| August 13, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
MIAX Sapphire, owned by Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), launched its electronic options exchange on August 12, 2024, marking MIAX's fourth U.S. listed options exchange. OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, announced that MIAX Sapphire, LLC has joined as an OCC participant exchange. With this addition, OCC now provides clearing and settlement services to 21 exchanges and trading platforms for options, futures, and securities lending transactions.
The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) issued a report, "WFE data: trading value and volumes surge as investors flock to markets" that showed a rise in investor interest for listed securities in the first half of 2024, with trading values up 11.7% and volumes increasing by 9.6%, despite global economic and geopolitical uncertainties. Global equity market capitalization grew by 5%, driven primarily by the Americas, while APAC's rapid growth slowed, and EMEA remained flat. IPOs declined by 24.2%, although the Americas saw a 36.4% increase in IPO numbers, contrasting with declines in APAC and EMEA. Despite fewer IPOs, the average IPO size increased by 18.8%, bolstered by seven unicorn listings, including Puig Brands and Galderma Group. Exchange-traded derivatives continued their growth, rising 11.6%, though currency options plummeted by 38.2% due to regulatory changes in India. Overall, equity trading and derivatives volumes reached their highest levels in five years.
For you R-raters out there, and I am not talking about movies, the Financial Times' Robin Wigglesworth has a commentary in today's paper titled "A sky full of R-stars" with the subheadline "Checking in on the graviton particle of economics."
Writing for the FT Alphaville column, Wigglesworth discusses the concept of R* (R-star), the "neutral" interest rate that balances economic growth without triggering inflation or unemployment. Although it's a theoretical construct, R* is crucial for central banks and investors when determining the appropriateness of monetary policy, he writes. Goldman Sachs' Kevin Daly challenges a Bank of England study that suggested R* remains near zero due to aging demographics and low productivity. Using market prices and inflation forecasts, Daly finds that global R* is heavily influenced by US rates, with country-specific variations driven by GDP per capita, inflation, and current account balances, Wigglesworth wrote. The study underscores the impact of economic convergence, lower inflation, and improved external balances in reducing interest rates globally. Despite the importance of local economic conditions, US influence on global R* remains dominant.
Tarik Kurbegovic has transitioned from the role of CEO to strategic advisor of the the Sarajevo Stock Exchange, he shared on LinkedIn.
Here are excerpts from FOW that are in front of its paywall from stories in the last two days: CME Group's total return futures (TRFs) have reached record levels due to rising interest in OTC alternatives, with expectations of further growth. Cboe Global Markets has introduced the VIXTLT Index to provide real-time tracking of volatility in the US Treasury market. Euronext reported a 12% increase in derivatives trading volume in July, driven by equity and commodity derivatives. Trading Technologies completed its acquisition of Abel Noser Solutions, enhancing its trade optimization capabilities. The US rates market experienced a surge in August due to heightened Treasury volatility, leading to record trading activity. The London Metal Exchange (LME) has scheduled a data center migration and lifted copper suspensions. Eurex expanded its cryptocurrency derivatives with Ethereum futures and options. Lastly, Euronext Clearing and Abaxx Exchange are seen as valuable new players in the European clearing and commodities markets, respectively.
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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Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- CME Group Volatility Index (CVOL) from CME Group.
- From Trading Floors to Family Stories: Dan Sullivan and Michael Rothstein Discuss Their Journey to 'The Opening Bell' from John Lothian News.
- Traders Wary of Going Back to All-In on Stocks Weigh Up Options from Bloomberg. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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 TradeStation's James Putra talks with JLN about options, crypto derivatives, AI and other trading tools at the OIC conferenceJohnLothianNews.com JLN spoke with James Putra, vice president and head of product at TradeStation, at the Options Industry Conference in Asheville, NC. The interview is part of the JLN Industry Leader video series sponsored by OCC. In the interview, Putra talked about the pressure on the spot crypto market and said that trying to squeeze it into traditional finance is not necessarily better for the individual customer, and brings high risk for that customer. Watch the video »  Agricultural Futures: Navigating the Fields - John Lothian NewsWatch Video »
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| Sponsored Content |
Join us next month for Barchart's Grain Merchandising & Technology Conference in Orlando, Florida! This is your chance to connect with industry leaders from around the world, gain invaluable insights, and discover cutting-edge solutions for grain merchandising and origination. With discounted room rates available before, during, and after the event, and exceptional on-site amenities including restaurants, a golf course, pools, and a waterpark, spots are filling up fast. JLN subscribers also get exclusive access to discounted tickets! Secure your spot today at this can't-miss event for grain merchandisers, originators, general managers, and grain buyers worldwide! View the full agenda at barchart.com/grainconference.
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Wall Street's Fear Gauge Spike 'Isn't That Surprising' in Panicked Market, Cboe Says; Options pros say VIX's record jump on Aug. 5 was a head fake; The index's sudden swoon sparks debate over its efficacy
Lu Wang - Bloomberg
The great volatility spike of 2024 was triggered by a sudden wave of deleveraging on Wall Street - rather than a collapse of economic confidence with echoes of the pandemic-era dark days. Now all market signs suggest that calm is set to return to US stocks after the recent mayhem. That, in a nutshell, is the benign message from the owner of the Cboe Volatility Index, which registered its largest intraday jump last Monday, in a move dubbed suspect by the former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.
/jlne.ws/3Ankw8D
****** Just SOP for the VIX.~JJL
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Russian navy trained to target sites inside Europe with nuclear-capable missiles; Secret presentation for officers reveals plans for overwhelming strikes in early stages of potential war against Nato
Max Seddon and Chris Cook - Financial Times
Russia has trained its navy to target sites deep inside Europe using nuclear-capable missiles in a potential conflict with Nato, according to secret files seen by the Financial Times. Maps of targets as far-flung as the west coast of France and Barrow-in-Furness in the UK are detailed in a presentation for officers that predates the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The FT has previously reported from the same cache of 29 secret Russian military files that Moscow had rehearsed using tactical nuclear weapons in the early stages of a conflict with a major world power.
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******* And you wonder why Europe gets a little nervous.~JJL
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Tim Walz Isn't Very Rich. Americans Disagree on Whether That's a Good Thing; The candidate's finances spur debate on what we value in leaders and how we measure success
Joe Pinsker and Veronica Daghe - The Wall Street Journal
People are judging Tim Walz on his net worth-but they don't all come to the same conclusion. The governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris's Democratic running mate doesn't report having any major investments aside from his pensions. He keeps his finances relatively simple compared with the varied holdings of multimillionaire opponent JD Vance, based on each candidate's disclosures to date. Some view Walz's more modest finances as an asset. Though he has more money than the typical American, they say he comes across on his balance sheets as someone you might split the bill for beers with. They also say he can better relate to their own personal financial situation when it comes to policy.
