Author: Press Room

In 2005 the head of the General Motors pension scheme hit out at the new fashion for “liability-driven investing”.Encouraged by the dotcom crash and new accounting and tax rules, pension schemes were overhauling their portfolios. No longer would they try to generate a decent return from shares. Instead, they would be laser-focused on matching investments with their obligations to future retirees, which implied buying mainly long-dated government securities. “I struggle to understand why locking in the lowest possible rate of return is a good idea,” GM’s Allen Reed told Institutional Investor. He liked stocks, hedge funds and private equity that…

During the 1998-99 National Basketball Association season, history was made. For the first time in the NBA, the regular season was shortened due to unforeseen disputes. The 1999 NBA Finals concluded the shortened season playoffs between the Western Conference champion, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Eastern Conference champion, the New York Knicks. The series was formatted in a 2-3-2 that resulted in the first two and last two games being hosted by the team with a home-court advantage. Eventually, the association reformed the Finals to a 2-2-1-1-1 game format. The Spurs held the home-court advantage as head coach Gregg Popovich led…

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Four astronauts boarded a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and returned home from the International Space Station on Friday, bringing an end to their nearly six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. The astronauts — NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins as well as Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the European Space Agency or ESA — shared goodbye hugs with other astronauts on the space station and strapped into their spacecraft around 10 a.m. ET. The Crew Dragon spacecraft left its docking port at…

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:Albertsons (ACI) – Albertsons lost 4.1% in the premarket after announcing a merger deal with supermarket rival Kroger (KR). Albertsons surged 11.5% Thursday after sources told CNBC the two sides were in talks to combine. Kroger shares slipped 3%.JPMorgan Chase (JPM) – JPMorgan Chase shares added 2.3% in the premarket after beating top and bottom line estimates for the third quarter. The bank’s results were boosted by higher net interest income, helping offset lower deal-making revenue and higher loan loss reserves.Wells Fargo (WFC) – Wells Fargo gained 1.6% in premarket trading following its…

Beyond Meat’s operating chief, Doug Ramsey, left the company Friday, weeks after he was arrested for allegedly biting a man’s nose following a college football game in Arkansas.The company had originally suspended Ramsey after the arrest became public last month. Beyond Meat revealed Ramsey’s exit in a securities filing Friday morning.In September, Ramsey was charged with making terroristic threats and third-degree battery after allegedly assaulting a driver in a parking garage near Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.Police said Ramsey punched through the back windshield of a Subaru after it hit the front tire of Ramsey’s car, according to a police report. Ramsey then allegedly…

Welcome to this week’s edition of the FT’s Cryptofinance newsletter. Today, we’re looking at crypto mixing services and rights enshrined in the US Constitution.The hallowed First Amendment probably wasn’t the territory the US Treasury had in mind when it imposed sanctions on crypto mixing service Tornado Cash this summer.In August the department had enough of Tornado, claiming it was used to launder more than $7bn and being a channel of choice for North Korea-backed hackers to evade sanctions. Mixers such as Tornado obscure the trail of transfers that would typically be publicly accessible on the digital ledgers that underlie cryptocurrencies.The…

Hearing is the last sense dying people lose, according to research. Scientists found that the brain continues to register the last sounds a person will ever hear even if their body becomes unresponsive Families of patients close to death are often told by doctors to talk to their relatives and whisper any words of comfort they may have. This is because research suggests that as people lay dying, their hearing is still functioning. It means that the brain continues to register the last sounds a person will ever hear, even if their body has become unresponsive. A study, published in…

In the wide-open field of videoconferencing tools spawned by the pandemic, the Poly Studio P5 professional webcam should be high on your list of candidates for home or office use. This USB 2.0 plug-and-play camera comes with an integrated type A cable, privacy shutter, and an adjustable monitor clamp that doubles as a desktop base. The removable upper lens barrel is tripod ready. Its cover hides a built-in USB-A port to connect a wireless adapter for a headset or other accessories. An impressive cylindrical design in the shape of an eye has a rotating band around the front edge to…

The Biden administration’s policy on the Middle East has fractured some of the United States’ most dependable partnerships in the region, causing typically friendly countries to build stronger relationships with China and Russia.”That countries that historically have been close partners of the United States are turning to Russia and China is a massive failure of American leadership,” Victoria Coates, a senior research fellow for international affairs and national security at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital. Coates’ comments come amid a chaotic time for U.S. relations in the Middle East, including a disastrous retreat of American forces from Afghanistan, an on-again,…

Caleb Plant proved he was on the precipice.  Now he begins his journey back, and ideally, beyond that mark.  The 30-year-old, after winning the IBF super middleweight title in 2019 and successfully defending it three times, went toe-to-toe with pound-for-pound great and all-time legend Canelo Alvarez last November for the division’s heralded undisputed title. He lost via an 11th-round knockout, finally succumbing to an onslaught of Alvarez right hands to his head to deliver his first-career defeat. But despite being behind on all three scorecards at the time of the KO, Plant largely stayed close with Alvarez, landing 101 punches…