| March 23, 2022 | | | |  | Jeff Bergstrom
Editor
John Lothian News | |
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| | | | Lead Stories | | | Options mavens see stock rebound as chance to pick up downside protection
Saqib Iqbal Ahmed - Reuters
Risk appetite has rebounded on Wall Street after a brutal start to the year, but some strategists warn the lull in volatility may be brief and urge investors to guard against more stock market gyrations.
The Cboe Volatility Index - an options-based measure of expected 30-day volatility for U.S. stocks that some call Wall Street's fear gauge - fell to a five-week low of 22.81 on Tuesday, just two weeks after closing at a one-year high.
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Trafigura's finance chief warns of trading house collapses; Fears that volatility will push capital requirements so high some smaller operators will fail
Neil Hume and Harry Dempsey - FT
The crisis in global energy markets will force some smaller commodity traders out of business and unleash a wave of consolidation in the sector, a senior executive at one of the world's largest trading houses has warned. Christophe Salmon, Trafigura's chief financial officer, said the spike in capital needed to keep commodities flowing around the world since Russia invaded Ukraine would squeeze smaller trading houses out of the market.
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The Fed's 'clarity' on its aggressive path of rate hikes has reignited risk appetite among retail investors, research firm says
Carla Mozee - Business Insider
Retail investors have returned to buying more than $1 billion a day in US stocks and exchange-traded funds, and it appears their appetite for risk has been spurred by the Federal Reserve telegraphing last week that big interest rates hikes are on the way, according to research firm Vanda.
"[We] see that once clarity on the path of rates hikes emerged, retail jumped back onto their favorite (oft heavily shorted) stocks," Marco Iachini and Giacomo Pierantoni, senior vice president and head of data, respectively, at the London-based firm said in a note Wednesday.
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Municipal-Bond Market Volatility Roars Back in Worst Quarter Since 1994
Bloomberg
Volatility has come roaring back in the municipal-bond market.
The $4 trillion state and local-debt market just logged its most volatile 10-day period since the early 2020 selloff, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Benchmark yields rose as much as 11 basis points on Tuesday, driving the market to its worst day of performance since April 2020. Munis were little changed as of 12 p.m. Wednesday.
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Nickel Price's Wild Moves Continue as LME Futures Jump by 15% Limit
Mark Burton, Jack Farchy and Alfred Cang - Bloomberg
Nickel surged by the 15% daily limit on the London Metal Exchange, adding to a string of sharp price moves as the market attempts to reset following a massive short squeeze.
Nickel futures were locked limit-up at $32,380 a ton by early afternoon in London, in the first day of gains since the market reopened on March 16 with new price restrictions aimed at preventing a repeat of this month's chaos. Prices plunged by the limits with very little volume in the first four days of trading, before reaching a level on Tuesday where buyers finally returned to the market.
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Column: Oil shocks don't always short-circuit stocks
Jamie McGeever - Reuters
Surging oil prices dent economic activity and fuel inflation, but are not necessarily bad for stock markets.
A look at four previous major oil shocks - 1974, 1979, 1990 and 2000 - suggests it is a brave investor who bets with any certainty how equities will react over the coming year to the current surge in energy prices.
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| | | | | | Exchanges | | | William Brodsky: A Pivotal Figure in Listed Derivatives
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
William (Bill) J. Brodsky, 78, has been in the investment business for over 50 years, serving as the top executive at several major exchanges. "I've been very fortunate to have had a career that has been not only interesting and diverse, but also very fulfilling," he said.
During his combined 35 years career at the CME and Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe), he was recognized as a global leader in the development of the futures and options markets. "I developed relationships and helped advise many startup futures and options exchanges around the world and contributed to the creation of many major futures and option products such as stock index future and options as well as the VIX suite of volatility products," Brodsky said.
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| | | | | | Strategy | | | GameStop shares soar 30% and take other meme stocks on a ride, after Reddit poster touts shares at a '58.2%' discount
MarketWatch
The thing about meme stocks is that sometimes they move like meme stocks.
Shares of GameStop GME and AMC Entertainment AMC rocketed upward Tuesday, helping to create a draft for related names like Bed Bath & Beyond and Hycroft Mining Holding Corp., with new and old meme names apparently benefiting from bullishness by retail investors on Reddit.
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| | | | | | Miscellaneous | | | Fed Must Pick Between Inflation or Recession, Says Mohamed El-Erian
Phil Rosen - Business Insider
Famed economist Mohamed El-Erian doesn't think there's an optimal, soft-landing outcome for the
Federal Reserve
as it tries to tame inflation, and that it is facing a lose-lose situation.
"The whole point of forward policy guidance by the Fed is to bring along the markets in an orderly fashion," El-Erian told Bloomberg on Tuesday. "Instead, we're seeing the markets run away further from the Fed and do so in a disorderly fashion, and that is why the risk of a policy mistake is so high."
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The stock market hit its COVID low 2 years ago today --- Here's how the performance stacks up
MarketWatch
It's the second anniversary Wednesday of the lows set in the U.S. stock-market plunge triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Stocks have stumbled in 2022, but the S&P 500 has more than doubled, rising 101.65% through Tuesday's close, since the March 23, 2020, pandemic bottom at 2,237.40 â it's best two-year rolling performance since 1937, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
/jlne.ws/3wMVrjR
Wall Street Bonuses Jump to a Record $257,500. Here's What Drove the Gains.
Sabrina Escobar - Barron's
The average bonus on Wall Street jumped 20% to a record high of $257,500 in 2021, according to annual estimates released by the New York state comptroller.
Low interest rates and a burgeoning market for initial public offerings drove the increase in bonuses, the comptroller's office found.
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An Alleged Fraud Uncovered by a Short Seller Ends in Gunfire
Ben Foldy - WSJ
Matthew Beasley wasn't surprised when three FBI agents rang his doorbell.
Authorities were asking questions about a high-return, zero-risk investment plan that his law firm helped run. They had already visited an associate.
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