Opening Bell: 3.3.25

Opening Bell: 3.3.25

Worries Mount That Trump Agenda Is Testing Economy’s Resilience [WSJ]
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of demand, declined 0.2% in January, the Commerce Department reported Friday, instead of rising as economists expected. It was the largest monthly drop in four years.
Meanwhile, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index posted its largest monthly decline in February since 2021, and consumer expectations of inflation have risen…. The S&P 500, which rose more than 6% between Election Day and Feb. 19, has since fallen 3.1%….
“We’re all sitting here trying to filter through the noise to the economic reality,” said KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk. “But the noise itself has its own economic consequences.”

Trump Faces Blowback Over Plans for Crypto Reserve [DealBook]
Proponents say a reserve would help taxpayers benefit from crypto’s price growth. It’s still not clear how such a reserve would work or when it would be introduced, though a Republican-authored bill in the Senate would direct the government to buy one million Bitcoins — worth about $92.6 billion at today’s prices — over five years…. Some Republicans raised questions about spending taxpayer money on risky assets instead of paying down the national debt. Joe Lonsdale, a friend of Elon Musk’s, wrote on X: “It’s wrong to steal my money for grift on the left; it’s also wrong to tax me for crypto bro schemes.”

Ray Dalio: Debt crisis could cause ‘economic heart attack’ for US economy in the next 3 years [Yahoo! Finance]
Dalio, who founded hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, suggested reducing the deficit to 3% of GDP through a mix of tax adjustments and spending cuts.
“If you don’t do that, then you own it, OK? You have to take responsibility for the consequences,” he said.

Peter Thiel-backed fintech Ramp nearly doubles valuation to $13bn [FT]
The five-year-old company hit the new valuation as part of a share sale in which investors including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, US private equity group Stripes and venture capitalists including Josh Kushner’s Thrive, Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst bought $150mn worth of stock from employees and early investors.
New York-based Ramp, which manages expenses, corporate cards and accounting automation for businesses, was last valued at $7.65bn in April last year.

His Hedge Fund Imploded in Spectacular Fashion. His New One Has $12 Billion. [WSJ]
[Nick] Maounis’s comeback is a testament to an enduring phenomenon. Wall Street traders regularly get second or third chances, even after enormous and embarrassing losses. Those who blow up in spectacular fashion often attract the most cash for their next endeavors, a true head-scratcher…. “Verition’s performance has been great, they have differentiated strategies, and some investors feel it makes sense to give money to someone who has learned an important lesson,” says Clinton Huff, a senior investment officer at Texas Tech University System, a Verition investor. “Fortunately, we weren’t investors in Amaranth, though.”

Widow shunned by JPMorgan over husband’s $53K pension gets surprise check — from good Samaritans [N.Y. Post]
Elaine Silverberg, 73, has been embroiled in a 13-year feud to recoup the money from the nation’s largest lender, which refused making the payout because of a clerical error by her late husband…. “I couldn’t believe for such an amount of money that they wouldn’t want to do the right thing. There is no doubt that her husband would have wanted that money to go to her and his kids,” [health insurance broker Bill] Rice said.
“I imagine that for Jamie Dimon, this is like a nickel falling out of his pocket. I would like to believe that he just doesn’t know (about this).”

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