Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - A bad year for 401(k)s

Many Americans avoided looking just to spare themselves the pain, but that didn’t stop their 401(k)s from plummeting in value last year. The average loss was around 20%, thanks to the market’s nosedive. Now Fidelity Investments is reporting some more bad news for the biggest savers, saying the number of retirement accounts with $1 million or more fell by whopping one third. And the outlook isn’t much better for 2023, as investors continue to battle with lingering inflation. Rob Arnott, co-founder of Research Affiliates, contends that the US stock market’s fall “is far from finished.”

That may be, but on Thursday at least, markets closed up. Tech led stock gains with the S&P 500 halting a four-day selloff. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed as big names like Microsoft and Apple rebounded and a bullish revenue forecast from Nvidia sent shares up 14%. Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

US President Joe Biden will nominate former Mastercard Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga to be the next president of the World Bank as Washington pushes the lender to expand its financial firepower and confront global issues such as the climate crisis and public health.

Ajay Banga  Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg

Homebuyers and lenders adjusting to a doubling of US mortgage rates in the past year are finding workarounds to ease the financing pain. Companies including Rocket, Amplify Credit Union and Better are pitching incentives to cover the cost of future refinancing to buyers who lock in loans now. Some lenders are even offering to buy down interest rates, often by one point for one year. 

Millions of barrels of Russian fossil fuel have been switched between tankers a few miles off the coast of Greece, one of a series of workarounds traders have used to overcome European Union sanctions. At least 23 million barrels of Russian crude and additional volumes of refined fuels have been transferred in the Bay of Lakonikos since the start of this year, according to tanker tracking by Bloomberg. Greek authorities say there’s little they can do to stop it.

Goldman Sachs is said to be offering its richest clients access to a fundraising round for Stripe, the payments giant that’s trying to raise billions of dollars in part to cover a looming tax bill. The bank is setting up a special vehicle open to its private-wealth clients for investing in just one asset: Stripe’s roughly $4 billion fundraise. 

What are the Plan Bs in the fight against global warming? On the latest episode of Getting Warmer With Kal Penn, we delve into some of the more radical strategies, their potential promise and the unsettling risks of tinkering with forces of nature in a desperate bid to end the climate crisis.

A truck submerged in a flooded driveway following Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Florida, on Sept. 29. Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the largest donors in the 2022 election cycle. According to a new indictment, the accused crypto fraudster used money from FTX customer funds to illegally contribute to campaigns—and directed adjutants to give on his behalf. The campaign cash from Bankman-Fried and other top FTX executives has the potential to be the biggest infusion of illegal money into US politics in decades.

The largest office-to-condo conversion in New York City history will get its first residents next month, just as developers and policymakers turn their attention to repurposing more commercial buildings. And guess where it’s located?

One Wall Street  Photographer: Colin Miller

Bloomberg continues to track the global coronavirus pandemic. Click here for daily updates.

• Kremlin forces shell Kharkiv on eve of the war’s one-year mark.
• Russians are lining up behind Vladimir Putin.
• US to bolster its small force on Taiwan in a signal to China.
• As voters head to the polls, Africa’s biggest economy is crumbling.
• Jerome Powell may see his worst fears realized in the South.
• Bloomberg Opinion: That 3% mortgage just keeps getting better.
• Activision’s 2023 Call of Duty game is more Modern Warfare.

A revolution has begun, one that may bring the fantasy of immortality a little closer to reality—at least by a few decades anyway. Researchers are closing in on discoveries that may help humans live well into their 100s. But will we really want to live that long? On the first episode of The Future With Hannah Fry, a new Bloomberg Originals series featuring renowned mathematician Hannah Fry, we explore the latest scientific research and age-defying techniques, as well as the philosophical questions of what it means to live to a healthy, happy old age.

On the first episode of The Future With Hannah Fry, Hannah Fry (above) reveals just how advanced the science of longevity has become, and the consequences those extra years may bring.  Photograph: Bloomberg

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The Bloomberg Invest series returns to London on March 22, gathering leading thinkers in investing to identify the biggest risks and greatest opportunities facing those in the region. Join in London or online to hear from executives from Blackstone, QuantumLight, and Sotheby’s. Register here.