“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.” “If you look at the economy, it’s improving, people are spending more and businesses are going to have to start investing,” Paul Donofrio, Bank of America’s C.F.O., said yesterday. Consumers are also opening their wallets, with credit card spending up more than 20 percent in the third quarter, versus a year ago, at Bank of America, Citi and JPMorgan. fees hitting record highs, a sign that executives are optimistic about the future. Partly sunny with unseasonably high temperatures: Deal-making was strong, with M.&A. Those six banks hold more than 40 percent of all assets in the sector, which means that their fortunes can provide a pretty good weather vane for the economy in general. (Goldman Sachs reports later today.) Driving the banks’ earnings increase was a flurry of fee-generating deal-making activity, but other parts of their businesses, like trading and lending, were down. Profits at Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo rose by more than 50 percent, on average. The nation’s largest banks this week reported bumper earnings for the third quarter, propelling the stock market higher. Separately, the company is dealing with a new type of defect on its 787 Dreamliner.īanks report sunny earnings, but clouds loom was indicted by a federal grand jury for statements he made about the 737 Max jet, the plane involved in two crashes in which 346 people were killed. A former Boeing pilot accused of deceiving the F.A.A. Those eligible for the extra shot include people over 65 and other adults considered at high risk, the same groups now eligible for a Pfizer-BioNTech booster.īoeing is in more trouble. Advisers voted unanimously in favor of approving a half-dose booster of the coronavirus vaccine. Follow The Times’s live, on-the-ground updates as the first-of-its-kind mandate for a Western democracy comes into force.Īn F.D.A. Lines formed outside the country’s office buildings, and officials braced for protests. All workers across public and private sectors are now required to show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus or they will be put on unpaid leave. It’s the first day of Italy’s sweeping vaccine mandate. Yale’s fund had nearly 40 percent of its portfolio in private equity funds, and matched the return of a diversified index fund. Even with U.N.C.’s venture capital gains, its total endowment was up 42 percent. The S&P 500 was up about 40 percent in the 12 months to June, putting endowments’ returns in perspective. These “alternative” investments can result in outsize returns, subject to hefty fees, but can be less predictable than more conservative choices. Venture capital funds are also recording huge returns: The University of North Carolina logged a 142 percent return from that portion of its $10 billion endowment.Īre these returns worth the risk? Many endowments, like Harvard’s, have increased their allocations to private equity, venture capital and hedge funds in recent years, saying that this provides crucial diversification from broader stock and bond market trends. Harvard’s private equity investments, worth a third of its total portfolio, returned 77 percent in its latest fiscal year. Harvard’s endowment manager said this “tremendous” return nonetheless reflected “the opportunity cost of taking lower risk” than many of the school’s peers.Ī big reason for the gains is investments with private equity firms, which in some years have received more in fees than endowments have paid out in tuition help. Harvard, which runs the biggest endowment (worth $53 billion), said yesterday that its fiscal-year return lagged many of its rivals, rising a mere 34 percent. Dartmouth posted a return of nearly 47 percent. Yale also published its latest returns yesterday, with its endowment up 40 percent over the same period, its third-highest annual return since 1970. reported that its endowment had gained 56 percent in its most recent fiscal year, which ended in June. University endowment managers, long criticized for the fees they pay out to private equity firms and hedge funds, have something to show for it: eye-popping returns.