Author: BlackMask Financial

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Dow closes down 1,000 points as coronavirus fears slam Wall Street

All three major indices plummeted Monday as fears grew that the epidemic would begin to choke supply chains worldwide.

The challenge investors face is that no one knows how long this epidemic will last, or how dangerous it ultimately will be to populations. Wall Street was rocked in a volatile trading session on Monday that ended with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down 1,031 points — the worst day in two years for the blue-chip index, as fears increased over the global economic shock of coronavirus.

The market selloff came amid a significant uptick in reported cases of the disease in Europe, pushing investors to ditch stocks and buy up safe haven assets such as gold, which hit a seven-year high. While the virus has already stalled the travel industry, shuttered factories in several countries, and slammed luxury goods retailers, casino operators, and tech companies, Monday’s market reaction represented concern that stricter methods to control the spread of the virus would further throttle supply chains. The disease has already choked Chinese production, bringing the world’s second-largest economy to a standstill. After the outbreak spread to parts of northern Italy, there was concern that Milan, the country’s financial epicenter, could also be hard hit. The Borsa Italiana, Italy’s stock exchange, slid by 6 percent, its worst day in almost four years. Monday’s selloff came as South Korea raised the country’s coronavirus alert to its highest level and Italy saw 130 new cases of the disease. While the World Health Organization stopped short of calling the outbreak a pandemic, it did note on Monday that the virus has “unlimited potential.” Scientists say the new virus, dubbed COVID-19, is both more easily transmitted and less deadly than the SARS epidemic, but much still remains unknown. As a result, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said, “Markets are now slaves to the news flow.”

Investor reaction to the wider spread of coronavirus led to a volume of trading so heavy that some clients even had difficulty accessing their accounts, CNBC reported.

“Due to higher-than-usual volumes, some clients may have experienced delays in accessing some online features as the market opened but our systems are fine and up and running,” Schwab Public Relations told CNBC. Fidelity, the largest online broker, said, “Some clients are experiencing technical issues and we are working as quickly as possible to resolve.” The rate at which the virus was spreading in China appears to be slowing. An announcement of 409 new cases Monday was the fifth day in a row that the number of new daily cases had fallen below 1,000. Outside of China, though, a spate of outbreaks presented fresh cause for concern. “The spike in infections in South Korea, mostly concentrated in the congregation of a single church, a surge in cases in Italy, and news of an outbreak in Iran, where the health care system is of uncertain quality and the government is secretive, has triggered fears that China’s aggressive quarantining efforts won’t keep the virus from spreading globally,” Shepherdson wrote in a client note.  “Global growth is likely to be impacted in a meaningful way due to fears of the coronavirus,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for the Independent Advisor Alliance, said  The challenge investors face is that no one knows how long this epidemic will last, nor how dangerous it ultimately will be to populations. “Stock markets around the world are beginning to price in what bond markets have been telling us for weeks,” Zaccarelli said. “Bond yields have continued to move lower, despite the fact that stocks quickly shrugged off the coronavirus risks last month,” he said, adding that this indicated that the stock market’s initial resilience was unlikely to last. Nigel Green, CEO and founder of the deVere Group, predicted that markets could fall by as much as 10 percent — a possibility he said most investors are not yet pricing into valuations. “Many investors remain complacent about the far-reaching impact of coronavirus, which is continuing to spread — and a faster pace. This will inevitably hit financial markets,” he said. “In general terms, stocks have hardly been deterred by the coronavirus outbreak. This complacency is concerning.” Green added that the virus was emerging at a time when many key global economies were already vulnerable. “Coronavirus has struck at a time when major economies, including Japan, Germany, India and Hong Kong are facing a downturn due to other factors such as the U.S.-China trade dispute and political protesters, which could hit the world economy,” he said. “This threat to global growth is real and should not be ignored,” Zaccarelli said, but he added that — provided the United States stays out of recession — the virus impact will be unlikely to hurt the retirement goals of long-term investors. “We will move past this challenge, and the economic expansion will continue in 2020,” he said.

