| November 14, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
At the last gathering of the FIA at the Boca Raton conference, crypto exchanges dominated the event, sponsoring cocktail parties and dinners, and you could not turn around without seeing some crypto branding in your face. The collapse of FTX is bound to have an influence on future sponsorship for FIA events from the crypto crowd, at least in the short term, I would think. Just the absence of FTX will have a negative impact.
FTX will also negatively impact political giving to the Democratic Party, as Financial Times said Sam Bankman-Fried was the second biggest source of funds only to George Soros. And then of course there is the impact to the sports sponsorship, which FTX was very aggressive with, sponsoring everything from Major League Baseball's umpire uniforms to sports arenas.
Ultimately, there are all the charities and causes SBF hoped to fund via his "effective altruism." The key to effective altruism is that you have to hang on to the wealth long enough to be able to give it away. Or, you can be like MacKenzie Scott, and aggressively give the money away while you are still young and still have it.
Cboe continued its campaign to stamp its name on all its recent acquisitions by announcing that EuroCCP has been rebranded as Cboe Clear Europe. At the FIA's EXPO, you will not see ErisX, but rather Cboe Digital.
Rival Systems has published a video titled "Using Rival One's Spreader to Trade CME vs Coinbase Derivatives."
JLN's Sarah Rudolph covered the FIA webinar titled, "Q3 2022 Trends in Futures and Options Trading" with a story titled, "Trading Of Futures And Options On Track To A Record Year - FIA."
And for you marketing lovers out there, don't miss the piece we published last Thursday from marketing consultant Thom Lant titled "The Long And Short Of Marketing In The Markets."
The JLN Team will be in force at the FIA EXPO today and tomorrow. Editor-in-Chief Sarah Rudolph will be there as will head of video Patrick Lothian. Robby Lothian, our long-time video intern, will also be present. Laura Oatney will be at the conference as will Options Discovery Editor Alex Teng. Also look for our Contributing Editor Sally Duros. I will be there too, of course. Our CIO and JLN Options Editor Jeff Bergstrom will not be there, as he is recovering from recent dental work and looks like a hamster with puffy cheeks.
Last night I said goodbye to my mother. It may be the last time as she is in hospice and is drifting into the next world. This is a new experience for me and my family. My father died suddenly of a heart attack. My mother just turned 92 years old and up until the last 6 months was doing OK, but was losing her short term memory. She has congestive heart failure, which has made her physical condition worse recently. It is hard to say goodbye, but she lived a long life and she is dying on her terms. Soon she shall be reunited with my father, whom she loved dearly, and that gives me great peace and joy.
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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The PhillipCapital Trading Asia Symposium will take place this Wednesday, November 16 from 9am to 1.30pm (Chicago Time). The event is complimentary but space is limited. The symposium will offer insights from BSE, BT, CME Group, Japan Exchange Group (JPX), HKEX, and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) on Asian derivative markets, key developments and the latest innovations. Event highlights include a Macroeconomic Overview by Bluford Putnam, Chief Economist, CME Group; India opens up the last asset class for foreign investors - Commodities; The International City in the India Nation - Gift City (IFSC). Meet the CEO of NSE IFSC; Representatives of Financial Institutions and Companies from Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and India. Those who should attend include: Corporates, proprietary trading groups, commodity trading firms, asset managers, brokers, financial institutions and physical hedgers. FCMs and Introducing Brokers corresponding into APAC. You can go here for more information and to register.~SR
You can follow this week's events by the UN Environment Programme - Finance (UNEP FI) and its members at the COP27 global climate talks here. Recordings from last week's events are also available at the link.~SAED
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| Sponsored Content |
Asia's most dynamic derivatives exchange is now open on most Japanese National Holidays!
This year's Fall Equinox, 23rd of September, was a historical day as it marked the start of holiday trading at Osaka Exchange (OSE) and Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM). Coming out of a global pandemic and facing a shift in consumer behavior, and facing uncertainty both geo-politically and macro-economically, the move underscores Japan Exchange Group's ambition to be the market of choice for capital flows. The market honored this move with a very active trading participation from day one, as 592,723 lots traded. Since then, we have had two more holiday trading days and on both days roughly 500 thousand lots traded on both OSE and TOCOM.
As the first official trading days were an overall success and 70% of regular trading days ADV contributors were trading. Market participants both domestic and internationally applauded the move to offer additional trading opportunities.
In an increasingly interlaced and interdependent world, many Japanese domestic investors took advantage to hedge and transfer risk on OSE and TOCOM. 288 hours of additional trading opportunities and the successful start has led some of the remaining participants, that took a more cautious approach, to revisit their position and to start considering making the holiday market available to their clients.
24/7 trading and the increase of retail participation during the pandemic has had a positive effect on rejuvenating the average Japanese retail investor. The average retail investors opening new accounts were traditionally in their 40s and 50s. During the pandemic, the average was about 10 years younger, and we experienced a massive influx of new participants. This boost by younger, more agile but also still less affluent retail participants, calls for more flexible and more granular products.
OSE has therefore designed new micro futures as well as mini options contracts that will become the bridge for these new additional players to participate.
Improved financial literacy among retail, is also reflected by an increase in retail options participation, in order to further support our domestic and international retail brokers, we have designed Nikkei 225 mini options to maximize the pool of eligible retail investors to enter these products. Both products will go-live in May 2023.
Inflation and macro-economic paradigm-shifts also call for more efficient and elaborate fixed income hedging tools. OSE has grasped the opportunity to list STIRS futures from May 2023. As CCP as well as being the market for JGB futures, this move will provide unprecedented margin efficiency and market access to the Japanese and global fixed income space.
Author: Matthias Rietig, Senior Officer of OSE
Contact: Osaka Exchange / Tokyo Commodity Exchange Derivatives Business Development
E-mail: ose-dmg@jpx.co.jp
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MWE SHORT: Joe Guinan - The Cycle of Life
JohnLothianNews.com
In this video from MarketsWiki Education's World of Opportunity event in Chicago, Joe Guinan, CEO of Advantage Futures, spoke about navigating the ups and downs in the financial industry. Every year, millions join the ranks of those with investable assets and for that reason, Guinan is bullish on starting a career in finance because all of that money needs to be managed. Entering the workforce as a young professional can be tough and Guinan stresses the importance of relentlessly striving to prove yourself over and over. Some people look at graduating from college as the finish line. Guinan says the race just started.
Watch the video »
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The top 10 most-regretted college majors - and the degrees graduates wish they had pursued instead
Jessica Dickler - CNBC
Even with college application season in full swing, many families are questioning whether a four-year degree is still worth it. Some experts say the value of a bachelor's degree is fading and more emphasis should be directed toward career training. A growing number of companies, including many in tech, are also dropping degree requirements for many middle-skill and even higher-skill roles. However, earning a degree is almost always worthwhile, according to "The College Payoff," a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
/jlne.ws/3hH8o9i
******Journalism was the number one most regretted college major. Luckily, I also have a finance major, which is one of the least regretted college majors. My regrets offset against themselves.~JJL
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One of the greatest financial writers alive has been embedded with FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried for six months and has a book on the way
Steve Mollman - Fortune
Michael Lewis' next book is about FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and the best-selling author has been embedded with the disgraced crypto mogul for the past six months. That's according to reporting from The Ankler on Sunday. Lewis, of course, has seen several of his books turned into movies. For instance Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, was based on the author's 2003 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.
/jlne.ws/3E57F9s
******* The Blind Side, Redux!~JJL
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FTX's Collapse Casts a Pall on a Philanthropy Movement; Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive of the embattled cryptocurrency exchange, was a proponent and donor of the "effective altruism" movement.
Nicholas Kulish - The New York Times
In short order, the extraordinary collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX has vaporized billions of dollars of customer deposits, prompted investigations by law enforcement and destroyed the fortune and reputation of the company's founder and chief executive, Sam Bankman-Fried. It has also dealt a significant blow to the corner of philanthropy known as effective altruism, a philosophy that advocates applying data and evidence to doing the most good for the many and that is deeply tied to Mr. Bankman-Fried, one of its leading proponents and donors. Now nonprofits are scrambling to replace millions in grant commitments from Mr. Bankman-Fried's charitable vehicles, and members of the effective altruism community are asking themselves whether they might have helped burnish his reputation.
/jlne.ws/3UBe57g
******* Non-effective altruism is where you lose all the money you wanted to give away.~JJL
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The Richest Art Auction Season in History Continues This Week; New York's marquee November sales pick up where the Paul Allen sale left off, with a $3 billion-plus tally likely after all the hammers fall.
James Tarmy - Bloomberg
In light of Wednesday's $1.5 billion Paul Allen auction, where just 60 works became the largest single-owner sale by value ever, it feels almost quaint to describe New York's forthcoming November sales as "mega." And yet in the next week, Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips are set to auction roughly 2,000 lots estimated to total as much as $1.9 billion.
/jlne.ws/3E6vKwt
****** Another way to do it is to keep it all to the end by investing in art and football teams, then liquidate it all. Where does this money go, though?~JJL
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Advice to older workers: don't be the office curmudgeon; Grumbling about younger peers is not only ageing, it makes the complainer seem resistant to progress
Emma Jacobs - Financial Times
Forget the grey hairs and the deepening crows' feet. At work, there is nothing more ageing than becoming an office curmudgeon, rolling your eyes, banging on about entitled youth and muttering: "It made me who I am." Or worse, "Well, it didn't do me any harm!" Such curmudgeonliness is often evident when it comes to demands for improved working patterns, such as remote work, increased diversity and flexible hours. Last year, Xavier Rolet, then chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, hit out at "entitled" Goldman Sachs analysts who complained about their long days, saying that when he was young, he worked "far more than 80 hours".
/jlne.ws/3TtLVcU
*****One does not have to be old to be a curmudgeon. For some of us, it came naturally at an early age.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was, unsurprisingly, Bankman-Fried Resigns From FTX, Puts Empire in Bankruptcy, from Bloomberg. Second was Bankman-Fried's Cabal of Roommates in the Bahamas Ran His Crypto Empire - and Dated. Other Employees Have Lots of Questions, from CoinDesk. And completing the Bankman-Fried trifecta was Global regulators circle Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange, from the Financial Times.
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
Editor-in-Chief
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Editor
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| Lead Stories | Big Investors Are Giving Up on Crypto Markets Going Mainstream; Bitcoin as a portfolio diversifier hasn't worked for investors; Crypto won't 'find a home in institutional asset allocation'
Sujata Rao-Coverley and Lynn Thomasson - Bloomberg
Institutional investors were souring on cryptocurrencies even before this week. The sudden downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX.com may have permanently damaged their prospects of being included in mainstream portfolios. While plenty of industry die-hards remain, many professional money managers are saying the case for crypto as a portfolio diversifier or digital gold has been debunked. The losses are too great and the market structure is too risky, they say.
/jlne.ws/3GdPD7l
Chicago Is Coming for London's Metal Trading After LME Stumbles; CME's aluminum contract, while small, has grown rapidly; Chicago bourse has also seen growth in its cobalt contract
Yvonne Yue Li - Bloomberg
As the London Metal Exchange wades through the fallout of this year's nickel crisis, its American rival is gaining ground. Chicago-based CME Group Inc. has successful copper and precious-metals contracts but has never managed to challenge the LME's dominance in other industrial metals. This year, it has seen strong growth in both its aluminum and cobalt contracts -- aggregate open interest in CME's Comex aluminum futures contract is up more than 400% since the start of 2022, while open interest in the Comex cobalt contract has risen more than 500%.
