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[ad_1] Wall Street stocks ended higher on Tuesday after a choppy session in which each of the major indexes fluctuated between gains and losses as a key meeting of the Federal Reserve got under way. Investors picked up shares of financials and technology companies ahead of Wednesday’s expected announcement by the Fed. Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose, with energy and financials up 2.9% and 1.3%, respectively. The S&P 500 banks index gained 2%, with Citigroup Inc climbing 2.9%. The U.S. central bank kicked off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday. Traders see a 99.9% chance of a 50 basis-point hike on Wednesday, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool, which would mark the largest rate hike by the Fed since May 2000. The spotlight stays on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference on Wednesday for comments on the future path of interest rates and balance-sheet reduction. “The number one driver of all the market volatility over the last several months has been the Fed and the Fed hawkish rhetoric, so getting an update from them at a Powell press conference (on Wednesday) is a major catalyst and I think the market now is kind of just in waiting mode,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. In April, Wall Street was hammered by uncertainty around the Fed’s ability to engineer a soft landing for the economy, mixed earnings from some big growth companies, the war in Ukraine and pandemic-related lockdowns in China. The Nasdaq Composite slumped nearly 13.3% last month, its worst monthly performance since October 2008 as richly valued high-growth stocks came under pressure from rising rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 67.29 points, or 0.2%, to 33,128.79, the S&P 500 gained 20.1 points, or 0.48%, to 4,175.48 and the Nasdaq Composite added 27.74 points, or 0.22%, to 12,563.76. The indexes were boosted by stocks including Apple Inc , Tesla Inc and Exxon Mobil Corp, which rose between 0.7% and 2.1%. Estee Lauder Cos Inc slumped 5.8% after the cosmetics maker cut its full-year profit forecast due to fresh COVID-19 restrictions in China and the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc slid 4.2% after the hotel operator forecast a bleak full-year profit. Western Digital Corp jumped 14.5% as the largest percentage gainer on the S&P 500 after activist investor Elliott Investment Management urged the company to separate its Flash business and offered to invest $1 billion to facilitate a sale or a spin-off of the business. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.35 billion shares, compared with the 11.88 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.92-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.26-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 2 new 52-week highs and 32 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 29 new highs and 195 new lows. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The courtship is over. The Agency, a Beverly Hills-based brokerage that has been around since 2011, announced Tuesday that it has bought Triplemint, a Manhattan shop started in 2013 by Yale college classmates David Walker and Phillip Lang. Rainy Hake Austin, president of The Agency, declined in an interview to say how much her firm, a private company, paid for Triplemint. But it was an all-equity transaction, The Agency said in announcing the deal. The brokerage also touted Tuesday that it raised “$35 million in growth capital from strategic investors” and plans to open a “NYC East Coast Headquarters later this year.” The Agency’s acquisition of Triplemint has been scuttlebutt in luxury brokerage circles for several months. In December, The Real Deal interviewed Agency CEO Mauricio Umansky, who admitted he spent a day office-space shopping in New York with Triplemint brass. As part of the acquisition, Triplemint will rebrand as The Agency. Walker will become The Agency’s Chief Strategic Officer and Lang its Chief Business Officer. Triplemint, which has billed itself as being adept at using predictive analytics to steer customers to the right home, is expected to help The Agency augment lead generation for its agents. In an interview Tuesday, Walker said that Triplemint’s staff “of over 75 software engineers, data scientists, marketers and strategists” would not face any layoffs. In fact, Walker asserted that the company is looking to aggressively recruit more software engineers — as well as expand the ranks of the 250 agents Triplemint is bringing over to The Agency. The move is the latest, and perhaps greatest, indication that The Agency is moving beyond being a west Los Angeles fixture, whose top performers are regulars on reality TV, to establishing a presence in wealthy enclaves across the country. In the past year alone, the brokerage expanded into several Canadian locations, including Toronto and Montreal — in addition to U.S. locales such as Boston, Honolulu, Denver, Las Vegas and Naples, Florida. Hake Austin said Tuesday The Agency also is looking to expand further into Northern California, the Pacific Northwest and Texas. She described the brokerage, now ensconced in the complex dealings of New York City — where there’s no centralized multiple listings