Global Business Week: Exploring the Top 50 Banks Globally
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Chapter 1: Weekly Business Overview
The S&P 500 experienced its strongest performance of 2024 last Friday, breaking a two-week decline. Wall Street's optimistic trend regained momentum following the Federal Reserve's commitment to three anticipated interest rate reductions this year, as highlighted in the latest dot plot. Despite some market participants expressing concerns, Fed Chair Jerome Powell's calm response to recent inflation reports further alleviated fears. Over the week, the S&P 500 increased by +2.3%, the Dow rose by +2.0%, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped by +2.9%.
The Federal Reserve reiterated its projection of three rate cuts for the year, as revealed in the dot plot released on Wednesday. This announcement propelled Wall Street to new highs, while gold also achieved a significant milestone, exceeding $2,200 per ounce. This occurred even as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) maintained the policy rate at 5.25%-5.50%.
Powell warned about possible volatility in inflation, indicating that interest rates might remain elevated for an extended period. He also tempered expectations for cuts in 2025 and beyond. Other central banks also made headlines, with the Bank of Japan ending its negative interest rate policy after almost ten years, and the Swiss National Bank surprising the market with its initial rate cut among developed nations.
The US Dollar Index (DXY) is robustly trading at 104.428, its highest level since mid-February. Although many anticipated the Federal Reserve would start easing in June, ongoing data supports the dollar's strength. Market sentiment remains positive, with indicators on the daily chart reflecting upward momentum.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is on an upward trend, suggesting strong buying interest and potential further appreciation in the short term. On a broader scale, the DXY's positioning above the convergence of its 20, 100, and 200-day Simple Moving Averages (SMAs) around 103.50–103.70 reinforces a bullish outlook on larger time frames.
The previous week began on a difficult note for the leading cryptocurrency, which had largely recovered from losses at the end of the prior week. Starting at $69,000 on Monday, it quickly fell by $5,000. Tuesday saw further declines, with BTC hitting a two-week low of under $61,000, primarily due to profit-taking by some investors and uncertainty regarding the upcoming FOMC meeting.
After the Federal Reserve's announcement to maintain its current monetary policy, Bitcoin reacted positively, surging by 4% to surpass $68,000 by Wednesday morning. However, this rally was short-lived, and BTC began to retrace in the following days.
Currently, Bitcoin is trading at approximately $64,000, struggling to break the $66,000 barrier from the previous day. Its market capitalization remains steady at $1.260 trillion, with dominance slightly above 49%. On a daily basis, most altcoins have stabilized, with Ethereum, Solana, and Binance Coin showing minimal losses, while XRP, ADA, SHIB, and DOT have gained around 1–2%.
Today's featured infographic highlights the top 50 banks globally by consolidated assets, based on a 2023 report from S&P Global Market Intelligence. This data illustrates each bank's total assets for the most recent period.
The first video presents an overview of the TOP 50 Largest Banks In The World By Assets, showcasing their consolidated strengths and global influence.
Chapter 2: The Financial Landscape
The second video, titled Largest Banks by Total Assets 2024, offers insights into the current standings of major banks and their market positions.
Section 2.1: Reddit's Initial Public Offering
On its first day of public trading, shares of Reddit surged by 48%, resulting in significant gains for some influential users and moderators. Priced at $34 during its initial public offering, Reddit's shares peaked at $57.80 (a 70% increase) on Thursday before settling at $50.44 by the end of the day, giving the company a market capitalization exceeding $8 billion. Although many pre-IPO investors were restricted due to a 180-day lockup period, some dedicated users were able to benefit from the IPO surge.
Section 2.2: Bitcoin Holdings Among Corporations
While Tesla is recognized as a leading corporate buyer of Bitcoin, several other companies have amassed larger holdings, significantly boosting their stock valuations last year. Predominantly based in North America, one notable exception is Nexon, a Japanese video game publisher. This infographic displays the public companies with the highest Bitcoin holdings, based on data from CoinGecko.
Section 2.3: Independence of Central Banks
An IMF analysis from 2007 to 2021 indicates that central banks with high independence scores were more effective at managing public inflation expectations, thus helping maintain lower inflation rates. Independence is critical and has gained increasing importance across various countries.
Additionally, another IMF study examining 17 Latin American central banks over the last century explores aspects such as decision-making autonomy, mandate clarity, and susceptibility to government pressure for lending. This study similarly concludes that greater independence leads to significantly better inflation outcomes.
Section 2.4: Stablecoin Market Developments
In February, the total market capitalization of stablecoins increased by 4.24%, reaching $147 billion. This marked the sixth consecutive monthly rise, achieving its highest level since September 2022. However, the dominance of stablecoins in the market declined to 5.83% in March, the lowest since November 2021. In February, trading volumes of stablecoins on centralized exchanges rose by 5.14% to $1.09 trillion, the highest since December 2021, with expectations for further increases in March.
Section 2.5: Lessons from Bank Failures
The bank failures from last year were driven by rapid deposit withdrawals, highlighting the necessity for deposit insurers and regulatory bodies to be ready to act quickly and effectively—a capability lacking in many cases. The failed US banks were outliers, marked by rapidly growing balance sheets primarily funded by a large proportion of uninsured deposits. Any expansion of coverage would require adequate funding. While advancements have been made, further efforts are needed to tackle the too-big-to-fail issue.
Section 2.6: Hospitality Sector Post-Pandemic
Few sectors were hit as hard by the pandemic as restaurants, cafes, and hotels. Although most of the world has returned to normalcy, the hospitality industry still struggles with the aftereffects of the crisis. Analyzing European bankruptcy filings in the hospitality sector since 2019 shows a notable increase compared to other industries, such as construction and manufacturing. By 2023, the hospitality bankruptcy rate was nearly double that of the benchmark set in 2015.
Section 2.7: Top North American Venture Capitalists
Using data from CB Insights, we analyzed deal information for various investors to rank them based on the strength and performance of their portfolios. Our scoring model takes into account factors such as deal volume since 2023, the presence of unicorns in investors' portfolios, and the average Mosaic score across recent investments.
Section 2.8: U.S. Dollar Circulation Insights
Every year, the U.S. Federal Reserve places an order with the Treasury Department for the printing of U.S. currency. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) then produces billions of notes in various denominations. This visualization illustrates the estimated quantity of bills for each denomination worldwide as of December 31, 2022.