Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours. Sign up here to get the best of Business Insider delivered direct to your inbox.
Investors are doubling down on a trade that blew up in their faces earlier this year - here's what Morgan Stanley says they should do instead
Traders refuse to throw in the towel on the controversial short-volatility trade that's come under pressure multiple times this year.
The Bank of England is sounding the alarm on a quiet corner of the debt market now worth $1.4 trillion
The Bank of England on Wednesday raised the alarm about the growth of so-called leveraged loans in the UK, saying that the sector's rapid growth should be a cause for concern for policymakers and market participants going forward.
In the bank's record of the October meeting of its Financial Policy Committee- the body tasked with ensuring financial stability in the UK - the BoE mentioned leveraged lending almost 20 times, variously calling it "concerning" and likening it to what happened in the USA with sub prime mortgages in the run up to the financial crisis.
At their most basic level, leveraged loans are loans extended to people and companies with either pre-existing high levels of debt, or a poor credit rating. These loans, therefore tend to have higher interest rates meaning that rewards for lenders are higher, while the risk of default is also higher due to the nature of the customers.
Leveraged lending to corporates has ballooned in recent years, with the global market reaching a value of around $1.4 trillion, according to recent estimates. In the UK alone, £68 billion ($90 billion) of these loans have been issued in the last two years, the Bank of England said on Thursday. This represents around 20% of total UK corporate debt, when also including high yield bonds.
Pfizer to cut around 2 percent of jobs through early next year
U.S. drugmaker Pfizer plans to reduce its global headcount by around 2 percent through voluntary retirements and layoffs this year and early next year, as it looks to streamline its corporate structure and eliminate some managerial roles and responsibilities.
Pfizer has around 90,000 employees worldwide.
The move follows the announcement earlier this month that Chief Operating Officer Albert Bourla would succeed Ian Read as chief executive in January. The company also added new responsibilities for many of its top managers and hired a new chief digital officer.
Powerful Facebook investors just co-filed a proposal to take down Mark Zuckerberg as chairman
Four powerful institutional Facebook investors have co-filed a shareholder proposal to take down Mark Zuckerberg as chairman following what they say was his "mishandling" of several scandals this year.
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, Rhode Island State Treasurer Seth Magaziner, and Pennsylvania State Treasurer Joe Torsella are joining forces to pile the pressure on Zuckerberg.
They have put their names to a proposal, originally filed by the activist investor Trillium Asset Management, demanding that Facebook appoint an independent chairman. Business Insider first reported on the proposal in July.
In markets news
- GOLDMAN SACHS: Investors are making extraordinary bets that these 15 stocks will explode higher before the end of the year
- China's hidden $6 trillion debt pile is an 'iceberg' posing a 'titanic risk'