| December 27, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Today is the 97th birthday of Lee B. Stern, who is the longest tenured member of the Chicago Board of Trade. Lee is a Chicago legend and FIA Hall of Fame member who once owned the champion Chicago Sting soccer team and has been a long-time part-owner of the Chicago White Sox since 1975 and the days of Bill Veeck. He is the patriarch of a CBOT trading family.
Lee was one of the first traders profiled in the John Lothian Profiles series that preceded The Open Outcry Traders History Project. You can see his interview HERE or below. The FIA has a short interview of Lee HERE talking about his experiences on the trading floor.
If you would like to send Lee a birthday greeting today, you can do so by sending an email to LeeBSternBirthdayGreetings@johnlothian.com. I know he and his family would appreciate it.
Women in Financial Markets (WIFM) announced on LinkedIn their first conference, 'Taking The Next Leap: The Future of Financial Markets,' set for February 29, 2024, at WilmerHale's New York offices. The event will feature discussions on key financial market changes driven by technology, evolving structures, and innovative funding sources, alongside talks with successful women in finance. Stay tuned for more details.
Harvard Business Review reported "Research shows that loneliness has the same effect as 15 cigarettes a day in terms of health care outcomes and health care costs." Also, "Lonelier workers perform more poorly, quit more often, and feel less satisfied with their jobs."
Tony Rehagen has one of the best jobs of 2023. Besides writing for Bloomberg he had the job of trying 879 different beers to come up with "The 11 Best Beers of the Year, Chosen by a Guy Who Tasted 879."
Last Friday I closed on the real estate transaction buying my brothers out of the home in Williams Bay, Wisconsin that our parents built and my father designed. It was important to keep it in the family and it fell to me to make sure that happened. Needless to say, my brothers enjoyed a nice Christmas present.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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Republished from 2014: John Lothian Profiles - Lee Stern
JohnLothianNews.com
Lee Stern has seen it all in his career - the highs of great markets and the lows of market scandal. After completing his military service in 1947, Stern enrolled in Roosevelt College and then found his way to the Chicago Board of Trade after answering an ad for a runner on the floor. From there, he began what has been a 65-year career as a trader, broker and member at the CBOT. Stern recalls the thrill of making his first spread trade and the low point in 1992, when a customer schemed to manipulate the bond market and lost $9 million. That event led to a brief suspension and its eventual exit as a clearing member firm.
Watch the video »
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Scientists Destroy Illusion That Coin Toss Flips Are 50-50; Researchers go to great lengths to prove a tiny bias in coin flipping
Shi En Kim - Scientific American
The phrase "coin toss" is a classic synonym for randomness. But since at least the 18th century, mathematicians have suspected that even fair coins tend to land on one side slightly more often than the other. Proving this tiny bias, however, would require hundreds of thousands of meticulously recorded coin flips, making laboratory tests a logistical nightmare. Frantisek Bartos, currently a Ph.D. candidate studying the research methods of psychology at the University of Amsterdam, became intrigued by this challenge four years ago. He couldn't round up enough volunteers to investigate it at first. "Nobody was stupid enough to spend a couple of weekends flipping coins," he says. But after he began his Ph.D. studies, he tried again, recruiting 47 volunteers (many of them friends and fellow students) from six countries. Multiple weekends of coin flipping later, including one 12-hour marathon session, the team had performed 350,757 tosses, shattering the previous record of 40,000.
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****** Why do I think they had a 50-50 chance of getting this wrong?~JJL
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How regulating banks inspired my children's books; Financial literacy should start early - the principles will stay with you throughout your life
Sheila Bair - Financial Times
I am a former financial regulator. I also write children's books. Since I started doing this on the side in 2006, these two endeavours have been surprisingly complementary. I've always advocated for strong legal protections, and accountability for financial bad guys. But I'm also convinced we must do more to teach consumers at an early age how to protect themselves. My books are written for young children, with families encouraged to read and learn from them together. The stories are not dissimilar from those in classical fairy tales. Think about the witch offering a starving Hansel and Gretel something to eat, or the wolf pretending to be the loving grandmother of a lonely Red Riding Hood. Financial abuses similarly involve a villain exploiting the vulnerable. So many real life episodes could be avoided if victims reflected on common childhood advice.
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****** Once upon a time there was a big bad bank regulator...~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our top story Tuesday was Bloomberg's US LNG Cargoes to Asia Embark on Longer Routes to Avoid Red Sea. Second was NFTs died a slow, painful death in 2023 as most are now worthless, from NewScientist. Third was The Wall Street Journal's Israeli War Cabinet Meets to Consider Egyptian Proposal to End War in Gaza.
