WeWork Bonds Crash To Record Lows As SEC Inquiry Looms
WeWork Companies, Inc. May 01, 2025 bond price crashed to a record low Friday of 74.750 cents on the dollar following a new report from Bloomberg, citing sources, that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the workspace sharing company for possible rule violations.
The SEC’s enforcement division is allegedly investigating WeWork’s disclosures to investors around the time it filed an S1 in August and other filings around its attempted IPO in September.
As a result of the inquiry, WeWork has lawyered up with a top Wall Street firm as it expects to face controversy surrounding the company’s collapse in valuation.
WeWork is now valued at $8 billion, has lost approximately 83% of its value in the last 12 months when it was valued at $47 billion in 4Q18.
The SEC’s investigation shouldn’t be shocking to anyone, considering the company neglected to tell investors in the S1 that it needed to IPO before it would run out of cash.
Sources told Bloomberg it wasn’t entirely clear what precisely the SEC was examining for wrongdoing.
Q4 GDP Crashes: US Economy Growing At Slowest Pace In 4 Years
Following a burst of poor US economic data, including today’s disappointing retail sales and dismal industrial production, the US economic surprise index has slipped back into the negative after peaking in late September.
This slowdown in high frequency economic indicators has not been lost on strategists, and in just the past week, tracking estimates for Q4 GDP have tumbled by over 0.4% in just the past week, with both the Atlanta Fed and New York Fed now expecting a sub-0.40% GDP print in the current quarter.
If one focuses on just the two popular Fed nowcasts, that of the Atlanta and New York Feds…
… US GDP in Q4 is set to print at the lowest level in 4 years at around 0.35%, and would be only the fifth time in 42 quarter since the Q3 2009 exit from recession when US growth has risen by less than 0.5% Q/Q.
We only bring this up to point out that the S&P500, which is printing at all time highs well above 3,100, is clearly no longer reliant on the US economic outlook, even if US GDP is now expected to print dangerously close to contraction due to a sharp slowdown in household spending, capex, residential investment and inventories.
So what does matter, if it’s not the market, or earnings which as we pointed out previously are not only negative for Q3 but also just turned negative for the 4th quarter according to consensus sellside estimates, suggesting a technical earnings recession awaits?
The answer: the Fed’s balance sheet, which has increased by $288 billion in the past two months, a faster rate of increase than that observed during QE3.
Just remember, it’s not QE4… it’s NOT QE, or wait, it is QE but if you call it that, confidence that the economy is recovering may disappear (especially when GDP is set to grow at 0.4%), and investors may ask what the true price of equities would be if it wasn’t for, what else, the Federal Reserve.
While a lot of eyes were glued to the television sets this week as the Democrats began their public hearing on the impeachment of President Donald Trump, most flyover folks found the process a butt-numbing, ear-bleeding snooze fest and soon turned the channel.
No one trusts the news to get the facts and when it is as boring and predictable as this Democrat Schiff-show has been, well, they find quirky political news to discuss as a matter of self-preservation.
What To Do During Boring Hearing?
The latest hero for the heartland is none other than Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who did take a hit for the team and watched impeachment hearings – with the goal of keeping his Twitter peeps informed. In a rapid series of cryptic missives imparting the news, a creative subliminal message emerged. Using each first letter of subsequent tweets, Gosar spelled out “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself.”
The chatter was nearing sensory overload on social media – from kudos to creativity, warnings to watch his six, and discussions of political strategies involving the ever-present contagiously viral phrase. Words like “hero” and “epic” and “legend” peppered social media outlets.
Purdue University grad, Doug Cooke, claimed it was simply “Political perfection!” and kudos to whoever figured it out and shared. And that prompted Carol Donaldson in Montgomery, AL to surmise where the best offensive might come from, “The Democrats own the Media. The Right owns the Memes!”
