First Republic and Silicon Valley Banks are NOT Microsoft!

Posted on March 24, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Wall Street’s $30 billion infusion into First Republic Bank didn’t manage to calm investors’ jitters about how banks are holding up. The regional bank’s stock tanked again Friday, dragging most of the market down with it. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its credit rating on First Republic Bank to junk, citing a “deterioration in the bank’s financial profile.” First Republic’s debt rating was cut to B2 from Baa1, Moody’s said. Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings downgraded First Republic Bank’s debt earlier this week.

The downgrade reflects “the deterioration in the bank’s financial profile and the significant challenges First Republic Bank faces over the medium term in light of its increased reliance on short-term and higher cost wholesale funding due to deposit outflows,” Moody’s analysts said in a release.

And, SVB’s parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday, buying it time to pay off creditors and making it easier to sell off its assets (but the bank itself, currently in the hands of the FDIC, isn’t part of the filing). Meanwhile, President Biden called on Congress to make it easier to punish bank executives if their mismanagement causes a bank to collapse, including allowing regulators to claw back their pay.

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But Big Tech stocks got a boost from investors looking to park their cash in non-bank companies, pushing Microsoft to its best weeks in almost eight years.

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BIG TECH STOCKS: Down … Down … Down!

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Plunging tech stocks are dragging the markets down and snapping a brief winning streak. Up next for the economy: The third-quarter GDP report.

America’s internet giants are slumping hard in this era of higher interest rates, lower advertising budgets, and widespread economic uncertainty

For example, Meta recently became the latest Big Tech company to post rough financial results for the prior quarter. It recorded its second straight quarter of declining revenue and provided a gloomy outlook for Q4. Perhaps Meta shouldn’t even be considered “Big Tech” anymore. Since its share price peaked in September 2021, the company lost nearly two-thirds of its value…before diving another ~20% in after-hours trading yesterday.

What went wrong? Younger people are fleeing Facebook, and investors aren’t confident CEO Mark Zuckerberg can reinvent the company as a metaverse platform. “Meta has drifted into the land of excess—too many people, too many ideas, too little urgency,” a prominent shareholder wrote this week in a scathing letter. Meta’s metaverse unit, Reality Labs, has lost $9.4 billion so far this year.

While Meta may be the poster child for Big Tech’s struggles, it’s not the only company that needs a checkup

  • Google parent Alphabet posted its slowest revenue growth since 2013 (outside of one early pandemic quarter), and YouTube ad sales actually fell in Q3. It’s “a tough time in the ad market,” CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged. Alphabet shares had their worst day since March 2020.
  • And Microsoft also had its worst day since March 2020 after giving a disappointing forecast. Its push to dominate the metaverse is also faltering, per the WSJ.

Big view

Tech giants scored record profits during COVID, when interest rates were near zero, stimulus checks were flowing, and everyone was stuck inside with only the internet to entertain themselves. No anymore!

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