Author: fortraders

On Tuesday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced it will hold a two-day investigative hearing on June 22-23 to examine the February 3 Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The train was carrying hazardous chemicals, which spilled and caught fire.

The NTSB hearing will include four panels, and NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy hopes to issue a final report on the derailment by early 2024. The panels will cover emergency response, wayside defect detectors and hot bearings, the decision to vent and burn, and rail tank car safety.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and railroad union leaders issued a joint letter committing to work together to enhance rail safety. The NTSB and Federal Railroad Administration also announced special safety assessments of Norfolk.

The NTSB said another Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed near New Castle, Pennsylvania received a warning several miles before the incident. Homendy said Tuesday the Pennsylvania derailment appears to be related to an overheated wheel bearing. The NTSB said initial information indicated the train received an alarm from a wayside defect detector several miles before the train derailed.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) is facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Virgin Islands for providing banking services to the late Jeffrey Epstein from 1998 to 2013. The bank is now accusing the U.S. Virgin Islands of harboring and shielding Epstein as he abused young women and girls over two decades.

JPMorgan said Epstein had a “quid pro quo” relationship with the U.S. Virgin Islands’ highest-ranking officials, bestowing money and favors in exchange for millions of dollars of tax incentives and looking the other way at his crimes. The bank is now seeking to shift blame for failing to snuff out sex crimes committed by Epstein.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing to hold JPMorgan liable for providing banking services to Epstein. The territory is also trying to strike four JPMorgan defenses to the lawsuit that allegedly “threaten to expose” its relationship with Epstein.

Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB), where Epstein was a client from 2013 to 2018, last week settled a lawsuit by his accusers for $75 million. JPMorgan is separately suing Jes Staley, who once led its asset management business and had been friendly with Epstein, to have him cover its losses in the other two lawsuits. The three lawsuits are scheduled for an Oct. 23 trial.

Vedanta Group, the promoter of metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta Ltd, has signed a five-year loan for approximately $850 million with JPMorgan and Oaktree. The loan is part of the group’s efforts to tackle its debt burden, after its attempt to sell some zinc assets to Hindustan Zinc Ltd for $3 billion failed.

Vedanta recently reported an 8% decline in its fourth-quarter profit due to lower metal prices. JPMorgan and Oaktree declined to comment, while Vedanta did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

The loan is expected to help Vedanta Group manage its debt and provide it with the necessary funds to continue its operations. It remains to be seen how the loan will affect the company’s financial performance in the long run.

Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) has begun its planned crackdown on password sharing in the United States. The streaming giant is alerting users that their accounts cannot be shared for free with people outside of their households. Customers who have been sharing passwords will be emailed and given the option to add an extra member outside their homes for $8 per month. They can also transfer a person’s profile so the user can keep their viewing history and recommendations. People within the same household can continue sharing the same Netflix account and can use it on various devices when traveling. The company announced last year that it was going to limit password sharing and had already tested various approaches in some markets.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ committee on China has called on the U.S. Commerce Department to add Chinese memory chip maker Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) to a trade blacklist. This follows Beijing’s ban on the sale of some chips by U.S.-based Micron Technology Inc.

Representative Mike Gallagher said the U.S. must make it clear to the People’s Republic of China that it will not tolerate economic coercion against its companies or its allies. He also urged the Commerce Department to ensure no U.S. technology goes to CXMT, YMTC, or other PRC firms operating in this industry.

Gallagher also warned that no U.S.-export licenses granted to foreign semiconductor memory firms operating in China should be used to backfill Micron, and urged South Korea to take similar action to prevent backfilling.

The restrictions imposed by China’s cyberspace regulator against Micron are the latest in a widening trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies. It is essential that the U.S. takes a firm stance against such economic coercion and sends a clear message to China.

Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup, has raised $450 million from investors including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Spark Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to nearly $1 billion, valuing it at nearly $5 billion. Foundation models are the next wave in AI, trained on a vast quantity of data that can be used for different tasks with minimal fine-tuning. Zoom Video Communications Inc, Salesforce and Sound Ventures are among the investors in the round. Google, which is developing its own foundation model, returns after participating in Anthropic’s last round. Yasmin Razavi, a general partner at Spark Capital, has joined Anthropic’s board of directors.