Wells Fargo Hasn’t Learned Its Lesson

Wells Fargo lost $5 billion to fines and legal settlements. Now, the company might be prepping to lose even more. 

In recent years, Wells Fargo committed unprecedented fraud through the creation of “fraudulent savings and checking accounts … without [customer] consent.” The fraud caused damage to Wells Fargo’s brand and buried the bank in civil and criminal suits.

That’s not much of a problem if you’ve got a lot of money, but regulators are supposedly unhappy with how slowly the company is compensating victims and righting its wrongs. 🙅

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned that new sanctions could be imposed on the company. These sanctions would apply to a completely new management team — the last team got the boot, after all. 

It’s unknown what sanctions might await the bank, but ‘regulators’ is always a scary word to investors. $WFC stock fell 5.4% today.

JetBlue Jumps As Icahn Accumulates

It’s been a rough few months for JetBlue shareholders after the airline’s merger with Spirit Airlines was blocked by U.S. regulators. However, the stock is popping after hours on news that a billionaire hedge fund manager is dumpster diving and sees value in the stock. 💸

Activist investor Carl Icahn reported a nearly 10% stake, which he’s accumulated on the belief that the stock is undervalued following its recent selloff. He’s already had discussions with the company regarding possibly attaining board representation.

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Apple Drains EV Resources For AI

After ten years of research and development, Tim Apple is finally pulling the plug on Apple’s electric vehicle (EV) project. Because as we all know, EVs have lost their luster and given way to the business world’s new savior…artificial intelligence (AI). 😇

Bloomberg broke the news today, saying the tech giant disclosed the strategy shift internally and surprised the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project. Executives told staffers the project would begin winding down and that many of the car team’s employees would be shifted to its artificial intelligence division, focused on generative AI. 

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Plug Power Is Charged Up

Plug Power hasn’t given investors much to be excited about over the last few years, but today’s news has people (and its stock price) charged up again. So let’s see what happened. 👇

The alternative-energy company, which provides hydrogen fuel cell technology, finalized a deal with the Department of Energy (DOE) for a $1.6 billion loan facility. This critical funding comes at a time when the company has faced immense liquidity issues, issuing a going-corn warning last quarter and disclosing a secondary share offering of up to $1 billion. 💸

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A Chip Off The Holiday News Flow

It’s a slow week in the market, but as usual, there’s some news out of the semiconductor space. Let’s take a look. 👀

First up is Israel granting Intel $3.2 billion to support the company’s biggest investment in the country. Intel will not only build a $25 billion factory that creates thousands of jobs but will also buy $16.6 billion in goods and services from Israeli suppliers over the next decade. It is anticipated that the plant will open in 2028 and operate through at least 2035. 🏭

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