The good folks in Michigan were concerned for Gosar’s longevity, however, and Howard Denison in Grand Haven cautioned, “He’d better be careful. He could be ‘Clintoned.’” But the forewarning from Steve Jewell was much more sobering: “Maybe the whistleblower should take a cue from Epstein? Or Epstein’s non-killer, rather…”
Hunter Biden’s Kimono
Heartlanders are beginning to feel a deep-seated pity for the Biden family. The elder can’t keep his teeth in straight, delivers speeches to backscreens looking for an audience, sniffs everyone, and well, has Hunter as a son. As the impeachment hearing droned on like a drunkard’s snores, one interesting tidbit emerged. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent said under oath, regarding the lack of investigation into Burisma Holdings: “We’ve continued to press Ukrainian officials to answer for why allege corrupt prosecutors had closed [the] case. We have until now got an unsatisfactory answer.”
Yes, the very same Burisma that paid the then VP’s son an exorbitant amount of money to do not much of anything. Suddenly, Hunter Biden got his knickers … er, kimono … in a twist:
“One thing I don’t have to do is sit here and open my kimono as it relates to how much money I make, or made, or did, or didn’t.”
Such an open invitation for what transpired next. You guessed It: it became all about his junk. Shari Greene answered his taunt, “Yeah, you do. And ‘eww’ for the flasher visual by the way.” Kelley Lowery in South Dakota was right with Shari, requesting, “Keep the kimono closed.”
From the plains in Illinois, Ken Lawson shared his musings, bringing papa “bare” into the discussion, “The female Secret Service agents wished Joe would have kept his kimono shut during his early morning swims.”
But the last word this week goes to a flyover friend in Topeka, KS, Daryl Johnson: “Based on what you just said, you probably didn’t make much if opening kimono measures your wealth.”
This Is What Hedge Funds Bought And Sold In Q3: Complete 13F Summary
In a world where only two things matter: i) whether there is any “trade deal optimism” on any given day, and ii) whether the Fed is injecting or draining liquidity from the market, it is understandable why the cachet that hedge funds once held in terms of moving the market with their stock picks, and pans, has disappeared. The fact that most hedge funds have also dreadfully underperformed the market – and in fact, the best strategy of the past decade has been to do the opposite of what the most popular hedge fund trades are – certainly has not helped.
And yet, every quarter, we still go through the usual song and dance, where analysts look at the top holdings and position changes revealed by hedge funds in their 13F some 45 days after the end of the quarter in question, and Q3 was no different.
So here is a quick rundown of the most notable changes revealed by hedge funds in the past day or two as the latest batch of 13Fs hit the tape:
S&P500: Hedge funds, unable to generate alpha and willing to replace it with beta (while collecting 2 and 20 for basically replicating the market) rushed to place bets on the broader market, spending big bux on ETFs that track the S&P 500 Index.
Alibaba: a flurry of hedge funds made the largest Chinese online retailer a top buy. Tiger Global Management was the biggest hedge fund buyer of Alibaba in the quarter. However, last month, Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is considering forcing a delisting of Chinese companies from U.S. exchanges, a move that could put Alibaba stock holdings into disarray.
Facebook: hedge funds piled into the social network with Harvard University’s endowment adding 2 million shares, bringing the value of its position to roughly $400 million. Tiger Global increased its holding, as did Appaloosa Management LP and D1 Capital Partners LP, which favored FAANGs overall. Not every fund was buying: Coatue Management LLC, Viking Global Investors LP and Adage Capital Partners LP all cut their stakes.
FAANGs: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (Alphabet) took a beating after a solid first half, after shares of Netflix were hammered in the third quarter on concerns over customer growth. Viking Global Investors doubled down on the video-streaming giant, bringing its stake to $1.2 billion. Lone Pine took a big new position while Maverick Capital and D1 Capital added to existing ones. On Friday, speculation that Bill Ackman had also built a 10% position in NFLX sent the stock sharply higher.
Microsoft: the original software company was one of the less popular stocks for the second quarter in a row. Tiger cubs Viking, Coatue and Maverick Capital Ltd. all decreased their holdings in the tech giant as did Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office. But the software giant was up more than 3% during that period and has been a top performer this year, with shares up near 46%.
Apple: even though Apple’s relentless buyback frenzy helped push the stock up to all time highs, hedge funds sold: Renaissance dumped 2.2 million shares, or most of its Apple holding; Buffett also sold a small fraction (0.3%) of his AAPL holdings for the first time; at the same Marshall Wace added 1.3 million shares.
