Evelyn Reynolds
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BlackRock is opening a Saudi investment firm with initial $5 billion from PIF
Asset manager BlackRock will launch an investment platform in Riyadh with the help of a $5 billion anchor investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.
The new platform will be called BlackRock Riyadh Investment Management, or BRIM.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in a statement that the kingdom “has become an increasingly attractive destination for international investment as Vision 2030 comes to life.”The BlackRock logo is displayed at the company’s headquarters in New York City on Nov. 14, 2022.
Leonardo Munoz | Getty ImagesAsset manager BlackRock will launch an investment platform in Riyadh with the help of a $5 billion anchor investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.
The announcement Tuesday followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between BlackRock’s Saudi division and the PIF with the aim of spurring capital markets growth in the oil-rich Gulf country.BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $10 trillion in assets under management, will “launch investment strategies across asset classes for the Saudi market, including both public and private markets, managed by a Riyadh-based investment team,” a joint press release from the firm and the PIF read.
The new platform will be called BlackRock Riyadh Investment Management, or BRIM.
BRIM aims to help bring foreign institutional investment into Saudi Arabia as well as develop the Saudi asset management industry, expand local capital markets and investor diversification, and support the development of the kingdom’s asset management talent, the release said.The initiative, as well as many others by the PIF, which oversees $925 billion in assets under management, contributes to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, a multitrillion-dollar project aiming to modernize the kingdom’s economy and diversify it away from oil. Central to that effort is bringing major international institutions, investment and foreign talent into Saudi Arabia itself.
The establishment of BRIM aims to foster “further growth in the Saudi capital market ecosystem and enable a growing international investment management sector based in Saudi Arabia,” the press statement said.Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said in the statement that the kingdom “has become an increasingly attractive destination for international investment as Vision 2030 comes to life.”
The asset managing giant has been doing work with Saudi Arabia for years, and in 2018 made clear it would not pull out despite major controversy over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
In another move increasing its ties to the kingdom, BlackRock in July 2023 gave Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser a seat on its board of directors. Aramco is the largest oil company in the world.
At the time, BlackRock said the move reflected the firm’s emphasis on the Middle East as part of its long-term strategy.
— CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report. More - in Economy
Job Openings and Hiring Are at a 3-Year Ebb
The red-hot labor market cooled somewhat in March, government data showed on Wednesday.Employers had 8.5 million unfilled job openings on the last day of March, the fewest since early 2021, according to data released by the Labor Department. They also filled the fewest jobs in nearly four years, suggesting that employers’ seemingly insatiable demand for workers might finally be abating.A slowing labor market would be welcome news for policymakers at the Federal Reserve, who are concluding a two-day meeting on Wednesday amid signs that inflation is proving difficult to stamp out. Fed officials have said they see falling job openings as a sign that supply and demand are coming into better balance.For workers, however, that rebalancing could mean a loss of the bargaining power that has brought them strong wage gains in recent years. The number of workers voluntarily quitting their jobs fell to 3.3 million, the lowest level in more than three years and a far cry from the more than four million a month who were leaving their jobs at the peak of the “great resignation” in 2022.“This continued moderation is largely positive for the market and the economy overall, and is mostly sustainable for the time being,” Nick Bunker, economic research director for the Indeed Hiring Lab, wrote in a note on Wednesday. But, he added, “if job openings continue to decline for much longer, hiring of unemployed workers will eventually retreat enough to drive unemployment up.”There is little sign of that so far, however. Despite high-profile job cuts at a few large companies, layoffs remain low overall, and fell in March. And while job openings have fallen, there are still about 1.3 available positions for every unemployed worker. Data released by the Labor Department on Tuesday showed that wage growth picked up in the first three months of the year, suggesting workers retain some leverage.The data released Wednesday came from the Labor Department’s monthly survey of job openings and labor turnover. Economists will get a more timely snapshot of the labor market on Friday, when the government releases its monthly jobs report.Forecasters expect that data to show that employers added about 240,000 jobs in April and that the unemployment rate remained below 4 percent for the 27th consecutive month. More
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Private payrolls increased by 192,000 in April, more than expected for resilient labor market
Private employers added 192,000 workers in April, better than the Dow Jones consensus outlook for 183,000 though a slight step down from the upwardly revised 208,000 in March, ADP reported.