/jlne.ws/3UBVNm8
Implosion of a Trusted Exchange Shakes the Cryptocurrency Faithful
David Yaffe-Bellany - The New York Times
It was a stunning fall for a celebrated executive who was leading the crypto industry's charge into the mainstream of finance. Over the past two years, Sam Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old entrepreneur, built a crypto exchange called FTX into a $32 billion company. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up struggling crypto firms. And he became a major political donor to Joe Biden's presidential campaign as well as a frequent, welcome presence in the halls of Congress.
/jlne.ws/3Ex14WN
Crypto.com CEO Dismisses Speculation of Financial Trouble, Says FTX Exposure Is Minimal
Sam Reynolds - CoinDesk
Expect a tough crypto winter, but Crypto.com isn't going anywhere, CEO Kris Marszalek said during a live interview hosted on its YouTube channel. Over the past week, Crypto.com's CRO token has dropped almost 45% on concerns the Singapore-based exchange will be the next to face a liquidity crisis. The exchange's daily volume has collapsed from last year's highs of around $4 billion to about $284 million this past October, according to data from Nomics, and withdrawals are on their way back up as users and investors remove their funds from the platform.
/jlne.ws/3g4vEgY
Crypto exchanges are desperate to show they're not the next FTX
Ananya Bhattacharya - Quartz
FTX's implosion has been a learning lesson for its fellow crypto exchanges. The cryptocurrency exchange went from being one of the biggest players to being bankrupt in a week marked by a chaotic series of events, included unaccounted funds, a hack, and a lost corporate partner.
/jlne.ws/3EvhsHh
Crypto exchanges race to soothe clients' nerves after FTX collapse; Binance and other trading venues vow to publish proof of reserves as crisis at Bankman-Fried's empire reverberates
Nikou Asgari and Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Digital asset exchanges are rushing to reassure clients that their funds are safe as the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto exchange ricochets through the industry. Binance, the world's biggest crypto trading venue, as well as smaller rivals including Crypto.com, OKX and Deribit, have vowed to publish proof that they hold sufficient reserves to match their liabilities to customers. Coinbase, the US-listed exchange, has also sought to distance itself from the crisis that has engulfed FTX, the digital asset venue founded by Bankman-Fried.
/jlne.ws/3hJVozq
FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried Sit in the Crosshairs of U.S. Prosecutors; The crypto exchange's collapse likely exposed the company and its founder to potential criminal liability
Dave Michaels - The Wall Street Journal
FTX's offshore status and its willingness to keep American traders off its Bahamas-based exchange in large part shielded the company from strict U.S. laws that govern trading and how investments can be sold to the public. But FTX's implosion last week and reports that it used customer funds to back an affiliate's risky venture investments have exposed the company and its founder to potential criminal liability, according to attorneys who specialize in white-collar criminal law.
/jlne.ws/3AeTL3o
FTX's Digital Coin Was at Heart of Crypto Exchange's Fall; Currency highlights links between FTX and trading firm that held, traded and borrowed against the asset
Patricia Kowsmann, Caitlin Ostroff and Vicky Ge Huang - The Wall Street Journal
A little-traded digital currency created by Sam Bankman-Fried's now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange played a crucial role in the company's collapse. The digital currency is FTT, which was created by FTX. It isn't unusual for a crypto exchange to issue its own currency, both to allow founders and early investors to profit if the value rises and to motivate traders to use the exchange. FTT was different though because of the tight connection between FTX and Mr. Bankman-Fried's trading firm, Alameda Research, which also collapsed last week. Alameda played an unusual dual role by holding most of the FTT outstanding and being the main trading partner for the currency, according to people familiar with the transactions.
/jlne.ws/3UAZpoE
Crypto Exchange AAX Halts Withdrawals, Says FTX Put 'Immense Pressure' on Industry
Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
Cryptocurrency exchange AAX has suspended withdrawals, citing a glitch in a system upgrade. AAX is a relatively small crypto exchange: data from CoinGecko showed that trading volumes over the last month peaked at around $2 billion. Over the last 24 hours, that number had dwindled to around $180,000. By contrast, Coinbase volumes were more than $1.5 billion in the same 24-hour period.
/jlne.ws/3DYxPdG
FTX Is a Signal to Brush Up on Your Red Flags; Learn to read the fine print at the back of financial reports. That's where you can find the inconsistencies.
Matthew Brooker - Bloomberg
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked, as Warren Buffett famously said. After more than a decade or near-zero interest rates and the mother of all stock-market parties, the tide of free money is most definitely receding. The bankruptcy of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX empire is a foretaste of what may be to come. While the crypto world dances to an arcane beat that may be only tangentially connected to the realm of conventional finance, it's emblematic of more straitened times that a business valued at $32 billion only a few months ago couldn't find anyone to put up the extra funds that would enable it to keep going.
/jlne.ws/3EvL6Mq
London Loses Crown of Biggest European Stock Market to Paris;France overtakes Britain as pound sinks, luxury shares rise; Market cap gap before 2016's Brexit vote was ~$1.5 trillion
Joe Easton - Bloomberg
Britain lost its title of Europe's largest equity market to France as economic growth concerns weigh on UK assets while China's relaxation of Covid rules boosts French luxury shares. The combined market capitalization of primary listings in Paris overtook that of the London in US dollar terms, according to an index compiled by Bloomberg. Domestically-focused UK shares have slumped this year, while French luxury goods-makers like LVMH SE and Gucci owner Kering SA have recently been boosted by optimism over a potential easing of China's Covid Zero policy.
/jlne.ws/3AeUTnH
FTX Is Dead But Don't Dance on Crypto's Grave Just Yet; Markets always find new ways to implode, no matter how much regulation is imposed on them.
Mark Gilbert - Bloomberg
At his peak, crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was worth $26 billion. At the start of this week, he still had $16 billion. Following the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX and his Alameda Research trading house, his assets in the Bahamas have been frozen by the authorities, he's being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for potential violations of securities rules, and regulators in Cyprus are poised to suspend his license to operate in Europe.
/jlne.ws/3GaTQsv
MBS's Credit Suisse Stake Isn't Just Another Gulf Bank Rescue; Saudi Arabia wants the wealth-management expertise the Swiss bank brings
Anjani Trivedi and Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
As Credit Suisse Group AG is overhauled, the Saudis have swooped in to help. But the Swiss bank may end up playing its own rescue role, too. The troubled lender, beset by scandals and losses, is striking deals to raise capital from outside investors and going back to its wealth-management roots. Saudi National Bank, or SNB, majority-owned by the kingdom's Public Investment Fund and its largest lender, has committed to $1.5 billion to become a new strategic investor and take a 9.9% stake in Credit Suisse, subject to approval by existing shareholders.
/jlne.ws/3AfJFiF
Could Sam Bankman-Fried go to prison for the FTX disaster?
Jeff John Roberts - Fortune
The shock over FTX's sudden collapse is turning to anger as it becomes clear that CEO Sam Bankman-Fried used customer funds from the exchange to plug losses in his failing crypto empire. The question now is what the consequences will be for the one-time icon known to everyone as SBF. While there will be civil lawsuits as customers and investors try to recover what's left of FTX's assets, the Justice Department is also reported to be investigating, raising questions of whether the agency will file criminal charges, and whether SBF could see the inside of a prison cell. Even if the facts seem may seem damning on the surface, lawyers contacted by Fortune cited two potential obstacles to any criminal conviction-though ones prosecutors could likely overcome.
/jlne.ws/3Evp4cI
Major crypto exchange reassures investors over fears of contagion
Chris Price - The Telegraph
Investors fear cryptocurrency's equivalent of a run on the banks as the head of another popular exchange tried to reassure investors following the dramatic collapse of FTX. Crypto.com chief executive Kris Marszalek held a livestreamed Q&A on YouTube to answer questions around some transactions on the platform that had sparked speculation and fund withdrawals.
/jlne.ws/3EupQ9I
The fall of crypto exchange FTX is 'worse than Theranos, worse than Madoff' as federal probes mount, former SEC official says
Brian Evans - Business Insider
The fall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has drawn numerous comparisons to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which sparked the 2008 financial crisis. But a former Securities and Exchange Commission official likened FTX to the Theranos and Bernie Madoff debacles. John Reed Stark, the founder and former chief of the SEC's Office of Internet Enforcement, pointed to reports that FTX transferred client funds to trading house Alameda earlier this year.
/jlne.ws/3TAnOt1
FTX Bankruptcy Leaves Professional Investors, Crypto Financiers in Limbo; Multicoin Capital is among the firms with money stuck at the collapsed crypto exchange
Caitlin Ostroff, Eliot Brown and Peter Rudegeair - The Wall Street Journal
The collapse of crypto exchange FTX has tripped up casual day traders and professional investors alike. Some 10% of the assets of a Multicoin Capital hedge fund are stuck at FTX, according to an investor letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal. It was able to pull out around 24% of fund assets held there before withdrawals were halted, the letter said. Earlier this month it told investors the fund was $1.2 billion in size. The trading desks and lenders that serve institutional investors are in limbo, too. Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi Inc. has paused withdrawals and limited activity on its platform, saying FTX's woes were preventing it from operating as usual. Another crypto lender, Genesis, said some $175 million from its derivatives business was frozen in an FTX trading account. Crypto market maker B2C2, which matches trades between other entities, has $5 million stuck on FTX, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3TAqt5S
Bankrupt Crypto Exchange FTX Probing Unauthorized Transactions; More than $370 million worth of crypto funds appears to be missing, according to risk-management firm Elliptic
Vicky Ge Huang and Elaine Yu - The Wall Street Journal
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX is probing a potential hack and asked customers to stay off the FTX website, the company said. More than $370 million worth of crypto funds appears to be missing, according to crypto analytics firm Elliptic Enterprises Ltd. A rival crypto exchange said Saturday it knew the identity of the alleged hacker and would help authorities in their investigation. The potential hack occurred Friday after FTX filed for bankruptcy. Ryne Miller, FTX US's general counsel, said in a Saturday tweet that FTX and FTX US had started moving all digital assets to cold storage-crypto wallets that aren't connected to the internet-after the bankruptcy filing.
/jlne.ws/3E2EZh7
Why the crypto bubble has finally imploded
Adam Lashinsky - The Washington Post
The bursting of the cryptocurrency bubble will end the way other speculative crazes have concluded: in a trail of wreckage across companies, continents - and unlucky investors. Crypto has had a horrible year. We saw the terra "stablecoin" wipeout in May, the unraveling of the FTX trading exchange this week and the shriveling of trading in non-fungible tokens all year long. Small-time investors already have fled, their grubstakes or life savings decimated. Well-heeled venture capitalists, badly burned by each successive bust-up, will wash their hands and move on to the next shiny object.
/jlne.ws/3AcCwzs
Binance chief says no one can be protected from 'bad players'; Changpeng Zhao, head of world's largest crypto exchange, calls for more regulation after FTX collapse
Stephanie Findlay and William Langley - Financial Times
The chief of the world's largest crypto exchange Binance has said no one can be protected from a "bad player" and called for more regulation of the sector. Speaking at a meeting of business leaders in Bali on Monday after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX last week, Changpeng Zhao did not name his former arch-rival but said the crypto industry "collectively has a role to protect consumers".