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***** For a political party that is often accused of being filled with the elite, Walz is uncommonly common and un-elite. Weird, isn't it?~JJL
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Monday's Top Three
Our top clicked item on Monday was Howard Lutnick's LinkedIn post saying that he hosted Donald Trump at his home last week along with 130 Trump supporters, raising $15 million. Second was the Bloomberg video Trump Fundraiser Aims to Raise $10 Million, Lutnick Says. Third was the LinkedIn post from Gerry Corcoran, Chairman and CEO at R.J. O'Brien, talking about "continuous improvement, a core principle at RJO" and highlighting the value of listening to clients, understanding their needs, and acting on feedback to drive growth.
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| Lead Stories | China Goes to New Extreme in Crackdown on Bond-Market Frenzy
Bloomberg
Chinese authorities are going to extraordinary lengths to tighten their grip on the world's third-largest government bond market. In a highly unusual move on Friday, regulators told rural banks in China's Jiangxi province not to settle recent purchases of government bonds, an order to effectively renege on their market obligations. It was the latest in a string of interventions designed to cool a market rally that sent yields to record lows and stoked official concerns that banks have become too exposed to interest-rate risk.
/jlne.ws/4fGwomq
Miami International Holdings Announces Successful Launch of MIAX Sapphire Options Exchange
Miami International Holdings
Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), a technology-driven leader in building and operating regulated financial markets across multiple asset classes and geographies, today announced the successful launch of MIAX Sapphire, its fourth national securities exchange for U.S. multi-listed options, with the rollout of options on its first symbol, IBM. MIAX Sapphire will begin offering trading in additional symbols in multiple phases on a weekly schedule commencing next week and continuing through October 21, 2024. The launch of the MIAX Sapphire electronic exchange will be followed by the opening of a physical trading floor in Miami, Florida, in 2025. MIAX Sapphire will be the first national securities exchange to establish operations in Miami. This space will include a next-generation trading floor, ancillary office space for MIAX employees and market participants, conference facilities and broadcast media space.
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Chinese Stock Trading Plummets in New Sign of Waning Confidence
Bloomberg News
Share transactions in China shrank to their lowest level in over four years, as a local bond rally hit fever pitch in a weakening economy. Turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses fell to a combined 496 billion yuan ($69.1 billion) on Monday, the thinnest since May 2020. That was also the lowest versus China's entire market capitalization since late 2019. As the world's second-largest stock market is on track for its fourth consecutive year of losses, an unprecedented housing crisis has further limited investors' options, prompting surging demand for government bonds that has alarmed regulators. While a sharp drop in trading volume often signals pessimism is near a bottom, several such episodes in China in the past few years have preceded panic-driven selling that pushed the market to new lows.
/jlne.ws/4cqYQG7
China's outbound investing quota crunch spurs foreign asset managers to get creative
Selena Li and Alessandro Diviggiano - Reuters
Soaring demand from Chinese investors for offshore investments has left foreign banks and fund managers scrambling to ration outbound-investing quotas despite the recent selloff in the U.S. and Japanese markets. To cope with the surging appetite, firms using China's Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) programme are taking steps to get around the quota crunch, executives from a foreign bank, fund house, and wealth management units said.
/jlne.ws/4dnTa0M
Middle East Trillions Force New Concessions From Wall Street; Apollo, Blackstone and other big money managers are reshaping longstanding practices to win part of the $4 trillion in Gulf sovereign wealth.
Heather Perlberg, Matthew Martin, and Nicolas Parasie - Bloomberg
Within the moneyed circles of the Middle East, there's increasing talk of a shifting power dynamic in the upper echelons of high finance. Gone are the days of private equity bigwigs and hedge fund honchos flying to the Gulf, shuttling between five-star hotels and gleaming office towers in Abu Dhabi, Doha and Riyadh, then leaving with massive checks for their latest funds.
/jlne.ws/3SMgWew
OCC Welcomes MIAX Sapphire as Newest Options Exchange
OCC Public Relations
OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced that MIAX Sapphire, LLC (MIAX Sapphire) has become an OCC participant exchange. MIAX Sapphire, owned by parent holding company Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), launched operation of the MIAX Sapphire electronic exchange on August 12, 2024. MIAX Sapphire is MIAX's fourth U.S. listed options exchange. With the addition of MIAX Sapphire, OCC now provides clearing and settlement services to 21 exchanges and trading platforms for options, futures and securities lending transactions. "OCC congratulates MIH on the launch of its fourth listed options exchange," said Andrej Bolkovic, OCC Chief Executive Officer. "As the central counterparty clearinghouse for all U.S. listed options, we are pleased to offer our clearing and settlement capabilities to MIAX Sapphire and to support the exchange-traded options industry's continued growth."
/jlne.ws/4cruG5v
Cboe expands US Treasury volatility tracking capabilities as US election looms; As part of its expansion, Cboe has begun publishing intraday values for its 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Volatility Basis Point Index.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Cboe has moved to expand its intraday Treasury volatility tracking capabilities in the US in the build-up to upcoming regime shifts on the horizon. The expansion will mean that the exchange will publish intraday values for its 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Volatility Basis Point Index (VIXTLT). The index leverages Cboe's proprietary VIX Index methodology and provides participants with the ability to track 30-day expected volatility in the US Treasury market in real-time.
/jlne.ws/3SMkJsy
Natural gas has never been this upside-down as negative prices get more common in Texas
Jason Ma - Fortune
Sometimes supply and demand get so out of whack that a producer has to pay a consumer instead of the other way around. That's what has been happening more and more frequently in West Texas, where the closing price of natural gas has been negative for 57 trading days this year through the end of July, the New York Times pointed out this week.
/jlne.ws/3WLzX1U
Eurex default fund reshuffle leaves members frustrated; Clearing members say concentration margin add-ons would be fairer than buffer on all portfolios
Paulina Pielichata and Rebekah Tunstead - Risk.net
Eurex Clearing has unveiled a new default fund methodology to address potential shortfalls highlighted by regulators amid heavy market volatility in recent years. But several clearing members feel the central counterparty (CCP) has taken the wrong approach to solving the right problem. "We are actually quite irritated about it," says a clearing executive at a global bank. "Basically, they started noodling about with this idea last September, but didn't really disclose it to clearing members."
