Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - A $5 trillion cash pile

From stocks to bonds, credit to crypto, money managers looking for somewhere to hide from the Federal Reserve-induced storm battering virtually every asset class are finding solace in a long reviled corner of the market: cash. Investors have $4.6 trillion stashed in US money-market mutual funds, while ultra-short bond funds currently hold about $150 billion. Where once that stash yielded practically nothing, the vast bulk now earns upwards of 2%, with pockets paying 3%, 4% or more. The suddenly respectable payout is one of the reasons traders have been in little rush to deploy their capital into riskier assets, even with prices at multiyear lows. The other is that, as the Fed continues to push interest rates higher to tame inflation, market participants are finally coming to the realization that the central bank is unlikely to abandon its hawkish policy tilt anytime soon, leaving cash as the asset of choice to ride out the turmoil. —Natasha Solo-Lyons

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

US stocks fell in a volatile session exacerbated by sharp moves in the UK currency and bond markets, as hawkish central banks across the globe continued to subdue sentiment. The S&P 500 ended Monday’s session at its lowest level since December 2020. The Cboe Volatility Index spiked past 30, a level it hasn’t closed above since June. US Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year rate climbing as much as 24 basis points to almost 3.93%, its highest level since April 2010. Here’s your markets wrap. 

The US dollar’s recent rally is creating an “untenable situation” for risk assets including stocks, and in the past this kind of dollar strength has led to some kind of financial or economic crisis, according to one of Wall Street’s most vocal bears.

President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former US security contractor Edward Snowden, according to a decree signed by the Russian leader on Monday.

Vladimir Putin. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Unnecessary meetings are a $100 million mistake at big companies, according to a new survey that shows workers probably don’t need to be in nearly a third of the appointments they attend.

The shift to working from home drove more than half of the increase in house and rent prices during the pandemic and will likely drive up costs and inflation going forward as the shift becomes permanent, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. 

Residential homes in San Francisco. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Asset-management giant Vanguard is shutting down one of its US exchange-traded funds for the first time. The $39.7 million Vanguard U.S. Liquidity Factor ETF will be liquidated in late November, the firm said. The fund “has not gained scale since its 2018 debut,” Vanguard said.

Undocumented crossings at the US southern border have long been dominated by people from Mexico and Central America — but for the first time since at least the turn of the century, migrants from other nations made up the majority of those stopped by authorities.

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Just a few years ago, with a blockbuster initial public offering from Beyond Meat and the unveiling of an Impossible Whopper at Burger King locations nationwide, plant-based meats were ascendant. Now, after once enjoying double-digit growth, sales are not just flat but declining, due to possible saturation of the US market, according to Deloitte. 

Plant-based burger. Photographer: Luke Duggleby/Bloomberg

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