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Untill their is a Cure You need to use these medicines

Latest coronavirus drug research indicates that based on early results from clinical trials by Chinese researchers, Chloroquine Phosphate, an antimalarial drug, has a certain curative effects on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).


China National Center for Biotechnology Development deputy head Dr Sun Yanrong said that chloroquine, an anti-malarial medication, was selected after several screening rounds of thousands of existing drugs.

The drug is undergoing clinical trials in more than ten hospitals in Beijing, Guangdong province, and Hunan province. Dr Su said that chloroquine phosphate, which has been used for more than 70 years, was selected from based on earlier studies.
Considering that it is already an approved drug, it can easily be approved for repurposing to treat the coronavirus if further research trials show its efficacy without any side effects. Coronavirus infected patients treated with chloroquine demonstrated a better drop in fever, improvement of lung CT images, and required a shorter time to recover compared to parallel groups. The percentage of patients with negative viral nucleic acid tests after treatment was also higher with the anti-malarial drug. Chloroquine has so far showed no obvious serious adverse reactions in the more than 100 participants in the trials. Data from the drug’s studies showed ‘certain curative effect’ with ‘fairly good efficacy’. The China National Center for Biotechnology Development head Dr Zhang Xinmin said that chloroquine is one of the three drugs that have a promising profile against the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease. The remaining two drugs are anti-flu medicine favipiravir  and Gilead’s investigational anti-viral candidate remdesivir. Favipiravir is currently in a 70-patient trial in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, while remdesivir is under evaluation at more than ten medical institutions in Wuhan. The Chinese medical experts have “unanimously” suggested that the drug chloroquine be included in the next version of the treatment guidelines and applied in wider clinical trials as soon as possible. Past research involving vitro experiments showed that it can block virus infections by changing the acidity and basicity value inside the cell and interfering receptors of the SARS coronavirus. The drug also demonstrates immune-modulating activity, which may enhance its antiviral effect in vivo and is widely distributed in the whole body, including the lungs, after oral administration. However many medical researchers, pharmaceutical experts and virologist are warning that while vaccine and drug research is being conducted, careful attention should be paid to watch for coronavirus evolution  in patients for the emergence of novel mutations, as certain mutations could render all efforts futile.
 Nick Note: Sources on the ground tell me these medicines are GREATLY improving PATIENT outcomes….. These medicines are regarded as safe and are in wide distribution. So go see your medical professional and get a prescription. I have taken all these medicines and Tami flue for years. they are antivirals and they work for me. I REPEAT WELL PLACED SOURCES SAY THEY ARE HELPING…… NOT NOT CURING. BUT UNTIL THEIR IS A CURE YOU HAVE THESE ANTIVIRALS…….

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U.S. stock futures CRASH on growing concern of CORONAVIRUS economic impact

Dow futures drop about 700 points

U.S. stock market futures sank Monday as the spread of coronavirus raised worries that global economic growth could take a hit. Authorities in northern Italy canceled some public events, including Venice’s Carnival, in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus. Italian officials said Sunday they have 152 confirmed cases, the most in any country outside Asia. European stock markets fell sharply at the open, with the FTSE MIB Italy index I945, -4.10%  slumping over 4%. South Korea reported 70 more cases and Iran said the death toll from the city of Qom is 50.

On Saturday, the International Monetary Fund warned the virus outbreak could reduce global economic growth by 0.1% this year, and drag China’s annual growth 0.4 percentage points lower than January estimates.

“The world economy is facing a clear slowdown and this slowdown might be reinforced by the so-called coronavirus,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said at a G-20 finance meeting in Saudi Arabia, according to the Associated Press. But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Sunday that it was still too early to tell how the outbreak will affect the global economy. “I think we’re going to need another three or four weeks to see how the virus reacts, until we really have good statistical data,” he told CNBC.

Still, the global spread of the virus in patients with no links to China suggests “things are about to get extremely problematic, and market conditions could get exponentially worse this week,” Stephen Innes, chief market strategist with AxiTrader, wrote in a note Sunday.

