Weekend Money Markets Roundup February 03, 2024

[Update: Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault keep taking turns as the world’s richest person]

The ever-changing winds of fortune atop the world’s ranking of billionaires are no longer blowing in Elon Musk’s favor: He’s been overtaken once again by LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault as the world’s richest man. Though Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index still has Musk at No. 1, followed by quickly gaining Jeff Bezos, the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List says the transition has already taken place. - Melvin Backman Read More

You hear that, ghost of Dwight D. Eisenhower? The US isn’t the only country with a military-industrial complex. The International Monetary Fund’s latest world economic outlook jacks up the agency’s forecast for Russian GDP growth in 2024 to 2.6%, from the 1.1% it was seeing back in October. That boost comes on the back of all the money Russia is blowing on guns and missiles and the like to help it invade Ukraine. - Melvin Backman Read More

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens 17 to 10 on Sunday night, which means not only is the NFL team heading to the Super Bowl, but so is Taylor Swift. - Bruce Gil Read More

Elon Musk was dealt a major financial blow on Tuesday when a Delaware state court judge voided his $56 billion executive compensation package from Tesla. - Bruce Gil Read More

The last time the Federal Reserve cut interest rates was in March 2020, right before the global economy was turned upside down by a pandemic. Since then, the Fed has been hiking the federal funds rate—or the rate at which the Fed lends to banks—to tame high inflation and to loosen the labor market. The central bank started raising interest rates in 2022 as inflation spiked, lifting the federal funds rate from nearly 0 to 5.5%—the highest it’s been in more than two decades. - Michelle Cheng Read More

The bloc of non-G7 nations known as the BRICS now has a total investable wealth of $45 trillion, and its population of millionaires will skyrocket in the coming years. This alliance’s economic power has been bolstered by the addition of new oil-rich members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). - Bruce Gil Read More

Soaring demand for blockbuster weight loss drugs could result in two pharmaceutical companies becoming the first health care companies to reach a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. - Bruce Gil Read More

The Great Resignation came, and now it appears to have gone. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday (Jan. 30) that 3.4 million people quit their jobs in December, way down from the 4.5 million who did so back in April 2022. The so-called “quits rate,” or the number of people quitting their jobs as a percentage of overall employment, fell to 2.2%. - Melvin Backman Read More

Jay Hatfield of Infrastructure Capital Advisors tells Quartz why he thinks there are opportunities for profit in investment banks and small caps and more

Three-and-a-half years after sweeping, Beijing-imposed national security legislation took effect in Hong Kong, remaking the city in the authoritarian mold of its sovereign mainland master, the local government on Tuesday unveiled details for a new security law. - Mary Hui Read More