things look good

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Institutional ownership increased from 87.4 M shares as of June 13 to 97.6 M shares as of June 30

Bernie's legacy lives on

The county of Los Angeles has tentatively agreed to buy the Gas Company Tower, a prominent office skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, for $215 million in a foreclosure sale.

The price is a deep discount from its appraised value of $632 million in 2020, underscoring how much downtown office values have fallen in recent years.

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England has cut interest rates for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 as inflationary pressures in the economy have eased.

In a statement Thursday, the bank said that by a 5-4 margin, its policymaking panel backed a quarter-point reduction in its main interest rate to 5%, from the 16-year high of 5.25%.

It's the latest central bank to cut interest rates following a long stretch of increases. The U.S. Federal Reserve has yet to take the step but many think it will be ready to next month.

Many economists thought that the Bank of England, which is independent of government, would join the Fed in keeping rates on hold once again given persistent price pressures in the services sector, which accounts for around 80% of the British economy.

... Though those concerns remain, certainly among the four opting to keep borrowing rates on hold, the majority on the panel think the hard medicine of higher borrowing costs has worked, with inflation in the U.K overall down at the bank’s target of 2%.

“Inflationary pressures have eased enough that we’ve been able to cut interest rates today,” said Bank Gov. Andrew Bailey, who voted for a cut. “But we need to make sure inflation stays low, and be careful not to cut interest rates too quickly or by too much. Ensuring low and stable inflation is the best thing we can do to support economic growth and the prosperity of the country.”

Bailey’s comment suggests that interest rates will not be falling dramatically over coming months, certainly nowhere near the pace that the bank had hiked them in recent years.

Central banks around the world dramatically increased borrowing costs from near zero during the coronavirus pandemic when prices started to shoot up, first as a result of supply chain issues built up during the pandemic and then because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine which pushed up energy costs.

Though no one is anticipating rates to fall to those previous lows, there are widespread expectations that the bank will cut again in coming months, especially as its forecasts suggest inflation will be below target in the next couple of years, despite a modest increase in the second half of the year.

“But ultimately it is the data that will determine how interest rates evolve from here, with the bank hoping its conviction that underlying inflation pressures are fading will be vindicated,” said Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at abrdn, formerly known as Aberdeen Asset Management.

The cut — and the potential of future cuts — are welcome news to millions of mortgage holders, certainly those whose borrowing costs track the bank’s headline rate, though it will likely mean that the savings rates offered by banks will be reduced.

David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages, said the prospect of further rate cuts will help boost consumer confidence and that could help the housing market.

“That will be important reassurance to many that have been scarred by the turbulent and volatile periods in the mortgage market over the last couple of years," he said.

Higher interest rates — which cool the economy by making it more expensive to borrow — have helped ease inflation, but they’ve weighed on the British economy, which has barely grown since the pandemic rebound.

Critics of the Bank of England say it has being overly cautious about inflation in recent months and that it had maintained high interest rates for too long, unnecessarily harming the economy. Borrowing costs had been held at 5.25% since August last year, even though inflation was clearly on a downtrend while the economy stagnated.

It is a charge that’s also been leveled against the U.S. Federal Reserve, which kept rates unchanged on Wednesday. It is widely anticipated that the Fed will

Other central banks, including the European Central Bank, have opted to cut rates but are doing so cautiously. July 31, 2024|Updated August 1, 2024 8:00 a.m. PAN PYLAS

i'm curious how much it's grown

Two of the largest banks in the US are declaring a loss on a whopping $3.5 billion in debts that customers can’t pay back.

JPMorgan Chase says its net charge-offs, which are delinquent debts that banks do not expect to receive, hit $2.2 billion in the second quarter of the year.

That’s a $200 million increase from the previous quarter and an $800 million increase from Q2 of 2023.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo says its net charge-offs surged from $764 million in Q2 of 2023 to $1.3 billion last quarter – a 70% increase.

Although the pace of inflation has reduced, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer Michael Santomassimo says many customers are clearly struggling as their credit card balances rise and savings dwindle, reports the New York Times.

“[Inflation is] still cumulatively having a bit impact. The folks on the lower end of the wealth or income spectrum are struggling more than folks that are on the higher end.”

In addition to its charge-offs, JPMorgan declared an additional $500 million in losses from failing mortgage investments.

US banks have been sounding the alarm on their customers’ growing credit card balances and issues in the commercial real estate industry since last year.

In its new report, Wells Fargo says it earned a Q2 profit of $4.9 billion, although the bank’s shares tumbled 6% on Friday after net interest income fell short of estimates.

JPMorgan Chase reported a quarterly profit of $13.1 billion as its stock hovers near its all-time high.

Once taboo but now all the rage.

Ownership pie chart

Ownership table

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Some background: https://www.youtube.com/live/CKX9J9rb7uc

Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin at current age wearing a generic fast food worker uniform standing at order counter of fast food restaurant...

Not a shill, I'm a Jan 21 ape that is mostly DRS'd and still holding.

When AA and AMC were selling shares we were vilifying them.

How is another 75 mil share offering by GME any better? I feel like they're giving the shorts a chance to unwind.

Help me understand, I'm smooth af.

https://reclaimthenet.org/etrade-reportedly-considers-shutting-down-roaring-kitty

1. Where did DFV come up with this much money? Has he been quietly KILLING IT earning tens of millions with other investments the past 3 years? How would an average guy earn that much cash in such a relatively short period of time?

-- Observation: The price of his calls & cash on hand is somewhat similar to GME's drop in cash/equivalents. -- Speculation: Is DFV being funded by Gamestop?

2. DFV continues to use the "power" icon in his memes, and everyone seems to assume it means Gamestop. The company, however, doesn't use the power icon for any current marketing or registered trademarks - you can't actually, it's an IEC recognized symbol based on binary (1, 0). IIRC it used to be loosely affiliated with the PowerUp rewards program marketing, but PowerUp rewards has been defunct for years, with the company using the unified "GS" moniker for brevity. The Gamestop website's favicon is currently the power icon, however this is the default for any Salesforce Demandware e-commerce site, and as a result many other sites share the same favicon. Question: Can anyone find a link to any Gamestop branding or marketing using the power symbol, past or present?

• Speculation: Could DFV be slyly referring to something else entirely?
• The power symbol appears in other posts, never in the "12 o'clock" orientation... Signs, Always Sunny, etc. are all askew, even when they could've been aligned properly. With the exception of...
• In his post from May 15 @ 8:45am Eastern with a scene from Ozark (season 3), the picture above the mantle is the power sign upside down, Q-like. She later defiantly turns it right side-up, returning it to the typical form of line/1 on top.
• From this scene she illegally enters her family's old home, has moments of sentimentality, then becomes mischievous - turning the current family's portrait upside down & adding food coloring to their milk.
• Why? Referring to introducing chaos for other companies in various stages of bankruptcy (...Q ticker symbols)?*

I'm just waiting for the story to unfold, but also very entertained and enjoy attempting to dissect these potential puzzles.

Today's low: $185.10 Today's high: $726,715.62

Holy crap