More than 760 people in South Korea have been infected, with most of the diagnoses coming in the past few days. Under the new alert level, the government has the authority to order schools to be closed, stop public transportation and to cut off flights to and from South Korea. China’s President Xi Jinping on Sunday noted the outbreak news was “grim,” but said measures must be taken to get China’s economy going again, including reopening factories in low-risk areas. Experts forecast as much as a 1% reduction in China’s economic output this quarter due to strict quarantines that shuttered businesses and factories. Nick Note: Remember me? i am the guy as those assholes on Wall Street rallied the market told you to sell the shit out of it. Now they are having their ZEN moment and the stock market is crashing. Like i kep telling you make sure the expert you hire is truly a expert and can see the future….
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Goldman Sachs warns of stock market correction

London Goldman Sachs is worried that leaves investors vulnerable to surprises. The investment bank told clients this week that a near-term correction, in which the market slides at least 10% from a recent peak, “is looking much more probable.” The thinking: Equity markets look “increasingly exposed” to disappointing earnings growth due to the new coronavirus outbreak, Goldman warns.The number of companies that have lowered their guidance on profits for the first quarter is still in line with past years. But Apple’s surprise update this week that it wouldn’t hit its revenue target has put investors on edge. Goldman Sachs (GS) notes that the global economy is expected to keep growing, and the United States is, too, despite the country already having experienced its longest economic expansion in 150 years. That creates a supportive environment for stocks. But the bank is concerned that earnings expectations could still be too rosy, especially given the exposure of global companies to the Chinese economy. Apple (AAPL), it observes, has been “an important driver” of better-than-expected earnings results. Big Tech companies — Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple, Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) — beat earnings expectations by 20% on average last quarter, compared with 4% for the average S&P 500 company. “Any weakness to these and other companies would likely push earnings estimates lower,” wrote Peter Oppenheimer, the firm’s chief global equity strategist. Additionally, depressed bond yields have made stocks look more attractive by comparison. Oppenheimer points to Germany’s DAX, which has also hit an all-time high as the yield on the country’s benchmark 10-year bond remains in negative territory. That raises the stakes for corporate earnings as well, he argues. Nick note: Your damn right a ha a ha “correction” is comming …………. Try wipeout.

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Coronavirus Tests Are Not Accurate

New cases of the novel coronavirus continue to increase worldwide and a Global Pandemic is near according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That includes 72,528 cases in China and 804 cases in 25 countries outside of China.

Some have questioned the accuracy of the statistics released by the Chinese government regarding the reported number of cases and deaths due to the outbreak. Now there are concerns about the accuracy of the laboratory tests used to confirm diagnoses. Reports suggest some people test negative up to six times even though they are infected with the virus, according to the BBC and Chinese media. Such was the case with Dr. Li Wenliang, the ophthalmologist who first identified the outbreak and was reprimanded by Chinese authorities when he tried to warn others. Dr. Wenliang developed a cough and fever after unknowingly treating an infected patient. He was hospitalized, testing negative for coronavirus several times before eventually receiving a positive result. On Jan. 30 the doctor posted: “Today nucleic acid testing came back with a positive result, the dust has settled, finally diagnosed,” according to the BBC. Dr. Wenliang passed away on February 7 in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

False-negative test results, where patients are told they do not have a condition when they actually do, cause several problems. Patients may be turned away from hospitals and medical facilities when they require care. They may infect others at home, work, school, or in the community. Patients’ conditions may also worsen without treatment.

