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[ad_1] A customer enters Comerica Inc. Bank headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Cooper Neill | Bloomberg | Getty Images A trio of regional banks faces increasing pressure on returns and profitability that makes them potential targets for acquisition by a larger rival, according to KBW analysts. Banks with between $80 billion and $120 billion in assets are in a tough spot, says Christopher McGratty of KBW. That's because this group has the lowest structural returns among banks with at least $10 billion in assets, putting them in the position of needing to grow larger to help pay for coming regulations — or struggling for years. Of eight banks in that zone, Comerica , Zions and First Horizon might ultimately be acquired by more profitable competitors, McGratty said in a Nov. 19 research note. Zions and First Horizon declined comment. Comerica didn't immediately have a response to this article. While two others in the cohort, Western Alliance and Webster Financial , have "

[ad_1] David Solomon (centre), Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs during an event attended by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Business Roundtable during his visit to Washington DC in the US on June 8, 2023 in Washington, DC. Niall Carson | WPA Pool | Getty Images Goldman Sachs said Monday that it agreed to sell its personal financial management unit to a competitor named Creative Planning. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year and "result in a gain" for New York-based Goldman. The bank declined to disclose the sale price for its PFM business. Goldman acquired a team of about 220 financial advisors managing $25 billion in assets in May 2019, when it announced the $750 million acquisition of United Capital Financial Partners. At the time, CEO David Solomon heralded the deal as a way to broaden Goldman's reach beyond the ultra-rich clientele that is its main strength to those who are merely wealthy, with perhaps a few millio

[ad_1] There's Eli Lilly (LLY), and then there's everybody else. That's a simple way to describe the performance of the Club's health-care holdings so far this year, in what's been a challenging period for the industry overall. Of the 11 market sectors year to date, health care is the fourth worth-worst performer, falling 4%, followed by consumer staples (down 4.2%), real estate (down 5.8%) and utilities (down 10%). Our standout is unquestionably Eli Lilly, which has soared 50% in 2023 on the promise of its experimental weight-loss and Alzheimer's drugs, making it the most-valuable health-care company in the world. Lilly's run really started in last year's terrible market, soaring more than 30% compared to the S & P 500's nearly 19.5% plunge in 2022. That's a nearly two-year return of almost 100%. LLY XLV YTD mountain Eli Lilly's year-to-date stock performance compared with the XLV, a major ETF that tracks the health-care sector. Lil

[ad_1] Eli Lilly has had a great run, but UBS expects about 16% further upside in the coming months as a steady stream of positive news propels the stock higher and revenue growth accelerates. Calling it the "best fundamental story" among U.S. large caps, UBS analyst Colin Bristow on Friday lifted his price target to $612 from $526. The stock has already gained 47% year to date, mostly on the back of lofty expectations for weight-loss drug sales. LLY YTD mountain Eli Lilly shares are up about 47% year to date. Bristow said the valuation is warranted due to Eli Lilly's expected five-year top-line compound annual growth rate of 18%, which is an outlier in the sector. A stocked pipeline By the end of this year, U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals are expected for Mounjaro as an obesity treatment and for donanemab for Alzheimer's disease, Bristow said. While both of those drugs have received a lot of positive attention, Eli Lilly has other products in the pip

[ad_1] The Paramount logo is displayed at Columbia Square along Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, California on March 9, 2023. Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images Paramount Global shares jumped more than 5% on Friday after an investor known as Warren Buffett's favorite banker piled into the media company's controlling shareholder. National Amusements, Paramount's majority voting shareholder, announced Thursday afternoon that it has entered into an agreement for a $125 million preferred equity investment by BDT Capital Partners. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Paramount Some Buffett watchers noticed a curious connection with the news. BDT Capital's chairman and co-CEO is Byron Trott, who has long been known as Buffett's preferred and trusted banker. It was Trott who suggested that Buffett put a $5 billion lifeline in Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis. The connection didn't end there. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is actually Paramount's b

[ad_1] A worker cleans the exterior of a First Republic bank on April 26, 2023 in San Francisco, California.  Justin Sullivan | Getty Images Regulators took possession of First Republic on Monday, resulting in the third failure of an American bank since March, after a last-ditch effort to persuade rival lenders to keep the ailing bank afloat failed. JPMorgan Chase , already the largest U.S. bank by several measures, emerged as winner of the weekend auction for First Republic. It will get all of the ailing bank's deposits and a "substantial majority of assets," the New York-based bank said . JPMorgan is getting about $92 billion in deposits in the deal, which includes the $30 billion that it and other large banks put into First Republic last month. The bank is taking on $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities as well. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation agreed to share losses on mortgages and commercial loans that JPMorgan assumed in the transaction