service — as pursuing a strategy “to build out in California and New York” and then “fill into the middle” with largely franchise affiliates. Making an initial public offering is “an option, but not really the only option” for expansion, Hake Austin said. The Agency started as a Beverly Hills brokerage launched by Mauricio Umansky, who left Hilton & Hyland, a business locally famous for never expanding its office footprint beyond Beverly Hills. Umansky, whose wife is reality TV star Kyle Richards, is a TV presence himself on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” — along with Agency agents James Harris and David Parnes. (Triplemint also increased its brand awareness after Triplement agent Tyler Whitman started appearing on “Million Dollar Listing” in 2019.) Umansky, Harris and Parnes also are part of the business leadership of PLS.com, a group that has filed a lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors, contending that it’s so-called pocket listings ban, which requires homes to be placed on the Multiple Listings Service, is a violation of antitrust law. Last week a federal appeals court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the case and remanded it to the federal district court in Los Angels for review. According to figures reported to RealTrends, The Agency completed $9.3 billion in 2021 sales volume, and had 3,718 deal sides. The post The Agency swoops into New York, buys Triplemint appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

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[ad_1] By Sandeep Parekh The recent Supreme Court (SC) decision in the PC Jeweller case is expected to force the market regulator to adopt higher standards of proof while investigating potential offenders, particularly in insider trading matters. The ruling, which rejects the prevalent practice of relying on a combination of rebuttable proof and circumstantial evidence, is especially pertinent as it indicates the importance of the evidentiary burden that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) must overcome in order to successfully establish a charge of insider trading. In the above case, the apex court overturned both the SAT and Sebi orders that found the MD and promoter of PC Jeweller Limited and some of his relatives, including a group entity, guilty of insider trading in the company’s shares. As per Sebi, the noticees had executed trades in the shares of PC Jeweller while in possession of unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) related to the company’s buyback proposal and subsequent withdrawal of the buyback upon failure to receive consent of its lenders. It is relevant to note that Sebi’s insider trading framework, i.e. the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015, not only prohibits trading in the shares of a listed company by insiders while in possession of UPSI, but also any communication or procurement of UPSI by insiders, except for legitimate purposes or discharge of legal obligations. As per the law, an insider is any person who has access to UPSI or is a connected person—the latter being a deeming fiction to include persons who are expected or presumed to have access to non-public information of a listed entity by virtue of their association with the listed entity. Immediate relatives of connected persons, who are financially dependent on such connected persons, are also considered as deemed connected persons. Such presumptions are however rebuttable, thus enabling those charged to logically disprove the deeming fiction with supporting evidence. The standard of proof, therefore, as laid down by the SC in its earlier decision in SEBI v. Kishore Ajmera, is that of preponderance of probabilities based on an evaluation of all attending facts and circumstances. This approach of placing reliance on circumstantial evidence has been consistently adopted by Sebi in most cases ever since. In the present instance, Sebi had primarily relied upon the connection between the MD of the company and his relatives, to hold that the latter were also deemed connected persons and, consequently, were insiders presumed to have access to UPSI. While holding so, Sebi had dismissed the claims of estrangement made by the noticees that ruled out any possibility of communication of UPSI between the alleged tipper and the tippees, as also pointed out by the SC. The court also held that the appellate tribunal’s observations that the existing family arrangements did not result in complete estrangement were incorrect as the said fact, by itself, could not discharge Sebi from the onus of proof placed on it to show that the noticees had access to UPSI. Further, Sebi had also relied upon the trading pattern of the noticees to show that they were in possession of information pertaining to the buyback, presumably communicated by the MD. However, the SC clarified that trading patterns solely cannot be determinative of the appellants being insiders or that there was communication of UPSI. Besides, the court noted that significant sale transactions before the beginning of the UPSI period show that the appellants were not in the know of the good news ahead. Stressing on the significance of establishing ‘foundational facts’ before any presumption, the court observed that trading patterns and close