SPACs lose their spark with deals hard to find
Around Indiana and the nation in recent weeks, special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are shutting down and returning money to investors. In other cases, investors are taking a bath.
Investing
Articles
Startups face cautious investors amid economic woes
Many startups are attempting to find their wings at a time when consumers are tightening their belts and being more picky about how to spend their money.
Indiana House Republicans take aim at ESG investing
House Republican leadership appears poised to dive into culture war issues again when the legislative session starts in January, setting a target on environmental, social and government-focused investing within the Indiana Public Retirement System.
S&P 500 closes out dismal year with worst loss since 2008
The benchmark index fell 0.3% Friday, the last trading day of the year, leaving it down 19.4% for the year.
IBJ Podcast: Pete the Planner on making the best of a terrible year for investments
The personal finance columnist explains what he calls the “power percentage” and also ventures to make a few optimistic predictions for 2023.
Vanguard quits net-zero group after GOP criticism
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita was among the leaders of multistate effort to stop companies like Vanguard from ESG investing, which puts an emphasis on environmental, social, and governance issues.
Indiana pension system lost $200M-plus in Russia-Ukraine fallout
Indiana’s pension system lost $200 million in two months after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, but that’s loose change for a system with $45.8 billion in assets invested all over the world.
AP source: US authorities investigate crypto exchange FTX
The swift collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX sent more shockwaves through the crypto world on Thursday, with authorities now investigating the firm for potential securities violations and analysts bracing for a further downturn in crypto prices.
Political spat over responsible investing gets hotter
The political fight is only getting fiercer over whether it’s financially wise or “woke” folly to consider a company’s impact on climate change, workers’ rights and other issues when making investments.
GOP critics say politics drives ESG choices for investment firms
Conservative Republican blowback continues to grow against a concept known as ESG investing, which takes environmental, social and corporate governance concerns into consideration when assessing the value of companies.
Tax-credit online marketplace creates connections for more deals
Indiana’s entrepreneurial community has high hopes that the new service will help attract more out-of-state investment in Hoosier startups.
Wall Street has worst day in more than 2 years on inflation data
The hotter-than-expected inflation reading has traders bracing for the Federal Reserve to ultimately raise interest rates even higher than expected to combat inflation, with all the risks for the economy that entails.
Rokita: No ‘woke’ criteria allowed in pension investments
Indiana and its investment managers can’t make government employee pension system investments based on environmental, social or governance criteria, Attorney General Todd Rokita wrote in an advisory opinion released Thursday.
Stocks see biggest drop in 2 months as Fed dashes hopes for easing rates
The losses came after Chair Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve will likely need to keep interest rates high enough to slow the economy for some time in order to beat back the high inflation sweeping the country.
Jackson M. Andrews: A carpe diem call to action for Midwestern investors
More than 75% of venture capital is deployed in just three states—California, Massachusetts and New York. But 75% of the nation’s gross domestic product is outside those states.
Student, 20, makes $110M trading meme stock Bed Bath & Beyond
Jake Freeman, a math major, bought 4.96 million shares at $5.50 each in July through a Wyoming-based holding company he set up. On Tuesday—a day when the stock spiked above $27 a share—he sold everything.
How socially responsible are your investment funds?
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a rule that would, for the first time, require funds and advisers to disclose information about how environmental, social and corporate-governance issues truly factor into their investment products and services.
Fed unleashes another big rate hike in bid to curb inflation
The Fed is tightening credit even while the economy has begun to slow, thereby heightening the risk that its rate hikes will cause a recession later this year or next.
Indiana’s tech firms saw strong venture investment activity in 2Q
Indiana-based tech firms attracted a combined $166 million in investments last quarter, according to a report released this week by Indianapolis-based TechPoint. The quarterly total was up sharply from the first quarter, despite the nationwide tech slowdown.
Lilly Endowment sells more than $500 million in Eli Lilly stock
The stock sale is a primary way for the endowment, one of the largest private philanthropic foundations in the United States, to raise cash to make grants to arts, education, religious and community development organizations.