Restoration Hardware: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway built a new position in home furnishings company RH. The stock surged after the news of his move was disclosed.
Uber: Stan Druckenmiller offloaded almost all of his stake in Uber. The stock has dropped almost 14% since the end of last quarter, even as many hedge funds bought a stake in the ridesharing company.
Allergan: Dan Loeb took a new position in Allergan, buying 1.1% of the company’s outstanding stock. The shares are up this quarter.
KKR: Ken Griffin’s Citadel jumped into private equity giant KKR. The stock has gained 11% so far in the fourth quarter thanks in part to the firm switching to a corporation from a partnership.
Berkshire: Warren Buffett’s congloemrate spent the third quarter trimming some of its largest stock bets, including Apple Inc., Wells Fargo and Phillips 66. Buffett’s firm is limited to keeping its ownership of the San Francisco lender below a 10% threshold, and it’s been near that level recently. Berkshire’s Apple stake was reduced but by a modest 0.3%, with the investment valued at $55.7 billion at the end of September. Berkshire’s bet on Apple, influencedby one of his deputies, has swiftly climbed to the top of its $220 billion stock portfolio since his company first disclosed the stake in 2016. Despite selling some Wells, Buffett is currently seeking permission from the Fed to increase Berkshire’s stake in Bank of America Corp. after it crossed the 10% level.
A complete rundown of the most notable hedge funds is shown below, courtesy of Bloomberg:
ADAGE CAPITAL PARTNERS LP
Top new buys: KMB, LHX, PTON, FISV, GDX, GTES, EXP, CDW, PNM, JKHY
Top exits: RTN, JCI, TJX, EL, SAP, GMS, XRX, RCKT, ITW, LEA
Two Ivy League universities have announced that many graduate programs will no longer require the traditional standardized Graduate Records Examination testing requirements for applications, citing reasons pertaining to “diversity” and concerns that such tests are “biased” against minority and low-income students.
Both Princeton University and Brown University recently announced that they are moving away from standardized testing requirements for graduate admission in the name of creating a more diverse student body.
Princeton announced its decision to do away with the standardized test for 14 different graduate programs in September, calling the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) biased against minority groups.
Princeton Graduate School associate dean for access, diversity, and inclusion Renita Miller cited a need for “intellectual diversity” within graduate programs, as well as the importance of “demographic diversity.” She insists that doing away with the requirement will help Princeton to achieve its goal “to identify, attract and develop the most promising individuals from as many segments of society as possible.”
“Universities like Princeton have done a good job at expanding and diversifying their undergraduate populations,” Miller added.
“If we want to make similar strides on the graduate level, we must find new ways to recruit and enroll graduate students who may be the first in their families to attend college, and from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds.”
The assertion is that one way to do this is to do away with standardized testing, because, as Princeton director of graduate studies for classics Johannes Haubold puts it, “there is concern that standardized tests are culturally biased in favor of certain groups; and that they end up testing primarily how good one is at taking tests.” Haubold also brought up resource concerns, noting that some students can afford coaching for standardized tests while others cannot.
Brown University announced a similar initiative earlier in October, eliminating GRE requirements for 24 doctoral programs. The university reasoned that doing so would “attract a wider pool of applicants” and “reduce barriers that discourage some students from groups historically underrepresented in higher education and from low-income backgrounds from applying for admission.”
Brown Graduate School Dean Andrew G. Campbell insisted that “by removing the Graduate School’s GRE requirement and allowing programs to decide whether to require the exam, we will broaden the talent pool of students who apply to and have access to graduate education at Brown.”
Both universities’ new policies will go into effect for applications for programs starting in fall 2020. Among programs with modified requirements are both universities’ neuroscience programs, as well as Princeton’s molecular biology graduate program and Brown’s biomedical engineering and biotechnology programs.
The moves by Princeton and Brown to drop GRE requirements for some graduate programs comes just months after another Ivy League school, Cornell University, dropped the same requirement from its biomedical engineering program over concerns that such requirements “can be biased against” women, minorities.