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Reminder: Inflation Still Matters More Than Anything; The calm that's returned to markets could be upset by violent repositioning if a CPI surprise threatens rate cuts.
John Authers - Bloomberg Opinion
Back to Life, Back to the CPI: Since the last consumer price inflation numbers for the US just a month ago, the political landscape has turned on its head and global markets have endured their biggest scare since the pandemic. So it can be difficult to remember that the inflation numbers due Wednesday still matter a lot. For markets, they arguably matter more than anything else. To get a flavor of that, this is how the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks has moved over the last year. It's not a coincidence that all the biggest turns - with the exception of last week's swoon - came on days when surprising Consumer Price Index data were published:
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MSCI Trims China's Index Presence by Removing Dozens of Stocks; Index provider to drop 60 companies from the MSCI Indexes; The move may bring India, Taiwan closer to China's weighting
Abhishek Vishnoi and Sangmi Cha - Bloomberg
MSCI Inc. continues to cull China stocks from its indexes, setting the stage for a further drop in the nation's share of a key emerging-market benchmark. The index provider said it will remove 60 stocks from the MSCI China Index this month, following 56 deletions in May and 66 in February, the highest tally in at least two years. At the end of July, China represented 22.33% of the Emerging Markets gauge.
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Warren Buffett's sale of 510 million Apple shares will go down as one of the best bets of his career
Shawn Tully - Fortune
Warren Buffett in 2017, around the time he was scooping up Apple shares in earnest. Starting in Q1 of 2024, Warren Buffett epically downsized his immense holdings of Apple stock in one of the best-publicized selloffs by any famous investor in recent memory. In the past two quarters, the Oracle of Omaha's Berkshire Hathaway has sold roughly 510 million of the iPhone maker's shares, lightening its holdings by around 56%. The size and suddenness of the exit stirred speculation that Buffett's optimism for Apple's stock had faded following the fantastic run over the past seven years-a surge that Buffett timed and rode to near perfection.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine boosts grain exports despite intensified Russian attacks
Pavel Polityuk, Jonathan Saul and Tom Balmforth - Reuters
Ukraine is scrambling to ship as much grain as it can this summer, taking advantage of military gains it has made in the Black Sea area to boost exports even as Russia has attacked its ports. Ukraine is a major global wheat and corn grower and before Russia's invasion in 2022 the country exported about 6 million tons of grain alone per month via the Black Sea.
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Stop the War calls for halt to Ukraine's 'terrifying escalation' in Russia
Raoul Simons - The Telegraph
The Stop the War Coalition has called Ukraine's cross-border offensive into Russia a "terrifying escalation" as it demanded an end to the conflict between the countries. Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into Russia's western Kursk region last Tuesday, capturing more than 20 settlements. On Monday it appeared that Ukraine's forces were digging trenches and setting up a field hospital inside the region, suggesting that they were planning to stay.
/jlne.ws/3WPL4XU
Top general says Ukrainian forces have captured almost as much territory in Russia in the past week as Russia has captured in Ukraine this year
Jake Epstein - Business Insider
In under a week, Ukrainian forces have captured about 1,000 square kilometers in their surprise offensive into Russia, Kyiv's top commander said on Monday. The amount of territory that Ukraine says it has seized in Russia in a matter of days - roughly 386 square miles - is almost as much as Moscow has captured in Ukraine this year. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior officials on the military incursion into Russia's Kursk region, which began last Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/4coOaI1
Russia cancels banking licence of American Express subsidiary
Reuters
Russia's central bank on Tuesday cancelled the banking licence of American Express Co's Russian subsidiary after the U.S. lender's unit filed a voluntary liquidation request. Russian President Vladimir Putin decreed in May that American Express could liquidate its Russian business, a little over two years after the company had suspended all its operation in Russia in response to what the bank called Russia's "unjustified attack on the people of Ukraine".
/jlne.ws/4cjOjwp
Russian Troop Shortage Is Exposed After Ukraine's Incursion, Raising Risk of New Draft; Putin's pay hikes for new troops aim to avoid mobilization; Ukraine's intervention into Russia showed weakness of defenses
Bloomberg News
A deepening shortage of soldiers for its war in Ukraine is prompting Russia to hike recruitment bonuses to avoid a repeat of an unpopular mobilization. So far, there's little sign it's working. The military isn't getting enough new soldiers to keep pace with frontline losses that are at their highest since the February 2022 invasion began, according to three people close to the Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry, asking not to be identified because the issue is sensitive. Regional officials are now failing to meet more than a third of their recruitment quotas on average, a person familiar with the situation said.
/jlne.ws/46HUJ76
Want Peace for Ukraine? Let It Strike in Russia; Putin's borders ceased to be sacrosanct when he invaded his neighbor.
Marc Champion - Bloomberg
One week into Ukraine's counterstrike into Russia's Kursk region, we still have only a hazy picture of what is happening on the ground and know still less about the operation's aims. That isn't necessarily a bad thing - if we don't know, Russian decision makers may be having to guess, too, making their response that much more difficult.
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Gazprom fuel imports; Austrian gas demand down 23% since Russia invaded Ukraine
Jonathan Tirone - Bloomberg
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | China condemns killing of Hamas leader, supports Iran in defending security
Darryl Coote - United Press International
China on Sunday told Iran it condemns the recent assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and supports Tehran's defense of its "sovereignty, security and national dignity," according to Beijing's foreign ministry. Beijing's foreign minister, Wang Yi, spoke over the phone Sunday with his Iranian counterpart, acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri. According to a statement from the ministry, the two exchanged views on the situation unfolding in the Middle East, and Wang said China condemns last month's assassination of Haniyeh.
/jlne.ws/4fJWuFe
Israel Was Less Flexible in Recent Gaza Cease-Fire Talks, Documents Show
Ronen Bergman - The New York Times
For weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has denied that he is trying to block a cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip by hardening Israel's negotiating position. Netanyahu has consistently placed all blame for the deadlocked negotiations on Hamas, even as senior members of the Israeli security establishment accused him of slowing the process himself. But in private, Netanyahu has, in fact, added new conditions to Israel's demands, additions that his own negotiators fear have created extra obstacles to a deal. According to unpublished documents reviewed by The New York Times that detail Israel's negotiating positions, Israel relayed a list of new stipulations in late July to American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators that added less flexible conditions to a set of principles it had made in late May.