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| Lead Stories | Asian retail traders help drive 24-hour market for US stocks; Nascent trading for night owls benefits from overseas interest
Jennifer Hughes - Financial Times
A surge of enthusiasm from Asia is creating a 24-hour retail market for US-listed companies, underscoring New York's position as the world's home for share trading. US brokers and trading platforms say activity in the so-called overnight period between 8pm and 4am eastern time has risen sharply this year, driven by demand from smaller investors in Asia and Europe. The shift comes after the benchmark S&P 500 rose by almost a quarter this year, and closes in on its all-time high, and the US continues to pull in initial public offerings from companies around the world.
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It Was a Tough Year for Almost Every Bank Not Named JPMorgan
Hannah Levitt and Max Abelson - Bloomberg
More than a decade after regulators vowed to tame the risks of too-big-to-fail banks, White House officials were on a call. Why, one attendee asked, was JPMorgan Chase & Co. allowed to buy First Republic Bank that morning in a government-led auction? After a year marred by the biggest US bank failures since the 2008 financial crisis, the nation's largest lender is on familiar footing - scooping up a weakened rival, reeling in its clients and minting record profits along the way.
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SPAC Mania's Ugly End Yields $46 Billion of Investor Losses
Jonathan Randles and Amelia Pollard - Bloomberg
Wall Street's affair with blank-check firms, the finance fad that pushed companies onto the stock market during the Covid-19 pandemic, ended this year with a string of big bankruptcies and even bigger losses for shareholders. At least 21 firms that went public by merging with special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, went bankrupt this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Measured from their peak market capitalizations, the insolvencies bookend the loss of more than $46 billion of total equity value.
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JPMorgan takes almost a fifth of total US bank profits; Wall Street lender is the biggest US bank on almost every measure, including profits, deposits and branches
Joshua Franklin - Financial Times
JPMorgan Chase captured almost a fifth of all US bank profits in the first nine months of 2023, capitalising on a year of turmoil for the country's financial sector to emerge even more dominant. Its US banking subsidiary earned $38.9bn in profits - about 18 per cent of the industry's total - according to FT calculations based on figures from industry tracker BankRegData.
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How China Manages Its Currency-and Why That Matters; It isn't just about economics. The yuan has a political and psychological importance too.
Weilun Soon - The Wall Street Journal
China's approach to its currency is a mix of bold ambition and fear of dollar strength. The yuan has lost more than 3% of its value against the greenback this year and was doing even worse before the dollar slipped against most global currencies in November. The yuan traded around 16-year lows against the dollar in September. A dollar now buys around 7.15 yuan.
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How Much Damage Have Central Bankers Done? A Lot; This columnist's book selections highlight the wreckage of ultra-loose monetary policy.
Merryn Somerset Webb - Bloomberg
What's Christmas without a fight about money, a lunch-table villain and a really good book? For those who haven't yet finished their present shopping I have some suggestions that will give you all three in one happy package. First up, someone must have a copy of You Always Hurt the One You Love: Central Bankers and the Murder of Capitalism by Bernard Connolly. You might not need much more than the title to get your row going. But it's worth reading on to nail down exactly why central bankers are almost entirely responsible for asset bubbles "unsupported by realistic expectations of future productivity," along with recent financial crises and disruptive wealth inequality. Their mistakes have been more obvious than usual in the last few years - their failure to recognize that fast-rising money supply would, with the usual 12- to 18-month lag, lead to inflation looks increasingly bizarre to even non-experts, for example.
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Attack Of The Naked Short Sellers: Mythical Beasts Of The Night OR How Meme-Stock Investors Went CULT-Y
Forbes
To paraphrase Mark Twain, it's easier to fool people into believing they'll make piles of money than it is to convince them they've been fooled. Here's the true story of stock investors who smoked so much "hopium" they lost their shirts - and their minds.
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The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I.'s Use of Copyrighted Work
Michael M. Grynbaum and Ryan Mac - The New York Times
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement on Wednesday, opening a new front in the increasingly intense legal battle over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies.
