What we’re reading (9/28)
“The Mysterious Ad Slump Of 2022” (Vox). “Not every truism is true, but there’s one for the ad industry that is pretty truthy: When the economy goes south, the ad market is the first thing to go. The idea behind this one is pretty straightforward. If a company needs to cut costs, it’s much easier to get rid of ad budgets than anything else, like workers. So people in media have been trained to expect ad dollars to disappear in the wake of economic shocks.”
“10-Year Yield Drops The Most Since 2020 After Touching 4%” (CNBC). “The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield dropped the most since 2020 on Wednesday, despite briefly topping 4% earlier in the session, after the Bank of England announced a bond-buying plan to stabilize the British pound. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 25 basis points or the most it’s declined since 2020. It yielded 3.705%.”
“Global Bonds Rally After 10-Year Treasury Yield Touches 4%” (Wall Street Journal). “A wild run for global government bonds took an unexpected turn on Wednesday after the Bank of England stepped in to stop a rout in the U.K. gilts market, spurring a furious rally on both sides of the Atlantic. The sharp move added to a stretch of highly volatile trading sessions and came just after the 10-year U.S. Treasury note had climbed above 4% for the first time in more than a decade—a significant milestone that was quickly swept away by the day’s events.”
“‘Act of Sabotage’ Hits Europe’s Energy And Stocks Markets” (DealBook). “There is still no official explanation for what caused the explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, sending natural gas gurgling to the surface of the Baltic Sea. But that hasn’t stopped some E.U. officials from calling the episode an “act of sabotage,” with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland publicly blaming Russia. Then last night, the pipelines’ operator, Gazprom, threatened to shut down the only pipeline that’s still pumping Russian gas to Western Europe.”
“Make Sure To Delete That Incriminating Message About Deleting Potentially Incriminating Messages, Too” (Dealbreaker). “There are non-nefarious reasons bankers and the like might choose to use a messaging service such as WhatsApp or Signal (well, probably not Signal) on a personal device. Specifically, they’re a lot quicker, more convenient and interactive than the sort of modes of communication officially sanctioned by their employers, and those employers’ regulators, such as e-mail. Of course, there are also nefarious reasons, specifically that no one is looking at what you’re saying or doing on those devices. Allow one Bank of America trader explain: ‘We use WhatsApp all the time but we delete convos regularly.’”