/jlne.ws/3WXEv4B
FTX hit by rogue transactions, analysts saw over $600 million outflows
Summer Zhen, Vidya Ranganathan and Elizabeth Howcroft - Reuters
FTX was engulfed in more chaos on Saturday when the crypto exchange said it had detected unauthorized access and analysts said hundreds of millions of dollars of assets had been moved from the platform in "suspicious circumstances". FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday, one of the highest profile crypto blowups, after traders rushed to withdraw $6 billion from the platform in just 72 hours and rival exchange Binance abandoned a proposed rescue deal.
/jlne.ws/3OiFTLr
Sam Bankman-Fried Fooled the Crypto World and Maybe Even Himself; FTX co-founder's openness belied deep issues within empire; Once worth $26 billion, he quit as CEO after bankruptcy filing
Annie Massa - Bloomberg
Before the world began to grasp the truth about Sam Bankman-Fried -- before the panic, the investigations and, at last, the brutal collapse -- an inkling of doom began to spread through his convoluted crypto empire. All across FTX, the exchange that had transformed his mere initials into a symbol of a new kind of wealth and power, one question came up again and again: Where is SBF? Bankman-Fried, current and former employees say, seemed to have disappeared. Then, without explanation, a department nearly missed October payroll. Something was wrong.
/jlne.ws/3E55tP9
The $24 Trillion Treasury World Suddenly Looks Less Dangerous; Bond duration is falling as signs suggest inflation is cooling; Investors more compensated for interest-rate risk than in 2020
Liz McCormick and Anchalee Worrachate - Bloomberg
The historic bond selloff has wreaked havoc across global markets all year, while fueling a crisis of confidence in everything from the 60-40 portfolio complex to the world of Big Tech investing. Now, heading into a possible economic downturn, the near-$24 trillion Treasury market is looking less dangerous all of a sudden.
/jlne.ws/3TsSIne
Binance halts FTT deposits, CEO says
Reuters
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has stopped accepting deposits of FTX's FTT token on its platform, its chief executive Changpeng Zhao said on Sunday, urging other rival exchanges to do the same. FTX, which filed for bankruptcy on Friday, was engulfed in more chaos on Saturday when the crypto exchange said it had detected unauthorized access and analysts said hundreds of millions of dollars of assets had been moved from the platform in "suspicious circumstances".
/jlne.ws/3E34X4d
Binance pledges to create crypto industry recovery fund, calls for regulation
Reuters
Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao said the cryptocurrency exchange plans to launch a fund to help crypto projects facing a liquidity crisis as the collapse of rival FTX ricochets through the industry. The recovery fund will help "reduce further cascading negative effects of FTX," Zhao said in a tweet on Monday, targeting projects that are "otherwise strong, but in a liquidity crisis".
/jlne.ws/3Uzv1uP
Binance Starts Recovery Fund for Crypto Projects Facing Liquidity Crisis
Sam Reynolds, Jack Schickler - Bloomberg
Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao says that his exchange is setting up an industry recovery fund to help rebuild the industry. CZ said that more details will be announced in the coming days, and said that the fund is open to industry co-investors. Tron founder Justin Sun said that Tron, Huobi Global and Poloniex will support Binance in its initiative. Huobi Global also confirmed this in a tweet.
/jlne.ws/3Af9DTk
Fall of the World's Hottest Stock Cost Sea Founders $32 Billion; Troubles keep mounting for the maker of mobile game Free Fire, whose quarterly loss is expected to widen.
Yoojung Lee - Bloomberg
Sea Ltd.'s pain was supposed to be short term. The maker of wildly successful battle royale game Free Fire knew that the pandemic-fueled boost in users was over, but Chief Executive Officer Forrest Li was still optimistic earlier this year that problems would be short lived. He considered his company to be internally strong and had taken steps to maximize long-term potential - including spending more on growth.
/jlne.ws/3AdoTjB
From Bad to Worse? Next Year's Economic Risks Are Already Here; Cheap money, a booming China and decades of great-power peace are all gone. Next year may be when their absence really bites.
Tom Orlik and Enda Curran - Bloomberg
It's been a miserable year for the global economy. But things can always get worse. History says the Federal Reserve's high-speed interest-rate hikes may well tip the US into recession in 2023. Few will be surprised if spiraling natural-gas prices do the same for Europe. The double whammy of Covid Zero and a property slump threatens to bring China's economy to a near standstill.
/jlne.ws/3tuxeeY
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine Looks to Cement Full Control of Kherson After Russian Retreat; Power remains out in the strategic city as Moscow consolidates positions further south and to the east
Isabel Coles - The Wall Street Journal
Ukrainian forces moved to re-establish full control over the key southern city of Kherson, filling a vacuum left by Russian troops as civilians celebrated the end of eight months under occupation. Ukrainian special units entered Kherson on Friday after Moscow abandoned the city-the only regional capital to fall under its control this year-in one of the biggest reversals since Russia invaded its neighbor. Hundreds of residents gathered in the central square in front of the Kherson regional-administration building from which Russian forces removed their flag earlier this month, breaking into song and chanting in support of the Ukrainian armed forces. Some embraced Ukrainian soldiers and wept tears of joy while others waved their country's blue-and-yellow flag.
/jlne.ws/3hI4gWF
MBA students help Ukraine get back to business; Kyiv's International Management Institute is aiding efforts to keep the country's economy afloat and rebuild its future
Andrew Jack - Financial Times
Studying for a business degree is never easy, but Julia Pavlenko has had to cope with more stress than most students. Her work, classroom commitments and personal life have all been radically disrupted over the past few months in Ukraine. N"I'm working from 6am-2am every day with only a few hours' sleep, and resting only on Saturdays for two or three hours," she says. "Our class tries to meet online, but we have to shelter underground during rocket attacks up to three times a day and we often have power cuts."
/jlne.ws/3GbtZkb
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | EuroCCP rebrands to Cboe Clear Europe following 2020 acquisition; Since acquiring the clearing house, Cboe has grown the number of venues it provides clearing services to from 37 to 47.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Cboe has rebranded its clearing house EuroCCP to Cboe Clear Europe, after acquiring it in July 2020. Cboe Clear Europe claims to favour an open access approach to its operations and market structure, growing the number of venues it provides clearing services to from 37 to 47. It also launched an equity derivatives clearing offering to support Cboe Europe Derivatives (CEDX), Cboe's new venue launched at the end of last year.
/jlne.ws/3O3qL4a
Schroders becomes first European asset manager to clear with LCH ForexClear; With trades facilitated by Citi, Schroders cleared NDF trades across a range of Asian and Latam currency pairs.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Schroders, which manages £731.6 billion worth of assets, has become the first European asset manager to clear through LCH ForexClear. The asset manager cleared non-deliverable forward (NDF) trades across a wide range of Asian and Latam currency pairs. ForexClear member, Citi, facilitated the trades as Schroders' clearing broker.
/jlne.ws/3GgpGo0
Eurex to launch three-month Euro STR futures referencing €STR; New launch will enable Eurex to offer a listed, centrally cleared and cash-settled solution for trading or hedging the new risk-free rate.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Derivatives exchange Eurex is expanding its interest rate segment with the launch of three-month Euro STR futures referencing €STR. Eurex claims that the launch is an important milestone in both the establishment of the €STR as the new benchmark risk-free rate, and in expanding the exchange's EUR-denominated fixed income product offering.
/jlne.ws/3WSvytg
Saudi Wealth Fund Raises $610 Million in Stock Exchange Sale; The PIF sold 12 million shares in Tadawul at 191 riyals each; The fund has been selling down holdings to invest elsewhere
Julia Fioretti - Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund raised 2.29 billion riyals ($610 million) from the sale of a 10% stake in the kingdom's stock exchange as part of its plans to pare down holdings in some of the country's biggest companies and fund other investments. The Public Investment Fund sold 12 million shares in Tadawul Group Holding at 191 riyals each, a 9% discount to their last closing price. Investors put in orders for all the stock on offer within an hour of the books opening on Thursday, the latest example of strong demand for share sales in the Middle East.
/jlne.ws/3UvFM18
Nigeria's AFEX, NG Clearing in Pact to Develop Infrastructure for Commodity Futures Contracts
Obafemi Oredein - The Wall Street Journal
AFEX Commodity Exchange and NG Clearing Ltd. have signed an agreement in Lagos to develop infrastructure to facilitate the introduction and trading of commodity futures contracts in Nigeria. NG Clearing, a central counterparty clearing house, said the infrastructure will help the central clearing of futures contracts for commodities such as cocoa, paddy rice, maize and soybean.
/jlne.ws/3WTp9OF
LME Decides Against Ban on Russian Metal; LME says many metal users are still accepting Russian supplies; Exchange will report on share of Russian metal in warehouses
Jack Farchy - Bloomberg
The London Metal Exchange decided against a ban on new deliveries of Russian metal, in a blow to big western aluminum producers and some traders who had lobbied the exchange to take action. The LME said that feedback from the metals industry showed that "a material portion of the market is still accepting -- even relying on -- Russian metal." It said it did not condone Russia's actions in Ukraine, but that "the LME should not seek to take or impose any moral judgments on the broader market."
/jlne.ws/3Adu4Ac
Qatar Stock Exchange: MSCI Semi-Annual Index Review Result - November 2022
Mondovisione
MSCI announced on 10 November 2022, the results of the Semi-Annual Index Review. For the MSCI Qatar Indices the outcome of the review is as follows...
/jlne.ws/3hEouR5
EuroCCP Rebranded to Cboe Clear Europe; Cboe Clear Europe remains committed to an open-access approach to its clearing services, by continuing to serve multiple exchanges and venues; New name provides the company with a globally recognized brand as it pursues continued growth
Cboe Global Markets, Inc.
EuroCCP, a leading pan-European clearing house and subsidiary of Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), today announced it has rebranded to Cboe Clear Europe with immediate effect. Cboe acquired EuroCCP on 1 July 2020, bringing together two companies that have long championed competition, open access and clearing interoperability in Europe.
/jlne.ws/3hF2Egj
ICE Benchmark Administration Publishes Feedback Statement on the Consultation on the Potential Cessation of ICE Swap Rate® based on USD LIBOR®
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, today announced that ICE Benchmark Administration Limited ("IBA") has published a feedback statement on its intention to cease the publication of ICE Swap Rate® settings based on USD LIBOR®.
/jlne.ws/3hKe81K
Deutsche Boerse Photography Foundation and Portraits Hellerau eV support new guest professorship at the HfBK Dresden
Deutsche Boerse Group
The renowned British-Egyptian photographer Laura El-Tantawy will take on the first international guest professorship for photography at the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK) in the summer semester of 2023. This professorship is made possible by the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation in cooperation with the Dresden-based association Portraits Hellerau eV. Laura El-Tantawy is also appointed to the jury for the PORTRAITS - Hellerau Photography Award 2023.
/jlne.ws/3DXULtK
SGX Group reports market statistics for October 2022; Derivatives daily average volume rises to highest since March 2020; SGX MSCI Singapore Index Futures, SGX USD/CNH Futures set multiple volume records
SGX
Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) today released its market statistics for October 2022. Derivatives volume across multiple asset classes climbed to new highs amid increased trading activity by global institutions, as optimism that central banks may moderate their interest-rate hike cycles countered concerns over China's economic outlook.
/jlne.ws/3XbPcki
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Trading Technologies and ATEO enter into strategic partnership to deliver best-in-class post-trade allocation services; Sell-side institutions to benefit from fully integrated, hosted solution available through TT®
Trading Technologies International, Inc.
