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[단독외신] Jittery Wall Street banks brace for election-fueled uncertainty
- [단독외신] Jittery Wall Street banks brace for election-fueled uncertainty Getty Images Large Wall Street banks have been running “war game” drills in their trading businesses and preparing clients for unexpected scenarios around next week’s elections, hoping to avoid liquidity crunches or technical errors as markets react to news of who will be running the White House and Congress, industry sources said. There is more confidence now than a few weeks ago that there will be a clear presidential winner, because Democrat Joe Biden has moved up in polls against incumbent Republican President Trump. However, the two men are tied in some key states, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, suggesting it may not be a slam dunk. Traders, bankers and wary fund managers told Reuters they are preparing for a wide range of outcomes. One bank’s equities desk has been running drills across major trading hubs in New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong for a variety of scenarios to make sure systems can handle enormous volatility, an executive there told Reuters. That bank has been reaching out to top customers to get a sense of how much they expect to trade and ask whether they need margin limits increased, and to suggest they send orders through approved electronic systems rather than calling, to avoid inadvertent mistakes, the person said. Another global lender hired its own polling firm to check popular assumptions and prepare for unforeseen possibilities, an executive there said. The polling firm’s work underscored the common assumption that Biden is likely to win, but the bank is preparing for other scenarios anyway, said the executive who, like some others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss non-public internal planning. Only the most daring investors are going into Nov. 3 with large trading positions, several sources said. Most do not want to be forced sellers if they get things wrong. Plus, even those who bet correctly risk the chance of a drawn-out election battle where markets flip back and forth for weeks or months. “I don’t think anybody is willing to bet on any particular outcome,” said Peter Kraus, a former executive at Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs who founded asset management firm Aperture Investors in 2018. “The rational thing to do is to take your risk down.” If Kraus were running a trading desk at a major bank today, he would tell traders to take as neutral a position as possible, he said. “I would much rather be coming into the election with a set of flat positions and liquidity and, if the worst happened, I would be able to service the trading volume,” he said. Since banks began preparing for the election, polls and circumstances have shifted several times – making lenders more jittery about any assumptions, even days before the event. In late September, bankers told Reuters they were prepping for a situation with no clear winner. Volatility has already begun to pick up in equity and currency markets over rising coronavirus statistics, giving some traders and bankers a queasy feeling about the days ahead. Contingency planning around major events is not unusual for major global banks, which face regulatory stress tests each year to ensure they have enough capital and liquidity to survive extreme scenarios. Big trading firms conduct similar trials, as do exchanges that have been planning for soaring volumes and technical glitches, as Reuters reported on Thursday.
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- Animal Rights
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[단독외신] Jittery Wall Street banks brace for election-fueled uncertainty
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[단독외신] Disneyland Paris closes amid second COVID-19 lockdown in France
- [단독외신] Disneyland Paris closes amid second COVID-19 lockdown in France Enlarge Image Getty Images Disneyland Paris is temporarily closing again as France enters a second nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The closure, which took hold at the end of the day Thursday, is another blow for Disney, which has been trying to reopen its flagship Disneyland theme park in California. Disneyland Paris, which had reopened July 15 following a mid-March shutdown along with the rest of Disney’s parks, said in a statement that the closure is “in line with the latest direction from the French authorities,” and that it hopes to reopen for the holiday season. The theme park said it will be taking reservations from Dec. 19 through Jan. 3 “and hope(s) to be open based on prevailing conditions and government guidance at that time,” adding that it will be closed after that, from Jan. 4 through Feb. 12. France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that the country would go in lockdown that will last until at least Dec. 1. Non-essential businesses, restaurants and bars will be closed starting Monday as the country battles a surge in coronavirus infections that hospitals warn could cause capacity issues. Meanwhile, the virus in the US has continued to surge and there are question marks around whether Disneyland in California will reopen anytime soon and if the Orlando, Fla.-based Disney World in Orlando, which reopened in July, will be forced to shut down. Although there are a handful of Disney theme parks currently open across the globe, all 12 of its parks in North America, Asia and Europe were closed between March and May. As a result, in the first half of the year, Disney suffered a $6.2 billion dip in revenue from the same period last year. Last month, the company said it plans to lay off 28,000 workers at its California and Florida theme parks.
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- Animal Rights
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[단독외신] Disneyland Paris closes amid second COVID-19 lockdown in France
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[단독외신] Amazon says COVID-related expenses will cost $4B this quarter
- [단독외신] Amazon says COVID-related expenses will cost $4B this quarter Getty Images By the time this fiscal quarter is through, Amazon estimates it will have spent more than $11 billion on coronavirus-related expenses. The e-commerce titan said during its Thursday earnings report that it expects to spend around $4 billion battling the virus, on top of the $7.5 billion in costs it has already rung up since March. First quarter coronavirus expenses cost Amazon $600 million, with the number ballooning to $4 billion during the peak of the pandemic and decreasing slightly to $2.5 billion in the most recent quarter, the company said. Investments included personal protective equipment for Amazon’s workforce — which it announced on Thursday has hit 1 million — “enhanced cleaning” of its facilities, higher wages for hourly workers as well as “hundreds of millions” of dollars for Amazon to develop its coronavirus testing capabilities. Much of the increased costs are related to “the large influx of new employees hired to support strong customer demand,” CFO Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts. The Seattle-based e-tailer’s guidance on operating income for the quarter was $1.5 billion to $4 billion, and already factored in the Covid-related spending. Olsavsky said that the pandemic, along with the upcoming election and the fact that the company’s Prime Day shopping extravaganza was delayed until October this year, has created a lot of uncertainty for the holiday quarter. Shares of Amazon were down 4 percent Friday morning, trading at $3,082.99.
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- Animal Rights
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[단독외신] Amazon says COVID-related expenses will cost $4B this quarter
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[단독외신] Ex-Wirecard executive was reportedly an Austrian spy informant
- [단독외신] Ex-Wirecard executive was reportedly an Austrian spy informant AFP via Getty Images An ex-Wirecard executive who went on the lam amid the German payment firm’s $2 billion accounting scandal was reportedly a mole for Austrian spies. German authorities have evidence that Jan Marsalek, Wirecard’s former chief operating officer, was an informant for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, the Austrian intelligence agency known as the BVT, according to Munich’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. The outlet’s Thursday report cited the German government’s response to a written question from lawmaker Fabio De Masi. Another member of German parliament, Patrick Sensburg, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that Marsalek may have worked for “several secret services from different countries,” though he did not cite specific evidence for the claim. “In clearing up the Wirecard scandal, Austria and Germany should now work closely and trustingly together,” Sensburg told the paper, according to a translation. Authorities have been searching for Marsalek since Wirecard admitted in June that roughly 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion) listed on its accounts likely didn’t exist. The financial-tech giant filed for insolvency that month after former CEO Markus Braun was arrested in relation to the scandal. Marsalek’s exact whereabouts are unknown, but Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine reported in July that he traveled to Minsk, Belarus soon after Wirecard suspended him in June. Interpol has issued a so-called red notice for the 40-year-old, saying he faces charges for allegedly violating German securities laws, fraud and “criminal breach of trust.” Police have accused Marsalek and Braun of using bogus income from transactions related to deals with “third-party acquirers” to make the company look more attractive to investors.
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- Animal Rights
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[단독외신] Ex-Wirecard executive was reportedly an Austrian spy informant