This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
What you need to know today
- Former President Donald Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme that directed hush money payments to two women before running for office in 2016. Read the indictment against him here, and the details of his payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
- Asia stocks are headed for a mixed open after Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 snapped a four-day winning streak on renewed recession fears. Job openings in the U.S. tumbled below 10 million in February for the first time in nearly two years, a sign the Federal Reserve's rate hikes may be dampening the once-hot labor market. Industrial stocks fell more than 2%, weighing down the S&P in Tuesday's session on Wall Street.
- JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders that the current banking crisis is not over, saying that "even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come." JPMorgan and other big banks stepped in to make $30 billion of deposits at First Republic, a regional lender that investors worried would follow the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
- Amazon laid off more than 100 employees in its video games division. Those cuts came after Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month that the company would lay off an additional 9,000 employees – on top of the previous job cuts, which totaled more than 18,000 people. The company has frozen hiring in its workforce and shut down some experimental projects, such as telehealth service and a sidewalk delivery robot.
- PRO As soft economic data rolls in, traders are preparing for a slowing economy by buying gold — and selling this industrial stock.
The bottom line
Good morning from Singapore. We're seeing more signs that the U.S. economy is indeed slowing down as a result of the Federal Reserve's nine consecutive rate hikes. The central bank targeted the red-hot labor market as it tries to bring down inflation, which peaked at a 41-year high in the middle of last year.
A shrinking number of job openings isn't the only indicator that slower growth is ahead. Fewer people are inclined to quit their jobs. People quit when they're confident about their ability to switch jobs – and that figure rose by only 146,000 to just over 4 million.
And we're seeing companies such as Virgin Orbit filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. after failing to secure a funding lifeline, with the firm laying off nearly all of its workforce. Amazon is also piling on even more layoffs after its massive job cuts announced earlier this year.
The message from JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon is anything but comforting – though he says the recent banking crisis is "nothing like what occurred during the 2008 global financial crisis," he emphasized that the worst is still ahead.
"Any crisis that damages Americans' trust in their banks damages all banks," he said – calling on regulators to keep better taps on banks' risk management.
But real question is: will the Fed keep going? The U.S. Labor Department will be releasing its fresh nonfarm payroll numbers for March later this week. The street's expectation is that unemployment holds steady at 3.6%. If the jobs market proves more resilient than that, the Federal Reserve has room to hike even further.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand meets later today – a Reuters poll shows that economists are expecting to see a 25-basis point hike. That would bring its cash rate to 5%, the highest the country has seen since 2008. Will New Zealand follow Australia by hitting the brakes on further hikes? Stay tuned for more.
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