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China struggles to control data sales as companies shun official exchanges; Dozens of marketplaces have sprung up since a 2020 initiative but most transactions still happen on the black market
Eleanor Olcott and Wenjie Ding - Financial Times
China is struggling to reduce the influence of a shadow market for business data, as companies shun the official exchanges that have been set up to tighten control over the sale of information. Local governments across the country have established 48 exchanges, most of them coming after Beijing enshrined data as a national priority in 2020, making it a fifth pillar of production alongside land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. Under regulatory supervision, government bodies, state-owned enterprises and private companies can buy and sell data on everything from weather patterns to city traffic flows.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | EU readies EUR20bn plan B to fund Ukraine; Debt-based scheme would sidestep Hungary to quickly release money for Kyiv
Paola Tamma and Henry Foy - Financial Times
The EU is preparing a back-up plan worth up to EUR20bn for Ukraine, using a debt structure that sidesteps the objections of Hungary's Viktor Orban about funding the war-torn country. After EU leaders failed to agree a proposed EUR50bn four-year package for Ukraine earlier this month, officials have searched for alternatives to save Kyiv from a looming budget crisis if the bloc's differences cannot be resolved.
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Putin's Weapon to Defeat the West Is Lies. He's Winning; As polarization robs the US of shared facts, the former KGB agent leading Russia has to be smiling.
Tobin Harshaw - Bloomberg
"Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you." So said Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, but history had other ideas. Now, 30 years after the fall of the USSR, Vladimir Putin, a self-styled historian of Russian and Soviet history, seems to be on Khrushchev's wavelength. "The historical period of the West's undivided dominance over world affairs is coming to an end," he said last year during one of his interminable press conferences.
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Ukraine Looks to Break Impasse Over Mobilization With Draft Bill; Bill aims to solve dispute between political, military leaders; Ukraine suffers manpower shortages almost two years into war
Daryna Krasnolutska - Bloomberg
The Ukrainian cabinet submitted a draft law to parliament that lays out a new mobilization plan for the army, in the latest attempt to resolve disagreements between the political and military leadership over conscription as Russia's invasion enters its 23rd month. The bill envisages lowering the draft age during wartime for men with no military experience to 25 from 27, according to parliament's website. It also limits the grounds for delaying the enlistment and proposes introducing "basic military training" for citizens under 25.
/jlne.ws/3tCISIo
Russia's Using American Military Equipment in Ukraine War: Report
Kaitlin Lewis - Newsweek
Russian soldiers are reportedly still getting their hands on Western-made military equipment despite the unprecedented sanctions that have been put in place since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia has been hit with broad-ranging economic sanctions and export controls by the United States, the European Union and other allies as Western countries continue to support Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion. But according to a Tuesday report by Important Stories, a Russian investigative news site, some Kremlin snipers are using Western-made rifle scopes along the frontlines in Ukraine.
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Ukraine's Crimea Offensive; The strike against the Novocherkassk shows the Kremlin's naval fleet is no longer safe in the Black Sea.
The Editorial Board - The Wall Street Journal
The current narrative about the war in Ukraine is that Russia has regained the offensive and is making gains in the east. But that's not how it looked Tuesday on the bridge of the Novocherkassk, a Russian warship struck by Ukrainian cruise missiles.
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In Putin's Russia, Snitching Enforces a United Front-and an Outlet for Revenge; Thousands of people are believed to have fallen victim to informers
Ann M. Simmons - The Wall Street Journal
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Ukraine strikes Russian naval landing warship, Moscow admits damage
Andrew Osborn and Max Hunder - Reuters
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Russia warns Japan over providing Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine
Reuters
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Israel warns of regional conflict risk as Iran tensions increase; Defence minister Yoav Gallant says country is facing attacks on seven fronts
Neri Zilber and Raya Jalabi - Financial Times
Israel's defence minister has warned of a growing risk of a regional conflict in the Middle East as tensions with Iran increase. Yoav Gallant on Tuesday told a parliamentary committee that Israel was being attacked in a "multi-arena war" from seven areas, which he identified as Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. "We have already responded and acted in six of these arenas and I say here in the most explicit way - anyone who acts against us is a potential target, there is no immunity for anyone," he said.
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Houthi Attacks and US Strikes Heighten Risk of Wider Middle East War; Austin says US will take 'necessary measures' for protection; Iran-backed Houthi rebels hit another ship in the Red Sea
Iain Marlow - Bloomberg
US strikes on targets in Iraq and fresh attacks by Houthi militants on shipping in the Red Sea provided the latest warning signs that the war in Gaza risks expanding into a wider conflict destabilizing the Middle East. The Pentagon said late Monday that its forces launched strikes on three installations in Iraq linked to Kataib Hezbollah. Washington said the Iraqi insurgent group that's backed by Iran was behind an attack that injured three US personnel, leaving one in critical condition.
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Israel pummels central Gaza, dozens more Palestinians killed
Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Bassam Masoud and Dan Williams - Reuters
Israeli forces pounded central Gaza by land, sea and air on Wednesday and Palestinian authorities reported dozens more deaths including 20 in one attack after Israel's military chief said the war on Hamas would grind on for months. Reflecting Israeli resolve to wipe out Hamas despite growing international calls for a ceasefire amid a humanitarian crisis, Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said fighting would last "many months" and there were no "magic solutions" or "shortcuts".
