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THE HEADLINES
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WHO RUN THE WORLD?
Stacey Cunningham is set to become the New York Stock Exchange’s first female leader in its 226-year history. About damn time.
Ms. Cunningham, the current NYSE COO, will assume her new position this Friday and become the exchange’s 67th president. With the changing of the guard, two of the world’s most-renowned stock exchanges will be led by women. Adena Friedman heads Nasdaq.
Cunningham’s story has ‘feel-good’ movie written all over it: working her way up from intern, to floor clerk, to COO … with a few stops in between.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Real recognize real: let’s not overlook Muriel Siebert, the first woman to buy a seat on the NYSE in 1967. She remained the only female on the exchange for the better part of a decade and dealt without a ladies’ room on the trading floor for almost 20 years … until she threatened to bring in a Porta-Potty.”
ALL TIME LOW(E’S)
J.C. Penney’s CEO, Marvin Ellison, is leaving the struggling retailer to take the helm at Lowe’s, a slightly-less-struggling retailer, as the latter tries to make up ground on Home Depot.
Ellison had been with Penney since 2014 and attempted to pivot the retailer from apparel to appliances. However, Macy’s less successful cousin recently missed same-store sales estimates and has closed 100 stores in the last year alone
Marv (cool if we call you that?) came up through the ranks at Home Depot before bringing his talents and affinity for dishwashers to J.C. Penney. Short of poaching Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor from Binford, Ellison appears to be a perfect fit for Lowe’s who has been seeking a replacement for its outgoing chief.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Did no one ask Ellison at his Lowe’s interview ‘so why are you looking to leave your current job?’ If they had, maybe they would have realized he threw napalm on the dumpster fire that is J.C. Penney.”
TOO SMALL TO CARE
Congress is rolling back some Dodd-Frank banking regulations put in place in response to the financial crisis. The House voted to roll back major directives, sending the bill to President Trump’s desk.
The reigns will be loosened on any establishment with less than $250B in assets. If you’re keeping score at home, that leaves just 10 banks in the US which will answer to the strict regulations put in place almost a decade ago.
For banks under the $250B threshold, there will be fewer regulations and less stress testing which Congress hopes will allow them to do what they do best: loan to sub-prime candidates. These banks will also be able to shed their “too big to fail” tag. Sorry, Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “We’re only a decade removed from one of the largest financial crisis’ in US history, but Dodd-Frank has already gone the way of Lehman Brother. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go get a few small business loans to get my dating app for the elderly off the ground.”
IN OTHER NEWS
- Univision will name Vincent Sadusky as CEO, replacing Randy Falco. After a scrapped IPO, Mr. Falco fell out of favor with the board and private equity owners. Surprise, surprise.
- Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge. Zuck put on a clinic in beating around the bush in front of the EU Parliament when pressed about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook’s privacy policies.
- Gary Tanner (no relation to Danny … clearly) an ex-Valeant exec was charged with accepting a $10M bribe for manipulation of a takeover. You may remember this story from Netflix’s “Dirty Money” series.
- Another day, another sh*tstorm for Tesla. Amid production delays, accidents, and its CEO dating Grimes, the EV manufacturer is facing backlash related to a Consumer Reports test which indicated the new Model 3 Sedans break slower than full-sized pickups.
- US indices were down yesterday:
- DOW: -0.72%
- S&P 500: -0.31%
- NASDAQ: -0.21%