/jlne.ws/3M2kq8X
US, Israel View an Attack by Iran as 'Increasingly Likely'; Region braces for strike as leaders urge de-escalation; Pentagon deploys submarine with cruise missiles to region
Courtney McBride - Bloomberg
The US believes an Iranian attack against Israel has grown even more likely and may come as soon as this week, officials said, as allied leaders sought to head off all-out war and the Pentagon deployed more forces to the region. Briefing reporters Monday, White House spokesman John Kirby said the US and its allies "have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks."
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Iran lashes out at Europeans over call for restraint in attacking Israel; US has warned Tehran or its proxies could launch a retaliatory strike this week
Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Felicia Schwartz and Steff Chavez and James Shotter - Financial Times
Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned European leaders for urging Tehran not to attack Israel, asserting that the Islamic republic remained "resolute" in defending its security and would "not seek anyone's permission to exercise its legitimate rights" to respond to being attacked. This followed a joint statement by the UK, France, and Germany on Monday calling on Iran and its proxy forces to refrain from attacking Israel. Tensions have escalated after Iran accused Israel of assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas, in Tehran two weeks ago.
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Cboe Global Markets Begins Publishing VIXTLT Index on August 12, 2024
Cboe Global Markets
Designed to provide VIX Index-like measure of U.S. Treasury market volatility; VIXTLT Index calculated using highly liquid, listed options on the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT); Launch adds to Cboe's growing volatility index suite and derivatives-based index offerings; VIXTLT Index available in basis point measure. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced it has begun publishing intraday values for the new Cboe 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF Volatility Basis Point Index ("VIXTLT Index"). Leveraging Cboe's proprietary VIX® Index methodology, the VIXTLT Index provides market participants with the ability to track future (30-day) expected volatility in the U.S. Treasury market in real-time.
/jlne.ws/4fB56xP
NOTICE OF SUMMARY ACTION: Market Securities, LLC
CME Group
Unless otherwise agreed to by the principal counterparties to the block trade, the seller, or, in the case of a brokered transaction, the broker handling the block trade, must ensure that each block trade is reported to the Exchange within the time period and in the manner specified by the Exchange. The report must include the contract, contract month, price, quantity of the transaction, the respective clearing members, the time of execution, and, for options, strike price, put or call and expiration month. The Exchange shall promptly publish such information separately from the reports of transactions in the regular market.
/jlne.ws/3M5Q3hS
Performance Bond Requirements: Interest Rate Margins - Effective August 13, 2024
To Clearing Member Firms; Chief Financial Officers; Back Office Managers; Margin Managers
CME Clearing
As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. The rates will be effective after the close of business on August 13, 2024.
/jlne.ws/3SNDs73
NOTICE OF SUMMARY ACTION: BNP Paribas Securities Corporation
CME Group
Unless otherwise agreed to by the principal counterparties to the block trade, the seller, or, in the case of a brokered transaction, the broker handling the block trade, must ensure that each block trade is reported to the Exchange within the time period and in the manner specified by the Exchange. The report must include the contract, contract month, price, quantity of the transaction, the respective clearing members, the time of execution, and, for options, strike price, put or call and expiration month. The Exchange shall promptly publish such information separately from the reports of transactions in the regular market.
/jlne.ws/4cnRHWP
Euronext, the leading pan-European market infrastructure, today announced trading volumes for July 2024.
Euronext
/jlne.ws/46RvwYc
Regular DCASS / CCMS Data Centre Failover Rehearsal on 7 September 2024
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited ("HKEX") will conduct a regular DCASS / CCMS Data Centre Failover Rehearsal ("the Rehearsal") on Saturday, 7 September 2024
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ICE Futures U.S. New MSCI Index Futures Contracts To Be Listed For Trading On September 23, 2024
ICE Futures U.S.
Effective with the start of trading for trade date Monday, September 23, 2024, ICE Futures U.S. will begin trading new futures contracts on the following MSCI Indexes:
/jlne.ws/4cj49aB
24 227 Probationary Authorised Dealer
LME
The undermentioned has been admitted as a probationary authorised Dealer in conformity with the LME Rulebook:- Mr Sean Regan - Amalgamated Metal Trading Limited
/jlne.ws/3WZRJ2U
New Equity Option Class
TMX
Bourse de Montreal Inc. (the Bourse) and Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation (CDCC)hereby inform you that at the opening of trading on Wednesday August 14, 2024, the following new option class will be listed: Ag Growth International Inc. (AFN).
/jlne.ws/46IBOt4
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Hong Kong's fintech body eyes bigger plans in Greater Bay, stronger links with Shenzhen
South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's fintech community is expanding its size and scope of programmes as opportunities from the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and the cross-border investment Connect schemes bring in more players to the city, its leader said. The association plans to elevate its relationship with its peer in Shenzhen, the mainland's leading technology hub in southern Guangdong province, said Wang, who is also the head of digital and innovation at DBS Bank Hong Kong, a unit of Singapore's biggest banking group.
/jlne.ws/3M9cS4d
Tired of fat-finger blunders, G-Sibs turn to robots for help; Big banks speed up shift towards control automation and AI adoption to counter costly human errors, Benchmarking survey finds
Michael Paterakis - Risk.net
In the 1982 sci-fi film Tron, which depicts a computer hacker trapped in the digital world of a powerful artificial intelligence (AI), one protagonist wryly responds to another's concerns about programs becoming sentient: "Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking, and the people will stop!" Four decades on, the emergence of generative AI technology has banks looking at a world in which
/jlne.ws/3WMzJHQ
The Sleepy Czech Town Helping Europe Compete in the Global Chip War; A $2 billion investment by a US company promises to create a tech hub and help modernize the country's stagnating economy.
Krystof Chamonikolas and Michal Kubala - Bloomberg
The Czech town of Roznov pod Radhostem was best known for its rum-drizzled sweet pies and an open-air museum showing off historical wooden houses. Then came an announcement that stirred the sleepy backwater. US chipmaker ON Semiconductor Corp. picked Roznov for a new $2 billion manufacturing hub in June. The past few weeks have seen a flurry of visits by property developers, the head of a local university and government officials followed around by television crews.
/jlne.ws/46OiR8q
Huawei readies new AI chip to challenge Nvidia in China, WSJ reports
Reuters
China's Huawei Technologies is close to introducing a new chip for artificial intelligence use to challenge Nvidia in China amid U.S. sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources. Huawei's latest processor, Ascend 910C, is being tested by Chinese internet and telecom companies in recent weeks, the report said, adding that Huawei has told potential clients that the chip is comparable to Nvidia's H100.