The firm’s wage measure showed annual pay gains up 5% from a year ago, the smallest gain since August 2021.Private payrolls increased at a faster than expected pace in April, indicating there are still plenty of tailwinds for the U.S. labor market, according to ADP.
The payrolls processing firm reported Wednesday that companies added 192,000 workers for the month, better than the Dow Jones consensus outlook for 183,000 though a slight step down from the upwardly revised 208,000 in March.At the same time, the firm’s wage measure showed worker pay up 5% from a year ago, a multiyear low that provided some welcome news against multiple other signs showing inflation has proved more resilient than many economists and policymakers had expected.
“Hiring was broad-based in April,” ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said. “Only the information sector – telecommunications, media, and information technology – showed weakness, posting job losses and the smallest pace of pay gains since August 2021.”
Job gains were strongest in leisure and hospitality, which posted an increase of 56,000. Other industries showing gains included construction (35,000) and sectors covering trade, transportation and utilities as well as education and health services, both of which saw increases of 26,000.
Professional and business services contributed 22,000 to the total while financial activities added 16,000.
Companies with 500 or more workers showed the biggest gain in hiring with 98,000.The ADP release comes two days ahead of the more closely watched nonfarm payrolls report. In recent months, ADP has consistently undershot the Labor Department’s count, though the numbers were fairly close in March. The department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that private payrolls increased by 232,000 for the month versus ADP’s 208,000.
Friday’s report is expected to show growth of 204,000 in total nonfarm payrolls for April, down from March’s 303,000, according to the consensus Dow Jones estimate. More - in Economy
The Fed Tries to Steer Clear of Politics, but Election Year Is Making It Tough
Economists are wondering whether political developments could play into both the Fed’s near-term decisions and its long-term independence.Federal Reserve officials are fiercely protective of their separation from politics, but the presidential election is putting the institution on a crash course with partisan wrangling.Fed officials set policy independently of the White House, meaning that while presidents can push for lower interest rates, they cannot force central bankers to cut borrowing costs. Congress oversees the Fed, but it, too, lacks power to directly influence rate decisions.There’s a reason for that separation. Incumbent politicians generally want low interest rates, which help to stoke economic growth by making borrowing cheap. But the Fed uses higher interest rates to keep inflation slow and steady — and if politicians forced to keep rates low and goose the economy all the time, it could allow those price increases to rocket out of control.In light of the Fed’s independence, presidents have largely avoided talking about central bank policy at all ever since the early 1990s. Pressuring officials for lower rates was unlikely to help, administrations reasoned, and could actually backfire by prodding policymakers to keep rates higher for longer to prove that they were independent from the White House.But Donald J. Trump upended that norm when he was president. He called Fed officials “boneheads” and implied that Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, was an “enemy” of America for keeping rates too high. And he has already talked about the Fed in political terms as he campaigns as the presumptive Republican nominee, suggesting that cutting interest rates before November would be a ploy to help President Biden win a second term.Some of Mr. Trump’s allies outside his campaign have proposed that the Fed’s regulatory functions should be subject to White House review. Mr. Trump has also said that he intends to bring all “independent agencies” under White House control, although he and his campaign have not specifically addressed directing the Fed’s decisions on interest rates.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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What to Watch as the Fed Makes Its Interest Rate Decision
Policymakers are expected to leave borrowing costs unchanged, but investors are bracing for signals that rates will stay higher for longer.Federal Reserve officials will conclude their two-day policy meeting on Wednesday afternoon, and while central bankers are widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, there is an unusual degree of uncertainty about what exactly they will signal about the future.On the one hand, officials could stick with their recent script: Their next policy move is likely to be an interest rate reduction, but incoming inflation and growth data will determine how soon reductions can begin and how extensive they will be.But some economists are wondering if the central bank could pivot away from that message, opening the door to the possibility that its next rate move will be an increase rather than a cut. Inflation has proved alarmingly stubborn in recent months and the economy has retained substantial momentum, which could prod officials to question whether their current 5.33 percent rate setting is high enough to weigh on consumer and business borrowing and slow the economy. Policymakers believe that they need to use interest rates to tap the brakes on demand and bring inflation fully under control.The Fed will release its policy decision in a statement at 2 p.m. Eastern. But investors are likely to focus most intently on a news conference scheduled for 2:30 p.m. with Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair. Central bankers will not release quarterly economic projections at this gathering — the next set is scheduled for release after the Fed’s June 11-12 meeting.Here’s what to watch on Wednesday.The Key Question: How Hawkish?The key question going into this meeting is how much central bankers are likely to change their tone in response to stubborn inflation.After three full months of limited progress on lowering inflation, some economists see a small chance that the Fed could signal that it’s open to considering raising interest rates again — a message that Fed watchers would consider “hawkish.” But many think that the Fed will stick with its current message that rates are likely to simply remain set to the current relatively high rate for a longer period of time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Federal Money Is All Over Milwaukee. Biden Hopes Voters Will Notice.