proximity cannot be used to prove communication of UPSI without producing cogent evidence such as letters, emails, witnesses, etc. The above observations are a departure from the SC’s observations in Kishore Ajmera wherein it had emphasised on the importance of using circumstantial evidence “by a logical process of reasoning from the totality of the attending facts and circumstances”, based on which an “irresistible inference” can be drawn that the tipper had passed on price-sensitive information to the tippee. This position was also re-affirmed by it in SEBI v. Kanaiyalal Baldevbhai Patel wherein it had successfully applied circumstantial evidence to prove front running. Considering the Kishore Ajmera decision has been extensively applied by both Sebi and SAT, the present ruling potentially limits the scope of application of circumstantial evidence without corroboration, especially in insider trading cases. For example, in the present case, SAT had acknowledged that there was no direct evidence to show communication of information such as calls or emails, etc, but nonetheless proceeded to hold that the fact that the noticees were connected and had exchanged financial transactions were enough to conclude that there was dissemination of information. However, the fallacy of this was pointed out by the SC, which emphasised that mere close relationship would not be adequate to draw an inference of communication. While doing so, it also distinguished its decision in Kishore Ajmera by holding that it pertained to a case of fraudulent and manipulative trade practices and not insider trading. The SC seems to apply different standards to insider trading cases compared to securities fraud cases, which is now an important distinction. In the above ruling, the SC reiterated the princples laid down in Chintalapati Srinivasa Raju, which require that “a reasonable expectation to be in the know of things can only be based on reasonable inference drawn from foundational facts”. While not necessarily prescribing an illustrative list of acceptable foundational facts to prove a charge of insider trading, the court seemingly left the regulator to gauge the same depending on the facts and circumstance of each case, as long as it passes the test of reasonableness. Over the years, the number of insider trading investigations taken up by Sebi has considerably increased, and rightly so, especially with an increased capacity to monitor insider trading with its data-based alert systems and a robust insider trading framework. However, prosecution remains a challenge in most insider trading cases

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[ad_1] Hotels have begun to see the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) business coming back as Covid restrictions ease and international travel resumes. Industry executives have exuded confidence that the business would grow as chances of any future wave which is lethal enough to bring in any kind of disruption is very remote. Marriott International South Asia senior area director for sales and distribution Monisha Dewan told FE that the MICE business is in full swing from Q2CY22 with customers choosing different destinations and brands within the Marriott portfolio. The company has seen the MICE segment recovering almost 80% in Q1 compared with CY19 levels. With the easing of restrictions, we are seeing companies shifting to in-person and socially-distant meetings and seminars. We are entertaining several requests, albeit with a longer booking window, and observing a month-on-month improvement in meetings from our corporate clientele,” Puneet Dhawan, senior vice president, operations, Accor India & South Asia, said. Dhawan said there will be a pick-up and escalation in demand for MICE in the remainder of Q2 and Q3 of this calendar year as most companies are now gathering their staff for various activities. Shangri-La Bengaluru’s sales and marketing director Saharsh Vadhera said the hotel has seen a sudden jump in MICE from February with a double-digit growth. Hilton Garden Inn, New Delhi, has witnessed a three-fold jump in overall events since January. With respect to MICE, the hotel has seen a robust growth of 160% in Q1CY22. “With a steady decline in the Covid-19 restrictions and relaxations on travel guidelines, there has been a rise in demand for social events and conferences,” said Abhinav Mehra, assistant director – sales. With the cumulative impact of pent-up demand, easing of restrictions and now the reopening of India’s scheduled flights driving the positive corporate sentiment, we have witnessed a surge in demand from our volume driver MICE segment,” said Meera Charnalia, senior vice-president and head, MICE, Thomas Cook (India). [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] In this HW+ Slack Q&A, HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami gives the inside scoop on where rates are headed, his insights on the latest economic reports and more. As a member of HW+, you get access to 30-minute Slack Q&As, where we invite the HW Media newsroom to break down the hottest topics in the industry. This Q&A was hosted in the HW+ Slack channel, which is exclusively available to members. To get access to the next Q&A on May 4th, you can join HW+ here. The following Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity. This