Aurelia Butler

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    in Economy

    Clorox, reeling from cyberattack, expects quarterly loss

    “The company expects to experience ongoing, but lessening, operational impacts in the second quarter as it makes progress in returning to normalized operations,” it said in a statement. It is also assessing the impact the attack might have on its financial performance in fiscal 2024 “and beyond,” it said. The Oakland, California, firm is among several companies hit by cyberattacks since August, including gambling giants MGM Resorts (NYSE:MGM) International and Caesars (NASDAQ:CZR) Entertainment Ltd. Sources earlier told Reuters the MGM and Caesars attacks were by a group named Scattered Spider known to be skilled at using social engineering to lock up a victim’s system and hold stolen data for ransom. Bloomberg on Wednesday reported that the same group was linked to the Clorox (NYSE:CLX) breach, citing sources. It wasn’t clear if the hackers had demanded ransom or used social engineering.A Clorox spokesperson said the company had informed law enforcement about the attack but had no further comment. The FBI has said it is probing the MGM and Caesars incidents. It declined comment on Clorox. Clorox said in August that the incident had disrupted portions of the company’s IT infrastructure, forcing it to temporarily take certain systems offline and switch to processing orders manually. The company expects a loss per share of between 35 cents and 75 cents in the quarter ended on Sept. 30, and for net sales to fall by 23% to 28% from a year earlier. It had reported profit of 68 cents per share in the year-ago period. First-quarter gross margins, which Clorox had expected would increase, are now expected to fall, it said. The company’s shares fell 2% in extended trading after the outlook was released. “The impact from the cybersecurity attack more than offset the benefits of pricing, cost savings and supply chain optimization,” Clorox said. More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Central banks will face unfamiliar challenges to achieve CBDC inclusivity, study says

    By “identifying material barriers and describing the realities of inequity underlying the aggregate statistics that are commonly used” the authors of the paper identified three types of inclusion necessary for a universally accessible payment method: financial inclusion, digital inclusion and practical accessibility. Private financial institutions may not have an incentive to address the needs of those who are underserved. In this light, the authors said:Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More

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    in Economy

    Florida sues White House over funding tied to new state labor law

    (Reuters) – Florida sued the Biden administration on Wednesday, accusing it of threatening to withhold more than $800 million of funding for transportation infrastructure because of a new state law that some public sector unions have viewed as anti-labor.Signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on May 9, Senate Bill 256 prevents unions representing transportation workers, teachers and other public sector employees from having dues deducted from paychecks, and would instead have employees pay dues to their unions.Other provisions require employees who want union representation to sign authorization forms, and require unions seeking certification as bargaining agents to show that at least 60% of eligible employees are paying dues.Florida said the White House is conditioning transportation funding on the state’s agreement not to enforce provisions that the Secretary of Labor believes undermine collective bargaining.The state said it has “no intention of abolishing the collective bargaining rights of transportation workers,” but that the U.S. Department of Labor’s “ultimatum” should be declared unconstitutional.Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and their respective agencies are among the defendants.The Department of Transportation said it cannot discuss pending litigation. The Labor Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”Florida passed laws to protect workers from being strong-armed by unions,” Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement. “We’re pushing back against this overreach to protect our state’s autonomy and Florida workers.”The law exempts unions representing police officers, firefighters and corrections officers.It quickly spawned litigation, including a lawsuit filed by the Florida Education Association on the same day as DeSantis’ signing.DeSantis trails Donald Trump in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Biden is a Democrat.The case is Florida v Buttigieg et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 23-61890. More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Theft or mistakes? Bankman-Fried jurors hear competing explanations for FTX collapse

    NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers and federal prosecutors clashed on Wednesday in opening statements over whether the former billionaire’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapsed due to “massive” fraud by its founder or errors in business judgment.Bankman-Fried, 31, has pleaded not guilty to charges he used FTX customer money from the exchange’s 2019 launch until its November 2022 bankruptcy in order to prop up his hedge fund, Alameda Research, buy luxury real estate, and donate to U.S. political campaigns and candidates.The trial kicked off with jury selection on Tuesday, nearly a year after the collapse of FTX shocked financial markets and tarnished the budding entrepreneur and philanthropist’s reputation as an honest actor in a crypto sector prone to scams and purported get-rich-quick schemes.In his opening statement on Wednesday, defense lawyer Mark Cohen portrayed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics graduate as a “math nerd” who overlooked risk management in building FTX, but did not steal customer money.Cohen acknowledged that FTX lent money to Alameda, but said Bankman-Fried “reasonably believed” that those loans were permitted and backed up by collateral. He said some key aspects of FTX’s business, such as risk management, were “overlooked” as the startup grew rapidly.”Sam and his colleagues were building the plane as they were flying it,” Cohen said. “No one person – no one CEO, certainly not Sam, could be everywhere and do everything.”But prosecutor Thane Rehn said Bankman-Fried took more than $10 billion from unsuspecting FTX customers, and that he “doubled down” when Alameda’s risky investments in cryptocurrency began to lose money in May and June of last year.”All of it was built on lies,” Rehn said. “He was using his company, FTX, to commit fraud on a massive scale, and the money he was spending to build his empire – it was money he was stealing from FTX customers.”JURORS TO HEAR FROM INNER CIRCLEProsecutors are expected to call three former members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle – former Alameda chief executive Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang – to testify against him. All three have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.”They will give you an insider’s view of how the crimes occurred,” Rehn said in his opening statement, without naming the witnesses.Cohen suggested they may “spin” Bankman-Fried’s good-faith decisions that they agreed with at the time as deceitful in hindsight. He also said Bankman-Fried urged Ellison to hedge Alameda’s crypto bets, but that she did not.”Here in the real world, cooperation means testifying against Sam in a way that will help the government’s case,” Cohen said.Jurors are expected to hear from Wang by the end of the week, another prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, said in court.Earlier on Wednesday, a jury of 12 primary members and six alternates was selected from a pool of residents of Manhattan, the Bronx, and New York City’s northern suburbs. The group includes a retired investment banker, a school librarian and a train conductor.Bankman-Fried’s parents, Stanford Law School professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, were seen arriving at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday morning. They had not attended the trial’s first day.Once known for his casual attire and mop of unkempt curls, Bankman-Fried sported a trim haircut and wore a suit and tie in court on both Tuesday and Wednesday.He has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since Aug. 11, when U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan jailed him for likely tampering with witnesses, including by sharing Ellison’s private writings with a reporter. Bankman-Fried and Ellison were at times romantic partners. More

