T
O UNDERSTAND WHAT was a risky venture in 19th-century America, visit the Whaling Museum in Nantucket. The industry thrived on this Massachusetts island, now transformed from an outpost for coarse sailors into a swanky beach spot. Two centuries ago, whales were valuable because of the lucrative oil in their head-cases. Captains amassed fleets of sloops and dozens of men armed with harpoons to hunt them. For lucky crews that found their “white whales” the rewards were enormous, but so were the risks of losing ships and souls in the hunt. In “Moby Dick” Herman Melville admonishes the reader: “for God’s sake, be economical with your lamps and candles! Not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of man’s blood was spilled for it.”
Author Bio
Bram Berkowitz mainly writes in the financials bureau covering the banking sector. Prior to The Motley Fool, he wrote about and covered community and regional banks in New England for The Warren Group. Follow @BramBerko
If you follow the banking sector, then I don t need to tell you that
SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVB), the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, has been on an absolute tear for more than a year. Before the pandemic, the bank traded at roughly $246 per share, a price it had earned after a long run of phenomenal performance. But the pandemic catapulted the tech and start-up banking powerhouse to the next level, and now SVB trades around $573. That s more than 350% of tangible book value (equity minus goodwill and intangible assets), which is a high valuation in banking.
Operator
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SVB Financial Group Q1 2021 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ms. Meghan O Leary, the Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Meghan O Leary
Head of IR
Thank you, May, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Our President and CEO, Greg Becker; and our CFO, Dan Beck, are here to talk about our first quarter 2021 financial results, and they ll be joined by other members of our management team for the Q&A. Our current earnings release, highlight slides and CEO letter have been filed with the SEC and are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. We ll be making forward-looking statements during this call, and actual results may differ materially. We encourage you to review the disclaimer in our earnings release dealing with forward-looking information, which applies equally to statements made in this call.
Author Bio
Dan Caplinger has been a contract writer for the Motley Fool since 2006. As the Fool s Director of Investment Planning, Dan oversees much of the personal-finance and investment-planning content published daily on Fool.com. With a background as an estate-planning attorney and independent financial consultant, Dan s articles are based on more than 20 years of experience from all angles of the financial world.
Follow @DanCaplinger
Investors were quick to recover from weakness in the stock market earlier this week. The
Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) was the big beneficiary on Friday afternoon, rising more than 1.5% as of 2:30 p.m. EDT and approaching all-time record highs.
The man accused and then acquitted over the murder of Victorian toddler Jaidyn Leskie is tonight once again a wanted man.Â
Police are searching for 52-year-old Greg Domaszewicz after he failed to turn up at Melbourne Magistrates Court today.
The man is accused of attacking someone with a make-shift spear in November 2019 at Lofts Reserve in the Melbourne suburb of Newport.
READ MORE:
Domaszewicz spoke to Nine s Liz Hayes on Under Investigation last month. (Nine)
The former mechanic, who now goes by Greg Becker, has been hit with two charges, including unlawful assault and possessing a dangerous article without lawful excuse.Â