Italy Declares State Of Emergency As Record Flooding In Venice Worsens
After “apocalyptic” flooding brought the city of Venice “to its knees” on Wednesday, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte declared a state emergency, giving Venice access to millions in disaster recovery money to help repair the damage from what appears to be the second-worst round of flooding in 50 years.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte declared a state of emergency for the city of Venice late Thursday due to exceptionally high tides – rising to 71 inches above their benchmark on Wednesday, the highest in half a century. On Friday morning they were 61 inches above normal, according to Bloomberg.
At one point, a classic Banksy mural of a refugee in a life jacket became almost halfway covered by floodwaters.
Banksy mural partially submerged in Venice
As the flooding worsened, Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro blamed the flooding on climate change, while some pointed to political failures and corruption.
According to local data initially reported by Italy’s ANSA newswire, Venice suffered its second exceptionally high tide in a week on Friday, with waters rising 154 centimeters – or 61 inches – above their benchmark.
The historic city, which was constructed on a network of canals between hundreds of small islands in the Adriatic sea, was still reeling from the 187-centimeter tide it recorded on Wednesday, the highest in half a century.
Bracing for Friday’s tide, Brugnaro closed St. Mark’s Square after the 11th century basilica there flooded. The city’s water buses, known as vaporetti, were suspended because of the rising tide, and schools were also closed. He has blamed the floods on climate change, while Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio has raised the issue of political corruption as a factor in the flooding.
“Venice is the victim of climate change and corruption,” Italy’s Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio said Thursday in Washington, according to Ansa. “I don’t know which is worse, but Venice is suffering from both.”
Though waters have been rising in Venice in recent years, flooding of this magnitude is rare, and typically only happens once a decade.
The chart below should illustrate just how rare this is. Instances of water rising more than 150 centimeters above the benchmark are rare and usually occur about once in a decade, not twice within a week.
Early Wednesday, about50% of the city had been reported flooded by the unusual tide, and somereports into overnight Wednesday say the city was as much as 85% under water.
Di Maio also spoke about the mobile dams which are currently under construction to protect the Venice lagoon from these rising tides. The project is called MOSE, and it’s already well over its budget of 5.5 billion euros and counting, it’s believed that the devices won’t be ready until at least 2022 (if Venice isn’t entirely underwater before then).
The project, which has been plagued by technical failures, is now under investigation by the Judiciary.
The global oil market could be entering unchartered waters in the coming weeks. After the US shale revolution, which threatened OPEC’s hold on and the stability of the market, a new danger is lurking around the corner.
The Aramco IPO, the largest IPO in history, will not only impact OPEC but will also have repercussions for the Kingdom, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the entire GCC region.
Most analysts have pointed out that there are some major issues with the company’s financials, its valuation and possible returns for the Kingdom. International banks are presenting their own IPO valuations, indicating a wide range of price targets, leaving a lot of room for speculation. At the same time, Aramco’s IPO prospectus indicates some threats which seem not to have been included in most analyses, such as the impact of flattening oil demand growth, potential legal repercussions if listed on Western stock exchanges and the potential lack of interest from US and European institutional investors.
And the financials are just one thing analysts are reviewing. Legal risks, including the 9/11 bill, the attitude of the U.S. congress, and the NOPEC bill could pose a major threat to the future of Aramco.
The possibility of investing in an oil company that could be sued for so-called terrorism or violent actions taken by third parties may be new but oil companies have always been targets of legal cases.
In the recent past, we have seen several court cases and class action lawsuits against companies such as Shell, ENI, Total and BP. And, when listed, Aramco will be more of a “normal” company than it has ever been. Saudi Arabia is taking a risk that is not yet quantifiable but which presents a ‘clear and present danger’.
Aramco could also be facing the same scrutiny that other IOCs are currently facing from global warming activists. If climate cases are filed in the US, or some European countries, Aramco could find itself in trouble. Multi-billion-dollar claims should be expected as activists will see the world’s biggest oil company as a symbol against which their cause can rally.
