Free Republic

If you noticed, some of the biggest names in finance are starting to run away from their initial support of Kamala Harris. It’s not that they’ve seen the light and are ready to embrace Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda. Rather they’ve seen the poll numbers (they pay up for the real ones the public isn’t privy to) and they’re slowly coming to terms that the sometimes crass, often indicted Trump might just be winning this race against Harris for the White House. And they’re scared. That’s the assessment from my sources at top Wall Street firms who witnessed interesting 180s at...

While Vice President Kamala Harris surges ahead in polls against her Republican rival Donald Trump, she hasn’t found much traction in the business and investing world. Hedge fund manager John Paulson, the founder of New York-based investment firm Paulson & Co. said on Tuesday in a media appearance that he would pull his money off the market in the eventuality of a Harris win, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk flagged something even more ominous. The market timing and investor timing will depend on who the president is, said Paulson in an interview with Fox News. “If Harris was elected [I]...

Another Biden-Harris Bureau of Labor Statistics scandal. Three banks quietly obtained key payroll data from the BLS as it delayed posting the jobs report for 30 minutes due to ‘technical issues’ on Wednesday. Wall Street was thrown into chaos and there was confusion at trading desks on Wednesday morning after the BLS failed to post its jobs report revealing nearly 1 million jobs vanished in the last year. The BLS was supposed to post its report online at 10 am ET. The report wasn’t posted until 10:30 am ET, however, at least three banks obtained the key payroll data as...

Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate has created an unexpected challenge for Wall Street’s political donors. Major financial institutions are now grappling with stringent regulations that could limit their employees’ ability to contribute to the Harris-Walz campaign. At the heart of the issue, reported initially by Business Insider, is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “pay-to-play” rule, adopted in 2010. The regulation aims to prevent financial firms from influencing politicians through campaign contributions in hopes of securing lucrative government contracts, like managing state pension funds.

After experiencing its worst crash yesterday since Black Monday in 1987, Japan’s stock market has all but recovered, rising by more than 10 percent today — its biggest single-day gains in history. Nearly all markets in Asia are on the up. But while the FTSE 100 looked set for a rebound, stocks continue to slump today as worries about the US economy intensify. We’re still in the thick of the turbulence. The dust hasn’t settledOverall it’s been a miserable couple of days for investors. All eyes were on Wall Street’s opening this morning, with particular attention…After experiencing its worst crash...

Amidst today’s wild roller-coaster ride on Wall Street, the news about Ford Motors jumps out. Here’s Barron’s headline: Ford Stock Had Its Worst Day Since 2008 Ford Motor reported earnings that were worse than what Wall Street had expected: Its commercial business couldn’t overcome higher warranty costs. And the stock took it on the chin Thursday. . . On Wednesday, Ford announced a second-quarter operating profit of $2.8 billion, down 26% from $3.8 billion reported in the second quarter of 2023. Wall Street was looking for $3.7 billion, according to FactSet. Barron’s goes on to note that Ford is experiencing...

Wall Street executives have started flocking to former President Donald Trump after feeling the brunt of the Biden administration’s anti-business policies. Politico reported a host Wall Street executives, many whom have previously sworn off Trump, have started to embrace the former president’s reelection campaign. Hal Lambert, the founder of Point Bridge Capital and a GOP donor, said, “I don’t know that anyone really believed he was a threat to democracy.” Lambert had backed Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) presidential campaign but not supports Trump. Lambert is not the only one. Hedge fund executive Nelson Peltz, hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, and Blackstone...

The violent, antisemitic protests at some of the nation’s elite colleges has forced top corporate recruiters to assess the quality of the education dispensed at these places — and whether they should look elsewhere for job candidates, the Post has learned. Activist investor Daniel Loeb, a Columbia University graduate, has begun to reconsider whether to focus offering jobs at his hedge fund to fellow alums and other Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale, Penn amid their tepid responses to the protests on their campuses, he told The Post. “We’ve always looked beyond the target schools but we’re doing it even...

Remarks last week by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about a spate of coming bank failures related to the faltering commercial real estate sector have sent shockwaves through the financial world, leading some investors to run for cover and others to look for opportunities. With the typical U.S. commercial lease ranging from three to five years, the clock is ticking for office and retail property owners and their creditors in the financial sector as remote work has taken off and prompted changes in urban land use. Office vacancy rates have climbed sharply in the wake of the pandemic after falling...