When faced with a highly infectious, potentially deadly pathogen, even a small number of false negatives can have a potentially serious and widespread impact on the larger population Doctors use a laboratory test called RT-PCR to diagnose severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 illness. RT-PCR detects and amplifies genetic material of interest. MedicineNet author Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD notes that “RT-PCR has been used to measure viral load with HIV and may also be used with other RNA viruses such as measles and mumps.” However, RT-PCR tests for the novel coronavirus are not perfect and not always accurate. A recent study in the journal Radiology examined medical records from 167 patients with COVID-19 from Hunan province in China. Researchers found that five patients out of 167 — 3% of the study group — who had chest CT scan features suggestive of COVID-19 initially tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection by RT-PCR. The patients were isolated and all eventually were confirmed through repeated swab tests to have the infection False negatives comprised just 3% of the patient population in this study. However, failure to detect a small number of cases of the potentially deadly viral infection may have wide-ranging effects for patients and others who may become infected. The study authors note that RT-PCR tests may produce false negatives due to laboratory error or insufficient amount of viral material collected from the patient. Samples that are stored or handled improperly also result in false negatives. Tests may result in false negatives if the patient is tested too early in the course of infection and there is insufficient amount of virus to be detected. Improper sampling may result in a false negative. Another potential problem with test kits: Faulty reagents. The CDC recently admitted test kits they distributed resulted in inconsistent results due to a problematic reagent required for the test. They are now manufacturing the reagents using stricter quality control measures. In the middle of cold and flu season, it is possible that some people who are being tested for coronavirus do not actually have the infection. Symptoms like cough and fever are nonspecific and may occur with many conditions other than COVID-19. In addition to the possibility of false negatives, authors of the Radiology study note that lab testing for SARS-CoV-2 is time-consuming and that test kits may be in short supply due to the rising number of infections. So, what’s the solution? Doctors in Hubei recently started diagnosing COVID-19 clinically based on patients’ symptoms and lung imaging. These cases are reflected in the global tally of infected individuals. Clinically-diagnosed cases account for the approximately 15,000 new cases reported by China last week.

 

Professor Hunter calls for consistency in case definitions. That is what is needed to get an accurate picture of the extent of the outbreak and the true number of those who have been infected or died. Accurate numbers also help determine the potential danger for the rest of the world. Insufficient test kits, inaccurate test kits, changing definitions of what constitutes a confirmed case of COVID-19, and overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of the illness make it difficult to determine the real number of those affected. Accurate diagnosis is necessary so that hospitals and resources are allocated to real cases.  COVID-19 causes flu-like symptoms that worsen to fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. “Complications may include high fever, severe cough, difficulty breathing, pneumonia, organ failure, and death,” he states. “People may prevent or lower the risk of this viral infection by good hygiene, avoiding contact with infected people, not going into an outbreak area, and by leaving an outbreak zone,” Dr. Davis concludes.

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Italy battles surging coronavirus outbreak as cases rise over 100

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy raced on Sunday to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, sealing off the worst affected towns and banning public gatherings in much of the north as the number of those infected jumped above 100. Authorities in the wealthy regions of Lombardy and Veneto, which are the focal point of the flare-up, ordered schools and universities to close for at least a week, shut museums and cinemas and called off the last two days of the Venice Carnival. “As of this evening, there will be a ban on the Venice Carnival as well as on all events, including sporting ones, until March 1 inclusive,” the regional governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, told reporters. He said Sunday’s festivities in the packed lagoon city would continue to prevent any public order problems. The number of certified cases of the illness in Lombardy rose to 90 from 54 a day earlier, while in Veneto some 25 people had come down with the virus, including two people in Venice. Health officials reported isolated cases in the neighbouring regions of Piedmont and Emilia Romagna, saying the total number of known infections in Italy had risen to above 130. Two elderly people have died in the past 48 hours from the illness. The regional governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, said he had dealt with numerous natural disasters during his long career, including floods and earthquakes. “But this is the absolutely worst problem that Veneto has faced,” he told reporters. Almost a dozen towns in Lombardy and Veneto with a combined population of some 50,000 have effectively been placed under quarantine, with locals urged to stay home and special permission needed to enter or leave the designated areas.

Lombardy is home to Italy’s financial capital Milan, and together with Veneto the two regions account for 30% of national gross domestic output. Any prolonged disruption there is likely to have a serious impact on the whole economy, which is already flirting with recession.

