What we’re reading (2/19)
“Investors Brace For ‘Knee-Jerk Market Reaction’ To A Coming Supreme Court Tariff Decision” (Yahoo! Finance). “Researchers at JPMorgan offered a variety of scenarios Thursday for how things might play out: a victory for Trump that upholds his tariff regime, a defeat that strikes it down, or even a third outcome in which tariffs are struck down only after the midterms. Any of those could lead to an immediate swing in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) from down 1% to up 2%, depending on the specifics, the researchers wrote.”
“Why Risk-Loving Options Traders Are Flocking To Prediction Markets” (Wall Street Journal). “Key players in the options industry are looking to adapt to the wave of interest in prediction markets. Exchange operator Cboe Global Markets is looking into launching “all-or-nothing” options. Those could include binary contracts that allow investors to make simple yes or no wagers on future events, such as whether the S&P 500 will close below or above a certain level. Like prediction-markets contracts, they would either pay a set cash settlement, or nothing at all.”
“Blue Owl Limits Investor Withdrawals, Stirring Private Credit Concerns” (Bloomberg). “Blue Owl Capital Inc. shares tumbled after a decision to restrict withdrawals from one of its private credit funds raised fresh concern over the risks bubbling under the surface of the $1.8 trillion market. Shares of the alternative asset manager fell about 10% on Thursday to their lowest level in two and a half years.”
“Why Is The LDS Church Dumping Billions In Stocks?” (Salt Lake Tribune). “New filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate Ensign Peak Advisors — with a portfolio now worth just over $56 billion — sold nearly $5.6 billion in stocks and other equities in the final quarter of 2025, representing about 9% of its overall value. That unloading followed the quarter before in which the Salt Lake City-based investment-management arm of the global faith liquidated $2.1 billion of its holdings, for a total of $7.7 billion sold within six months.”
“Meta Cuts Stock Awards By 5% For Most Employees, FT Reports” (Yahoo! Finance). “Meta has slashed equity-based awards for the bulk of its employees for the second year in a row, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Last year, the company had cut the stock award by roughly 10%, which shocked some staff at the time, the FT report said. Meta last month laid off about 10% of employees within its Reality Labs group, which had about 15,000 workers, as the company redirects resources from some of its virtual reality products to wearables.”
