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Key US bond yield hits highest level since June 2008, 19 states launch Wall Street probe on ESG investing, Musk vows to fire 75% of the Twitter workforce, Biden touts infrastructure investments and more financial news.
The 10-year treasury bond yield rose to 4.23% on Thursday, marking its highest level since June 2008. Most market experts predict yields will move higher in the short-term, based on expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point at both its November and December meetings, CNN reported. Mortgage rates, currently just below 7%, tend to move in coordination with the 10-year yield.
Nineteen Attorneys General from Republican-led states have launched an investigation into six of the country’s biggest banks, alleging their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices are hurting the American energy industry.
The Attorneys General requested documents from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley regarding their involvement with the United Nations Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), according to their statements on Wednesday, the New York Post reported.
According to the UN website, the NZBA is a group of banks “committed to aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050.”
“American banks should never put political agendas ahead of the secure retirement of their clients,” said Arizona AG Mark Brnovich in a statement.
“The last thing Americans need right now are corporate activists helping the left bankrupt our fossil fuel industry,” said Texas AG Ken Paxton, adding the practices by the banks potentially violate consumer protection laws.
Twitter employees posted their fears on Thursday night that they will be laid off after corporate documents emerged, obtained by the Washington Post, revealing Elon Musk told prospective investors in his $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant that he plans to get rid of 75 percent of its 7,500 workers, the Daily Mail reported.
If true, laying off three-quarters of the Twitter workforce would leave the company with a skeleton crew of just over 2,000 employees. Some speculate such a small workforce would make it difficult for Twitter to guard against misinformation.
However, Twitter spent $1.5 billion last year on personnel and wanted to reduce those costs by some $800 million.
“Since the merger agreement has been in place, there have been no plans for company-wide layoffs,” General Counsel Sean Edgett said, according to Bloomberg.
As the midterm boat looms, President Joe Biden is touting investments in infrastructure. On Thursday, Biden was in the battleground state of Pennsylvania speaking near a partially rebuilt bridge that collapsed in January, stating that US infrastructure is “finally” improving, Al Jazeera reported.
“Pennsylvania alone has already received $5.2bn just this year for hundreds of projects,” Biden said, “and I just announced another $2.5bn to fix and upgrade Pennsylvania’s roads and bridges. And there’ll be billions more for other projects.”
Last year, Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law, providing funding for roads, bridges, mass transit, and electric vehicles.
