Southwest Airlines reported a first-quarter profit of $116 million, due in part to federal support, and has begun recalling pilots in anticipation of a strengthening summer vacation season, CEO Gary Kelly said in a statement announcing the result. The airline expects to see positive cash flow by June, he noted. “I’m relieved, I’m enthused, I’m...
Tag: apr 27 2021
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SPACs DIVE INTO JUNK BOND MARKET
Having raised an estimated $100 billion this year, hundreds of special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are looking for places to put it. Many are discovering the junk bond market. A SPAC is a company that has no assets. It issues stock, then uses the proceed to buy a promising business. The SPAC merges with the business...
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INVESTORS SEE LOWER RISK IN LOW-RATED BONDS
The yield premium that investors demand to buy riskier bonds has dropped below 3 percent this month, its lowest level in 13 years, signaling investors’ growing confidence in a broad and strong economic recovery. The yield premium is the extra interest investors charge on a high-risk bond compared to that paid by U.S. Treasury securities....
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VENTURE CAPITAL CREATES NEW TECH BUBBLE
During 2021’s first quarter, technology start-ups garnered $69 billion from investors, 41 percent more than in the previous quarterly record set in the last three months of 2018, according to Pitchbook Data. The typical valuation for new ventures has more than tripled from last year’s, the research firm noted, with late-stage start-ups now averaging $1.6...
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INVESTORS BET BIG ON TIPS
During the seven days ending 21 April, investors put another $1.6 billion in funds buying U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), according to research firm EPFR. It was the 29th consecutive week of money flowing into TIPS, raising the total invested to $14.4 billion so far this year. TIPS has seen its longest run of investment...
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BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
GLOBAL BANK CONNECTED “TASK FORCE” RECOMMENDS OUTLAWING PRIVATE CRYPTO TRANSACTIONS. A global entity called the “Financial Action Task Force” (FATF) has come out with new draft guidance calling for crypto regulation that would further tighten recommended protocols requiring detailed reporting on transactions. According to theblockcrypto.com, previous guidance by the FATF in 2019 already obligates virtual...
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ARMY DEVELOPING WAR MACHINE “FLESH” ROBOTS
Speaking of Nextgov, a featured article on the site this past week detailed a “Franken-army” technology that would fuse bio-lab grown flesh with AI-driven robotics. Army Research Laboratory scientists are experimenting in using living muscle tissue to make otherwise relatively bulky androids more nimble and able to move like living creatures. “Biohybrid robotics” could eventually...
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NEXTGOV: WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT MATTERS
Ever wonder how the deep state and mega corporations coordinate on a practical level? Nextgov.com, though little known to most of the general public, is an important nexus point. The portal serves as a place where government agency bureaucrats can access tech advisories and white papers by leading tech corporations. The site is “sponsored” by...
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STUDY FINDS DOZENS OF NEW CHEMICAL POLLUTANTS IN HUMANS
A University of California at San Francisco study of pregnant women has found 55 chemicals in their bodies that have never before been reported in people and another 42 whose origin or purposes are unknown. The same chemicals were found in the women’s children after they were born. Using a mass spectrometer, the researchers found:...
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SOFTWARE DESIGNS BIGGER, BETTER DNA ROBOTS IN MINUTES
Robots made of DNA crawled off the pages of science fiction and into bioengineers’ labs in 2017. The idea is intriguing; little machines made of a few strands of human DNA can “walk around” in the person’s body, taking samples or delivering drugs without causing damage that a mechanical device might, and then harmlessly biodegrade...