What You Need To Know This Week — February 29th, 2020
What You Need To Know This Week
A weekly recap to keep you informed on the most important events this week impacting markets, business, tech and the global economy.
FEAR GRIPS INVESTORS AS CORONAVIRUS CAUSES GLOBAL STOCK MARKET ROUT
Stock markets suffered their worst week since the 2008–2009 global financial crisis as the S&P 500 plunged nearly -15% on coronavirus fears. The equity index fell from an all-time high and into correction territory in record speed, taking just six trading sessions to fall more than the -10% threshold. Globally, more than 83,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus and nearly 3,000 have died.
US TREASURY YIELDS HIT NEW LOWS AS INVESTORS PANIC-BUY SAFE HAVEN SECURITIES
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note fell to its lowest on record, hitting 1.15% as investors sought refuge from the coronavirus panic. The declining yields indicate that market participants expect economic growth to decline and the Fed to cut interest rates. The futures market is pricing in a 100% chance of a Fed rate cut in March.
INTUIT ACQUIRES FINTECH COMPANY CREDIT KARMA FOR $7.1 BILLION
Accounting and tax filing software company Intuit announced the acquisition of fintech startup Credit Karma for $7.1 billion. Intuit will integrate Credit Karma and its currently more than 100 million registered users into its suite of products that includes QuickBooks, TurboTax and Mint.
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY RELEASES WARREN BUFFETT’S ANNUAL LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS
Keen investors woke up early last Saturday to read Warren Buffett’s latest missive in his 2019 Berkshire Hathaway letter to shareholders. He touched a number of topics, including his preference for buying high-quality businesses at reasonable prices to hold long-term, choosing to own stocks instead of bonds in the current environment and some criticisms of public company boards of directors.
Recommended Articles, Podcasts, Books and Tweets
The Accelerate Arbitrage Fund has a preliminary launch date of March 24th, 2020.
Hear what the coronavirus means for the Chinese supply chain on the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast.
Psychedelics-based medicine startup Mind Medicine plans on going public through an RTO in Canada next week. It recently closed on a $24.2 million funding round.
How Reddit message board posters pump up speculative stocks such as Virgin Galactic and Plug Power.
Action movie star Steven Seagal was charged with unlawfully touting the Bitcoiin2Gen cryptocurrency offering.
Food delivery company DoorDash has filed for an Initial Public Offering.
According to venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, ESG investing is “a complete fraud”.
Rajeev Misra, head of Softbank’s Vision Fund, engaged in a campaign of sabotage, dark-arts and even a “honey trap” of sexual blackmail to get ahead of his colleagues at the company.
AQR’s Cliff Asness: “We evangelize in good times and bad about how individual investment factors like trend following or value-based stock selection have tremendous (to us overwhelming) evidence and economic reasonableness on their side”
Bain’s informative Global Private Equity Report 2020.
Dyal Capital bought a stake in energy-focused private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners, valuing the firm at $4 billion.
Is the third try the charm for GFL’s Initial Public Offering? After two failed IPO attempts, waste hauler GFL Environmental has once again filed to go public.
A Toronto-based husband and wife are now each worth $1 billion thanks to their early bet on Shopify.
This won’t age well. According to a private equity executive, “I continue to be amazed at how damn easy it is to make money.”
A comparison of private equity firms Brookfield and Blackstone.