[ad_1] The rise of new anti-obesity medications could result in less alcohol consumption, impacting Club name Constellation Brands (STZ). The risk already seems to be playing out in food stocks with exposure to snacks and junk food. However, if necessary, the Mexican beer powerhouse behind Corona, Modelo and Pacifico could take action to mitigate any demand pressures. The weight-loss benefits of diabetes drugs such Novo Nordisk 's (NOVO) Ozempic and Club holding Eli Lilly 's (LLY) Mounjaro may turn out to be a headwind to not only alcohol makers — but also soda, snack food and fast-food companies. Novo Nordisk has already gotten U.S. regulatory approval for the active ingredient in Ozempic, semaglutide, to be prescribed to combat obesity. For weight loss, it's marketed under the name Wegovy. The active ingredient in Mounjaro, tirzepatide, is expected to get anti-obesity approval as soon as later this year. STZ YTD mountain STZ year-to-date performance. We don't thi

[ad_1] Exchange-traded funds can still compete in today's "stock picker's" market, according to a top investor. "A lot of money is moving into active ETFs, because it provides the benefits that you have from active management [or] from stock picking … but also all the tax benefits and cost benefits that you have in an ETF," Avantis Investors Chief Investment Officer Eduardo Repetto told CNBC's " ETF Edge " last week. He predicts actively managed ETFs will continue to gain traction through the second half of the year. "We used to only have index ETFs," Repetto noted. However, he emphasized this has changed over the past three years as the number of actively managed ETFs has grown. Repetto's firm is behind the Avantis U.S. Equity ETF , an actively managed portfolio of U.S. stocks. Its website shows the fund's top holdings are Apple, Microsoft , Amazon , Meta Platforms and Alphabet . As of Friday, the ETF is up 12% this ye

[ad_1] A visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency, XRP. S3studio | Getty Images Ripple's XRP token surged on Thursday after a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that it's "not necessarily a security on its face." The price of XRP was last higher by 70% at about 80 cents a coin, according to Coin Metrics. The news gave hope to crypto investors, who breathed a sigh of relief that other altcoins may not be considered securities after all. Polygon's matic token gained 11%. Litecoin and the token tied to Solana jumped 8%, and Cardano's token advanced 7%. Bitcoin and ether got a boost too, of 3% and 7%, respectively. "The judgments today are a huge step forward for the industry," Chris Martin, head of research at Amberdata, told CNBC. "By judging that XRP is not a security we're starting to get clarity on what constitutes a security and what constitutes a commodity — the SEC will have to revise their tactics on

[ad_1] A visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency, XRP. S3studio | Getty Images Ripple's XRP token surged on Thursday after a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that it's "not necessarily a security on its face." The price of XRP was last higher by 70% at about 80 cents a coin, according to Coin Metrics. The news gave hope to crypto investors, who breathed a sigh of relief that other altcoins may not be considered securities after all. Polygon's matic token gained 11%. Litecoin and the token tied to Solana jumped 8%, and Cardano's token advanced 7%. Bitcoin and ether got a boost too, of 3% and 7%, respectively. "The judgments today are a huge step forward for the industry," Chris Martin, head of research at Amberdata, told CNBC. "By judging that XRP is not a security we're starting to get clarity on what constitutes a security and what constitutes a commodity — the SEC will have to revise their tactics on

[ad_1] Investors hoping to capture more upside from artificial intelligence could turn to a sector that's underperformed this year, and maybe not immediately associated with AI: Health care. A handful of large tech names surged in the first half thanks to a mania for all things tied to artificial intelligence. Apple, for example, last week closed with a $3 trillion market capitalization for the first time. Nvidia is up by nearly 200% in 2023. Going forward, some of those gains might spill over to health care, which has underperformed this year. The sector is the third weakest out of 11 in the S & P 500, down about 3% year to date. "A lot of people talk about AI-powered performance and how that's going to impact the tech sector. And I think that's well understood," said Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group. "But what a lot of people fail to appreciate is that artificial intelligence and quantum computing are actually going to have th