Finance

Robinhood Legend includes advanced charting tools for users.
The brokerage firm also said it will soon add futures trading and index options to its mobile platform.
The new additions for Robinhood are another example of the firm looking to expand beyond its roots as a convenient platform for small-dollar traders.

In this photo illustration, the Robinhood Markets, Inc. logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.
Rafael Henrique | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Retail brokerage firm Robinhood is launching a new tool for more sophisticated traders as it looks for additional avenues for growth.
The firm introduced Robinhood Legend, a desktop-based platform for active traders. The offering includes advanced charting tools for users who want to do detailed analysis of stocks.

“In looking at the landscape of trading tools and by talking with active traders, we realized there is frustration with legacy offerings,” Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, said in a press release.
“Specifically, moving back and forth between apps or charting platforms can be cumbersome and time consuming. So we set out to reimagine what a modern, intuitively designed active trading platform should look like, and built Robinhood Legend from the ground up so traders can do what they need in one place,” Quirk said.
Beyond the launch of Legend, Robinhood also said it will soon add futures trading and index options to its mobile platform. Customers must be granted approval to trade futures contracts, according to the press release, and futures and index options will eventually be added to Legend as well.
The new additions for Robinhood are another example of the firm looking to expand beyond its roots as a convenient platform for small-dollar traders. The firm’s rise coincided with the “meme stock” phenomenon in early 2021 as retail trading boomed in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Robinhood shares, all-time

Since then, Robinhood has been steadily adding new offerings, including a credit card for Robinhood Gold subscribers and a digital wallet to hold cryptocurrencies.

“We’ve done very well on mobile historically among younger people and folks that primarily invest and trade on mobile. But about half of the market is on desktop web, where you have more real estate on the screen, you can do more sophisticated things like have charts and data in the same interface. And so we weren’t really a player in that space,” Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Robinhood said that it had $139.7 billion in assets under custody at the end of the second quarter, along with 11.8 million monthly active users. For the comparable quarter in 2021, near the height of the GameStop mania, Robinhood reported $102 billion in assets but 21.3 million monthly active users. The firm’s next earnings report is scheduled for Oct. 30.
Shares of Robinhood are up more than 100% so far this year.
The announcements on Thursday were part of HOOD Summit, a conference for Robinhood’s customers. More

For American policy wonks, the final stretch of the presidential election has given rise to a new parlour game. What is the next tax that Donald Trump will promise to cut? The Republican candidate has trotted out a range of pledges, from no taxes on overtime work to no taxes on retirement benefits. Last week alone he proposed three new exemptions, including making interest on car loans tax-deductible. It is easy to figure out what Mr Trump hopes to gain. Yet the economic implications are dispiriting: not just a bigger fiscal deficit but a much messier tax code. More

In a war with Israel, Iran would need money. Not just to buy weapons and keep its economy afloat, but to re-arm militias such as Hamas and Hizbullah. Many assume that, after years of sanctions, it would struggle. They are wrong. Every year Iran funnels tens of billions of dollars from illicit oil sales to bank accounts all over the world. This huge, secret treasure was used to fund Hamas’s attack on Israel a year ago, swarms of Russian drones in Ukraine and Iran’s own nuclear programme. It has already seeded many crises—and could soon fuel the mother of them all. More

The U.S. retirement system gets a C+ grade and ranks No. 29 out of 48 in the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index.
Retirement plan coverage and 401(k) “leakage” are among the two primary problem areas, experts said.
Policymakers have taken some steps to improve the system.

Mixetto | E+ | Getty Images

The U.S. retirement system doesn’t get high marks relative to other nations.
In fact, the U.S. got a C+ grade and ranked No. 29 out of 48 global pension systems in 2024, according to the annual Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index, released Tuesday. It analyzed both public and private sources of retirement funds, like Social Security and 401(k) plans.