Fashion designer Giorgio Armani has said his fashion show scheduled to take place in Milan on Sunday would go ahead, but without any press or buyers present to prevent contagion, while four Serie A soccer matches were postponed across the north. Health authorities are struggling to work out how the outbreak started. The first cases were announced only on Friday and doctors do not know the source of the illness. Initial suspicion in Lombardy fell on a businessman recently returned from China, the epicentre of the new virus, but he has tested negative. In Veneto, doctors tested a group of eight Chinese visitors who had been to the town that was home to the first fatality, but again, they all tested negative. “We are (now) even more worried because if we cannot find ‘patient zero’ then it means the virus is even more ubiquitous than we thought,” Zaia said. Prior to Friday, Italy had reported just three cases of the virus – all of them people who had recently arrived from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged last year. After the first confirmed cases, Italy suspended all direct flights to and from China, but did not keep tabs on those arriving from second countries. Italy’s far-right opposition League party has demanded that the government reintroduce border controls to try to prevent new arrivals, but Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has rejected this. Austria’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Sunday that officials would meet on Monday to discuss whether Austria should unilaterally re-establish border controls with Italy. Nick Note: Yes at times i see the future. It was WELL documented my family was due to be in the Lombardi region AND AND AND would have stayed in the exact town that is in lock down… And attending a event at the school that is now closed.As you know i called everyone back to base and cancelled the trip at a loss of tickets and hotels weeks ago as i predicted this very event!  I am telling you this is a pandemic and you can wipe your ass with any and all screening…… and yes yes HELL YES the stock market is due for a epic crash.

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Recommendations to students, faculty and staff on Novel Coronavirus

Borcunni University is monitoring the situation relating to the new Coronavirus (Covid-19) with the utmost attention and follows the indications of the proper local and national authorities.

For this reason, on the basis of the provisions issued by CRUI Lombardia on Saturday 22 February, teaching activities (lessons, graduation exams and meetings with teachers) will be suspended on the Bocconi Campus, along with all conferences and events scheduled starting from Monday 24 February until Saturday 29 February.

For precautionary reasons, the library and study rooms will also be closed. The operations of the University offices will continue as usual and administrative services that do not involve public contact will be provided, until further notice. Every decision has been and will always be taken in agreement with civil and health authorities. We also ask all those who have been in the towns at risk or have had contact with people residing in those areas, to remain in quarantine for 14 days from the last contact with people from those areas. We will take care to constantly follow the evolution of the situation and provide our community with all the necessary updates and information.

Statement from the Conference of Rectors of Universities in Lombardy

The evolution of the situation relating to the spread of Coronavirus requires the adoption of precautionary measures to protect public health and the peaceful functioning of the institutional activities of all universities in Lombardy, given the natural mobility of the many students, both Lombard and non, within the regional territory.
To this end,  from Monday 24 February to Saturday 29 February, educational activities will be suspended (lessons, exams and degrees). We believe that, in the absence of further indications from the Authorities, all activities will be able to resume on Monday 2 March. Graduation sessions and exams will be postponed according to calendars that will be prepared by the individual universities. Our action has been taken, and will continue, in close contact with the civil and health authorities. We will inform students, staff and citizens about any useful updates immediately. Nick Note: You might remember 2 weeks ago i recalled my kids to base who were studying in London and Italy. They had also arranged a trip to a open house at the school this past Friday. That Included their Mother Aunt and cousins.  They were to meet with another cousin who is a chancellor at the school of economics. And were to be in the quarantined towns in Northern Italy this week. . I cancelled the whole thing when i saw the future.  I had purchased tickets, hotels and as soon as that inner voice told me this would happened i cancelled the whole shooting match. DAD your overeating.. I told them see that visa card, cars, tuition it can all go bye bye. But Dad EVERYONE SAYS IT WILL BE FINE. I told them FUCK the idiots… i know what i know. Today at the breakfast table as i showed them the satellite feeds of the shut down and quarantines and spreading infections and the deaths…. Well let me put it this way even Phoenix did not make a sound. Now i am telling you this is a global pandemic. And i could give a rats ass if wall street wants to blow a ocean up your ass… the market will wipe out and people will die.

