Saviors. Enemies. Pornstars ✨

🌞 We made it to Friday folks. As the person refreshing government banking regulator homepages on your behalf, I'm eager for markets to close today.

That said, Monday has a high probability of being a wild day whether you're an investor or not.

Down the rabbit hole we go 🐰🕳️

BANKING CRISIS 🏧

US lenders readied $30 billion to rescue First Republic Bank. The safeguard stabilized the San Francisco-based bank’s crashing stock. (Joint Statement from US banking regulators)

🧿 This is traditional banking's make or break moment re: consumer trust. The government response to this crisis has been swift and aggressive so a systematic failure is highly unlikely. However, consumer trust is eroding by the day and there are now plenty of places to move deposits to that did not exist back in 2008-2009 e.g. crypto, neobanks, securitized hard assets, P2P lending etc.

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JPMorgan knows who should be Credit Suisse’s savior, and the European Central Bank brushed off banking fears (QZ)

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The top six US banks lost $165B of market value this month (shrinking by 13%) (FT)

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US bank deposits are rapidly moving to money market funds (RT)

🧿 The demand for yield products like money market funds and Treasury bonds has been staggering this year as interest rates have gone up. This puts pressure on the banking system as well.

TRENDS ✨

Premium gasoline is going up as US and European refiners scramble to get enough octane to make high-quality fuel. (BBG)

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Rent's going up: Inflation in the US cooled slightly YoY but shelter prices buoyed high costs for urban consumers (BLS.gov)

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Canadian PE firm agrees to buy Pornhub-owner MindGeek for an undisclosed sum (FT)

🧿 Sites like Pornhub consistently top web-traffic charts and as a category they practically own website traffic.

BIG PICTURE 🌎

New Zealand and the UK banned TikTok from government phones. Both countries said the decision was based on the advice of government cybersecurity experts.

🧿 This is interesting because New Zealand left the US-led Five-Eyes intelligence network a few years ago. Something is afoot with TikTok vs goverment agencies around the world 👀

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Nasdaq will de-list Russia's Yandex and Ozon (RT)

🧿 The economic warfare continues. Yandex, Russias social super-app and ecommerce giant Ozon have been removed from US stock exchanges as the war in Ukraine rages without signs of resolution near.

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Xi Jinping will travel to Russia next week for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine. It’ll be his maiden overseas trip since winning a third term this month. (BBG)

DIGITAL ASSETS ⚡️

Rumor mill spins on FDIC asking Signature Bank to sell all crypto assets as condition to bailout. (Decrypt)

🧿 This backs up our loose theory that the Treasury and Federal Reserve are looking to monopolize or control stablecoins.

Chart(s) Du Jour 👨🏻‍🍳

Meme Digestif ☕️

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