Seeking Alpha’s roundup of statements, announcements, and remarks that could impact markets, sectors, or individual stocks.
- President Trump and other plaintiffs are suing JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and CEO Jamie Dimon for $5B in damages for allegedly de-banking them following the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill.
“Plaintiffs are confident that JPMC’s unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations and JPMC’s unsubstantiated, ‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views,” the complaint asserts, according to CNBC.
The complaint, which was filed in Florida, added that JPMorgan’s “reckless decision is leading a growing trend by financial institutions in the United States of America to cut off a consumer’s access to banking services if their political views contradict with those of the financial institution.”
In a statement, JPMorgan told CNBC that it believes the suit has no merit.
“We respect the President’s right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves—that’s what courts are for,” said JPMorgan spokeswoman Patricia Wexler. “JPMC does not close accounts for political or religious reasons.”
- U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that negotiations for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada, or USMCA, trade deal would likely start this summer and could be impacted by Canada’s recent dealings with China.
In an interview, Lutnick criticized Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent comments that China was a more predictable trading partner than the U.S., asserting that Canada had the best trading deal with the U.S. after Mexico.
“We should look at it as just political noise coming out of a prime minister,” Lutnick said in an interview with Bloomberg in Davos. “I don’t think it can be real, because he took out the math of Canada’s economy and doing business with the United States of America’s $30T economy. There’s no such thing as changing what they have today.”
Lutnick also questioned the wisdom of Canada pursuing closer trade relations with China, such as the importation of Chinese EVs.
“Do you think the president of the United States is going to say you should keep having the second-best deal in the world?” Lutnick quipped.
Lutnick added that negotiations for the USMCA trade deal could begin in mid-summer.
- SpaceX (SPACE) has already lined up four banks for an IPO that could value the company at around $1.5T.
The banks so far include Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Morgan Stanley (MS). SpaceX hopes to hold the IPO later this year and raise “significantly more” than $30B, according to Bloomberg, which cited the Financial Times.
SpaceX (SPACE), which owns Starlink (STRLK), is controlled by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.