White House officials have barnstormed Wisconsin to make the connection between big changes and their signature laws.Across Milwaukee, residents can see evidence of federal money from laws passed under the Biden administration, if they know where to look.It shows up in a growing array of solar panels near the airport. Ramshackle houses rehabilitated and sold to first-time buyers. The removal of lead paint and pipes. The demolition of a derelict mall. A crime lab and emergency management center. A clinic and food pantry for people with H.I.V. Funding to help dozens of nonprofits provide services like violence prevention efforts and after-school programs.But of the more than $1 billion for Milwaukee County in the American Rescue Plan Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act — legislation that President Biden counts among his greatest accomplishments — much is harder to see, like funds to prevent drastic cuts to public safety during the pandemic. Some money has yet to be spent, like $3.5 million to rebuild the penguin exhibit at the local zoo and $5.1 million to repair the roof of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.That presents both an opportunity and a challenge to Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign as it seeks to show Americans how federal investments have improved their lives. Doing so is difficult because the laws delegated many spending decisions to state and local officials, obscuring the money’s source.“The link between the resources themselves and anything that happens on the ground that’s visible to people is very opaque,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “You need to find some way to communicate this idea that there’s concrete progress within people’s communities that improves quality of life — and that there’s more coming.”Vivent Health, a newly constructed facility in Milwaukee that offers services to people with H.I.V.Sara Stathas for The New York TimesSolar panels installed atop the Milwaukee Central Library, which includes a green roof.Sara Stathas for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
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Here’s everything to expect when the Fed wraps up its meeting Wednesday
The Federal Reserve has been ensnared in a holding pattern that likely will be reflected when it closes its meeting Wednesday.
Markets are anticipating a near-zero chance that the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policy-setting arm, will announce any change to interest rates.
The only piece of news likely to come out of the meeting itself is an announcement that the Fed soon will reduce the level at which it is running down the bond holdings on its balance sheet.Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell prepares to testify before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on March, 7 2024.
Kent Nishimura | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesFaced with stubborn inflation that has raised concerns about where policy is headed, the Federal Reserve has been ensnared in a holding pattern that likely will be reflected when it closes its meeting Wednesday.
Markets are anticipating a near-zero chance that the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policy-setting arm, will announce any change to interest rates. That will keep the Fed’s key overnight borrowing rate in a range targeted between 5.25%-5.5% for what could be months — or even longer.Recent commentary from policymakers and on Wall Street indicates there’s not much else the committee can do at this point.
“Pretty much everybody on the FOMC is talking from the same script right now,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. “With maybe one or two exceptions, policymakers pretty universally agree that the last few months of inflation data are too warm to justify action in the near term. But they’re still hopeful that they will be in a position to cut rates later.”
The only piece of news likely to come out of the meeting itself is an announcement that the Fed soon will reduce the level at which it is running down the bond holdings on its balance sheet before bringing an end to a process known as “quantitative tightening” altogether.