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CDC is preparing for the ‘likely’ spread of coronavirus in the US, officials say

https://youtu.be/HPy1CadwCrE

Health experts sounded the alarm Friday over the worldwide threat of the coronavirus, with officials warning of its “likely” community spread in the United States and the World Health Organization cautioning that “the window of opportunity is narrowing” for containing the outbreak worldwide. The COVID-19 coronavirus, which erupted in China in December, has killed at least 2,360 people and sickened at least 77,900 worldwide, the majority of cases in mainland China.  Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters Friday that U.S. health officials are preparing for the coronavirus to become a pandemic.

“We’re not seeing community spread here in the United States, yet, but it’s very possible, even likely, that it may eventually happen,” she said. “Our goal continues to be slowing the introduction of the virus into the U.S. This buys us more time to prepare communities for more cases and possibly sustained spread.”

She said the CDC is working with state and local health departments “to ready our public health workforce to respond to local cases.” These measures include collaboration with supply chain partners, hospitals, pharmacies and manufacturers to determine what medical supplies are needed. She said the “day may come” here where we have to shut down schools and businesses like China has done.  Meanwhile in Geneva, the director-general of the World Health Organization, alarmed by the recent spread of the coronavirus from Iran, warned Friday that while the chance to contain the virus globally still exists, “the window of opportunity is narrowing.”

“We still have a chance to contain it, but we have to prepare for other eventualities,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “This could go in many directions, it could be even messy.

It is in our hands now … we can reverse or avert serious crisis. If we don’t, if we squander this opportunity, then there could be a serious problem on our hands.”  Among other measures, Tedros called for financial aid to help countries fighting the virus to buy critical medical equipment and to strengthen their health systems. The world community, he said, has a “fighting chance” to contain the spread of the virus, but we “must not look back and regret that we failed to take advantage of the window of opportunity that we have now.” Tedros, speaking to reporters in Geneva, said the new cases in Iran show how the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, is now moving not only to second countries, but to third countries in a lengthening chain of transmission. “The cases that we see in the rest of the world, although the numbers are small, but not linked to Wuhan or China, it’s very worrisome,” Tedros said. “These dots are actually very concerning.”

The Global Health Security Index, which was issued last year, found that only 13 of nearly 200 countries score in the top tier, suggesting that most of the world would struggle to deal with a major outbreak of a deadly infectious disease such as Ebola. 

The index is a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, with research by The Economist Intelligence Unit. The CDC reported that at least 35 people in the United States are infected with the virus. Of those, 14 were travelers who fell ill after returning from a trip abroad, while 21 were were people “repatriated” by the State Department. Messonnier, of the CDC, said more infections are expected from among passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and are in quarantine.  She said they are “they are considered at high risk for infection” because they may have come in contact with infected persons on the ship. Nick Note: here is a news flash. They are at the very least under reporting the dangers of what is looking more and more like a pandemic. No its not because of panic. Its all about the money. they want you to spend til you start coughing blood…… And they want the masses to stay in the stock market and their funds… GOT IT?

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Wells Fargo to pay $3 billion to U.S., admits pressuring workers in fake-accounts scandal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) has agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve criminal and civil probes into fraudulent sales practices and has admitted to pressuring employees in a fake-accounts scandal, U.S. officials said on Friday, wrapping up one of the last major investigations looming over the bank. Wells Fargo will pay the penalties to the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission and enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement during which the San Francisco-based bank will continue to cooperate with any ongoing government investigations, Justice Department officials said.

As part of the deal, Wells Fargo admitted that between 2002 and 2016 it pressured employees to meet “unrealistic sales goals that led thousands of employees to provide millions of accounts or products to customers under false pretenses or without consent, often by creating false records or misusing customers’ identities,” the department said in a statement.

 

In a statement, Charles Scharf, Wells Fargo’s new chief executive, described the past conduct as “reprehensible.” Wells Fargo is the fourth-largest U.S. lender. “This case illustrates a complete failure of leadership at multiple levels within the bank. Simply put, Wells Fargo traded its hard-earned reputation for short-term profits, and harmed untold numbers of customers along the way,” Nick Hanna, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement.