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global provider of high-performance professional trading software, infrastructure and data solutions, and ATEO Finance, a leading provider of post-trade solutions for the financial industry, announced that the firms have entered into a strategic partnership to deliver a fully integrated, comprehensive post-trade allocation service for sell-side banks, brokers and futures commission merchants (FCMs). The partnership brings together two market leaders in their respective domains, with a solution that offers best-in-class trade execution and trade allocation services.
/jlne.ws/3hK62pS
Trading Technologies expands risk management offering with availability of KRM22 Risk Manager on TT® platform
Trading Technologies
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global provider of high-performance professional trading software, infrastructure and data solutions, and KRM22 plc (AIM: KRM), the technology and software investment company that focuses on risk management for capital markets, today announced that it is making the KRM22 Risk Manager available to customers on the TT platform. The sophisticated real-time post-trade risk service significantly enhances the risk toolset available through TT's growing ecosystem for futures commission merchants (FCMs), brokers and traders. The product's risk scoring system will help users instantly assess real-time margin and liquidity, creating a new way for futures and options on futures traders to generate alpha under the most volatile market conditions.
/jlne.ws/3Eww0GH
Binance CEO Zhao Pushes for Crypto Self-Custody; Trust Wallet Token Soars 80% to Record
Omkar Godbole - CoinDesk
The CEO of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, called on members of the crypto community to take personal control of their digital assets using Trust Wallet, sending the app's native token, TWT, to a record high.
/jlne.ws/3GaAi7P
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | FTX Investigating Possible Hack Hours After Bankruptcy Filing; Researchers documented $515 million in suspicious transfers from the cryptocurrency exchange.
David Yaffe-Bellany - The New York Times
A day after it filed for bankruptcy, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX said on Saturday that it was investigating "unauthorized transactions" flowing from its accounts, as crypto researchers documented suspicious transfers of $515 million that may have been the result of a hack or theft. John J. Ray III, the newly instated chief executive of FTX, said in a statement that "unauthorized access to certain assets has occurred," and that the company was in touch with law-enforcement officials and regulators. As part of the bankruptcy process, the company has been moving its remaining crypto funds to a more secure form of storage.
/jlne.ws/3GbiedJ
Exclusive-Russian software disguised as American finds its way into U.S. Army, CDC apps
James Pearson and Marisa Taylor - Reuters
Thousands of smartphone applications in Apple and Google's online stores contain computer code developed by a technology company, Pushwoosh, that presents itself as based in the United States, but is actually Russian, Reuters has found. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States' main agency for fighting major health threats, said it had been deceived into believing Pushwoosh was based in the U.S. capital. After learning about its Russian roots from Reuters, it removed Pushwoosh software from seven public-facing apps, citing security concerns.
/jlne.ws/3O6jO2c
Hacking the Mango DeFi Platform: A New Way In for Crypto Thieves; Analyzing how a price-manipulation attack works in DeFi.
Stacy-Marie Ishmael - Bloomberg
It's a day ending in Y, which means we're going to talk about crypto hacks. In October alone, hacks, attacks and clever exploits (more about those in a moment) cost the crypto industry an estimated $700 million. Now when we talk about hacks, you might (correctly) picture sophisticated state-sponsored groups like North Korea's Lazarus, or more run-of-the-mill attacks on Twitter or Instagram. But there's another kind of exploit that's raising eyebrows in crypto these days as it takes advantage of how platforms are supposed to work.
/jlne.ws/3txPsMA
How North Korea became a mastermind of crypto cyber crime; Cryptocurrency theft has become one of the regime's main sources of revenue and underlines the lack of regulation of digital assets
Christian Davies and Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Created by a Vietnamese gaming studio, Axie Infinity offers players the chance to breed, trade and fight Pokémon-like cartoon monsters to earn cryptocurrencies including the game's own "Smooth Love Potion" digital token. At one stage, it had more than a million active players.
/jlne.ws/3UBHGNU
UK high street lenders toughen crypto stance on fraud concerns; Cautious position to end 'paradise for scammers' contrasts with that of some fintechs
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan and Joshua Oliver - Financial Times
UK high street lenders are tightening their stance on cryptocurrencies, citing a rising tide of scams involving the highly volatile and speculative assets. Their position contrasts with some fintechs who are pushing deeper into the sector, despite prices crashing and major players collapsing. FTX, one of the world's biggest crypto trading venues, unravelled in spectacular fashion last week with rival Binance ditching an eleventh-hour rescue and leading to fears of contagion.
/jlne.ws/3O68RxR
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | FTX Latest: Employees Explore Sale of US Derivatives Exchange
Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried's digital-asset empire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware. His crypto trading company, Alameda Research, listed at least $10 billion of assets and liabilities each. Cyprus has suspended FTX's license to operate an investment business in Europe. The crisis could lead to a tightening of US and EU crypto regulations. Wider crypto markets were hit by the fallout, with Bitcoin falling more than 8% at one point. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers compared the meltdown to that of Enron Corp.
/jlne.ws/3EprVnF
Alameda, FTX Executives Are Said to Have Known FTX Was Using Customer Funds
Dave Michaels, Elaine Yu and Caitlin Ostroff - The Wall Street Journal
Alameda Research's chief executive and senior FTX officials knew that FTX had lent its customers' money to Alameda to help it meet its liabilities, according to people familiar with the matter. Alameda's troubles helped lead to the bankruptcy of FTX, the crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Alameda is a trading firm also founded and owned by Mr. Bankman-Fried.
/jlne.ws/3tsGQHh
Alpha-Male Crypto 'Bloodsport' Sows a Catastrophe at FTX; "They do perceive themselves as disruptive warriors."
Michael P. Regan and Vildana Hajric - Bloomberg
Once again, a feud broke out on social media involving outspoken alpha-male celebrities of the cryptocurrency market. Only this time, what followed was tens of billions of dollars of digital wealth vaporizing in a flash. The crisis of confidence that led to the collapse of billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried's sprawling global crypto empire was triggered in large part by a few shade-tinged tweets this week from Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, founder of rival Binance Holdings. And the fallout has convulsed a market still reeling from the implosion earlier this year of the Terra blockchain led by Do Kwon, another fallen crypto star famous for his online flame wars with critics who predicted the ultimate failure of his project.
/jlne.ws/3X0jTZn
Bankrupt FTX Hit by Mysterious Outflow of About $662 Million; FTX US's general counsel says the facts are currently unclear; Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX empire fell into bankruptcy on Friday
Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried's bankrupt digital-asset exchange FTX was hit by a mysterious outflow of about $662 million in tokens in the past 24 hours, the latest twist in one of the darkest periods for the crypto industry. Customers still coming to terms with the platform's Friday plunge into Chapter 11 proceedings were subsequently confronted with what the general counsel of its US arm, Ryne Miller, described as "abnormalities with wallet movements."
/jlne.ws/3O75Ays
'It's All Gone': FTX Bankruptcy Has Retail Traders Bracing for Losses; Investors with holdings on the platform likely have a long, painful process ahead after Sam Bankman-Fried's company filed for Chapter 11 Friday.
Claire Ballentine, Paulina Cachero, and Jeremy Hill - Bloomberg
For a little while, it appeared some of FTX's American customers might escape the worst-case scenario confronting the beleaguered crypto platform. FTX US, a separate entity from Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX.com, tweeted Thursday that it was still operational and withdrawals were being processed as normal, even as the rest of the company came crashing down. But after Bankman-Fried's empire filed for Chapter 11 on Friday, FTX US customers were ensnared in a swift financial collapse that has rattled the broader industry, shocked investors and left retail traders facing a long slog to get any of their money back.
/jlne.ws/3Txqlo0
Sam Bankman-Fried's Apology Is as Hollow as His Empire; The downfall of FTX isn't just about a frothy market coming undone. It looks more like the combination of a financial bubble and murky accounting with a dash of charisma thrown in.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
Apologies from tech chief executive officers are in vogue, as years of easy money and pandemic profits come to an end. "I got this wrong," Mark Zuckerberg said after the Facebook billionaire's pivot to a more Meta world decimated its stock price and led to 11,000 layoffs. Charismatic leaders are learning humility. But in the league of weak-sauce apologies, the one from cryptocurrency exchange boss Sam Bankman-Fried stands head and shoulders above the rest. After his digital-asset empire FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday, the onetime billionaire - who's now lost it all - tweeted that he was "really sorry," "shocked" at how things unraveled and "hopeful" that some kind of recovery was possible.
/jlne.ws/3UMzjyQ
FTX Latest: Balance-Sheet Blowup Reverberates in Crypto Markets
Bloomberg
Cryptocurrency prices slid again, particularly tokens associated with Sam Bankman-Fried's collapsed FTX empire. There were growing signs that customers of the bankrupt digital-asset exchange have little chance of recovering much of their deposits. FTX Trading International held just $900 million in liquid assets on Thursday -- the day before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- against $9 billion of liabilities, according to sources familiar with the matter. The data referenced a negative $8 billion of a "hidden, poorly internally labeled" fiat currency account and noted $5 billion of withdrawals by users last week.
/jlne.ws/3tqAcB9
Binance, Huobi Block FTT Deposits After $400M Worth of Tokens Unexpectedly Released
Shaurya Malwa - CoinDesk
Crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi blocked deposits of FTT, FTX's native tokens, Sunday after about $400 million worth of the tokens were released out of schedule, with no official explanation. FTT tokens follow an unlocking schedule wherein large batches of the tokens are periodically released. On Sunday, however, the tokens were released out of schedule without warning or communication from FTX or related parties.
/jlne.ws/3AfHThv
Kraken to Assist In Probing FTX Unauthorized Crypto Withdrawals; Law enforcement and regulators to investigate withdrawals; Kraken knows attacker's identity, its security chief says
Emily Nicolle - Bloomberg
Bankrupt digital-asset exchange FTX.com is launching an investigation with law enforcement into a series of unauthorized withdrawals that hit some of its crypto wallets on Saturday, an executive said. Ryne Miller, general counsel for FTX's US exchange, tweeted a statement attributed to the firm's new chief executive John J. Ray that once the unauthorized withdrawals were spotted, "an active fact review and mitigation exercise was initiated immediately in response."
/jlne.ws/3GaooL6
Sam Bankman-Fried Says He's in the Bahamas, Reuters Reports
Yueqi Yang - Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen co-founder of bankrupt FTX, said Saturday he's in the Bahamas, Reuters reported, citing a text message from him. Bankman-Fried denied rumors that he had flown to South America.
/jlne.ws/3tsULgo
Tech Money Fueled FTX's Rise. The Crash Exposes Deep Flaws in VC; Venture capitalists were ill-equipped to identify or fix major flaws in the financial model.
Michael Tobin and Katie Roof - Bloomberg
Among the last people to realize that the cryptocurrency exchange FTX was a financial time bomb were the company's own investors. On Nov. 7 - as troubling signs began to emerge, customers were withdrawing money and the founder was tweeting unconvincingly that "assets are fine" - a broker of startup stock made inquiries to FTX's venture capitalists and other shareholders to see if anyone wanted to sell, according to correspondences seen by Bloomberg. No one did.
/jlne.ws/3AcEAaG
FTX Trading's Liabilities Dwarfed Liquid Assets, FT Says
James Ludden - Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX Trading exchange held $900 million in liquid assets against $9 billion of liabilities the day before Friday's bankruptcy filing, the Financial Times reported Saturday, citing investment materials the newspaper had seen. Most of the recorded assets are either illiquid venture capital investments or crypto tokens that are not widely traded, according to the spreadsheet. The biggest asset as of Thursday was listed as $2.2 billion worth of a cryptocurrency called Serum.