/jlne.ws/4dIC5P4
Equinix to spend US$124 million on 6th Hong Kong data centre to serve Greater Bay Area
South China Morning Post
Equinix plans to spend US$124 million to build its sixth data centre in Hong Kong, expanding its storage capacity to cater to the growing demand in the Greater Bay Area while other international tech firms reassess their footprints in the city. The new facility will be located in a building Tsuen Wan designed to house data centres, and Equinix plans to have it operational by the first quarter of 2026, the Redwood City, California-based company announced on Tuesday. It will be the company's largest investment in Hong Kong in the past decade, said Equinix Hong Kong's managing director Joanne Hon.
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | The Fake Indian Cricket League Created for Real Online Betting; A shopkeeper in rural Gujarat persuaded some farmers to play in a tournament with manipulated outcomes. The scam traced all the way to Russia.
William Ralston - Bloomberg
The sun was still rising one peaceful morning in late June 2022 when Constable Abdulgfar Saiyedali received an unusual telephone call from a friend. He was at police headquarters in Mehsana, a city of about 215,000 in the western Indian state of Gujarat, where he works as an officer in the Special Operations Group, a national unit that mainly covers narcotics, weapons and counterterrorism. The friend had a tip for Saiyedali. A perplexing cricket tournament was taking place in Molipur, a farming village about 30 miles away that's populated largely by Sunni Muslims. The matches looked rudimentary, played by local amateurs on dried-out farmland, yet they were being recorded as though for broadcast, and the umpire was either manipulating the rules or didn't know them at all.
/jlne.ws/3WDDZcG
CrowdStrike Tries to Patch Things Up With Cybersecurity Industry; CrowdStrike's president and CEO were both at Black Hat and DEF CON to face direct questions from customers and cybersecurity professionals.
Dark Reading
A combination of factors caused the CrowdStrike Falcon endpoint detection and prevention (EDR) sensor to crash, resulting in the global outage affecting 8.5 million Windows systems in July, the company said last week in a root-cause analysis of the incident. At the same time, CrowdStrike CEO and founder George Kurtz and president Michael Sentonas were at Black Hat in Las Vegas with a public mea culpa.
/jlne.ws/46OkUcC
Why U.S. health care cybersecurity laws are better at protecting a corpse's privacy than patients' lives
Brittany Trang - Stat News
Two days into a cyberattack on his hospital system, Nate Couture reached the end of his cyber incident plan. "We make these incident response plans and we feel great about them," Couture, the University of Vermont Health Network chief information security officer, told other heath care cyber professionals at a recent conference. "At the end of them, they have a box that usually says something like, 'And then IT recovers the systems.'"
/jlne.ws/4dFyMbf
F.B.I. Investigating Efforts to Infiltrate Presidential Campaigns, Possibly by Iran; The bureau has repeatedly warned about foreign countries meddling in the upcoming election, including using artificial intelligence to spread misinformation.
Adam GoldmanMaggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush - The New York Times
The F.B.I. said on Monday that it was investigating the apparent hacking of the Trump campaign and what a senior law enforcement official also said was an effort to gain access to the accounts of top Democrats in a cyberattack possibly originating from Iran. In a brief statement, an F.B.I. spokeswoman confirmed that the bureau was investigating "a campaign cyberintrusion," days after former President Donald J. Trump said Iran had targeted his campaign. The bureau did not specifically name Iran or Mr. Trump. Nor did the bureau address the extent of the breach or the possibility that it encompassed other campaigns or political figures.
/jlne.ws/3AgLgHO
Elections Officials Battle a Deluge of Disinformation; County clerks and secretaries of state are overwhelmed this year, as they stare down a "perpetual moving target" of new conspiracy theories, political pressure and threats.
Tiffany Hsu - The New York Times
Tate Fall is overwhelmed. When she signed on to be director of elections in Cobb County, Ga., last year, she knew she'd be registering voters and recruiting poll workers, maybe fixing up voting machines. She didn't expect the unending flood of disinformation - or at least, she wasn't prepared for how much it would overtake her job. She has had election deniers shout at her at public meetings, fielded weekend calls from politicians panicked about a newly circulating falsehood, and even reviewed conspiracy theories circulating on Nextdoor forums that might worsen skepticism among distrustful constituents already doubtful that the democratic system is reliable and secure.
/jlne.ws/3M2zbsj
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Bitcoin Miner Marathon to Sell Notes to Buy More Bitcoin
David Pan - Bloomberg
Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. said it will sell $250 million of convertible senior notes and use the proceeds to buy more of the cryptocurrency. The largest US miner announced in July that it was adopting a strategy similar to the one employed by MicroStrategy Inc., which has been accumulating the cryptocurrency for several years in part on a bet the price will rise.
/jlne.ws/3yyoXNr
Bitcoin's Prospects Strengthen as Key Stablecoin Metric Slides to Lowest Level in 18 Months
Omkar Godbole - CoinDesk
Bitcoin {{BTC}} has quickly recovered to nearly $60,000 after a debacle last week that saw prices drop below $50,000 at one point. The recovery may have legs, as the "exchange stablecoins ratio," which measures the number of BTC held in wallets tied to centralized exchanges relative to stablecoins, suggests reduced selling pressure.
/jlne.ws/3SJ4Se4
Ethereum ICO whale continues $154 million month-long ether deposit spree to OKX
Adam James - The Block
A large holder of ether that participated in the Ethereum initial coin offering at a price of $0.31 per coin deposited 5,000 ether - worth roughly $13.2 million - to OKX today. The latest deposit follows a string of deposits from the entity to the centralized crypto exchange. As noted by on-chain analysis account Lookonchain, the whale deposited 48,500 ether - worth some $154 million - to OKX at an average price of $3,176 in the past month. The address in question still holds 15,600 ether - worth roughly $41.8 million. The notable transfers come at a time when the daily amount of ether burned is at its lowest level in the past few years, with gas fees currently ranging between 1 and 2 gwei. This trend has increased the network's inflation rate - potentially making it appear less attractive to traders and/or investors.
/jlne.ws/3yKKvpZ
Three Arrows Liquidators Seek $1.3 Billion Over 2022 Luna Crash
Jonathan Randles - Bloomberg
Liquidators for the failed cryptocurrency hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital, are seeking at least $1.3 billion from TerraForm Labs Pte., the bankrupt digital assets business co-founded by Do Kwon, for losses the fund suffered following the 2022 crash of his related TerraUSD and Luna tokens. TerraForm induced Three Arrows to purchase Luna and TerraUSD by manipulating the market for these tokens "in a manner that artificially inflated the price for the assets" before they were wiped-out, the liquidators said in court papers. The crash not only wiped out Three Arrows' investment in those tokens but caused substantial losses in its other holdings, they said.