Top managers within Wells Fargo’s Community Bank division were aware of the “unlawful and unethical” practices as early as 2002, and many of the practices were referred to as “gaming” within the bank, the Justice Department said.

The agreement resolves the civil and criminal liability regarding Wells Fargo’s fake-accounts scandal. About $500 million of the penalties will go to the SEC to be distributed to investors to settle charges that the bank committed fraud by misleading investors about its sales practices, an SEC official said on a call with reporters about the resolutions settlement. Settling the multi-agency investigation marked an important milestone for Scharf, who joined the company from BNY Mellon in September shortly after the third anniversary of the scandal. “We are committing all necessary resources to ensure that nothing like this happens again, while also driving Wells Fargo forward,” Scharf said. Nick Note: You have no justice in America…… the bankers and brokers are playing you for a chump. No one goes to jail. Well’s Far Goes your money still has a banking license… this is a outrage. If it was not a well connected trillion dollar bank all of them would be in Cell Block C with big Bubba on perpetual honey moon. Hear my words when they go broke stupid people still doing bossiness with them will regret the day they did not close out their accounts and burn down the stage coach

FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

‘GHOST IN A MACHINE’

Watchdog group Public Citizen criticized the deal, saying it does not go far enough.

“Any resolution for Wells Fargo’s massive, management-directed misconduct must hold individuals to account. We know many of the crimes, and we know that real executives, not some ghost in a machine, committed them,” said Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate with the Washington-based group.

FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo bank sign is pictured in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

The deal does not preclude civil or criminal charges against individuals, Justice Department officials told reporters.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election, wrote on Twitter, “This is a small step in the right direction, but it’s not a substitute for holding senior executives individually accountable – and bringing criminal charges against them if the evidence justifies it.”

The probe examined activities in Wells Fargo’s community bank unit, with Justice Department citing pressure coming from the division’s leadership.

In a rare move last month, a U.S. bank regulator charged several former Wells Fargo executives for their roles in the scandal. That included a settlement with former CEO John Stumpf and civil charges against Carrie Tolstedt, former head of the community bank unit.

“Ms. Tolstedt acted appropriately and in good faith at all times, and the effort to scapegoat her is both unfair and unfounded,” her lawyer Enu Mainigi said on Friday.

The Justice Department inquiry was seen by analysts and investors as a key hurdle the bank had to clear before it could focus on its growth strategy, which includes convincing the Federal Reserve to remove an unprecedented growth restriction placed on Wells Fargo’s balance sheet until it proves it has fixed its risk management and controls.

Wells Fargo had already paid out more than $4 billion in fines and penalties related to the scandal since 2016. Internal and external probes have uncovered issues in each of Wells Fargo’s major business lines, including wealth management and the commercial bank.

The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold three hearings on Wells Fargo’s conduct next month.

Over the past three years, Wells Fargo has taken various steps to fix its issues and rebuild trust with customers, investors and regulators. They include changes to its board, centralizing risk teams and hiring an external chief executive. However, ongoing reputation issues and unresolved legal matters have weighed on the bank’s stock price and profitability, which have lagged peers since 2016.

Reporting by Chris Prentice and Pete Schroeder in Washington and Imani Moise and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Will Dunham

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Samsung to disinfect plant after coronavirus case

A smartphone plant in the South Korean city of Gumi is temporarily closed so it can be disinfected after one employee tested positive for coronavirus, Samsung Electronics Co. confirmed on Saturday. The plant is scheduled to be reopened on Monday.Employees who have been in contact with their colleague in question have voluntarily quarantined themselves, Samsung claimed, adding that the production of smartphones is not likely to be affected. So far, two people in South Korea have died due to the virus, and 433 infections have been confirmed, although the latter figure could be higher.  Nick Note: This is the worst nightmare for Wall Street that is not Not NOT priced in.  I  see  major supply supply chain disruptions coming. AND IF IF IF i am right it will hit Wall Street like a bullet to the brain……….