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    in Economy

    Marketmind: Bond beating takes a breather

    (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever, financial markets columnist.Asian markets are poised to rebound on Thursday following a relief bounce around the world on Wednesday, with currency traders also bracing for a batch of inflation reports from across the continent.Consumer price data from South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan should give their respective exchange rates a nudge on Thursday, while Australian trade figures and retail sales from Singapore are also on tap.Broadly speaking though, Asian market sentiment and direction will again be driven by global factors. Especially the U.S. government bond market.The biggest fall in the 10-year Treasury yield since Aug. 29 on Wednesday helped ease the stress that has built up in world markets recently – the dollar fell, Wall Street roared back, and oil prices tumbled.Oil’s slump is particularly noteworthy – crude fell 5.5% to a one-month low. That was its biggest fall in over a year and completely wipes out its year-on-year gains – oil is no longer inflationary.While the relief is no doubt welcome, investors know it may not last. Global currency volatility on Wednesday spiked to its highest since May, a day after U.S. Treasury market volatility also jumped to a five-month high.And although U.S. yields fell across the board, yield curve steepening continued as the 30-year yield pierced 5.00%. This rapid unwinding of curve flattening trades is likely to be hurting many speculators and leveraged funds.The so-called ‘term premium’ – the compensation investors demand for taking on greater risk by holding long-dated bonds – continues to rise.Japanese assets, meanwhile, will also be sensitive to possible Bank of Japan activity in the domestic government bond or currency markets on Thursday.The yen steadied on Wednesday but is still languishing near 150.00 per dollar, the break of which triggered waves of yen buying on Tuesday. Tokyo is not thought to have intervened, although that might be confirmed in Bank of Japan data on Thursday.An esoteric corner of Japanese markets – yen cross-currency basis – is at levels consistent with previous bouts of volatility. This is a broad measure of overseas demand for dollars and market stress, and the deeply negative ‘basis’ now is similar to late 2019, Japan’s FX intervention last year and the U.S. regional bank crisis this year.Japan’s Nikkei should rebound after slumping 2.3% on Tuesday, matching its biggest fall this year.But it will take more than one up day to reverse the momentum – the index is down 10 out of the last 12 trading sessions, squeezed by the highest 10-year domestic bond yield in a decade, and now also by the sudden burst of yen appreciation.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Thursday:- South Korea, Philippines, Thailand inflation (August)- India services PMI (September)- Australia trade balance (August) (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Josie Kao) More

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    in Economy

    Exxon 3Q profits to climb from last quarter on higher prices

    HOUSTON (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) said on Wednesday big increases in oil, gas and fuel prices would deliver a third-quarter operating profit between $8.3 billion and $11.4 billion, below the year ago’s record earnings but up from its second quarter. Exxon’s snapshot of operating profits, delivered in a securities filing after the market close, signals a good quarter for oil companies on high oil prices and strong demand for gasoline and diesel. The largest U.S. oil producer posted total profit in the same quarter a year ago of $19.7 billion and $7.9 billion in its second quarter this year. Analysts currently forecast a $9.22 billion, or $2.37 per share profit, for the latest quarter, according to financial firm LSEG. Exxon’s oil and gas production earnings were boosted by an about 30% increase in average crude oil prices during the period. The Brent global benchmark ended the quarter near $97 per barrel, up from $72 per barrel at the end of June, JPMorgan said in a note.The strong operating profits still fall shy of the same period a year ago, which saw ultra-high natural gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and record refining throughput on fuel demand. The securities filing put oil and gas operating profits at between $5.2 billion and $6.7 billion, compared to last year’s $12.4 billion in its third-quarter oil and gas business. Refining also slipped to less than half the year ago’s $5.8 billion operating profit. Exxon shares fell nearly 4% on Wednesday to $111.50 as oil prices tumbled on a global bond sell-off and rising interest rates. The company’s shares hit a record high of $120 last week. Full results are due to be released on Oct. 27. More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Cocoa broker testifies to Bitcoin holdings on FTX in Sam Bankman-Fried trial

    According to an Oct. 4 X (formerly Twitter) thread by Inner City Press, the Assistant United States Attorneys presented testimony from a London-based cocoa broker named Marc-Antoine Julliard who used FTX for crypto trading. Julliard spoke on learning about the crypto exchange from a friend, seeing advertisements for the firm by Gisele Bündchen, and using the FTX mobile app for trading cryptocurrencies including Dogecoin (DOGE). Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More