/jlne.ws/3yD8SpG
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | The Broligarchs Are Trying to Have Their Way; The antidemocratic politics of having it all
Brooke Harrington - The Atlantic
Eight years ago, the PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel was an outlier in liberal Silicon Valley for publicly supporting Donald Trump. But now a number of prominent male tech plutocrats who previously opposed the former president have done an about-face: These broligarchs are publicly endorsing and donating to the Republican candidate-and revealing a lot about their own priorities. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who according to his biographer once waited in line for six hours to shake Barack Obama's hand, was planning to donate $45 million a month to a super PAC supporting Trump's campaign. Musk later denied making the offer, but he reiterated his support for Trump, despite the former president's effort to overturn the 2020 election and his criticism of electric vehicles. After backing Joe Biden in 2020, Musk has grown sharply critical of Democrats on a range of issues.
/jlne.ws/3WY7K9x
GOP lawmaker squares off with USDA, tribes over farm bill land transfer
Taylor Giorno - The Hill
The decades-long battle over nearly 9,500 acres in Oklahoma is coming to a head in Washington, D.C. Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) secured a farm bill provision that would block transfer of the land, which currently hosts a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) research facility and sits atop sizable oil and gas reserves, "except as otherwise specifically authorized by law."
/jlne.ws/3YGzOiL
Kamala Harris is more trusted than Donald Trump on the US economy; FT Michigan Ross poll shows Democratic candidate leading on the issue for first time in nearly a year
Lauren Fedor and Eva Xiao - Financial Times
More Americans trust Kamala Harris to handle the US economy than Donald Trump, according to a new poll that marks a sharp change in voter sentiment following President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the White House race. The survey, conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, is the first monthly poll to show the Democratic presidential candidate leading Trump on the economy since it began tracking voter sentiment on the issue nearly a year ago.
/jlne.ws/4fBkIBv
Elon Musk's 'interview' with Donald Trump was an embarrassing disaster
Bill Goodykoontz - Arizona Republic
Elon Musk spoke with Donald Trump on X Monday night - even Musk had the good sense not to call it an interview - and it was every bit as unhinged and worthless as you would expect. Marred by technical glitches (it started 42 minutes late because of what Musk said was a denial of service attack, though Verge reported that wasn't true), it was also something neither man would ever admit to, because to them it's the ultimate sin, even worse than lying or amplifying crazy conspiracy theories or cozying up with white supremacists. It was boring. It was also nuts. And frankly embarrassing. It wasn't even a conversation, really, more of a meeting of the two most enthusiastic members of the Donald Trump Appreciation Society.
/jlne.ws/3YHIe9S
After Trump Proposes Presidential Control Over Fed's Interest Rate Decisions, Bank Of America CEO Says Jerome Powell's Independence Is Crucial: 'Independent And Freely Operating Central Banks Tend To Fare Better'
Kaustubh Bagalkote - Benzinga
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan expressed concerns about the potential impact of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate policy on consumer sentiment and former president Donald Trump's idea of presidential control over the Fed's rate decisions. What Happened: Moynihan warned that if the Federal Reserve does not initiate interest rate cuts in the near future, it could lead to a decline in consumer confidence, in an interview with CBS on Sunday.
/jlne.ws/3AvN8fP
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | India watchdog orders rare recall of Apple antitrust reports
Aditya Kalra - Reuters
India's antitrust body has taken the unusual step of recalling two reports that detailed alleged breaches of competition law by Apple, which complained that the regulator had disclosed commercial secrets to competitors including Tinder-owner Match. The move will prolong an already delayed investigation, which began in 2021, centering on Apple's alleged abuse of its dominant position in the apps market to force developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system, at a fee of up to 30%.
/jlne.ws/4fHBkHw
UK Treasury questions timetable on contentious fraud compensation plan; Financial regulators warned to take seriously duty to promote City growth
George Parker, Akila Quinio and Suzi Ring - Financial Times
Rachel Reeves is pushing UK regulators to prove they are "taking seriously" their duty to protect the City's competitiveness, as the Treasury raised concerns over the autumn launch of a new anti-fraud regime. Reeves told the Financial Times she had pressed City watchdogs to show what they were doing in practice to meet their "secondary objective" to promote growth and competitiveness in addition to protecting consumers.
/jlne.ws/46MCY6D
SEC probe of B. Riley widens as struggling firm's stock drops more than 50% on profit warning
Josh Kosman - NY Post
The feds have widened a probe of financial irregularities at B. Riley, sources told The Post - even as the struggling Wall Street firm suspended its dividend and warned on profits Monday, sending its stock tumbling more than 50%. Short sellers in June and July continued to deliver information on B. Riley to the Securities and Exchange Commission - and the SEC has asked them for additional material in a continuing probe, according to emails and texts reviewed by The Post.
/jlne.ws/3SQRMeP
CFTC Orders Texas Company to Pay $100,000 for Failing to Register as an Introducing Broker
August 12, 2024
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued an order simultaneously filing and settling charges against Cost Management Solutions, LLC (CMS), a Texas corporation. The order finds the respondent failed to register as an Introducing Broker (IB) and requires CMS to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty. The CFTC also orders CMS to cease and desist from further violating the CEA, as charged.
/jlne.ws/3yD6gbm
SEC Charges OTC Link LLC with Failing to File Suspicious Activity Reports
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against OTC Link LLC, a New York-based broker-dealer, for failing to file numerous reports of suspicious financial transactions, known as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), for a period of more than three years. OTC Link agreed to pay $1.19 million to settle the charges.
/jlne.ws/3SKvX0k
SEC Charges NovaTech and its Principals and Promoters with $650 Million Crypto Fraud; Multi-level marketing company promoted scheme to defraud more than 200,000 investors worldwide
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Cynthia and Eddy Petion, along with their company, NovaTech Ltd., for operating a fraudulent scheme that raised more than $650 million in crypto assets from more than 200,000 investors worldwide, including many in the Haitian-American community. The SEC also charged Martin Zizi, Dapilinu Dunbar, James Corbett, Corrie Sampson, John Garofano, and Marsha Hadley for their roles in promoting NovaTech to investors.