A similar index compiled by Natixis Investment Management puts the U.S. at No. 22 out of 44 nations this year. Its position has declined from a decade ago, when it ranked No. 18.
“I think [a C+ grade] would describe a rating where there is a lot of room for improvement,” said Christine Mahoney, global retirement leader at Mercer, a consulting firm.
The Netherlands placed No. 1, followed by Iceland, Denmark and Israel, respectively, which all received “A” grades, according to Mercer. Singapore, Australia, Finland and Norway got a B+.
Fourteen nations — Chile, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Uruguay, New Zealand, Belgium, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, France, Germany, Croatia and Portugal — got a B.

Of course, retirement systems differ since they address a nation’s unique economies, social and cultural norms, politics and history, according to the Mercer report. However, there are certain traits that can generally determine how well older citizens fare financially, the report found.

The U.S. system is often referred to as a three-legged stool, consisting of Social Security, workplace retirement plans and individual savings.
The lackluster standing by the U.S. in the world is largely due to a sizable gap in the share of people who have access to a workplace retirement plan, and for the ample opportunities for “leakage” of savings from accounts before retirement, Mahoney said.
Employers aren’t required to offer a retirement plan like a pension or 401(k) plan to workers. About 72% of workers in the private sector had access to one in March 2024, and about half (53%) participated, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  
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“The people who have [a plan], it’s probably pretty good on average, but you have a lot of people who have nothing,” Mahoney said.
By contrast, some of the highest-ranked countries like the Netherlands “cover essentially all workers in the country,” said Graham Pearce, Mercer’s global defined benefit segment leader.
Additionally, top-rated nations generally have greater restrictions relative to the U.S. on how much cash citizens can withdraw before retirement, Pearce explained.
American workers can withdraw their 401(k) savings when they switch jobs, for example.
About 40% of workers who leave a job cash out “prematurely” each year, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. A separate academic study from 2022 examined more than 160,000 U.S. employees who left their jobs from 2014 to 2016, and found that about 41% cashed out at least some of their 401(k) — and 85% completely drained their balance.
Employers are also legally allowed to cash out small 401(k) balances and send workers a check.
While the U.S. might offer more flexibility to people who need to tap their funds in case of emergencies, for example, this so-called leakage also reduces the amount of savings they have available in old age, experts said.
“If you’re someone who moves through jobs, has low savings rates and leakage, it makes it difficult to build your own retirement nest egg,” said David Blanchett, head of retirement research at PGIM, Prudential’s investment management arm.

Social Security is considered a major income source for most older Americans, providing the majority of their retirement income for a significant portion of the population over 65 years old.
To that point, about nine out of 10 people aged 65 and older were receiving a Social Security benefit as of June 30, according to the Social Security Administration.
Social Security benefits are generally tied to a worker’s wage and work history, Blanchett said. For example, the amount is pegged to a worker’s 35-highest years of pay.
While benefits are progressive, meaning lower earners generally replace a bigger share of their pre-retirement paychecks than higher earners, Social Security’s minimum benefit is lesser than other nations, like those in Scandinavia, with public retirement programs, Blanchett said.
“It’s less of a safety net,” he said.
“There’s something to be said that, as a public pension benefit, increasing the minimum benefit for all retirees would strengthen the retirement resiliency for all Americans,” Blanchett said.
That said, policymakers are trying to resolve some of these issues.
For example, 17 states have established so-called auto-IRA programs in a bid to close the coverage gap, according to the Georgetown University Center for Retirement Initiatives.
These programs generally require employers who don’t offer a workplace retirement plan to automatically enroll workers into the state plan and facilitate payroll deduction.
A recent federal law known as Secure 2.0 also expanded aspects of the retirement system. For example, it made more part-time workers eligible to participate in a 401(k) and raised the dollar threshold for employers to cash out balances for departing workers. More

Morgan Stanley topped analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit as each of its three main divisions generated more revenue than expected.
The bank said profit rose 32% to $3.2 billion, or $1.88 per share, and revenue jumped 16% to $15.38 billion.