/jlne.ws/3Esa4wi
FTX's Freefall Into Bankruptcy Shows Why Case File Is Empty; Customers can expect disclosures in coming days, weeks; Companies typically don't go bankrupt on short notice
Steven Church and Jeremy Hill - Bloomberg
The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire has been chaotic, fast and full of unknowns. The world should soon get some answers via a Delaware federal court. FTX is what's known in the industry as a "free fall" bankruptcy. More than 130 related companies sought court protection at the end of last week without filing any of the usual court motions or explanatory documents seen in a big US insolvency case. Two days later, the companies' main court docket contains only a 23-page fill-in-the-blank petition. In nearly every other multi-billion dollar Chapter 11 case in recent years, lawyers quickly file a smattering of routine requests designed to stabilize operations.
/jlne.ws/3E63Dxr
FTX's Balance Sheet, Hack Paint Dim Picture for User Recovery; Balance sheet shows FTX had $900 million in liquid assets; Serum, Solana and FTT tokens have since plunged in value
Yueqi Yang - Bloomberg
A swift plunge in value of FTX's key crypto assets, along with unauthorized withdrawals of funds after it filed for bankruptcy, suggests that customers of the once popular exchange face a slim chance of recovering much of their deposits. A breakdown of the balance sheet of Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange shared with investors a day before its bankruptcy filing shows that it had nearly $9 billion in liabilities and $900 million in liquid assets, $5.5 billion in "less liquid" assets, and $3.2 billion in "illiquid" assets, according to sources familiar with the matter who viewed a limited version of information. Most of the biggest holdings, including lower-profile cryptocurrencies Serum, Solana and FTT, have since plunged in value.
/jlne.ws/3fX2FvC
SBF Might Have Spoiled Dinner for Everyone; But the collapse of FTX might lead to some sorely needed moderation for crypto markets.
Jessica Karl - Bloomberg
Serious question: What do we think Sam Bankman-Fried is doing right now? Frying eggs? Eating breakfast? Reading the newspaper? I mean, what does one do on a Sunday after the worst week of their life? Seven days ago, he had $16 billion. Today, he has $0. Do we think he's ... crying? I would cry. If you live under a rock, maybe you missed the financial earthquake of last week, so let me give you a quick refresher on how FTX went from hero to zero faster than the speed of light...
/jlne.ws/3TAozm2
FTX Faces Criminal Misconduct Probe by Bahamas Authorities
Katanga Johnson - Bloomberg
The Bahamian police said they're working with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate whether there was any criminal misconduct in the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. "In light of the collapse of FTX globally and the provisional liquidation of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., a team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch are working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred," a police spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. FTX is registered in the Bahamas.
/jlne.ws/3hHfTwZ
Crypto.com Withdrawals Rise After CEO Admits Transaction Problem
Caitlin Ostroff and Elaine Yu - The Wall Street Journal
Customers pulled funds from Crypto.com over the weekend after the company's chief executive said the cryptocurrency exchange mishandled a roughly $400 million transaction. Crypto.com Chief Executive Kris Marszalek said on Twitter that the transfer was sent to the wrong type of account on another exchange. The transfer of a large chunk of ether, a popular cryptocurrency, took place on Oct. 21, but came to light after Twitter users flagged the transfer as unusual, based on publicly available blockchain transaction records.
/jlne.ws/3X0M76A
The Stadium Branding Curse Hits Miami Heat's FTX Arena
Joseph De Avila - The Wall Street Journal
The FTX Arena, home of the Miami Heat, has become the latest sports arena hit with the naming-rights curse. Cryptocurrency platform FTX filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, joining a list of once-highflying companies that ran into financial trouble after signing naming-rights deals for stadiums and arenas. FTX plunged into financial turmoil over the course of a week, leading to the resignation of Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried. The company said it would begin a process to review and monetize assets for stakeholders.
/jlne.ws/3WRSokK
How FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried Went From Crypto Golden Boy to Villain
Gregory Zuckerman and Alexander Osipovich - The Wall Street Journal
In a matter of days, Sam Bankman-Fried has gone from crypto hero to villain. His billion-dollar fortune has collapsed. He is facing Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. His firm, FTX, is bankrupt, and with it many hopes for the future of crypto itself. An outwardly genial 30-year-old commonly referred to as SBF, Mr. Bankman-Fried was until this week the industry's leading champion. His firm's finances were opaque, but he seemed to be an open book on Twitter and in scores of media interviews.
/jlne.ws/3WXbLsJ
H'wood FTX Frenzy as Michael Lewis Reveals He Spent 6 Months with Founder'; Author compares Sam Bankman-Fried, Binance's CZ to 'Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader' in email sent by CAA
Richard Rushfield and Peter Kiefer - The Ankler
With the stunning collapse of crypto exchange FTX still rippling through the financial markets, the entertainment industry sprang into action over the weekend with a far more pressing concern: Who's going to nab the rights to this story? We now know at least one part of how this plays out. The town was abuzz Saturday after an email spread that revealed that Michael Lewis - the most talented and successful non-fiction writer working today - had embedded with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried for the past six months and was making the collapsing cryptocurrency exchange the centerpiece of his next book.
/jlne.ws/3fY4cBz
Crypto.com Accidentally Sent $400M in Ethereum to Wrong Address, CEO Calls Concerns 'FUD'
Ben Munster - Decrypt
After the shocking collapse of FTX, other centralized crypto exchanges are under the microscope, and Crypto.com customers are concerned after CEO Kris Marszalek acknowledged that his exchange accidentally sent 320,000 ETH, around $400 million at the time, to a public address registered at a competitor exchange.
/jlne.ws/3Ev02dJ
Crypto Markets Take a Breather as FTX Heist Unfurls; Tokens backed by Bankman-Fried sag as others stabilize; Bitcoin's next support at $12,500, Morgan Stanley says
Emily Nicolle - Bloomberg
Prices across cryptoassets were broadly flat on Saturday, as traders weighed their next move following a market selloff in the wake of failed crypto exchange FTX.com's plunge into bankruptcy. The two largest tokens by value, Bitcoin and Ether, were largely unchanged at 5 p.m. New York time at around $16,800 and $1,260, respectively, after steep declines during the week. One standout on the upside was Dogecoin, which jumped more than 10% after Tesla boss Elon Musk touted the coin on a Twitter Spaces conversation.
/jlne.ws/3O54Cma
Crypto.com Recovers $400 Million After Misplaced Ether Transfer; Transfer accounts for more than 80% of exchange's Ether pile; Crypto.com was trying to move funds to cold storage, CEO says
Emily Nicolle - Bloomberg
Crypto.com said it recovered almost $400 million in cryptoasset Ether from Asian exchange Gate.io, after it accidentally transferred the funds to the wrong account. The company was supposed to move 320,000 in Ether to a new cold storage address -- a type of offline wallet -- but the funds were sent instead "to a whitelisted external exchange address," Crypto.com Chief Executive Officer Kris Marszalek said on Twitter.
/jlne.ws/3Xb54Ua
JPMorgan Reveals Shock 'Cascade' Bitcoin Price Prediction After Stunning FTX Meltdown
Billy Bambrough - Forbes
Bitcoin has been left reeling from the shock collapse of major cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the linked trading company Alemada Research this week, resulting in a serious regulator warning. The bitcoin price has crashed under $17,000 per bitcoin, down more than 70% from its all-time high of almost $71,000 set a year ago, with some fearing the crypto price crash could be about to go from bad to worse.
/jlne.ws/3UB0Z9Q
Cryptocurrency Solana Collapses in FTX Scandal; The token is the first big victim of the abrupt implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
Luc Olinga - The Street
Solana, considered, until recently, to be one of the cryptocurrencies with a promising future, is in the process of completely collapsing. The token lost 61.6% of its value in the last seven days, according to data firm CoinGecko. Solana (SOL) prices are now down 95% from their all-time high of Nov. 6, 2021. Solana is currently trading around $14.12 from $259.96 in November 2021. Solana's collapse is due to the Nov. 8 implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy three days later due to a cash crunch.
/jlne.ws/3ErPyMg
Solana Leads Crypto Slump With FTX's Serum Project In Distress; FTX-backed ecosystem in focus as exchange enters bankruptcy; Serum developers say they forked code to mitigate exposure
Emily Nicolle and Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
A four-day slump for crypto altcoin Solana deepened, while developers spun off one of the blockchain network's most prominent and FTX-affiliated projects. Solana fell as much as 11% to $12.11 on Monday before paring losses. Crypto bellwethers Bitcoin and Ether also slumped, with Bitcoin dropping below $16,000. Other altcoins, including Polkadot, Avalanche and TRON, typically more volatile than larger cryptocurrencies due to lower liquidity levels, fell as well.
/jlne.ws/3O5OKzD
Bahamas Securities Regulator Says It Didn't Order FTX to Reopen Local Withdrawals
Nikhilesh De - CoinDesk
Crypto exchange FTX was not required to allow Bahamas-based customers to withdraw their funds, a local financial regulator said Saturday. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) published a statement on Twitter Saturday suggesting that a recent tweet by FTX admitting that Bahamian users were able to withdraw funds at the regulator's urging was inaccurate.
/jlne.ws/3E7lrbo
'What. H.' - Sam Bankman-Fried's latest tweets spark scorn as well as concern
Steve Goldstein - MarketWatch
The latest message from former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried left onlookers puzzled and alarmed after the swift decline into bankruptcy for the cryptocurrency exchange he founded. In successive tweets, Bankman-Fried merely stated, "What," followed by the capital letter H.
/jlne.ws/3O6kDrO
FTX's bust and crypto crash come with two silver linings
Brian Sozzi - Yahoo Finance
Let's look at the bright side of the FTX-driven crypto crash to kick off what will likely be another long week for the industry. There are probably two positives worth considering here. First, the crypto crash has not spread over into the stock market. The S&P 500 is up 5.9% in the past five trading sessions compared with a 19% drop for bitcoin. Why is this you ask? Simple. The rout is not as huge as the headlines suggest.
/jlne.ws/3UYAH1n
Meta Investors Are in No Mood for Zuckerberg's Metaverse Moonshot; The CEO thinks virtual reality is the future. But does that project need to be inside the same company as Facebook?
Alex Barinka - Bloomberg
Mark Zuckerberg is running low on believers in his vision of a virtual-reality future-at least among Meta shareholders. Some analysts say the company's chief executive officer is pitching the wrong audience.
/jlne.ws/3O3fH78
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | SBF and Crypto's Collapse Are Part of the Pandemic Hangover; A world drunk on stimulus was an accident waiting to happen.
Robert Burgess - Bloomberg
When historians look back on the spectacular rise and collapse of the cryptocurrency market, they will conclude that it couldn't have happened without the pandemic. And they'd be right. Back in 2020, when much of the world was locked down and economies shuttered due to the spread of Covid-19, financial assets of all stripes began a spectacular rally that carried through 2021. This was hard to explain even for the experts. In the end, they chalked it up to too much money sloshing around the global financial system. Trite? Yes, but very true.
