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| The world’s largest technology companies drove stocks to a new record while bond yields fell as traders appeared to price in about two Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2024. Of course, that could change in an instant as new data trickles out. This week may see one of those whipsaws, with a US jobs report just two days away, and there’s already a mixed back of data for investors to chew on. A private payrolls reading showed hiring at companies grew at the slowest pace since the start of the year. But at the same time, the services sector expanded by the most in nine months, powered by the largest monthly gain in a measure of business activity since 2021. Here’s your markets wrap.
The Goldman Sachs trading desk says a flood of cash from passive equity allocations will pour into the stock market in early July, setting up a continuing rally through early summer. How do they know this? “New quarter (Q3), new half year (2H), this is when a wall of money comes into the equity market quickly,” Goldman’s Scott Rubner wrote in a note to clients. In addition, the bank predicted that share prices should benefit from strong seasonal trends and rising engagement from retail investors. Hedge funds claimed a big win at the expense of the US Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. One of the most right-leaning federal appeals courts in the country struck down rules requiring funds and private equity firms detail quarterly fees and expenses to investors, a significant setback in the regulator’s clampdown on the private-funds industry. The SEC argued that its fee disclosure rules are permitted under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the major reform measure stemming from the 2008 financial implosion largely triggered by Wall Street. But a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans sided with industry groups, which argued rules aren’t necessary for “highly sophisticated” investors who pour money into private funds. The appellate panel held that the SEC “exceeded its statutory authority.”  Former Trump administration Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, represented hedge funds and private equity firms in their challenge of SEC disclosure regulations. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg Fines against Toronto-Dominion Bank tied to US money-laundering probes may total $4 billion following fresh allegations involving the lender, Jefferies Financial Group analysts warned—double previous estimates of the potential impact on the Canadian bank. TD is under investigation by the US Department of Justice, bank regulators and the Treasury Department over allegations of financial crimes at several of the bank’s US branches. A now-departed TD branch employee in Florida took a series of $200 bribes to help clients move millions of dollars to Colombia by skirting anti-money-laundering defenses, prosecutors alleged. In another recent case, a former branch employee in New York admitted to bypassing the bank’s compliance measures to defraud a customer. As the latest strain of the coronavirus spreads largely unhindered across the US, killing hundreds every week, to the south a new threat has arisen. A Mexican person died after contracting a strain of bird flu that hasn’t been confirmed in humans before, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The virus was detected in a 59-year-old who had been hospitalized in Mexico City. They died one week after developing a fever, shortness of breath and diarrhea in the first lab-confirmed case of a person contracting a form of bird flu known as H5N2. The current bird flu outbreak in US dairy cows is being driven by a different strain—H5N1. The patient had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals and had underlying medical conditions. The Georgia appeals court that chose to accept a petition from Donald Trump and his co-defendants seeking to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from their prosecution has frozen the racketeering case tied to the 2020 election. The move guarantees Trump won’t be tried on those state charges before November’s vote. The appellate court decided to hear Trump’s challenge to a trial judge’s decision not to remove Willis over her personal relationship with a fellow prosecutor. Trump, recently convicted in New York for fraud tied to the 2016 election, also faces federal indictments for mishandling top secret documents and attempting to block President Joe Biden from taking office in 2021. Both of those cases are also held up and unlikely to reach trial before the presidential election.  Fani Willis Photographer: Alex Slitz/Getty Images For years, American football fans who want to spend Sunday afternoon flipping through games in different cities have had to shell out big money for the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket broadcast package. Now that might change. The package, which exclusively carries out-of-market games that aren’t broadcast on local network channels, is at the heart of a massive antitrust case in Los Angeles headed to a rare trial. Losing could cost the league billions of dollars. A beloved lake getaway catering to both the elite and everyday residents of Mexico’s capital has become a glaring symbol of the country’s mismanagement of resources amid a historic drought. Valle de Bravo, a man-made lagoon nestled in the forests roughly 85 miles west of Mexico City, has long been a destination for water-sports enthusiasts, cyclists and para-gliders. Several of Mexico’s top executives own vast ranches there, replete with their own private lakes, golf courses and helipads. But more importantly, the main lake also serves as a vital water source for 20 million people downstream. Now, after a longer-than-usual dry season, it has plummeted to 28% of its normal capacity.  Valle de Bravo’s receding shoreline Photographer: Mariceu Erthal/Bloomberg
At the corner of a bustling street in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district, there’s a convenience store with the usual offerings: magazines, toilet paper and an overly generous selection of beverages. But next to the cashier counter stands a big box that sells a much more unexpected product—gold. South Korean residents are caught up in the micro-investing trend that’s sweeping the globe, and now it’s brought gold vending machines with it.  Good as gold Photographer: Jaehyun Eom/Bloomberg
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