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Review of the Madrid Stock Exchange General Index for the first half of 2024
BME
The index will be composed by the same 111 stocks as before. The Indice General de la Bolsa de Madrid (IGBM) Management Committee, during its ordinary index review meeting has decided that the Madrid Stock Exchange General Index (IGBM) and the Indice Total will consist of111 stocks in the first half of 2024. The final weightings of sectors, sub-sectors and securities will be published in the Madrid Stock Exchange's Official Daily Bulletin on December 29th, 2023, which can be accessed via this link.
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Rent And FOT Charges 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025
London Metal Exchange
Summary. 1. This notice sets out the maximum rent and FOT charges applicable to Warehouse warrants for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. Defined Terms. 2. Unless otherwise defined in this Notice, capitalised terms shall have the same meaning as those given to them in the terms and conditions of the Warehouse Agreement (the "Warehouse Agreement").
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Delisting of Securities of SmileDirectClub, Inc.; Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc.; Elys Game Technology, Corp.'; Athersys, Inc.; Borqs Technologies, Inc.; ContraFect Corporation; CohBar, Inc.; AgileThought, Inc.; Fat Projects Acquisition Corp.; Evelo Biosciences, Inc.; Troika Media Group, Inc.; Impel Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Fresh Tracks Therapeutics, Inc.; and Near Intelligence, Inc. from The Nasdaq Stock Market.
Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Stock Market announced today that it will delist the common stock of SmileDirectClub, Inc. SmileDirectClub, Inc.'s securities were suspended on October 4, 2023, and have not traded on Nasdaq since that time. Nasdaq also announced today that it will delist the common stock of Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc.'s securities were suspended on October 16, 2023, and have not traded on Nasdaq since that time.
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On the exclusion of securities from the List of Securities Admitted to Trading and on the termination of trading in securities
MOEX
In accordance with the Listing Rules of PJSC Moscow Exchange, the Chairman of the Management Board made the following decisions on December 27, 2023 :1. Exclude from December 29, 2023.
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | X Is Elon Musk's Lonely Party Now; Our Atlantic Daily writers discuss the future of the platform.
Isabel Fattal - The Atlantic
As we close out the year, it's official: The Twitter we once knew is long gone. Elon Musk's reinvention of the platform, from its name down to its core features, has rendered it nearly unrecognizable to users. The lead writers of this newsletter, Tom Nichols and Lora Kelley, have each spent time thinking and writing about X, as well as posting and lurking on the platform. I chatted with them recently about Musk's murky logic and the new internet era he's accidentally ushered in.
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Indonesia's Bank Mandiri 'strikes back' at fintech rivals; Apps now core to state-owned lender's expansion, says president-director
Erwida Maulia - Nikkei via Financial Times
Surging downloads and use of its two-year-old digital banking apps are boosting the confidence of Indonesia's top lender Bank Mandiri, as fintech players try to retain existing customers while looking for more among the country's large unbanked population, the bank's chief told Nikkei Asia.
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The TRADE predictions series 2024: Front-to-back technological enhancements; Participants across Tradeweb, Bloomberg and VoxSmart anticipate front-to-back technology advancements will be a key shift in 2024, diving into demand for support of the buy-side's entire investment book and changes in trading protocols.
Editors - The Trade
The request-for-market (RFM) protocol will continue to be the next frontier for electronic trading in emerging markets. Having gained significant traction over the past few years, the protocol allows buy-side participants to ask dealers for a two-way market rather than a price based on one direction. The use of the RFM protocol grew from 59% to 71% of total business from Q3 2022 to Q3 this year, with the RFQ protocol usage falling from 41% to 29%, whilst the business grew by 92% across that same period. This is illustrative of the markets' protocol preferences changing, and RFM proving its worth as an important tool.
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Qatar's Edaa postpones T+2 switch until March; Delay set to provide market participants with more time to update systems and implement new procedures.
Chris Lemmon - The Trade
The Qatari CSD Edaa has postponed the reduction of the settlement period from T+3 to T+2 until March 2024, in coordination with the Qatar Financial Market Authority (QFMA). Sheikh Saif bin Abdullah Al-Thani, CEO of Edaa, indicated that the deadline was granted so that market participants, financial intermediaries and custodians could update their systems and notify their clients of the new procedures in preparation for its implementation.
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The TRADE predictions series 2024: Utilising data for better outcomes; Participants across Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions (BTCS), TMX Datalinx, SS&C Wealth & Investment Technologies and BMLL Technologies, deep dive into the data trends for 2024, particularly the need for reliable data.