/jlne.ws/4fEnxS5
Addressing Investor Needs through Application of the Updated Conceptual Framework in FASB Standard Setting
Paul Munter - SEC
Recently,[1] the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB" or the "Board") completed a comprehensive update to its Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting ("Conceptual Framework").[2] Now that it has finalized this significant project, it is important that the Board actively consider the objectives and fundamentals in the updated Conceptual Framework throughout all of its standard-setting activities, to guide the Board in developing improved accounting principles to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of financial reporting and the protection of investors in the public interest.
/jlne.ws/4fHBApY
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Biggest shakeup in a century set to hit real estate agents this week: Here's how they're preparing
Samantha Delouya - CNN
Realtors across the US are bracing for a seismic shift in the way they do business. Starting August 17, new rules will roll out that overhaul the way Realtors get paid to help people buy and sell their homes. The changes, which are part of a $418 million settlement announced in March by the powerful trade group the National Association of Realtors, eliminate informal rules that propped up the industry's traditional payment structure, where home sellers were typically on the hook to pay a 5% or 6% commission, usually split between their agent and the agent representing their home seller.
/jlne.ws/3X0GeIs
Wall Street's Trash Contains Buried Treasure; Investors buying index-fund castoffs could have made 74 times their money since 1991
Spencer Jakab - The Wall Street Journal
Rebound relationships are best avoided, but maybe not in the stock market. In a paper that starts out by stating that "no one enjoys getting dumped," two investing quants reveal some surprising, and potentially lucrative, traits of companies that have really let themselves go. With about half of the money invested in American stocks now sitting in index funds, and many active managers holding portfolios that resemble them-just try beating the market these days without "Magnificent 7" stocks such as Nvidia or Microsoft-index castoffs have a hard time meeting someone new.
/jlne.ws/4fBrRSl
UK Is Most Preferred European Stock Market by Far in BofA Poll; Share of investors signaling they would overweight UK jumps; FTSE 100 has outperformed European, US peers in recent selloff
Sagarika Jaisinghani - Bloomberg
Britain's stock market is now by far the most preferred among European peers, according to a regional survey by Bank of America Corp. The share of investors indicating they would be overweight UK equities over the next 12 months jumped to more than net 30% from less than 10% in July, the poll showed. Participants also favored Swiss stocks over those in Italy, France and Spain. Germany was the least preferred, with more than net 30% of respondents saying they would be underweight the country.
/jlne.ws/3WZDDi2
Will an IPO Rush Pull the London Stock Market Out of a Rut?
Swetha Gopinath, Joe Easton, and Sagarika Jaisinghani - Bloomberg
Several big companies are looking at potential London share listings, including miner Anglo American Platinum Ltd., Hong Kong conglomerate CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. and Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein. The flurry of interest suggests the UK stock market's fortunes may be improving after many years of depressed activity. An effort by the new Labour government to channel more British pension fund money into local stocks may help. But the market is still much smaller than it was before the 2008 global financial crisis, and a recent pullback by investors from European equities has hit London harder than other European markets.
/jlne.ws/4cjOGah
Greece's Metlen Aims for London Listing in First Quarter of 2025; Athens-listed firm targets to file for listing by year-end; London has relaxed rules for non-UK incorporated firms
Paul Tugwell - Bloomberg
Metlen Energy & Metals SA aims to go public on the London Stock Exchange as soon as the first quarter, according to a person familiar with the matter, potentially moving forward its timeline for an overseas listing. The Athens-listed company plans to file for a London listing by the end of this year, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Deliberations are ongoing and no final decision has been made, the person said. Metlen declined to comment on the potential timeline.
/jlne.ws/3yEXNEx
Janus Henderson expands private credit footprint with stake in $6bn boutique; Asset manager's investment in alternatives firm Victory Park Capital underscores growing investor demand
Will Schmitt - Financial Times
Janus Henderson has struck a deal to take control of a $6bn alternative investments firm in the latest push by a traditional asset manager to add private credit capabilities to meet growing investor demand. The British-American group, which has about $361bn in assets under management, is acquiring a 55 per cent stake in Chicago-based Victory Park Capital Advisors in exchange for cash and company stock, with a "defined path" to take total ownership eventually, the company said on Monday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
/jlne.ws/3LZCWPs
It Was a Hot Real Estate Trade. Now Investors Are Worried; Drawn by the opportunity to invest with private equity firms, small investors rushed into real estate investment trusts. But the funds have lost some appeal as interest rates have climbed.
Maureen Farrell - The New York Times
Given the opportunity to park money with the world's largest private equity firms, ordinary investors rushed in. Getting out might not be so easy. The private equity firms began to seek out smaller investors almost a decade ago. It was a major shift for firms like Blackstone, Starwood Capital Group and KKR that had previously been funded by enormous pensions, endowments and sovereign wealth funds. But it was also a way for the big fund managers to grow their assets and rake in ever larger fees.
/jlne.ws/3yyveIZ
BHP Workers at Top Copper Mine Go on Strike After Talks Fail
James Attwood - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4dJoUgL
Lab-Grown Diamonds Will Be More Popular Than Mined in 10 Years, Says Pandora CEO
Sara Sjolin - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3YJsins
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Nobel winners hit out at removal of fossil fuels from draft UN pact; Former Irish president Mary Robinson and Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus lead objections ahead of New York summit
Aime Williams - Financial Times
Nearly 80 Nobel prizewinners and former world leaders have hit out at the removal of a specific mention of fossil fuels from the draft of a UN climate pact at the centre of a summit in New York next month. The initial draft negotiating text for the UN's ambitious Summit of the Future included a reference to "accelerating" a "transition away from fossil fuels". This matched the agreement already struck between almost 200 countries after negotiations at last November's UN COP28 conference in Dubai.
/jlne.ws/3TauIYT
Goldman Investment Arm Joins Firms Quitting Major Climate Club
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
The asset management unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has walked away from the world's biggest climate alliance for investors, marking the latest in a string of similar defections amid continued Republican Party attacks on green finance. Goldman Sachs Asset Management confirmed its withdrawal from Climate Action 100+ in an email to Bloomberg on Tuesday. GSAM has "made investments in our ability to meet the sustainable investing needs of our clients and remain committed to leveraging our global capabilities," a spokesperson for the firm said. The comments were reported earlier by ESG Today.
/jlne.ws/3WI1Url
Heat Contributed to 47,000 Deaths in Europe Last Year, but Relief Programs Helped; A new study shows how deadly warming can be, and how behavioral and social changes can reduce mortality.
Austyn Gaffney - The New York Times
More than 47,000 Europeans died from heat-related causes during 2023, the world's hottest year on record, a new report in Nature Medicine has found. But the number could have been much higher.
