Robinhood Cuts Workforce by 23% to Counter Ill-Advised Expansion

Trading app Robinhood, which “popularized one-click trading and helped fuel last year’s meme stock frenzy,” announced this week that it’s firing 23% of its workforce. The move comes on the heels of the company laying off 340 employees in April. CEO Vlad Tenev blamed the company misjudging “the economy and trading activity” for the cuts - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and TechCrunch

The company will also pay $30 million to NY’s Department of Financial Services to resolve “’significant’ lapses in its compliance with anti-money laundering and cybersecurity regulations” – Law360

U.S. job openings fell in June for the third month in a row, “a sign that the red-hot U.S. labor market may be starting to cool off.” Employers posted a still-high 10.7 million vacant positions in June, but that marks a decrease of over 1 million jobs since March of this year - NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch

Equifax delivered millions of “inaccurate credit scores on . . . U.S. consumers seeking loans”—for auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards to banks and nonbank lenders—over a three-week period earlier this year. The scores were at times “off by 20 points or more in either direction . . . enough to alter the interest rates consumers were offered or to result in their applications being rejected altogether” - WSJ

Forbes is “exploring a sale of its business” after a prior sale to go public via SPAC merger fell through. The “chronicler of the wealthy and powerful” had its sights set on a $630 million valuation when it started SPAC talk, though it’s unlikely to hit that price now - NYTimes

What to expect from the OPEC+ regular meeting kicking off later today [hint: probably not more production] - WSJ and Bloomberg and NYTimes

Still, the U.S. has experienced nearly 50 straight days of falling gas prices, with national averages once again approaching $4/gallon thanks in part to slowing economic growth around the world - WSJ

Financial regulators in the U.S.—including FINRA and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board—are seeking comments on a rule change that would reduce the time that traders have to report many bond transactions from 15 minutes to just 60 seconds. The SEC will also weigh in on any changes to the reporting requirements - Bloomberg

New analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation—a “congressional nonpartisan scorekeeper for tax legislation”—suggests that the Biden administration’s new reconciliation measure “would not cement a giant tax increase or result in profligate federal spending.” Indeed, the Committee found that after 10 years, “the bill would be reducing federal spending, compared with what is scheduled to happen if it does not become law” - NYTimes

Your official—at least according to Airbnb data—guide to the Midwest, its hosts own words (embrace the walleye, friends) - ThePost

Stay safe,

MDR

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