Silicon Valley Bank Collapses and Tech Announced Yet More Layoffs Leading to a Flurry of Worries About a Recession
In the week of International Women’s Day, there’s not much to celebrate as the financial sector, banking and European markets all show jittery signs.
International Women’s Day: Stats from the week don’t show a pretty picture
On Wednesday last week the world celebrated International Women’s Day. Of course, here at Female Invest we think that every day should be about celebrating women, but the marked day of course brings about the release of a whole host of new data.
This year there is not a lot to shout about, in fact, it doesn’t show a pretty picture of the world for women.
In the US, women earn 82 cents for every $1 that men earn. This has only gone up by 2 cents since the year 2000, when women earnt 80 cents to every $1. Progress you might say, but not enough.
In Europe, the number of women holding senior positions in hedge funds has more than halved since 2021. Wow.
Meanwhile in China, women that are in charge of listed companies have tripled since 2021 (whoop!) but female participation in the workforce is at its lowest level in 20 years.
Silicon Valley Bank collapses sparking fears of the fallout
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a California based bank that predominantly lends to start-ups, collapsed late last week.
This was off the back of a sale of its $21 billion portfolio, which led to a gaping hole of $1.8 billion that the bank was desperately trying to plug,
Without a solution and growing fears of a bank run from the start-ups who held their money in the bank, SVB was taken under control by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the US.
Silvergate capital also announced voluntary liquidation last week, after a terrible previous week. Its proximity to the collapsed crypto platform FTX was dragging down Silvergate’s value and liquidity (AKA free cash).
The financial sector fell dramatically and $70 billion was wiped off the value of crypto following the bank collapses.
Data released shows sluggish European markets are pointing towards a recession
It’s not been an optimistic week for economic and market data in Europe.
In the UK, a lack of supply of fresh produce has led to decreased sales and the general slowing of UK markets.
Over the channel in France, President Macron is facing ongoing issues with protests against his pension reforms, which have been bringing the economy to a sliding halt and dragging market optimism firmly down.
By the end of the week, Germany was feeling the regional blues too, with the US financial sector news and the supply chain issues in the area dragging the German DAX index down.
Adidas cuts dividend and tech cuts workers, showing the effects of tough times
Adidas announced last week that they would slash their dividend by 80%, citing ongoing supply chain issues in China as one of the key factors in this financial decision.
The Yeezy collection, from rapper Kanye West, known as Ye, may well wipe out 500 million euros worth of stock, which could push the company into their first annual loss in 30 years.
Meantime in the US, more layoffs were announced this week than in any week since the 2008 recession.
28% of the total planned redundancies were in the tech sector, with some big names hitting the headlines for the large cuts they’ve got planned.
Whilst many of the layoffs are in an attempt to improve profitability in tougher times, it shows the impact of climbing inflation and tightening belts is far from a thing of the past.
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