The success of the Aramco IPO, driven by Asian and non-Western institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and even IOCs, has another non-environmental problem as well. As the main actor within OPEC, Aramco will have to act differently when addressing the market if it wants to be a real listed oil company. Shareholders, even from countries that are really inclined to address global warming issues, will still want to see rising profits and a steady dividend. In this increasingly difficult environment, Aramco will have to deliver to both the Saudi state and its new investors.
Acting as a normal oil giant will require a serious change in attitude, management and goals. Even though the company is not officially directly owned or linked to the Saudi government, the company has always been an instrument of the Kingdom’s geopolitical and economic strategy. Aramco’s production and investments have always been clearly linked to the future of Saudi Arabia and the geopolitical stakeholders it represents.
A stock market listed Aramco would have to break with this strategy, putting the company on a collision course with OPEC’s agenda. Shareholders will not be very happy if Aramco’s production volumes are determined by the oil cartel’s members. On the other hand, if Aramco decides not to comply with OPEC, it will render the cartel powerless. At present Saudi officials are vehemently denying that OPEC is being threatened, so shareholders and potential investors should be aware of this major issue before investing in the company.
While the risks are high, some positive things should be noted too. The Aramco IPO has already led to some unexpected positive changes in the GCC region. One could argue that thanks to the IPO circus, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are not yet at war. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have understood that risking a war would have not only have meant a bloody conflict, but also the end to most of the region’s economic and social diversification plans. Oil and money now seem to have prevented an all-out war with Iran. Next to this, Saudi Arabia’s ill-fated adventure in Yemen seems to be entering its final phase. More and more rumors show that the involved parties are negotiating a deal that could end the Saudi-UAE confrontation with the Houthis. At the same time, the anti-Qatar Arab coalition (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt) have openly shown willingness to remove some of the sanctions they imposed on Qatar. Opening up may come with its risks, but there may also be some more unintended positive consequences.
Libyan Official Urges New US Intervention After Russians Seen “On Front Lines”
A new report in Axiossuggests that Russia has significantly increased its presence in war-torn Libya, perhaps seeking to clean up the mess left in the wake of the US-NATO led regime change war which toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
This after a recent NY Times investigation found that at least 200 Russian mercenaries from Wagner Group have been in Libya supporting renegade General Khalifa Haftar’s offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
Soldier allied to the UN-backed government in Tripoli deployed in Sirte, Libya, via Reuters.
Eight years after Gaddafi’s overthrow and brutal field execution at the hands of NATO-backed rebel Islamists, the oil and gas abundant country is still in the throes of grinding factional civil war.
Interior Minister for Tripoli’s GNA Fathi Bashagha told Axios the unfolding “proxy war” will doom the country to become “a haven for terrorists and extremists” unless the US steps in again.
However, the few times the Trump administration has weighed in on the continuing violence, it actually voiced support for Haftar and his Benghazi-based Libyan National Army (LNA), who are “securing the oil” – Trump said last April.
Al Jazeera screenshot of forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar fighting Libya’s UN-based government.
So ironically Washington and Moscow may currently be on the same side in terms of the major players in Libya; however, other powerful states like Turkey are giving active military support to the GNA in Tripoli.
The UN-backed GNA has perceived growing Russian presence on the ground of late, per Axios:
Bashagha says he began to hear reports of Russian involvement over the summer, including from locals who described groups of light-skinned people “taking the roads through the desert.”
Bloomberg: “More than 100 mercenaries from the Wagner group headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as ‘Putin’s chef’ for his Kremlin catering contracts, arrived at a forward base in Libya in the first week of September to support eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar’s assault on the capital Tripoli.”
“By August, they were on the front lines,” the Libyan Interior Minister continued. “The tactics used by Haftar’s forces drastically changed. The operations were becoming very professional.” He also alleged Russian snipers active in the battles, which have been “very effective and very harmful to our forces.”
Underscoring frustration at the confused mess which outside powers have added to in the developing proxy war, Bashagha added, “Ironically, the countries that support Haftar while he attacks a government that is internationally recognized are also allied with the United States.”
Tripoli-based Libyan Interior Minister (GNA) Fathi Bashagha, via Afrique Panorama
Addressing two Arab states currently providing heavy weapons to Haftar, he added: “We are hoping that the U.S. will help push against the UAE and Egypt, to stop their meddling in our country,” according to the Axios report.