Editors - The Trade
Back in 2020, we said the race for speed was over, and the global race for quality data and analytics was on. We see this continuing, and the industry-wide lack of quant resources - critical for researching, analysing and understanding market behaviour - adds both complexity and urgency to this race. The quest for quality historical market data, without gaps and spikes, will intensify. The market has been dominated by real-time firms whose historical product is little more than their exhaust! If historical content is driving decision-making, then quality becomes the most important aspect, whatever your firm's level of sophistication.
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The TRADE's most read stories of the year part one: Major acquisitions, senior appointments and exchange outages; Counting down from 10 to eight of the most read news stories on The TRADE over the past year, featuring Marex, Cowen, Ninety One, and the London Stock Exchange.
Editors - The Trade
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Big Tech outspends venture capital firms in AI investment frenzy; Microsoft, Google and Amazon crowd out traditional Silicon Valley investors in blockbuster deals with AI start-ups in 2023
George Hammond - Financial Times
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New York Times Sues Microsoft and OpenAI, Alleging Copyright Infringement; News publisher says AI tools use its content without permission; tech companies have said training AI with web content is 'fair use'
Alexandra Bruell - The Wall Street Journal
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Cybersecurity in the Year Ahead: Think 2023 on Steroids
Kim S. Nash - The Wall Street Journal
Companies in 2023 saw rising cybersecurity threats, rising regulation and rising costs for cyber insurance, while dealing with tight budgets and a tighter labor market. The year ahead will bring no letup.
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The Epic Rise of Cybersecurity in 2024
Prakhar - Medium
The rising tide of technology meets its match in the cybersecurity surge, crafting a future where safety and innovation coexist. In an era dominated by digital advancements, the importance of cybersecurity has never been more pronounced. As we step into 2024, the landscape of cybersecurity is experiencing a remarkable boom, driven by evolving threats, technological innovations, and an increased reliance on digital infrastructure. This blog delves into the key factors contributing to the cybersecurity surge in 2024 and explores the trends shaping the industry.
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Through The 2024 Looking Glass: Navigating Advanced Cybersecurity Terrain
Grayson Milbourne - Forbes
As we approach 2024, the evolving cybersecurity landscape will meet an intersection between innovation and vulnerabilities. I believe we will experience a significant leap in the sophistication of phishing techniques fueled by the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI). Simultaneously, last year's surge of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) attacks will likely continue, making them more accessible and encouraging the widespread adoption of SBOMs to help uncover software vulnerabilities. Having a proactive and informed defense will be essential to navigate the next era of cybersecurity threats.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Chairman Leaves Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's Sponsor as Investors Await Call on ETF
Bill Alpert - The Wall Street Journal
Just as cryptocurrency fans are expecting the first regulatory approvals of exchange-traded funds that hold Bitcoins, the sponsor of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust said that its chairman will resign. Barry Silbert will step down Jan. 1 from the board that he chaired at Grayscale Investments LLC. Also resigning from the board is Mark Murphy, the chief operating officer of Digital Currency Group, the blockchain enterprise that Silbert founded and leads.
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Barry Silbert and Mark Murphy resign from Grayscale's board
Yogita Khatri - The Block
Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, and Mark Murphy, the president of DCG, have resigned from the board of directors at Grayscale Investments. Their resignations will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024, according to a filing submitted on Tuesday by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is currently reviewing G's application for its conversion into a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
/jlne.ws/3RAvrRf
MicroStrategy's bitcoin bet produces over 300% gain for investors in 2023
Jake Piazza - CNBC
MicroStrategy was founded almost 35 years ago and existed for most of its history as a little-known software company focused on business intelligence. But in 2023, the stock has soared 337%, making it one of the biggest gainers in the U.S. among companies valued at $5 billion or more, topping Nvidia's 234% rally and Meta's 194% surge.
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Crypto Hedge Funds Gear Up for 'Token Mania' After 2023 Rebound
Yueqi Yang and Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Crypto hedge funds that survived a bruising 2022 are recovering, and many are thriving. Some are even expecting a banner 2024. Take Dan Morehead's Pantera Capital, one of the industry's oldest and biggest funds. The firm's liquid-token fund was up nearly 80% this year as of mid-December, after falling 80% in 2022, according to a person familiar with the performance. Chainview Capital, the crypto hedge fund run by 31-year-old Dan Slavin, has doubled after an 18% decline last year, Slavin said.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Ramaswamy campaign halts TV ad spending, calling it ineffective
Hannah Knowles - The Washington Post
The presidential campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy is halting its TV advertising in the crucial final stretch leading up to the first nominating contests in January, arguing its resources are better used elsewhere as the first-time candidate lags behind several rivals in polls of the Republican race.
