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Good morning.
Yesterday, investors lost $52 billion of the value of some of the largest US banks due to concerns about the size of their bond portfolios. Scroll down to find out more about how this happened.
Elsewhere we have an exclusive that Australia is planning to buy American submarines under the so-called Aukus security pact while it waits for new British-designed boats to be built.
Here are some of the important events to keep an eye on:
Work in the USA: The US nonfarm payrolls data for February will be released today. Economists expect about 200,000 new jobs to be added. Although this is less than the 500.00 added in January, put pressure on the Federal Reserve raise interest rates later in March.
Von der Leyen meets with Biden: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Washington today for a meeting with US President Joe Biden. The US and EU also announced that they start trade negotiations to dispel tensions over green investment stifled in Europe by the Inflation Reduction Act.
DeSantis takes the stage: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in Iowa today in what many see as his first step on his path to running for president.
Thank you for reading FirstFT. Good weekend.
Today’s top news
1. Investors lost $52.4 billion of the market value of the four largest US banks. in assets yesterday as a result of a sell-off that began with difficulties at Silicon Valley Bank. Steep losses at a small, technology-focused lender Shifting focus on risk in bond portfolios owned by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
2 EXCLUSIVE: Australia plans to buy US submarines in preparation for a new generation boat fleet designed by the British to counter China arriving in the 2040s. New parts offered the deal will also be of secondary importance to the development of technologies such as hypersonic weapons.
3. EXCLUSIVE: Two Russian billionaires are ready to sell their shares in Alfa-Bank for $2.3 billion. the largest private creditor in Russia. Learn more about how Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven strive free from Western sanctions.
4. EXCLUSIVE: UK-based Ferguson ‘doesn’t regret’ moving listing to New York. last year, said a major supplier of plumbing fixtures. Since others also avoid London for the USA, This is why Kevin Murphy believes the transition has achieved almost all of its goals.
5. The Netherlands is reviewing the maintenance ban on chip making tools in China. after US pressure to cut semiconductor shipments to China. The Netherlands is home to ASML, one of the few companies producing machines capable of producing advanced chips. Read more here.
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Big Read
© Richard B. Levin/Alamy
Historian Vincent Scully once said of Pennsylvania Station in New York: “I entered the city like a god. One crawls in like a rat. Fixing it was an unattainable dream, as the original was demolished in 1963, in what many consider to be the city’s greatest architectural crime. A long-delayed project, stuck in Byzantine politics and personal rivalry, was some called “too important to fail”.
We also read. . .
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Problems of the German Palantir: Following a recent court decision, two German states rethinking how their police use data supplied by the American company Palantir.
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Fictional Intelligence: Planning technology invented by science fiction writers is a dangerous game states John Thornhill.
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Homelessness crisis in Los Angeles spirals out of control: The FT correspondent’s chance encounter with a homeless man in Los Angeles during a recent storm illustrates this. how bad is the situation.
Schedule of the day
In the US, more and more teenagers say their lives seem meaningless. John Burn-Murdoch illustrates unhealthy correlation between increased use of technology and declining mental health of children.
Take a break from the news
In this weekend essay for the FT, writer Petina Gappach recalls a group of writers who fresh, modern take on Africa in to the world.
Petina Gappa from Harare: “Today’s African writers give others the opportunity to tell their stories” © Jabulani Dhlamini
Read more at FT Weekend’s specially selected series honoring African writers and artists.
Additional contributions by Ti Zhuo and Darren Dodd
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