/jlne.ws/3fZPJFh
Democrats Defy History, Keep Senate Control in Victory for Biden; Arizona, Nevada victories seal 50 seats for Democrats; Republicans appear poised for very narrow House majority
Steven T. Dennis and Laura Litvan - Bloomberg
Democrats defied political forecasts and historical trends to keep control of the Senate in a win for President Joe Biden, as voters rejected a handful of candidates backed by former President Donald Trump. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto put the Democrats over the top on Saturday after the AP and networks declared her the winner in a closely fought election in Nevada, following fellow incumbent Mark Kelly's projected win in Arizona and a victory by John Fetterman in Pennsylvania that snared a seat previously held by a retiring Republican.
/jlne.ws/3Acgz3U
FTX Debacle Shows Need for Crypto Regulation, Yellen Says; Crypto isn't yet a threat to wider financial system: Yellen; Doesn't see SLR as only factor in low Treasuries liquidity
Christopher Condon - Bloomberg
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto empire reinforced her view that the market for digital assets required "very careful regulation." "It shows the weaknesses of this entire sector," Yellen said Saturday in an interview with Bloomberg News. An interconnected assortment of digital-asset entities founded by Bankman-Fried filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday. The upheavals at FTX have rattled a crypto market already beset by months of price declines. A court will now weigh in on how to handle the interests of customers, creditors and business partners seeking to be made whole.
/jlne.ws/3TAmWEW
Sam Bankman-Fried's fall cuts off big source of funds for US Democrats; FTX entrepreneur has emerged as the second-biggest donor to liberal groups after George Soros
Stefania Palma, Courtney Weaver and Caitlin Gilbert - Financial Times
Sam Bankman-Fried stormed on to the US political scene with multimillion-dollar donations that led lawmakers, particularly Democrats, to believe he was ushering in the next generation of donors. But in a matter of days, his business empire collapsed into bankruptcy and the prospect of millions more in donations evaporated. Before the fall of Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the entrepreneur had emerged as the second-largest donor to Democrats after George Soros. He had vowed to give up to $1bn to political candidates linked to causes he supported, a pledge from which he later backed away.
/jlne.ws/3ErdGi3
What the midterms mean for investors; US equities tend to outperform in the six months after polls against the preceding half-year
Megan Greene - Financial Times
Midterm elections can have major repercussions for the economy and markets. The Republican capture of the House of Representatives in 1994 led to a government shutdown - but then to an agreement on the first US balanced budgets in decades.
/jlne.ws/3hF9Bhk
Bond Vigilantes Get Ready to Test UK Pledge to Balance the Books; UK government is due to unveil economic plan on Thursday; Bond market on edge after chaos unleashed during Truss' tenure
Libby Cherry and Naomi Tajitsu - Bloomberg
Bond investors expect considerable belt-tightening when Rishi Sunak's government unveils its economic strategy Thursday -- and will be poised to sell if pledges to slash spending aren't met. The gilt market is already on edge, with confidence fragile after the shock of the Liz Truss administration's mini-budget in September. The pressure is on the new government to trim what it can to curb borrowing over the coming years and limit a debt deluge that could test investor appetite.
/jlne.ws/3hHJlTh
Brexit 'Permanently Damaged' UK Economy, Michael Saunders Says; Former BOE official says calls for closer trade links with EU; Comments feed debate about how to soften a worsening recession
Liza Tetley and Lizzy Burden - Bloomberg
Former Bank of England policy maker Michael Saunders said Britain's exit from the European Union one of the reasons why the UK is now entering a period of austerity. "The UK economy as a whole has been permanently damaged by Brexit," Saunders said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday. "If we hadn't had Brexit, we probably wouldn't be talking about an austerity budget this week. The need for tax rises, spending cuts wouldn't be there."
/jlne.ws/3X1baGE
EU 'Ready to Go' With Russian Oil Price Cap, Von Der Leyen Says
Kevin Whitelaw and Annmarie Hordern - Bloomberg
The European Union is "ready to go" with an effort to impose a price cap on Russian oil, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of its executive arm, said Monday. "We have set all the tools necessary in place in the European Union," von der Leyen told Bloomberg Television in an interview in Bali on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. "It is important not only to dry out the war chest of Russia but also very important for many vulnerable countries to have an acceptable level of prices."
/jlne.ws/3Gf5UJp
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Crypto's Binance Plans Push for Global Digital-Asset Standards
Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, head of crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd., said the firm plans to spearhead an effort with other industry players to set global standards in the wake of the bankruptcy of rival FTX. "As an industry we need to increase transparency," Zhao said at a conference in Bali, Indonesia. "We need to work very closely with regulators all around the world to make this industry more robust. There is a strong role for regulators to play but we can't blame this on any single party."
/jlne.ws/3tvXZQp
Klarna CEO Worries FTX Failure Will Lead to Regulatory Overreach
Aisha S Gani, Francine Lacqua and Tom Mackenzie - Bloomberg
Klarna's chief executive officer is worried that the collapse of FTX.com may encourage finance sector regulation that will make it harder for fintech firms to compete against traditional lenders. Describing the blowup as "fairly scary," Sebastian Siemiatkowski, who has previously criticized the crypto industry, said he's more worried "the traditional bank industry will take this opportunity to again regulate this industry to the disadvantage of consumers." "We need more competition in banking industry, we need good consumer protection laws but that don't stifle competition," he said on Bloomberg Television Monday. "I'm a little bit concerned that these debacles that we've seen will again inhibit that and continuously prolong the overly large profitability that we've seen in the banking industry."
/jlne.ws/3UDFntC
European regulators will struggle to supervise crypto groups, warns ECB; Crypto asset providers are 'animals with whom it is difficult to engage', says chair of bank's supervisory board
Martin Arnold - Financial Times
The European Central Bank's head of financial supervision has warned regulators will struggle to oversee crypto asset providers, which "never think about financial risks", do not respect national borders and pose "a huge consumer protection issue". Andrea Enria, chair of the ECB's supervisory board, told the Financial Times: "I am concerned for my colleagues that will have to perform this supervision in the future because these are animals with whom it is difficult to engage."
/jlne.ws/3EEqfqx
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says crypto must be regulated after FTX collapse
Dana Kennedy - NY Post
The shocking collapse of the once-respected cryptocurrency exchange FTX is proof digital assets markets need "very careful regulation," US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. "It shows the weaknesses of this entire sector," Yellen told Bloomberg News on Saturday. Investors are better protected in developed financial markets, she added. "In other regulated exchanges, you would have segregation of customer assets," she said. "The notion you could use the deposits of customers of an exchange and lend them to a separate enterprise that you control to do leveraged, risky investments - that wouldn't be something that's allowed."
/jlne.ws/3UYOvZL
LedgerX Withdraws Clearing Application
CFTC
On Friday, November 11, 2022, counsel for LedgerX LLC, d/b/a FTX US Derivatives (FTX), submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Clearing and Risk a formal withdrawal of FTX's request, originally submitted on December 6, 2021, to amend FTX's Amended Order of Registration as a derivatives clearing organization to allow FTX to offer products that are not fully collateralized. The application was not approved.
/jlne.ws/3tLPQaN
Eight firms enter liquidation following FCA action
FCA
On 18 October 2022, following a number of petitions by the FCA, the Court ordered that 8 regulated financial services firms be wound up.
/jlne.ws/3AdxBhI
New York Fed and Monetary Authority of Singapore Collaborate to Explore Potential Enhancements to Cross-Border Payments Using Wholesale CBDCs
Monetary Authority of Singapore
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's New York Innovation Center (NYIC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today announced Project Cedar Phase II x Ubin+, a joint experiment to investigate how wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs) could improve the efficiency of cross-border wholesale payments involving multiple currencies.
/jlne.ws/3GeOP2n
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | BlackRock 'Indefinitely' Shelves China Bond ETF Launch, FT Says
Sophie Jackman - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc. has "indefinitely" postponed the launch of its China bond exchange-traded fund, the Financial Times reported late on Saturday in New York, citing two unidentified people familiar with the decision.
/jlne.ws/3Es9q1Q
Biggest Junk-Bond ETFs Post Record Inflow in Dash Back to Risk; Investors pour a combined $2.2 billion into HYG and JNK ETFs; Flow shows big risk-on shift after Thursday's inflation data
Sam Potter and Katherine Greifeld - Bloomberg
Investors trying to gauge the strength of the risk-on shift that gripped markets Thursday should look no further than two of the biggest high-yield credit exchange-traded funds. As softer-than-anticipated inflation data sparked the best day for stocks in more than two years and sent around $13.4 billion into equity ETFs, products targeting junk bonds were seeing unprecedented demand.
/jlne.ws/3A85ZL9
The Classic 60-40 Investment Strategy Falls Apart. 'There's No Place to Hide.'; A savings mix of stocks and bonds has helped offset losses in previous years-but not this one
Akane Otani and Karen Langley - The Wall Street Journal
For decades, Americans planning for retirement have been advised to invest in a mixture of stocks and bonds. The idea was simple. When stocks did well, their portfolios did, too. And when stocks had a bad year, bonds usually did better, which helped offset those losses. It was one of the most basic, dependable ways of investing, used by millions of Americans. This year it stopped working. Despite a powerful rally last week after cooler-than-expected inflation data, the S&P 500 is down in 2022 about 15%, including dividends, while bonds are in their first bear market in decades. A portfolio with 60% of its money invested in U.S. stocks and 40% invested in the 10-year U.S. Treasury note has lost 15% this year.
/jlne.ws/3EsaWB4
Farmland Values Hit Record Highs, Pricing Out Farmers; Small farmers are now going up against deep-pocketed investors, including private equity firms and real estate developers.
Linda Qiu - The New York Times
Joel Gindo thought he could finally own and operate the farm of his dreams when a neighbor put up 160 acres of cropland for sale in Brookings County, S.D., two years ago. Five thousand or six thousand dollars an acre should do the trick, Mr. Gindo estimated. But at auction, Mr. Gindo watched helplessly as the price continued to climb until it hit $11,000 an acre, double what he had budgeted for. "I just couldn't compete with how much people are paying, with people paying 10 grand," he said. "And for someone like me who doesn't have an inheritance somewhere sitting around, a lump sum of money sitting around, everything has to be financed."
/jlne.ws/3UOxNMm
Cezanne Painting Sells for a Record $138 Million at Auction; The work carried a presale estimate of $120 million.
James Tarmy - Bloomberg
A rare painting by Paul Cézanne, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1888-1890) sold for $137.8 million at Christie's in New York, in one stroke more than doubling the artist's previous auction record of $60.5 million. The painting is part of the evening sale of work from the estate of Paul Allen, who died in 2018. Allen paid top-dollar for the painting when he purchased it in May 2001 for $38.5 million.
/jlne.ws/3URabH5
Fall of the World's Hottest Stock Cost Sea Founders $32 Billion; Troubles keep mounting for the maker of mobile game Free Fire, whose quarterly loss is expected to widen.
Yoojung Lee - Bloomberg
Sea Ltd.'s pain was supposed to be short term. The maker of wildly successful battle royale game Free Fire knew that the pandemic-fueled boost in users was over, but Chief Executive Officer Forrest Li was still optimistic earlier this year that problems would be short lived. He considered his company to be internally strong and had taken steps to maximize long-term potential - including spending more on growth.
/jlne.ws/3Gf18vE
Investors pump record sums into leveraged ETFs; The bullish bets, equivalent to more than 5% of all ETF purchases, mean losses were magnified
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
Investors have poured record sums into high-risk leveraged funds this year in spite of the collapse in financial markets. The funds, designed to magnify any market gains, also deepen any losses if asset prices fall, meaning many investors are likely to have been left badly out of pocket as stock markets have tumbled this year.
