Another Month of Big Inflation Sends Wall Street Reeling

No surprise here—inflation continues to dominate the economic conversation. New CPI numbers showed prices rising some 7.5% in January, topping projections by .3% and “climbing at the fastest pace in 40 years and more quickly than economists had expected” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

After a few days of gains, that tough inflation news sent stocks lower on Thursday and raised the stakes for the Federal Reserve and its plan for hiking interest rates in an effort combat rising prices - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

Workers at Starbucks locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn are the latest to pick up the union push, with employees asking to hold a vote in early march. Those “locations join more than 60 Starbucks stores that have sought to unionize over the last several months” - NYTimes

This week’s blow-up of Nvidia’s planned acquisition of chip designer Arm, the public departure of former Masa Son deputy “after a bitter pay dispute,” and the poor performance of a handful of tech companies in which it has a big stake all spells fresh trouble for SoftBank, a “slump in . . . fortunes . . . reflected in its latest earnings report” in which earnings fell 97% from a year earlier - NYTimes

Another day, another SEC proposal aimed at increasing transparency on Wall Street. On Thursday, the Commission proposed “to shorten the window for shareholders to alert the market when they build an ownership stake of more than 5% of a company’s stock, a potential setback to activist investors” - WSJ and Law360

Zillow quarterly reporting showed that its now-closed home-flipping business lost a staggering $881 million dollars in 2021 and dragged down the entire company’s performance for the year. Still, the company beat expectations, as it was able to sell off properties quicker than expected in a still-hot housing market - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

For those of you playing along at home, we’ve got details of the new “worst-case scenarios” the Fed will use in its annual big-bank stress tests - Bloomberg

Getting to know US Women’s Hockey’s Abbey Murphy—the 19-year-old who in just a few Olympic games has proven herself a thorn in the side of the rest of the world, chirping and scrapping her way under their skin in a quest for the gold – WSJ

Stay safe, get boosted, and have fun Big Gaming it this weekend,

MDR

The Robins Kaplan Financial Daily Dose features top stories and latest news headlines in financial markets, banking, securities and technology topics.