Morgan Stanley on Wednesday topped analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit as each of its three main divisions generated more revenue than expected.
Here’s what the company reported:

Earnings:$1.88 a share vs $1.58 LSEG estimate
Revenue: $15.38 billion vs. $14.41 billion estimate

The bank said profit rose 32% to $3.2 billion, or $1.88 per share, and revenue jumped 16% to $15.38 billion.
Morgan Stanley had several tail winds in its favor, starting with buoyant markets that helped its massive wealth management business, a rebound in investment banking after a dismal 2023, and strong trading activity. The Federal Reserve began taking down rates in the quarter, which should encourage more of the financing and merger activity that Wall Street firms capitalize on.
“The firm reported a strong third quarter in a constructive environment across our global footprint,” Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said in the release.
Shares of the bank advanced 3.6% in premarket trading.
The bank’s wealth management division saw revenue jump 14% from a year earlier to $7.27 billion, exceeding the StreetAccount estimate by nearly $400 million.

Equity trading revenue rose 21% to $3.05 billion, compared with the $2.77 billion estimate, while fixed income revenue edged 3% higher to $2 billion, also higher than the $1.85 billion estimate.
Investment banking revenue surged 56% from a year earlier to $1.46 billion, exceeding the $1.36 billion estimate.
Investment management, the firm’s smallest division, also exceeded expectations, posting a 9% increase in revenue to $1.46 billion, modestly higher than the $1.42 billion estimate.
Morgan Stanley’s Wall Street rivals also posted better-than-expected Wall Street revenue. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup topped estimates on strong revenue from trading and investment banking.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s international arm launched an updated version of its artificial intelligence-powered translation tool that, it says, is better than products offered by Google, DeepL and ChatGPT.
The product supports 15 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
“The idea is that we want this AI tool to help the bottom line of the merchants, because if the merchants are doing well, the platform will be doing well,” Kaifu Zhang, vice president of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group and head of the business’ artificial intelligence initiative, told CNBC.

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has invested heavily in its fast-growing international business as growth slows for its China-focused Taobao and Tmall business.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s international arm on Wednesday launched an updated version of its artificial intelligence-powered translation tool that, it says, is better than products offered by Google, DeepL and ChatGPT.
That’s based on an assessment of Alibaba International’s new model, Marco MT, by translation benchmark framework Flores, the Chinese company said.

Alibaba’s fast-growing international unit released the AI translation product as an update to one unveiled about a year ago, which it says already has 500,000 merchant users. Sellers based in one country can use the translation tool to create product pages in the language of the target market.
The new version is based only on large language models, allowing it to draw on contextual clues such as culture or industry-specific terms, Kaifu Zhang, vice president of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group and head of the business’ artificial intelligence initiative, told CNBC in an interview Tuesday.
“The idea is that we want this AI tool to help the bottom line of the merchants, because if the merchants are doing well, the platform will be doing well,” he said.
Large language models power artificial intelligence applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which can also translate text. The models, trained on massive amounts of data, can generate humanlike responses to user prompts.
Alibaba’s translation tool is based on its own model called Qwen. The product supports 15 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Zhang said he expects “substantial demand” for the tool from Europe and the Americas. He also expects emerging markets to be a significant area of use.
When users of Alibaba.com — a site for suppliers to sell to businesses — are categorized by country, developing countries account for about half of the top 20 active AI tool users, Zhang said.
Chinese companies have increasingly looked abroad for growth opportunities, especially e-commerce merchants. PDD Holdings’ Temu, fast fashion seller Shein and ByteDance’s TikTok are among the recent global market entrants. Many China-based merchants also sell on Amazon.com.