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Trump shares cryptic 'dictatorship' word cloud on Truth Social; It's not the first time Trump has called himself a dictator, but it's the first time he's said it via word cloud.
Eric Bazail-Eimil - Politico
Voters surveyed by the Daily Mail described former President Donald Trump's political goals as "corruption," "revenge" and "dictatorship." On Tuesday, Trump appeared to voice his agreement with their assessments.
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Sweden's Nato bid approved by Turkish parliamentary committee; Assent of foreign affairs committee leaves agreement of full parliament as final step to ratifying Stockholm's application
Ayla Jean Yackley - Financial Times
A Turkish parliamentary committee has approved Sweden's application to join Nato, lifting one of the last hurdles to the long-stalled entry bid that the alliance has said is critical for Europe's security after Russia's full invasion of Ukraine. The assent of the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday means the agreement of Turkey's parliament is the final step needed to ratify Stockholm's bid, although it was not immediately clear when that vote would be held. Hungary has also withheld its approval of the bloc's expansion, linking its consent to Turkey's stance.
Swiss Climate Activists Target the Rich With New Tax Proposal; Young Socialists want inheritance tax to fund climate action; Campaigners claim enough signatures to hold national vote
Bastian Benrath - Bloomberg
Switzerland's Young Socialists said they've collected enough signatures for a national vote on a new tax on the wealthy to cover climate change costs. The group - the youth organization of the Social Democrats, Switzerland's second-largest party - has proposed a 50% tax on inheritances exceeding 50 million francs ($59 million). According to a statement on Wednesday, this would generate around 6 billion francs a year for climate protection measures.
/jlne.ws/48xsZBT
Spain extends windfall tax on banks and energy companies; Controversial levy to be rolled over into 2025 but tax break will be introduced for green investments
Barney Jopson - Financial Times
Spain will extend a controversial windfall tax on banks and energy companies by an extra year, but has softened the blow to some businesses that oppose it by introducing a tax break for green investments. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday announced the two-year tax would be rolled over into a third year after his cabinet's final meeting of 2023, a move that will anger companies that have criticised it as unfair and harmful to business.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | On the move: FINRA Hires Feral Talib; Ted Kaouk to CFTC
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
FINRA has appointed Feral Talib as Executive Vice President and Head of Surveillance and Market Intelligence. He will assume the role on January 2. In the newly created role, Talib will be responsible for leading FINRA's surveillance program, which serves a unique and critical role in fostering the integrity of the U.S. securities markets. He will report to Stephanie Dumont, Executive Vice President and Head of Market Regulation and Transparency Services. Talib was previously the Global Head of Market Surveillance at BNP Paribas Group.
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Temporary Restraining Order Granted Against Phoenix-Area Real Estate Fund Adviser Jonathan Larmore and Affiliates In Connection with $35 Million Fraud
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained an order appointing a receiver over ArciTerra Companies, LLC ("ArciTerra") and its related affiliates. On December 21, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona issued a temporary restraining order against Phoenix-based real estate investment company ArciTerra Companies LLC and its CEO, Jonathan M. Larmore, enjoining Larmore, ArciTerra and various related entities from violating the federal securities laws, appointing a receiver over ArciTerra and its affiliated entities, freezing certain assets of Larmore and certain related entities, and providing other relief.
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Consumer Price Developments in November 2023
Monetary Authority of Singapore
This November 2023 report contains an update of the latest consumer price developments in Singapore, prepared by MAS and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
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U.S. Warns Foreign Banks They Could Face Russia Sanctions; An executive order authorizes sanctions on foreign banks that even indirectly aid Russia's 'war machine'
Richard Vanderford - The Wall Street Journal
A U.S. executive order authorizes possible new sanctions targeting Russia, including against foreign banks that help finance the country's military-industrial base. The executive order, issued Friday by President Biden, allows foreign banks facilitating significant transactions for Russia to be directly sanctioned, including with measures that block their access to correspondent banks in the U.S. Correspondent banks, mostly in New York, act as intermediaries and function as a linchpin of the global financial system.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Adjustable-Rate Mortgages Are No Longer a Bargain; Market conditions, regulatory changes erode appeal of a mortgage type typically popular when rates are high
Ben Eisen - The Wall Street Journal
Zigzag interest rates have upended a lot of things, including the appeal of an adjustable-rate mortgage. When the Federal Reserve began aggressively increasing interest rates last year, home buyers turned to ARMs, hoping to lower their mortgage costs. Now, they aren't saving much money at all, and in some cases they are paying more.
