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Welcome back! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC, here.
Today we've got stories on a big bet at Disney on Apple's newest product, how much people are willing to pay to keep working in their PJs, and a solution to that Netflix password-sharing crackdown.
But first, is it time for a change?
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1. BlackRock's big moment.
Change is inevitable on Wall Street. CEOs come and go. Strategies shift. People don't like sitting on their hands when there is money to be made.
But for the largest firms on the Street, major adjustments are a bit more complicated. You can't turn a tanker on a dime, and the same goes for the handful of financial firms that handle trillions of dollars.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is in that very situation. The firm, which manages an eye-popping $9.1 trillion, is at a crossroads.
The biggest, and most obvious, change comes at the top, as BlackRock considers life without Larry Fink. The firm's CEO, chairman, and cofounder has said he isn't planning on leaving anytime soon, but there also seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
The departure of Fink from BlackRock — a firm he's led since founding it with Robert Kapito in 1988 — is monumental in and of itself. But consider the state of affairs:
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The market for private credit is booming, and BlackRock is looking to cut deals to get itself a bigger piece of the pie.
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BlackRock's position as an influential proponent of ESG investing has made it a constant target of Republicans, including recently drawing the ire of Republican Senator J.D. Vance.
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Aladdin, the firm's widely used risk-analytics and portfolio-management tech, has grown to become one of the firm's crown jewels. But increased competition and understanding how to implement new tech, like AI, pose constant threats.
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BlackRock is also wading deeper into crypto as it looks to launch the first spot bitcoin ETF in the US. This comes despite US regulators and crypto essentially declaring an all-out war against each other.
Simply put, there's a lot going on these days at BlackRock. Insider's Rebecca Ungarino, our resident BlackRock expert, has a rundown of all the latest news at the massive money manager.
More on everything that's happening at BlackRock as its CEO and cofounder considers his future.
In other news:
2. I get all my best trading ideas when I'm playing squash drunk. A former Barclays trader testified that he was a bit tipsy when a former Goldman trader tipped him off with inside info during a game of squash. Eat your heart out, pickleball.