/jlne.ws/3hEzptQ
FTX collapse puts its auditors in the spotlight; Armanino and Prager Metis face scrutiny over Bankman-Fried's bankrupt crypto empire
Stephen Foley - Financial Times
The collapse of FTX has thrown a spotlight on two US accounting firms that the cryptocurrency exchange said it had used to audit its books. FTX claimed that its 2021 financial results had been audited by Armanino, one of the 20 largest accounting firms in the country by revenue, and Prager Metis, which styles itself the first accounting practice to open a headquarters in the metaverse. The two firms are among several in the US to have touted expertise in digital assets in a race to win business from the burgeoning number of crypto companies, even as accounting rules for digital assets are often unclear and businesses remain in their infancy.
/jlne.ws/3tts3fm
FTX and the banana bend in markets; Crypto hit by brutal collision with reality as lower inflation rallies equity investors
Katie Martin - Financial Times
Here we go again with two of the market themes that just keep cropping up over and over this year: the chaotic dalliance with disaster in crypto and the hunt for a more lenient stance from the US Federal Reserve. Both are dramatic in their own ways, but the latter of the two is much more important to the health of mainstream investors' portfolios.
/jlne.ws/3TA8IUk
FTX balance sheet, revealed; "Hidden poorly internally labled 'fiat@' accountâEUR‰.âEUR‰.âEUR‰."
FT Alphaville
The Financial Times has seen a copy of an FTX balance sheet dated to Thursday, November 10, which shows the bankrupt crypto exchange had only $900mn of assets it could easily sell, despite having $9bn of liabilities. Here's the story:
/jlne.ws/3g5Rtg6
Markets Are Crazy Enough Without This Kind of Fight; Battling with a financial adviser who has wronged you is wildly expensive-and the fight will almost certainly happen in secret. That needs to change.
Jason Zweig -The Wall Street Journal
An honest, competent financial adviser who charges fair fees can be an investor's best friend, especially in turbulent markets. What if, however, you turn out to have a bad adviser? Then you could end up in a mess you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy-and that needs to change. If you believe you lost lots of money because your financial adviser was negligent, reckless or dishonest, you might want to try suing. But when you hired the adviser, you had to sign a kind of contract called an investment advisory agreement. That document usually says any disputes between you and the adviser must be resolved in arbitration rather than in court.
/jlne.ws/3UU6rVf
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | COP27: Talks on carbon market rules off to slow start
Jake Spring, Kate Abnett and Shadia Nasralla - Reuters
Countries are far from agreeing on technical details for running global trading in carbon offset credits after one week of talks at the COP27 U.N. climate summit in Egypt, according to negotiators and observers, with delays threatening to blow a 2023 deadline. Carbon offsets allow countries or companies to pay others to cut greenhouse gas emissions to offset their own. While companies are already trading carbon offset credits in private markets, the so-called Article 6 of the Paris Agreement would fix rules enabling countries to partly achieve their national climate targets by buying such credits.
/jlne.ws/3O3LbKl
Carbon Market Under Pressure to Deliver Billions in Climate Funding; Two big plans introduced at the COP27 climate summit rely on offsets to generate the needed cash
Amrith Ramkumar and Shane Shifflett - Bloomberg
The U.S. government and United Nations are touting plans for businesses to funnel billions of dollars to developing nations to fight climate change. The efforts rely on a tiny carbon-credit market that has struggled for years with uneven standards and conflicts of interest. A global effort unveiled by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and a U.N. Africa-focused credit initiative are two of the hallmark pledges of the climate summit continuing in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The goal is to fill the financing gap to fund the transition to clean energy in developing countries.
/jlne.ws/3UUCJzn
Analysis: In final week of COP27 climate talks, success hinges on 'loss and damage;'COP27 climate summit enters final week; Nearly 200 countries seek deals to keep climate goals alive; Funding key to clinching deals
Kate Abnett - Reuters
This year's COP27 climate summit in Egypt headed into its final week on Monday with nearly 200 countries racing to strike a deal to steer the world towards cutting planet-warming emissions and scale up finance for countries being ravaged by climate impacts. Some negotiators and observers warn that failure to agree on such "loss and damage" funding could sour the U.N. talks and thwart other deals. The issue has leapt to the top of political priorities at COP27 after more than 130 developing counties successfully demanded it was added to the agenda for the first time.
/jlne.ws/3X1eIs7
Wall Street Hit by New Reality as Legal Risks of CO2 Pact Grow; Republican senators are warning of "months and years" of investigations in the GOP's latest attack on ESG.
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
Wall Street is walking into a new era of risk that has bankers, lawyers and climate campaigners reaching for a different playbook. As the world awaits the final result of the US midterms, the finance industry is trying to figure out how vulnerable the outcome will leave it. That's as Republicans plan a new wave of antitrust action against firms perceived to be playing an active role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Nigel Topping, who co-leads the United Nations-backed Race to Zero Campaign, called it the "political weaponization of the reality of climate change."
/jlne.ws/3EcHY70
The big idea: we need to reverse climate change, not just stop it; Taking carbon out of the atmosphere will become increasingly important, writes scientist
Zeke Hausfather - The Guardian
The past year has seen an unending drumbeat of climate-driven disasters. And yet, the climate story of this past decade has been one of slow but steady progress. Global CO2 emissions have flattened, and countries representing 88% of global emissions have adopted or announced plans to get to net zero in the latter half of the 21st century. Another reason to be hopeful is that clean energy became cheaper much faster than expected. The cost of both solar energy and batteries fell tenfold in the last 10 years and the cost of wind energy by two-thirds. Solar is the cheapest form of new electricity to build in much of the world today, and electric vehicles now represent 13% of new vehicle sales globally.
/jlne.ws/3Gfp7uC
Middle East's Fertile Crescent dries up as rains fail
Amina Ismail and Maha El Dahan - Reuters
Abbas Elwan drilled well after well in a desperate bid to find water for his family's parched farmlands in southern Iraq. After yet another attempt failed in August, he took a gun from the kitchen of their mud house and slipped into the night. Hikma Meteab found her husband's body the next day with a gunshot wound to the head in a dried-up irrigation canal near the barren land that once produced enough wheat and barley to sustain the extended Elwan family. "That was his last hope, and there was no water," Abbas's brother Ali, 56, told Reuters, standing in the scorching heat by a plot of land with dead plants poking out of the baked soil.
/jlne.ws/3UDTyPw
Toyota to Unveil New Prius as Hybrids Lose Luster to Battery EVs; Sales of the pioneering hybrid have fallen from a peak of 500,000 to around 86,000 last year.
Reed Stevenson - Bloomberg
Toyota Motor Corp. is about to take the wraps off a revamped Prius, the latest iteration of a car that normalized the idea of owning an environmentally conscious vehicle more than two decades ago. Leonardo de Caprio drove one. Owning a Prius was cool, even a status symbol, and the less-frequent and cheaper trips that owners made to the gas pump were revelatory. Over the years, hybrid drivetrains found their way into other Toyota products. Other carmakers rolled out the technology, making it a routine aspect of driving for millions.
/jlne.ws/3E2JUyN
Deutsche's Sewing Says War, Inflation Slowing ESG Projects
Sheryl Tian Tong Lee - Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said the war in Ukraine and inflation globally have delayed its clients' environmental, social and governance projects even as the long-term shift to sustainability is now "irreversible." Over the last six months, "each and every management needs to plan for the time being from quarter to quarter," he said at the 17th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Singapore on Sunday. "In the priority setting it may be that certain sustainability and ESG projects have been delayed by a quarter, or by two quarters."
/jlne.ws/3tood7r
This Former BlackRock Executive Says ESG Investment Model Is Broken; Terrence Keeley's new book hints at a quiet debate within a firm that has embraced sustainable investing
Angel Au-Yeung - The Wall Street Journal
Terrence Keeley had been at BlackRock Inc. increase; green up pointing triangle for about a decade when he reached a contrarian conclusion: ESG doesn't work. Mr. Keeley spent much of his time at the asset manager overseeing a group that nurtured relationships with central banks, finance ministries, family offices and sovereign-wealth funds. Under pressure from politicians and activists, some of these investors were looking to distance themselves from companies that fall short on environmental, social and governance factors. BlackRock obliged, helping clients funnel money toward companies whose values they share.
/jlne.ws/3GhIWRR
BP shakes up offshore wind unit with hiring spree; Energy group poaches senior staff from rivals Orsted, Iberdrola and RWE
Tom Wilson - Financial Times
BP has reorganised the management of its offshore wind business after a series of new hires from industry rivals Orsted, Iberdrola and RWE since the start of the year. The appointments, amid an increasingly competitive war for talent in the renewable energy sector, represent a coup for the UK-listed company, which has some of the oil and gas industry's most ambitious targets for the rollout of green power.
/jlne.ws/3UVDAju
Saudi Arabia emboldened at COP27 as energy demand 'exposes hypocrisies'; Ukraine war leaves EU rushing to replace Russian fossil fuels while Washington and Riyadh clash over oil output targets
Camilla Hodgson - Financial Times
Saudi Arabia has arrived at the COP27 climate summit emboldened by the renewed demand for fossil fuels from sources other than Russia after Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the end of the first week of the climate summit in Egypt, Saudi's minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, said the Ukraine war had "exposed the hypocrisies that have been around for a long time and that we have talked about for years".
/jlne.ws/3Ae65ko
Biden Tightens Planned Methane Curbs on Oil Wells, Flaring; EPA plan unveiled as president touts climate action in Egypt; Expanded requirements target all wells, regardless of size
Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
The Biden administration is strengthening its plan for limiting methane emissions from oil and gas wells after environmentalists panned an earlier version as too weak. The Environmental Protection Agency advanced the supplemental proposed rule on Friday, hours before President Joe Biden was set to tout US efforts to fight climate change at the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. The proposed regulation would require energy companies to do more to stifle leaks.
/jlne.ws/3UYJXm9
Indonesia, ADB launch first coal power plant retirement deal
David Lawder - Reuters
Indonesia, the Asian Development Bank and a private power firm said on Monday they are teaming up to refinance and prematurely retire a coal-fired power plant, the first such project under a groundbreaking carbon emissions reduction programme. The 660-megawatt Cirebon 1 power plant in West Java would be refinanced in a $250 million to $300 million deal on condition that it be taken out of service 10 to 15 years before the end of its 40- to 50-year useful life under a memorandum of understanding (MOU), Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials said.
/jlne.ws/3g15FqL
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Global Banks Are Quietly Cutting China Jobs as Big Bang Fizzles; Wall Street firms may cut 10% China investment bankers in 2023; Private equity, hedge fund firms are paring investments, staff
Cathy Chan and Krystal Chia - Bloomberg
China's financial opening that kicked off three years ago was supposed to be the biggest banking play of a lifetime. It's now at risk of foundering as a slump in deals and growing political tension force global banks to recalibrate their plans to conquer the $56 trillion financial market. In public, executives say they're in for the long-haul, but behind the scenes banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG have jettisoned China-focused investment bankers. Some global banks expect to cut more next year and are prepared for major staff exits as bonuses vanish.
/jlne.ws/3UzJCq9
Japan's Megabanks Plan $2.5 Billion Buybacks on Profit Beat; Global rates hikes spur increase in income from loans; Gains help to offset widening paper losses on foreign bonds
Taiga Uranaka and Komaki Ito - Bloomberg
Japan's biggest banks announced plans to boost shareholder returns, including buybacks of as much as 350 billion yen ($2.5 billion) as global rates hikes spurred an increase in income from loans that helped earnings beat analyst estimates.
