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| So what really killed Silicon Valley Bank? According to Greg Becker, former chief executive of the now-dead lender, it was in part the speedy pace of Fed rate hikes and negative social media sentiment. “The messaging from the Federal Reserve was that interest rates would remain low and that the inflation that was starting to bubble up would only be ‘transitory,’” Becker said in written testimony prepared for a US Senate hearing Tuesday focused on the demise of SVB and Signature Bank. “Indeed, between the start of 2020 and the end of 2021, banks collectively purchased nearly $2.3 trillion of investment securities in this low-yield environment created by the Federal Reserve.”
The word on the Street has been that, after the latest rate hike, the Fed was likely to take a pause. Two Fed officials have now signaled they do indeed favor pausing interest-rate increases, while a third said the central bank’s task in subduing inflation was not complete. Those nods from the Fed renewed appetite for tech megacaps, but stocks generally remained stuck in a tight range Monday, with investors waiting for clarity on whether Washington will reach a deal to avert a US default. Equities saw small gains on the eve of another meeting between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—with both sides sending mixed signals. Here’s your markets wrap.  US President Joe Biden speaks during the Howard University commencement in Washington May 13. Biden cast US democracy as being under attack by what he called the “domestic terrorist threat” of white supremacy. Photographer: Shawn Thew/EPA Trillions of dollars stowed away in short-term US Treasuries are looking anything but safe as the debt-ceiling deadline edges closer. That’s prompted an ETF giant to warn that one of the year’s hottest haven trades could be about to unwind—and in doing so throwing beleaguered regional banks a lifeline. US households showed signs of increasing financial stress in the first quarter, with credit card balances not falling the way they typically do at the start of the year. Meanwhile, delinquencies are rising for most types of consumer loans. More than half of the people classified as Generation X say they won’t be financially prepared for retirement. To make matters worse, only 45% of Gen X—Americans born between 1965 and 1980—said they were “very or somewhat confident” that Social Security will be there to support them when they need it.  Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images 3M fired executive Michael Vale for what it calls “inappropriate personal conduct” and allegedly violating company policy less than a month after he was promoted to one of the manufacturer’s top posts. Famed short-seller Michael Burry took big stakes in regional banks during the first quarter, including the failed lender First Republic before it was bought up by JPMorgan. His hedge fund, Scion Asset Management, snapped up 150,000 shares, worth about $2 million at the end of the first quarter, according to regulatory filings.  Michael Burry Photographer: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America
Air travel in the US over the Memorial Day holiday weekend is forecast to rise to the highest since 2005. The number of passengers on domestic and international flights in the US during the last weekend in May is projected to top pre-pandemic levels by 5.4%, according to a forecast from AAA and S&P Global. This will likely mean more jet fuel consumption.  Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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