial Times reported, citing Russia’s central bank.
“Our financial system and financial institutions have relatively little exposure to Russia,” Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said during a hearing in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. “Even the biggest exhibitions that each of them has are not very big.”
Asked what a Russian default would mean for the global financial system, Bass said: “Nothing. It just means that people will lose some money.”
Bukvar said he was encouraged by the relatively low exposure of foreigners to Russian debt. However, he is not sure how this will develop, because it is so rare to see sanctions against a large central bank.
WASHINGTON – Democrats worry that Russia could use cryptocurrencies to ease the impact of economic sanctions imposed to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine.
A group of lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Biden administration if they needed additional tools to ensure that malicious actors would not evade US and multilateral sanctions against Russia by using virtual currencies.
“Strong enforcement of sanctions in the cryptocurrency industry is crucial, given that digital assets that allow entities to circumvent the traditional financial system can increasingly be used as a tool to avoid sanctions.” , sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Mark Warner (Virginia), Jack Reed (RI) and Sherod Brown (Ohio) said letter, letter to Finance Minister Janet Yellen.
The letter added that “there are growing fears that Russia could use cryptocurrencies to circumvent the broad new sanctions it faces from the Biden administration and foreign governments in response to its invasion of Ukraine.”
Sanctions imposed by the United States and the rest of the world have severely limited Russia’s ability to do business, crushing the value of the Russian currency and closing its stock market. But some have speculated that cryptocurrencies – speculative assets that claim to be an alternative to government-backed currency – could give Russia a way to ease sanctions as cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are traded outside the traditional banking system.
Democrats are not the only ones worried about the possibility of ending crypto.
“I want to know how it was used by the Russians,” Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) told HuffPost after saying earlier this week that cryptocurrency was “raising its ugly head” in Russia.
Other Republicans have been more skeptical about the issue of cryptocurrencies, suggesting that their effect may be insignificant.
“I don’t think it’s very plausible for the Russian government to be able to avoid significant sanctions with cryptocurrency right now,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, a senior Republican on the Senate Banking Commission.
The topic also appeared at a hearing in the House of Representatives on Wednesday with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, where Democrats asked Powell how much of a problem cryptocurrency could be.
“It is high time we all led the way in creating a regulatory environment in which we, not the world’s despots, terrorists and money launderers, will benefit from the emergence of cryptocurrency,” said spokesman Jim Hymes (D-Conn.).
Powell said he did not know if the cryptocurrency offered Russia a workaround for sanctions, but that this was an option that Congress should consider.
“This underscores the need for congressional action on digital finance, including cryptocurrencies,” Powell told the House Financial Services Committee. “We have this thriving industry that has many, many parts and no regulatory framework that needs to be there.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenov (D-Mich.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, which oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, one of the agencies with a well-known regulator on the crypto industry, said Congress should “close the door” to protect American consumers by fraud. But she said Congress should not act ad hoc because of the war in Ukraine.
“What we need is a structure for transparency, oversight and accountability,” Stabenov told HuffPost.
Congress imposed tax reporting requirements on some players in the crypto industry last year to help pay for roads and bridges in a bipartisan infrastructure bill. The industry lobbied hard against the new rules, but ultimately lost. Since then, the industry has increased its investment in lobbying.
“The number of people who came out of the window trying to beat us for it was incredible,” Warner said.
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Ford is divided into two automotive businesses: one for electric cars and one for internal combustion.
The electric unit will be called Ford Model e, a name that the company banned Tesla from using years ago.
Elon Musk wanted to call Tesla’s third mass-produced car, the Model 3, the Model E.
Ford announced a major restructuring on Wednesday, saying it would set up two automotive businesses: one focused on traditional internal combustion engines and another dedicated to the company’s thriving electric vehicle company.
The name Ford chose for the latter should ring the bell for Elon Musk.
The petrol division will be called Ford Blue, while its electric counterpart will be known as the Ford Model e, a name the Detroit-based automaker stopped using Tesla nearly a decade ago.
Following the launch of the Tesla Model S and Model X, Musk plans to name the company’s third major vehicle Model E. (It says “sex,” you know?)
“A friend asked me at a party, ‘How are you going to name the third-generation car?’ Well, we have S and X, so we can do E,” Musk told CNN Money in 2014. But Ford called Musk, threatening to sue if Tesla is pursuing the Model E brand, he told the publication.
Tesla and Ford signed a contract in 2010 that banned Tesla from using the Model E name, and the companies resolved the dispute by mutual agreement, a Ford spokesman told CNN Money.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2017
Ford has filed a lawsuit to prevent companies from using the Model E name, arguing that it sounds too similar to the Model T. Ford sells cars, including the Model A, B, C, F and K, but never the Model E. In 2000 Ford is suing a startup car leasing company called Model E.
Tesla, however, adheres to the allusive theme, instead coming up with the Model 3 sedan and later the Model Y SUV.