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Where Did Americans Put Their Money This Year? Everywhere; These six charts show how investing has changed heading into 2024
Gunjan Banerji - The Wall Street Journal
This was the year investors could hardly go wrong. After years of seemingly nowhere to go but the stock market, investors faced a bonanza of choices in 2023. The Federal Reserve's aggressive interest-rate hiking campaign paved the way for the most tempting yields on ultrasafe assets in decades. Investors swiftly took advantage, sending torrents of cash to corners of the market that long seemed forgotten.
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Ex-SPAC Parts ID Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Delaware; Website operator lists liabilities of at least $50 million; Company went public via merger with blank-check firm in 2020
Jeremy Hill - Bloomberg
Parts ID Inc., a publicly traded operator of ecommerce websites focused on automotive parts, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday. The company listed assets of at least $10 million against liabilities of more than $50 million in its bankruptcy petition. The filing allows Parts ID to keep operating while it works out a creditor-repayment plan.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Year in a word: Anthropocene; Scientists warn that climate change, pollution and diminishing biodiversity has pushed the world into a new era
Clive Cookson - Financial Times
(noun) A new geological epoch defined by the irreversible impact of human activity on Earth. Around the turn of this century, earth scientists started to discuss the idea that humanity had pushed the world into a new geological era through the combined effects of climate change, pollution and diminishing biodiversity.The concept of the Anthropocene - first suggested in 2000 - crystallised in 2023 when geologists selected a small lake in Canada to represent the start of the new epoch.
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2023 in Climate News; The push and pull of progress and catastrophe made 2023 one of the most discordant-and consequential-years for the world's climate.
ICN Staff - Inside Climate News
In 2023, clean energy progress and the horrors of a radically warming climate fought almost to a draw. The rise of solar power, battery storage and electric transportation helped to inspire optimism about humanity's ability to preserve a recognizable world. But the year also revealed how much damage to the climate has been done and may be locked in, and how the pain will disproportionately be felt by some of the people with the least resources. "This year was the year of tipping points, both positive and negative," said Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist, writer, and commentator who teaches at Texas Tech.
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Saffron supplies dry up as climate change shrivels Iran's 'desert gold'; Extreme weather has halved production in the biggest supplier of the world's most expensive spice
Bita Ghaffari - Financial Times
The city of Torbat-e Jam is famed for the acres of colourful crocus fields that yield one of Iran's most prized exports: saffron. But for Reza, a local farmer heaving bags of the orange-red spice into the city's bustling spice exchange, this year has been a disaster. "My family harvested only 900kg this season, down from 1,500kg," he said, blaming bad weather for decimating his precious crop.
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Swiss Climate Activists Target the Rich With New Tax Proposal; Young Socialists want inheritance tax to fund climate action; Campaigners claim enough signatures to hold national vote
Bastian Benrath - Bloomberg
Switzerland's Young Socialists said they've collected enough signatures for a national vote on a new tax on the wealthy to cover climate change costs. The group - the youth organization of the Social Democrats, Switzerland's second-largest party - has proposed a 50% tax on inheritances exceeding 50 million francs ($59 million). According to a statement on Wednesday, this would generate around 6 billion francs a year for climate protection measures.
/jlne.ws/3vlPeMK
Varroa mite parasites provide lesson for company directors; Australian legal opinion cites example of bee hive killer as example of environment risks that boards need to consider
Nic Fildes - Financial Times (opinion)
The tiny varroa mite, the parasitic scourge of the world's bee population, seems an unlikely catalyst for litigation against corporate directors. Yet a legal opinion published in Australia has highlighted the threat posed by the mites as an example of the nature-related risks that board members need to consider as part of their duties. Directors who fail to do so could be found liable for breaching their duty of care and diligence under Australia's Corporations Act.
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Who's Going to Work All Those Green Transition Jobs? There needs to be more weight on education and training in climate discussions and policies.
Lara Williams - Bloomberg
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Strong Wind Generation Turns European Power Prices Negative
Rachel Morison - Bloomberg
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Europe Gas Futures Surge on Risk of Widening War in Middle East; Benchmark contracts jump amid new attacks in the Red Sea; Oil also gains as some traders return from Christmas break
Elena Mazneva - Bloomberg
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European ESG funds face fossil fuel showdown after French ruling; France's stipulation for its sustainable ISR label could lead to billions of euros of divestments by pan-European vehicles
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
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Chinese Carmaker Overtakes Tesla as World's Most Popular EV Maker; Elon Musk once scoffed at the notion that BYD could compete with his company. Now, the automaker run by billionaire Wang Chuanfu is poised to be the new No. 1 in electric vehicles.
