Overvalued Market, Marex Group's IPO in the US, Bitcoin, Li-Cycle, GameStop's job cuts

BoE's Mann says markets are pricing in too many rate cuts

• Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann, who last week dropped her call for increases in borrowing costs, said on Tuesday she thought markets were betting on too many interest rate cuts by the British central bank.

• "I think they're pricing in too many cuts, that would be my personal view," Mann told Bloomberg TV, referring to financial markets which are almost fully predicting three quarter-point reductions in rates by the BoE this year.

• Last week she joined the majority of the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) members who kept Bank Rate at 5.25%, its highest since 2008. She had previously voted for an increase to 5.5%.

Britain's Marex Group reports 75% surge in annual revenue in US IPO filing

• British commodities broker Marex Group reported a 75% jump in annual revenue in a filing on Tuesday, three months after it confidentially filed to list in the United States.

• The London-based company said revenue for the year ended Dec 31, 2023 rose to $1.24 billion from $711 million a year earlier.

• The broker, backed by private equity firm JRJ, is attempting another IPO after its failed attempt to list in London in 2021. It confidentially filed for an IPO in New York in December last year.

Bitcoin jumps 7%, retakes $70,000 to start the week

• Bitcoin had been in correction mode for the past week, after it hit an all-time high of $73,797.68 on March 14.

• The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 7.8% at $70,995.48, according to Coin Metrics. It briefly rose to $71,239.31 in late afternoon trading as the stock market closed. Ether jumped 7.4% to $3,634.80. Most other cryptocurrencies rode the bitcoin wave, too.

• MicroStrategy, which trades as a proxy for the price of bitcoin, surged 21%, while Coinbase advanced 9%. The mining sector got a lift from bitcoin, too, with Riot Platforms up 9%, CleanSpark rising 19% and Cipher Mining gaining 13%.

Li-Cycle to cut 17% of staff amid battery recycling growing pains

• Battery recycler Li-Cycle plans to lay off 17% of its staff - including three senior executives - as it pares its ambitious global growth plans in order to save cash and focus on building a crucial processing facility in New York.

• The cuts, announced on Tuesday, are a tacit acknowledgement by the Toronto-based company that its rapid growth in recent years - with facilities announced across North America, Europe and Asia - was unsustainable given the high costs and technical challenges associated with building what is essentially a new global market for electric vehicle battery recycling.

• In all, 60 employees will lose their jobs. The company was still informing affected staff about the cuts on Tuesday afternoon.

GameStop cuts jobs, quarterly revenue falls

• GameStop said on Tuesday it had cut an unspecified number of jobs to reduce costs and reported lower fourth-quarter revenue amid rising competition from e-commerce firms and weak consumer spending in an uncertain economy.

• Shares of the Grapevine, Texas-based company tumbled 17% in extended trade after the results.

• GameStop posted revenue of $1.79 billion for the fourth quarter, compared with $2.23 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.