Ford says splitting into two separate units will help increase profits and streamline operations. The reorganization will allow Ford engineers, designers and other employees to focus on electric or gasoline efforts instead of splitting their time between the two, the company said. Ford said the new structure will help it double its profit margins by 2026, the same year it plans to produce more than 2 million electric cars.
Shares of Ford rose about 7% in the news on Wednesday morning.
See the companies leading titles in the lunch trade.
Nordstrom – Shares of the department store rose by a whopping 39% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for the holiday quarter. The strong results also led Nordstrom to offer an optimistic outlook for next year. Meanwhile, retailer has called for improvements in its off-price business, Nordstrom Rack, amid a report that the company is reviewing potential unbundling.
Salesforce – Shares of Salesforce rose nearly 1% in lunchtime after the company reported a drop in profits. The software giant issued optimistic guidelines after exceeding expectations in its fourth quarter in terms of its top and bottom lines. The company posted adjusted earnings of 84 cents per share on revenue of $ 7.33 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 74 cents per share on revenue of $ 7.24 billion, according to Refinitiv.
Ford – Shares of Ford jumped 6.5% at noon after the company said it planned to split its electric vehicle business and inherited businesses. The move is expected to streamline the company’s growing electric vehicle business and maximize profits. The carmaker plans to break the financial results for both divisions and its business with Ford + by 2023.
SoFi – SoFi shares rose more than 4% in lunch trading after better-than-expected quarterly results. Fintech reported a loss of 15 cents per share, according to analysts’ forecast of a loss of 17 cents per share. SoFi also reported that it reached the highest value of added members, ending 2021 with about 3.5 million members, which is 87% more than at the beginning of the year.
Ross – Shares of Ross Stores jumped nearly 7% a day after declining earnings in the fourth quarter. The off-price retail giant reported earnings of $ 1.04 per share on revenue of $ 5.02 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 87 cents per share on revenue of $ 4.96 billion.
Hewlett Packard – Shares of Hewlett Packard jumped 10.8% after the company exceeded earnings expectations for the last quarter. Hewlett Packard reported earnings of 53 cents per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ estimates by 7 cents. Revenues came less than Refinitiv’s consensus estimate.
Abercrombie & Fitch – Retail stocks fell 15% at noon after lower-than-expected quarterly results. Abercrombie & Fitch reported earnings of $ 1.14 per share, below analysts’ estimates of $ 1.27 per share. Revenue was $ 1.16 billion, missing estimates from analysts at $ 1.18 billion.
First Solar – Shares of First Solar fell about 11% after the company missed earnings expectations for the fourth quarter. The manufacturer of solar panels also issued weak guidelines for the whole year.
Booking Holdings – The shares of the operator of the site for travel reservations rose by nearly 5% after Evercore ISI upgraded the shares to outperform. The company said it sees a “faster” recovery of leisure travel.
DraftKings – DraftKings shares fell nearly 3%, although Morgan Stanley called sports betting stocks the best choice. “We expect the online sports betting / iGaming market in the United States to be very large, with several winning market shares, including DKNG,” said Morgan Stanley.
– Samantha Subin, Hannah Miao, Yun Li and Sarah Min of CNBC contributed to the report.
A study shows that Rivian buyers are canceling their reservations at an alarming rate after a significant increase in the prices of the R1T electric pickup and R1S electric SUV.
As we announced yesterday, Rivian announced significant price increases in its range, leading to some configurations increasing by more than $ 12,000 and others by as much as $ 20,000 – these price increases also apply to people who have had reservations for years and they are not happy.
Forums and social media are full of Rivian reservation holders who say they cancel their orders because they either don’t want to pay the increase or because they feel cheated by the company.
However, it is difficult to understand how representative these comments are for the general base of reservation holders.
A poll in subreddit Rivian, one of the largest communities of Rivian fans, gives us a better idea of the heart rate of reservation holders and shows a high cancellation rate:
Of the more than 3,000 respondents, the majority canceled their orders, with a significant proportion of reservation holders still undecided. Late last year, Rivian revealed that it had over 70,000 reservations for R1T and R1S.
Rivan blamed the rise in inflation and material costs, but many frustrated reservation holders said that if that were the case, the price increase would have been smaller and more gradual. Instead, many suspect that Rivian is having trouble increasing its gross margin as it increases production and passes costs on to its customers.
Here is our own survey for reservation holders in Rivian:
Taking Electrek
I am almost certain that I will cancel my reservation for four years. While I agree that this is a frustrating situation for reservation holders, this is probably the only way for Rivian to survive.
Even if most reservation holders cancel, Rivian will probably still have around 10,000 people willing to buy the early models with price increases, which should be enough to lead them to more production and more good costs. In turn, this should allow them to reach the cheaper versions of R1T and R1S in 2023-24, which will reach a wider customer base.
At this point, the company should be in a better situation, but in the meantime, they burned much of their fan base.
It is important to note that similar things happened when Tesla canceled the cheaper versions of the Model S in 2013, as they did the same with the Model 3.
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