A group of Wall Street billionaires is planning a fundraiser for GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley in New York City after the New Hampshire primary, Bloomberg News reported. Billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller, Henry Kravis, Ken Langone and Cliff Asness are reportedly planning a fundraiser for Haley on Jan. 30, according to an invitation viewed by Bloomberg. A donor speaking on the condition of anonymity told the outlet that the event is just one part of a fundraising swing slated for Haley in between the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

Mia Lee spends most of December entertaining Wall Street bankers during hourslong stints in private rooms at a New York City strip club. Or, she's keeping them company during luxurious weekend getaways in quaint towns north of the city, all before they head home to their families for the holidays. Lee — who has been a professional escort for five years and a stripper for a year and a half — said the first two weeks of December tended to be one of the busiest and most lucrative periods of the year for her line of work. In just one...

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has been engaging with Wall Street executives as she experiences a surge in key early primary state polls for president.Some GOP political consultants and conservative financial experts accused Haley of courting support from the “establishment,” and voiced concern over the top business leaders promoting ESG and DEI while supporting business relationships with China, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.“That’s why Nikki Haley is like a perfect person for the establishment — because they can control her, right? They can’t control a DeSantis, they can’t control a Vivek — so they don’t want them,” Bob...

'Defund the police!' they yelled in 2020, that famous summer of love: They did that. Now they're discovering -- the hard way -- that they're actually defunding themselves. According to the New York Post:A giant, sucking sound is coming out of Wall Street — and it’s siphoning staggering sums of money out of the Big Apple while handing business to Florida and other states farther south.Nearly 160 Wall Street firms have moved their headquarters out of New York since the end of 2019, taking nearly $1 trillion — yes, that’s trillion with a “T” — in assets under management with...

A giant, sucking sound is coming out of Wall Street — and it’s siphoning staggering sums of money out of the Big Apple while handing business to Florida and other states farther south. Nearly 160 Wall Street firms have moved their headquarters out of New York since the end of 2019, taking nearly $1 trillion — yes, that’s trillion with a “T” — in assets under management with them, according to data from 17,000 companies compiled by Bloomberg. Looking to dodge rampant crime, stiff taxes and an increasingly exorbitant cost of living, 158 fed-up financial firms representing a whopping $993...

Trading firms are asking FCC to open shortwave frequencies to greater commercial use Ham radio operators are sounding the alarm over the latest threat to their beloved hobby—and this time, it is coming from Wall Street. A group of high-frequency trading firms is asking the Federal Communications Commission to open shortwave frequencies to greater commercial use, so they can use radio to zip financial data around the world in milliseconds. Prominent members of the amateur-radio community say interference from traders’ broadcasts could ruin their hobby, which often involves tuning in to weak radio signals so they can chat with fellow...

The unfortunate case of 111 Wall Street might be even more unfortunate than it sounds. Two months since we wrote that the vacant, 1.2 million square-foot tower at the corner of South Street “epitomized the crisis” of the downtown commercial market, the building owned by Nightingale Properties and Intervest Capital Partners now faces a foreclosure action by mezzanine lender Oaktree Capital Management, as first reported by Real Estate Alert.

The most expensive home for sale in Atlantic Beach, Long Island, has just listed for $11.5 million. Indeed, this marks the biggest number seen for the chiefly laid-back area, though probably not for long. As Wall Street is set to return to a full five-day work week, the Hamptons is starting to seem pretty far away. This part of the island, with a lowly population of about 1,800, comes with all the perks of the Hamptons — right on the water, for starters — and it’s just a breezy hour away from the city and away from the crowds. Rarely...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is coming to New York for a private presidential campaign fundraiser that’s set to be hosted by at least four Wall Street executives, including one with past ties to a firm backed by liberal billionaire George Soros, a frequent target of DeSantis and other Republicans. The event is scheduled to take place June 29 at the swanky Yale Club, according to a copy of an invitation seen by CNBC. It will be one of DeSantis’ first fundraisers in the Big Apple since he officially launched his campaign for president last month. It also comes soon after...

With 'goliaths' like JP Morgan also 'winning', analysts say Jittery customers are flocking to major banks in the wake of the SVB collapse One analyst said 'Goliath is winning' as some speed up their onboarding process to cope with the new demand It comes as SVB's spectacular fall from grace continues to wreak havoc on Wall Street Bank of America has reportedly raked in $15 million in new deposits as customers flee small lenders for 'too big to fail' firms in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. So-called 'goliath' banks such as JP Morgan and Wells Fargo are...

More than $100bn has been wiped off US banks’ value as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continues to send shockwaves throughout Wall St. Trading was temporarily halted in dozens of regional banks this morning as shares fell by up to 75 percent, despite Joe Biden’s assurances that ‘US banking is safe.’ Major US banks were also affected by the crash as fear spread throughout the market, with Wells Fargo plummeting 7.5 percent, Bank of America falling 7.4 percent, Citigroup plunging 5.8 percent and JP Morgan down 2.7 percent. US President Joe Biden insisted that the system was safe after...