Q&A was originally hosted on April 20th. HousingWire: The best way to start is to talk about purchase application data, can you break that down for us? Logan Mohtashami: Yes, purchase application data has always been a useful forward looking indicator for housing, especially when we are dealing with higher mortgage rates. What have we seen this year? After making some Covid-19 adjustments to the data line, we will have our first negative year over year since 2014, unless something changes on the mortgage rate side. However, I would label this a mild decline so far for now: Week to week -3% Year over Year -14% 4 Week MA YoY -9.75% In the last four weeks, the week-to-week data has had two positive and two mild negative prints. So not much action there, but the year over year 4-week moving average trend has been lower for sure. The last time we had 5% mortgage rates was in 2018. We only have three very mild negative year-over-year prints for all the hype of housing crashing back then. 2014 was the last year we saw a noticeable weakness in purchase application data. The trend back then was 20% negative year over year data. When the application data gets weak or hot, it moves 20%-30% both ways. So, I would label this a mild decline in purchase application activity after making the Covid-19 adjustments. We have been mindful that the data we got with housing starts yesterday, and today’s existing home sales data is backward-looking. HW+ Member: Do you expect 20-30% declines this year? Logan Mohtashami: If rates stay above 5% with duration, we should have some prints this year at that level, but clearly, the trend hasn’t been that bad this year. HousingWire: How are existing home sales trends and inventory affecting the housing market right now? Logan Mohtashami: Existing home sales look about right to me this year; this was the pre 5% housing market. I was looking for sales to get 5,740,000 and have a few prints below that level to find our base sales. However, the 5%+ mortgage world means we have more downside activity than that. As we can see below, when rates go higher, it does impact sales trends. At the end of 2017, we went from a 5.72 million sales trend to 4.98 million in January of 2019. Rates went lower in 2019, and sales rebounded toward the end of the year. The main story of housing is that inventory got worse at the start of the year, and even this week, inventory levels are still showing negative year-over-year data. However, higher rates should create more days on the market, and we should be able to break the downtrend in negative year-over-year data we have seen this year. If that doesn’t happen with higher rates, we are in more trouble than I thought, and this inventory crisis has been my main reason for talking about unhealthy home price growth for some time now. However, traditionally higher rates do their thing, and we are working from shallow levels in 2022. Inventory is very seasonal. It rises in the spring and summer and fades in the fall and winter. So, it’s essential to track the year-over-year data. Even if we get some positive inventory prints on a year-over-year basis, all this means is that we are still working from all-time low levels, but just a tad higher. The goal I have had for some time is to get total inventory into a range between 1.52 million – and 1.93 million; this will make the housing much saner. Currently, based on the last NAR report, we are 950,000, so we got some work to do. HousingWire: How are mortgage rates looking in comparison to earlier this year? Logan Mohtashami: Mortgage rates, if you think about have made almost a 3% move higher from the recent lows of 2.50% that some people can get. 5.25% roughly right now; I know some can get higher or lower depending on the second pricing. However, this is the most positive housing story we have in 2022 because sub 4% mortgage and unemployment rates meant more unhealthy home price growth. Today the NAR reported 15% median sales price growth, not a good thing folks. Home sellers and builders had too much pricing power, and as a collective whole, they were and are pushing it to the limits to make as much money as possible. higher rates have always been the stabilizing factor in this equation, and now that they’re here, they need to stick. We have seen a reversal in bond yields right now; the 10-year yield got as high as 2.98% and currently is down to 2.82. For rates to stay at these levels, the economic data has to remain firm, not only here but worldwide. China is slowing down, and so is Europe. The U.S. economy has been solid, but we are starting to see cracks in the global inflation story. However, the Russian Invasion and the China lockdown is keeping some inflationary pressure that won’t be resolved until both those situations get closure. The concern I have is that if those inflationary pressures fade and the economic data gets weaker, rates and bond yields fall again and whatever inventory we did see an increase gets taken off the market. This is actually might biggest concern for housing, So I know where I am is different from other people. Have more questions for Logan? Share them in the comment section

[ad_1] An Extraordinary Heat Wave Exposes the Limits of Protecting People  The New York TimesView Full Coverage on Google News [ad_2]