Interest Rate Hike! Oh My!
Topics: Interest Rates, Apple, and MGM
Interest Rates
I could go on and on about the Federal Reserve, so let’s make this one short and sweet! At long last, the Federal Reserve is trying to move out of the low-interest-rate environment. This is the first interest rate hike in four years! With inflation running rampant, Jerome Powell wants to control it before it really starts to get out of hand. Consumers have already noticed significant price increases on all types of everyday products - like gas, bread, and meat.
Apple
I will take any opportunity I can to talk about Apple. Norway’s central bank sold 26.8 million shares in Apple and purchased 15.4 million shares in NVIDIA. The central bank decided to sell shares in Apple since they did not like the compensation package for Tim Cook. From this story, I learned that other central banks hold individual stocks. The Federal Reserve, the US central bank, holds mostly mortgage-backed securities, government securities, and loans. I found it crazy to think that the health of a country’s balance sheet could depend on the performance of big tech. Norway’s central bank also bought 2.6 million shares in Plug Power (*foreshadow to a future blog post*).
MGM
Jeff Bezos and James Bond walk into a bar… there is no punch line to this joke… my apologies. Amazon is purchasing MGM for $6.5 billion, which gives them the rights to franchises like James Bond, Rocky, and Legally Blonde. It will be interesting to see if the Federal Trade Commission ends up blocking this acquisition because of antitrust worries. European regulators already approved the purchase of MGM as they claim “the deal wouldn’t significantly reduce competition”. If everything works out, this will be Amazon’s second-biggest acquisition.
Lifestyle Column
The Ol’ Podcast Grind
One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year is to listen to more podcasts. Up to the beginning of March, I have FAILED big-time. However, I started listening to some podcasts while walking my dog (he is a beagle named Leo and he is literally awesome). Down below are two of my favorite podcast episodes that I listened to this week!
Brooke and Connor Make A Podcast (Topic: Pop Culture)
Wanted to find a new podcast that was not finance-related and this one does not miss the mark! The hosts are two people who became famous on Tik-Tok and discuss pop culture.
Credits to KP for recommending this one!
The Trillionaire Mindset (Topic: Finance)
The hosts talk to the Robinhood CEO, Vlad Tenev! I found this episode super interesting as you see the GameStop dilemma through the lens of Vlad.
Self-plug to my recent post about Robinhood!
A Broken Sports Fan…
I am a Washington Nationals and Green Bay Packers fan for a little background here. I have experienced two devastating moves during this past week: Freddie Freeman signing with the LA Dodgers and Davante Adams being traded to the Las Vegas Raiders. Freeman literally makes the Dodgers the most dangerous team in baseball and trading Adams broke up the powerful duo between him and Aaron Rodgers. gg, that is all I have to say.
Great read! Nice work!