Outside of that, the focus will be on rates and the central bank’s unwillingness to budge for now.Lack of confidence
Officials from Chair Jerome Powell on down through the regional Fed bank presidents have said they don’t expect to start cutting rates until they are more confident that inflation is headed in the right direction and back toward the 2% annual goal.
Powell surprised markets two weeks ago with tough talk on how committed he and his colleagues are to achieve that mandate.
“We’ve said at the FOMC that we’ll need greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably towards 2% before [it will be] appropriate to ease policy,” he said at a central bank conference. “The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence.”
Markets actually have held up pretty well since Powell made those comments on April 16, though stocks sold off Tuesday ahead of the meeting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had even gained 1% over that period with investors seemingly willing to live with the prospect of a higher-for-longer rate climate.But there’s always the specter that an unknown could come up.
That likely won’t happen during the business portion of the FOMC meeting, as most observers think the committee statement will show little or no change from March. Yet Powell has been known to surprise markets in the past, and his comments at the press conference will be scrutinized for just how hawkish of a view committee members hold.
“I doubt we’re going to get something that really surprises market pricing,” LeBas said. Powell’s comments “were pretty clear that we have not yet reached the threshold for significant further evidence of cooling inflation,” he said.
There’s been plenty of data lately to back up that position.
The personal consumption expenditures price index released last week showed inflation running at a 2.7% annual rate when including all items, or 2.8% for the all-important core measure that excludes food and energy. Fed officials prefer the Commerce Department index as a better inflation measure and focus more on core as a better indicator of long-term trends.
Additional evidence came Tuesday when the Labor Department said its employment cost index rose 1.2% in the first quarter, a 0.3 percentage point gain from the previous period and ahead of the Wall Street outlook for 1%.
None of those numbers are consistent with the Fed’s goal and likely will push Powell to exercise caution about where policy goes from here, with an emphasis on the fading outlook for rate cuts anytime soon.Down to one cut, hopes for more
Futures market pricing sees only about a 50% chance of a rate cut as early as September and is now anticipating just one quarter-percentage-point reduction by the end of 2024, according to the CME Group’s much-viewed FedWatch measure.
Some on Wall Street, though, are still hopeful that inflation data will show progress and allow the central bank to cut.
“While the recent upside inflation surprise has narrowed the path for the FOMC to cut this year, we expect upcoming inflation reports to be softer and still expect cuts in July and November, though even moderate upside surprises could delay cuts further,” Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle said in a note.
The Wall Street bank’s economists are preparing for the possibility that the Fed could be on hold for longer, particularly if inflation continues to surprise to the upside. In addition, they said the prospect of higher tariffs following the presidential election — favored by former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee — could be inflationary.
On top of that, Goldman is part of a growing chorus on the Street that thinks the Fed’s March projection for the long-run “neutral” interest rate — neither stimulative nor restrictive — is too low at 2.6%.
However, the firm also doesn’t see rate hikes coming.
“We continue to think that rate hikes are quite unlikely because there are no signs of genuine reheating at the moment, and the funds rate is already quite elevated,” Mericle said. “It would probably take either a serious global supply shock or very inflationary policy shocks for rate hikes to become realistic again.”Unwinding QT
One bit of news the Fed likely will make at the meeting would be an announcement regarding the balance sheet.
The central bank has been allowing up to $95 billion in maturing Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities to roll off each month, rather than reinvesting the proceeds. The operation has reduced the Fed’s total holdings by about $1.5 trillion.
Officials at their March 19-20 meeting discussed cutting the amount of runoff “by roughly half from the recent pace,” according to minutes from the session.
As it reduces the holdings, bank reserves parked at the Fed theoretically would decline as institutions put their money elsewhere. However, a dearth of Treasury bill issuance this year has caused the reserves level to rise by about $500 billion since the beginning of the year to $3.3 trillion as banks park their money with the Fed. If the reserves level doesn’t drop, it might push policymakers into carrying out QT for longer.Don’t miss these exclusives from CNBC PRO More