Contextual clues

Since Alibaba launched the first version of its AI translation tool last fall, the company said merchants have used it for more than 100 million product listings. Similar to other AI-based services, the basic pricing charges merchants by the amount of translated text.
Zhang declined to share how much the updated version would cost. He said it was included in some service bundles for merchants wanting simple exposure to overseas users.
His thinking is that contextual translation makes it much more likely that consumers decide to buy. He shared an example in which a colloquial Chinese description for a slipper would have turned off English-speaking consumers if it was only translated literally, without getting at the implied meaning.
“The updated translation engine is going to make Double 11 a better experience for consumers because of more authentic expression,” Zhang said, in reference to the Alibaba-led shopping festival that centers on Nov. 11 each year.
Alibaba’s international business includes platforms such as AliExpress and Lazada, which primarily targets Southeast Asia. The international unit reported sales growth of 32% to $4.03 billion in the quarter ended June from a year ago.
That’s in contrast to a 1% year-on-year drop in sales to $15.6 billion for Alibaba’s main Taobao and Tmall e-commerce business, which has focused on China.
The Taobao app is also popular with consumers in Singapore. In September, the app launched an AI-powered English version for users in the country.
Nomura analysts expect that Alibaba’s international revenue slowed slightly to 29% year-on-year growth in the quarter ended September, while operating losses narrowed, according to an Oct. 10 report. Alibaba has yet to announce when it will release quarterly earnings. More

It was with Teutonic understatement that Robert Habeck noted economic conditions were “not satisfactory”. Germany’s economy minister was speaking on October 9th, just after official forecasts for the year had been revised from growth of 0.3% to a contraction of 0.2%. This would follow a 0.3% decline in output last year, meaning that Germany faces its first two-year recession in more than two decades. More

Goldman Sachs topped estimates for third-quarter profit and revenue on strong results from its stock trading and investment banking operations.
Equities trading posted an 18% revenue increase to $3.5 billion, more than half a billion dollars higher than the $2.96 billion estimate from StreetAccount.
Investment banking revenue jumped 20% to $1.87 billion, on strength in debt and equity underwriting,

David Solomon, Chairman & CEO Goldman Sachs, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 17th, 2024.
Adam Galici | CNBC

Goldman Sachs topped estimates for third-quarter profit and revenue on strong results from its stock trading and investment banking operations.
Here’s what the company reported:

Earnings: $8.40 per share vs. $6.89 LSEG estimate
Revenue: $12.70 billion vs. $11.8 billion estimate

The bank said profit surged 45% from a year earlier to $2.99 billion, or $8.40 per share, as revenue climbed 7% to $12.7 billion.
Goldman shares rose 2.8% in premarket trading.
Over the past two years, the Federal Reserve’s tightening campaign has made for a less-than-ideal environment for investment banks like Goldman. Now that the Fed is easing its benchmark rate, Goldman is positioned to benefit as corporations that have waited on the sidelines to acquire competitors or raise funds begin to take action, and rising values bolsters its asset and wealth management business.
CEO David Solomon cited an “improving operating environment” as he touted his firm’s results on Tuesday.
Equities trading was the outlier this quarter, posting an 18% revenue increase to $3.5 billion, more than half a billion dollars higher than the $2.96 billion estimate from StreetAccount. The company cited strong results in both derivatives and cash trading.

Fixed income trading revenue slipped 12% from a year earlier to $2.96 billion, just above the $2.91 billion StreetAccount estimate, on a slowdown in interest rate products and commodities.
Investment banking revenue jumped 20% to $1.87 billion, topping the $1.62 billion estimate, on strength in debt and equity underwriting, and the bank said its backlog for pending deals increased from both a year earlier and the second quarter.
The firm’s asset and wealth management division also helped it top expectations; revenue there jumped 16% to $3.75 billion, exceeding the $3.58 billion estimate from StreetAccount on rising management fees and gains in investments.
Last week, rival JPMorgan Chase set expectations high with better-than-anticipated results from trading and investment banking, factors that helped the bank top earnings estimates.
Wells Fargo also exceeded estimates on Friday on the back of its investment banking division.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More