Danny Lee - Bloomberg
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Hundreds of Indonesian nickel workers rally to press safety demands
Reuters
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Jane Fraser's Empathy Doesn't Mean Citi Is Soft; A tough remodeling job at the underperforming bank will test the CEO's leadership in 2024.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
"You can be a straight talker without being an unpleasant person," Jane Fraser told a CNN interviewer in 2018, long before she became Citigroup's chief executive officer nearly three years ago. It was an early statement of the empathy and human touch that she has made key to her image as a leader. In 2024, Fraser will be testing this to its limit now that Citigroup has finally begun its huge and long overdue remodeling job. Fraser is trying to repair the bank's poor returns by excising layers of management and dismantling regional fiefdoms. Thousands of jobs are being cut. For some staff, the uncertainty will last well into the first quarter.
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | The business case for looking after staff mental health; Banks now see that offering support to those struggling is a good way to woo and retain workers
Brooke Masters - Financial Times
As 2024 approaches and the Covid lockdowns recede further into memory, companies everywhere are trying to establish a new normal. Some top Wall Street firms have opted for five full days back in the office. Others see a competitive advantage in offering permanent teleworking, or a careful hybrid of the two.
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How To Know If It's Time To Return To Work After A Disability
Diane Winiarski - Forbes
If you have been out of work for an extended time due to a disability, at some point in your recovery, you may consider returning to work and how best to approach it. Social Security's Ticket to Work (TTW) Program provides free support to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries. The program assists with every aspect of the process of returning to work, and it provides important insights to individuals who experience work-disrupting health issues. And this can happen to anyone at any time in their working careers.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | I've Had Trouble Hearing. Then I Tried New Glasses; EssilorLuxottica has combined function and style into a product that can help those who suffer from mild to moderate hearing loss without a bulky earpiece.
Dave Lee - Bloomberg
Earlier this year, my left ear, previously every bit as capable as my right, started letting me down. I at first had many explanations for this - a buildup of ear wax, some side effect of a sinus infection or a prolonged reaction to a lot of flying recently. It took a specialist to break it to me that I had joined the ranks of 1.25 billion people in the world who suffer from mild to moderate hearing loss.
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A New Way to Treat Back Pain; 'Pain reprocessing therapy' hopes to offer an alternative to drugs or surgery
Sumathi Reddy - The Wall Street Journal
What if the best way to treat your chronic back pain is by retraining your brain? That's the premise of a novel approach to chronic pain. Many people feel pain even after a physical injury has healed or when doctors can't find a physical cause. The approach, called "pain reprocessing therapy," tries to train the brain not to send false pain signals. Some early results are promising.
/jlne.ws/3vbhhyx
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Canary Wharf Will Test Its Owners' Unity and Resolve; Brookfield and Qatar injected £300 million into the London office complex just weeks ago. But 2024 brings intensifying challenges. Their implicit support is key.
Chris Hughes - Bloomberg
There was great relief when the owners of Canary Wharf - Brookfield Corp. and the Qatar Investment Authority - injected cash into the London campus in October. But this conurbation of steel and glass towers is now entering a more difficult phase. The implicit support of its wealthy backers remains key to Canary Wharf muddling through.
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Explosion Kills 19 at Chinese Nickel Smelter in Indonesia; A string of industrial accidents is raising questions about a nickel boom as the world becomes more reliant on Indonesia for the key mineral
Jon Emont - The Wall Street Journal
At a Chinese nickel smelter in Indonesia, workers were undertaking routine maintenance at dawn when a massive explosion rocked the facility. Waste from a furnace had flowed out and hit flammable material, resulting in the deaths of at least 19 workers and injuring dozens more as hot steam hissed out and fire ripped through the building. mThe incident on Sunday is the latest and deadliest in a string of industrial accidents in Indonesia's nickel sector, where a rapid expansion, led largely by Chinese companies, has made the country the world's top producer of the mineral. The toll raises concerns about safety standards as more Indonesian nickel-needed in ever-larger quantities to make stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries-enters global supply chains, including those of Western automakers.
/jlne.ws/3NEtfag
Trading Brokers and Tax Considerations: What You Need to Know
Pakistan Observer
When it comes to trading in the financial markets, one of the most critical but often overlooked aspects is tax considerations. Whether you are a seasoned trader or just starting, understanding the tax implications of your trading activities is essential for both your financial success and legal compliance. In this blog post, we will explore the various aspects of trading brokers and tax considerations to help you navigate this complex terrain.
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