“That American withdrawal made many regional countries have their proxy wars, their wars of interest on Libyan soil. And finally now it’s the Russians,” Bashagha said, though predictably (given his government is now in power) without recognizing it was American military intervention in the first place that’s the root of Libya’s continued chaos.
Roger Stone Found Guilty Of Lying About 2016 Leaks
Longtime GOP operative and Trump associate Roger Stone was found guilty on seven counts related to lying about upcoming WikiLeaks releases during the 2016 US election, along with obstruction and witness tampering.
After a trial that spanned just over a week, a federal court jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Stone on five felony counts of lying to investigators, one of obstructing a congressional probe and one of witness tampering.
The charges against Stone were brought by Robert Mueller and handed off to career federal prosecutors in Washington after the special counsel’s Russia probe ended this spring. –Politico
Count One alleges that Stone obstructed the House committee’s investigation by denying he had emails and other documents about WikiLeaks-related contacts. During his House testimony, Stone was asked if he had “emails to anyone concerning the allegations of hacked documents … or any discussions you have had with third parties about [WikiLeaks]?” Stone answered that he did not, when in fact he had a bunch of emails and other communications. The obstruction charge also alleges Stone attempted to prevent Credico from testifying or tried to convince him to testify falsely.
Counts two through six concern specific statements to the House committee. Count Two is based on Stone’s assertion that he did not have emails.
Count Three alleges that Stone lied when he said that Credico was his only “go-between” to Assange, when in fact, Stone was also in contact with Corsi for that purpose. “At no time did Stone identify [Corsi] to [the House] as another individual Stone contacted to serve as a ‘go-between,'” the indictment says.
Count Four alleges that Stone lied when he said he did not ask Credico to communicate anything to Assange, when in fact Stone asked both Credico and Corsi to get in touch with Assange “to pass on requests … for documents Stone believed would be damaging to the Clinton campaign.”
Count Five alleges that Stone lied when he told the House that he and Credico did not communicate via text message or email about WikiLeaks. Stone told the committee the two talked over the phone, when in fact, according to the indictment, “Stone and [Credico] … engaged in frequent written communications by email and text message.”
Count Six alleges that Stone lied when he testified that he had never discussed his conversations with Credico with anyone at the Trump campaign, when in fact, “Stone spoke to multiple individuals involved in the Trump campaign about what he claimed to have learned from his intermediary to [WikiLeaks].”
Count Seven is a witness tampering charge, alleging that Stone tried to convince Credico to take the Fifth or to lie to the House committee.
Jack Ma Warns Trade War Could Last 20 Years Amid Threats Globalization Has Peaked
Get ready for two decades of a US-China trade war and the peak of globalization, Jack Ma, the co-founder and former chairman of Alibaba Group, told Bloomberg TV Thursday evening in an exclusive interview.
Ma warned that Sino-American relations could experience 20-years of “turbulence” if trade disputes aren’t solved in a timely fashion.
“We have to be very, very careful,” Ma said. “We have to solve problems, and we should not create more problems.”
Ma said China and the US must work together in supporting globalization, by sharing technology and prosperity across the world.
Alibaba Co-Founder Jack Ma speaks to @YIbukun about his mission to help entrepreneurs in Africa, the US-China trade war, and whether he still plans to list Ant Financial. Watch the full exclusive with on @BloombergTV@businesspic.twitter.com/ea7MdyXNOa
Failure to resolve trade disputes in the next several years could confirm “peak” globalization. This means policy-driven de-globalization will flourish across countries and lead to lower trade volumes, shrinking global GDP, more uncertainty, and a possible trade recession as complex supply chains are reworked.
An instant rollback in the trade war between both China and the US wouldn’t immediately lead a resurgence in globalization but rather a plateau — as the damage has already been done.
The de-globalization scenario is becoming more plausible by the day, despite meaningless trade headlines from the Trump administration of an imminent trade deal to pump the stock market. The trend is in place, and the global economy has likely entered or about to enter a worldwide trade recession.
Ma could be right; several decades of a trade war are likely. Investors are not positioned for the volatility ahead.