/jlne.ws/3X17STt
Hedge fund admits half its capital stuck on FTX exchange; Galois warns investors it could take 'a few years' to recover assets
Laurence Fletcher - Financial Times
Galois Capital, a hedge fund whose founder is credited with spotting the collapse of cryptocurrency luna this year, has been caught off guard after close to half its assets were left trapped on crypto exchange FTX, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday.
/jlne.ws/3WYZPqi
Northern Trust told by UK regulators to improve following pension turmoil; US custody bank's operating systems described as a bottleneck
Laura Noonan and Owen Walker - Financial Times
UK regulators have ordered Northern Trust to improve its operating systems after the US custody bank was overwhelmed by the demands of processing margin calls during recent pension fund turmoil, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times. Bankers called out Northern Trust's manual processing systems as a key blockage in the system that made it harder for pension funds to adjust their investment strategies swiftly during the market chaos that followed former UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's disastrous "mini" Budget on September 23.
/jlne.ws/3X1YWgU
SoftBank hit by $10bn loss despite Masayoshi Son's defensive pivot; Founder is stepping back from operations at tech group to focus on 'explosive' growth at UK chip designer Arm
Kana Inagaki and Anna Gross - Financial Times
Masayoshi Son said he would step back from running day-to-day operations at SoftBank to "devote" himself to turbocharging the growth of UK chip designer Arm, which is owned by the Japanese group.
/jlne.ws/3E0tFCe
Ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, who was convicted in 1MDB embezzlement scheme, sues former boss
Melissa Klein - NY Post
The Goldman Sachs banker convicted in the $4.5 billion 1MDB embezzlement scheme is suing his former boss for fraud and $130 million damages. Roger Ng, who is appealing his April conviction, says Tim Leissner - an accused "double bigamist" and the estranged husband of Kimora Lee Simmons - lied repeatedly to steal cash and shares in Celsius Holdings, an energy drink company, and Sentient Technologies Holdings, an artificial intelligence business, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
/jlne.ws/3AbGtV6
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Southeast US has hit the roof of CDC's respiratory illness level scale; Uptake of flu shots is lagging this year, CDC says.
Beth Mole - Ars Technica
The US continues to see a dramatic and early surge in respiratory illnesses, which is hitting young children particularly hard and setting records for the decade. The Southeast region is the most affected by the surge, which is driven by cases of flu, RSV (respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus), and other seasonal respiratory viruses. Seven southern states-Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia-have reached the highest level of respiratory-illness activity on the scale from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The states are colored a deep purple on the national map, representing the highest of sub-level of "Very High" activity.
/jlne.ws/3TEwrTj
New omicron subvariants now dominant in the U.S., raising fears of a winter surge
Rob Stein - NPR
Two new omicron subvariants have become dominant in the United States, raising fears they could fuel yet another surge of COVID-19 infections, according to estimates released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariants - called BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 -- appear to be among the most adept yet at evading immunity from vaccination and previous infection, and have now overtaken the BA.5 omicron subvariant that has dominated in the U.S. since the summer. "It's a little bit eerily familiar," says Dr. Jeremy Luban of the University of Massachusetts, who's been tracking variants since the pandemic began.
/jlne.ws/3UVmbqU
Many patients with weak immune systems don't realize their Covid-19 medicine isn't as effective as it used to be
Elizabeth Cohen and Naomi Thomas - CNN
Judy Salins considers herself a smart, empowered patient, but until this week, she had no idea that the medicine she takes to defend herself against Covid-19 isn't protecting her as well as it used to. "I was shocked to hear this," Salins said. "What do I do now?" The medicine is called Evusheld, and its effectiveness is waning dramatically because new Covid-19 subvariants are taking center stage, and the drug doesn't neutralize all of them. As of the week ending November 5, more than half of new Covid-19 infections were caused by subvariants that Evusheld does not neutralize.
/jlne.ws/3TteM0Y
The Search for Covid's Origins Is as Important as Ever; Almost three years later, we still don't have a clear picture of how the pandemic started.
Faye Flam - Bloomberg
The possibility that the Covid pandemic started with a lab accident isn't a conspiracy theory. Nor has science conclusively proven that it started in a Wuhan wet market. We simply don't know - because China has set up numerous roadblocks to impede scientists' ability to understand the origin of a pandemic that's killed millions and shows no sign of ending. Americans, however, have been channeling our outrage not at China's evasiveness, but at each other for disagreeing on what conclusions to draw from the sparse and indirect data that China has made available. Even if there isn't enough evidence to paint a definitive picture of Covid's origin, though, there's something to be learned by stepping away from the fray and looking at whatever clues we have.
/jlne.ws/3TA8NYr
China's Revised Covid Rules Bring Hope, Confusion as Cases Rise; Officials say restrictions will be more focused, not relaxed; New local cases rise on Saturday to 14,288 as virus spreads
Bloomberg
China's refinement of rules to prevent the spread of Covid-19 are set to further boost markets and optimism about the economy, even as the nation reported the pace of infection by the virus accelerated over the weekend. Cities have reduced mass Covid testing and released people from quarantine camps, according to the new guidelines announced last week, with further changes to come in small steps, officials said at a Saturday briefing on the policy adjustment.
/jlne.ws/3huOgqE
How the 1918 pandemic changed America, from women's rights to germaphobia
Jess McHugh - The Washington Post
In 1920, Sen. Warren G. Harding campaigned for president on one of the blandest platforms in U.S. history. He promised neither hope nor change, nor making America great again. Instead, his slogan - which would help him win an unprecedented 60 percent of the popular vote - was a "return to normalcy." "America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; not agitation but adjustment; not surgery but serenity," he told Americans in a speech four months before his victory.
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This flu season is looking really scary, in one chart; Here's how to prepare for it.
Keren Landman - Vox
Flu season is here - and early red flags suggest it's on track to be very, very bad. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Flu View report show extraordinarily high numbers of positive flu tests reported to the agency from labs around the US. As of November 5, nearly 14,000 positive flu tests had been reported, as shown in the orange line on the below chart. That's more than 12 times the number reported at the same time in 2019 (shown in the black line).
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China Considers Emergency Use of BioNTech Vaccine for Foreigners; Government-level discussions are still at an early stage; No timetable yet for when the vaccine will be approved
Selina Xu and Shirley Zhao - Bloomberg
China is considering a potential emergency approval of BioNTech SE's Covid-19 vaccine to make it available to foreigners living in the country, the company's Chief Operating Officer Sierk Poetting said. Government-level discussions are still at an early stage and BioNTech hasn't been involved yet, Poetting said on the sidelines of a conference in Singapore Monday. The company has submitted all the data necessary to Chinese authorities for its discretion, he said, adding there hasn't been a timetable for a potential approval yet.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China Says It's Refining Covid Rules, Not Relaxing Controls; Cities reassess 'high-risk' areas and stop mass testing; Measures fine-tuned even as cases hit new six-month high
Bloomberg
China's top health officials said a sweeping overhaul to its Covid Zero playbook was a refinement of rules and not a relaxation of controls, dismissing interpretations that the changes were a step toward living with the virus. Officials brandished data that showed cutting centralized quarantine for travelers and close contacts to five days would still catch the vast majority of Covid infections, but said a strict attitude toward stamping out infections remains China's guiding principle.
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China Plans Sweeping Rescue Policies to Avert Property Crisis; Financial regulators issued joint notice to banks on Friday; Developers can extend some loan repayment by one year: peopl
Bloomberg
China is planning its most sweeping rescue package to bail out a real estate market mired in a record slowdown and deepening liquidity crunch, according to people familiar with the matter. The People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission on Friday jointly issued a notice to financial institutions laying out plans to ensure the "stable and healthy development" of the property sector, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private.
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FTX Japan Studying Whether Local Clients Can Get Their Crypto Back
Takashi Nakamichi and Nao Sano - Bloomberg
The Japan arm of Sam Bankman-Fried's failed digital-asset exchange is studying whether the FTX bankruptcy filing might affect its ability to return crypto to local clients. FTX Japan K.K. is in discussions with lawyers about the implications of the collapse of its parent entity and plans to make an announcement once the situation becomes clearer, a spokesman said. The nation's financial watchdog last week ordered FTX Japan to suspend some of its operations while requiring it to ensure the safety of clients assets. The sudden collapse of Bankman-Fried's crypto empire sent shock waves through markets and raised questions about the appropriateness of existing crypto regulations. In Japan, authorities have been moving to loosen rules governing the crypto industry in a quest to spur search of economic growth.
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Coffee Market Goes Cold as Brazilian Weather Normalizes; Futures prices have plunged since August, with coffee-growing conditions bouncing back from last season's drought and frost
Kirk Maltais - The Wall Street Journal
Coffee was one of the hottest commodities earlier this year, but it has now gone cold, with prices declining more than 20% in the past month. Wet weather in farming areas such as Brazil and Indonesia is raising the prospect of a good crop and bigger coffee supply, sending prices down. At the same time, a strong dollar this year has pressured prices of many commodities.
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How Droughts in Mexico Could Shape the Future of the Beer Industry; Brewers and other heavy water users have landed at the center of the climate fight in Mexico as the government and industry confront water shortages in the north.
David Shortell and Lorena RÃos - The New York Times
As northern Mexico this year endured one of its worst droughts in decades, brewers dotting the parched landscape guzzled vast quantities of water, pumping out national favorites like Corona and Tecate that helped make the country the world's largest exporter of beer. At the imposing brick Heineken plant in the city of Monterrey, the pipes never stopped flowing, even as fights broke out at lines for government water trucks and as parasites spread among children who missed regular baths.
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The U.S. Electric System Is Leaning on Customers to Avoid Blackouts
Jennifer Hiller - The Wall Street Journal
The electricity industry is increasingly turning to a tool of last resort when power demand threatens to outstrip supply: asking users to turn off the lights. To get through temperature extremes and tight electricity supplies, grid operators are relying more on conservation pleas to everyone from homeowners to manufacturers and some of the biggest users, bitcoin miners. Such requests aren't new, but they are becoming more urgent as weather patterns become more extreme and construction of new infrastructure for power generation and transmission isn't keeping pace with a trend of electrifying everything from stove tops to transportation.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Baby boomers can't stop staring at their phones; Everyone struggles to put down their phones, but some families have had enough
Heather Kelly - The Washington Post
Too much screen time is something we usually associate with children. We think of little kids watching hours of CoComelon on iPads, or teens who would rather be absorbed in video games or YouTube than talk about their day. But there is another demographic that is struggling with putting down their devices: Baby boomers. Smartphones came into their lives late, but they were quickly won over. Now some of their children say they are hooked, staring at their screens constantly, even when they should be paying attention to their own grandchildren. Two-thirds of boomers own a smartphone and about 6 in 10 are on social media, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey.
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Online Sports-Betting Apps Face Customer Complaints Over Delays Withdrawing Funds
Katherine Sayre - The Wall Street Journal
Customers have filed thousands of complaints against the biggest U.S. online sports-betting operators in recent years, many of which reported delays or glitches in withdrawing money, according to a review of Better Business Bureau records. About 2,400 complaints naming the big-three operators have been lodged in the U.S. in the past three years, according to the bureau. A large number of the complaints focus on dayslong or even weekslong wait times for taking out winnings.
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