/jlne.ws/3WGrwVH
As Heat Waves Grow Deadlier, Power Becomes a Must; More states pass laws banning utilities from shutting off customers during extreme heat
Phred Dvorak - The Wall Street Journal
After Hurricane Beryl swept through the Houston area in early July and knocked out power for millions of residents, the temperature started to rise. Fifty-year-old Candie York, a resident east of the city with bad knees and a lung disease, did what she could to keep cool. She called Houston's main utility three times, as she had done in the past to press for fast restoration of service. She went to a friend's house and hung out in her air-conditioned car.
/jlne.ws/4cr1snp
Cosy, quiet and efficient: how New York is pioneering eco-friendly apartments; An electric-powered complex debuts with hundreds of 'passive' homes
Samantha Maldonado - The Guardian
It was the midst of a July heatwave, with humidity sticky in the air. Phoebe Saldana sat in the colorful plaza of her East Harlem housing complex, watching her two young daughters ride scooters and climb on workout equipment. They were getting some playtime outside before returning to the cool respite of their two-bedroom apartment. To Saldana, 37, the air conditioning was a godsend.
/jlne.ws/3ysl9NN
Why Almost Nobody Is Buying Green Hydrogen; The vast majority of projects don't have a single customer stepping up to buy the fuel.
David R Baker - Bloomberg
Hydrogen's potential as a carbon-free fuel has provoked no end of excitement. From the deserts of Australia and Namibia to the wind-blasted straits of Patagonia, companies and governments worldwide plan to build almost 1,600 plants to make it. The gas can be produced cleanly by using wind- or solar-powered electricity in a process that splits the molecule from water. There's only one problem: The vast majority of those projects don't have a single customer stepping up to buy the fuel.
/jlne.ws/4cnS6Zl
We're Burning More Climate-Warming Coal Than Ever. Why?
Will Wade - Bloomberg
There's little doubt that avoiding the most dire effects of climate change requires phasing out power stations that burn coal, the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the opposite is happening. Even as temperatures on Earth smash new records and scientists warn the climate is reaching dangerous tipping points, the amount of coal being consumed keeps on growing. The basic problem is simple: Whenever the security of electricity supply is in doubt, the imperative to contain global warming slips down the agenda.
/jlne.ws/470EL8B
China Is Rapidly Building Nuclear Power Plants as the Rest of the World Stalls; The world's second-largest economy is expected to leapfrog France and the US as the top source of atomic power.
Bloomberg News
/jlne.ws/3M5qtd0
Can Sweden deliver its much hyped green energy boom? Abundant electricity in the north was supposed to power a new wave of industrialisation. But projects are struggling to scale up
Richard Milne - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4cr5v2O
Exxon reports 59 layoffs to Texas agency post-Pioneer acquisition
Sabrina Valle - Reuters
/jlne.ws/3Z15P5F
IEA Cuts Historic Oil-Refining Margins After Methodology Tweaks
Alaric Nightingale - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3M2m4aD
NatWest Prices Synthetic Risk Transfer to Beef Up Energy Lending
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/46OibQq
Altman-Backed Startup Opens Largest US Facility to Pull Carbon From Air; Heimdal's facility in Oklahoma can capture 5,000 tons of CO2 annually, which is being used to extract more oil.
Michelle Ma - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3WLW7kA
A $91 Billion Trade Means Mining in One of The World's Hottest Places; Australia's Pilbara is a vital supply hub for crucial commodities, and a location where temperatures above 40C are forecast to become increasingly frequent.
Paul-Alain Hunt - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4fLRQ9J
UK records hottest day of 2024 after temperatures top 34.8C
Cecilia Keating - Business Green
/jlne.ws/3YCYCbD
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Russian Banks Scramble for Yuan as Liquidity Shortfall Doubles; New US sanctions spooked Chinese banks, deepening the shortage; Local firms are filling the gap with costly central bank swaps
Bloomberg News
Tighter US sanctions have curbed the flow of yuan to Russia, forcing local lenders to borrow the currency at a higher rate from the central bank. China became Russia's main trade partner after the Kremlin was severed from Western markets by penalties unleashed in response to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Amid Moscow and Beijing's "no-limits friendship," around $240 billion of imports and exports are now priced almost entirely in yuan.
/jlne.ws/3YDBoCf
Can active ETFs break out of their niche status in Europe? Inflows have remained modest for most managers even though there have been many more launches
Chloe Leung - Financial Times
A growing number of asset managers are entering the active exchange traded fund arena in Europe. But how successful have they been? The huge growth of active ETFs in the US has prompted many European firms to follow their US peers, positioning themselves early to attract the anticipated rise in client demand.
/jlne.ws/3M4nVfd
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | There's a Gender Split in How US College Grads Are Tackling a More Difficult Job Market; A Bloomberg News analysis of government data finds that young men are holding out for the right positions, while women are being more flexible.
Ella Ceron and Augusta Saraiva - Bloomberg
There's a gender divide in how recent college graduates are responding to a cooling US job market. While young college-educated women are sticking with their job search even as the number of vacancies shrinks, many of their male peers are choosing to take a break. The share of male college graduates participating in the workforce has declined in the past year, with 1 in 5 under the age of 25 neither employed nor actively looking for work, according to the latest 12-month average in a Bloomberg News analysis of government data.
/jlne.ws/46IdeIM
Jobhunters flood recruiters with AI-generated CVs; About half of applicants are using tools such as ChatGPT to help write cover letters but, without editing, the language is 'clunky'
Cristina Criddle and Delphine Strauss - Financial Times
About half of all job seekers are using artificial intelligence tools to apply for roles, inundating employers and recruiters with low-quality applications in an already squeezed labour market. Candidates are turning increasingly to generative AI - the type used in chatbot products such as ChatGPT and Gemini to produce conversational passages of text - to assist them in writing their CVs, cover letters and completing assessments. Estimates from employers and recruiters who spoke to the Financial Times, as well as multiple published surveys, have suggested the figure is as high as 50 per cent of applicants.
/jlne.ws/46Rz1xO
5 reasons why answering work emails and texts after hours is backfiring; After-hours work is actively being discouraged at many workplaces, but it's still an issue.
Jenny Mitchell - Fast Company
Times have changed. In the old days (aka pre-pandemic) it was a badge of honor to answer emails and texts after business hours. It showed your boss that you were dedicated, available, and hungry to work. The corporate world developed incentives to encourage you to work more. For example, Goldman Sachs, the investment banking firm, paid for employee dinners if they were on-site working past 7 p.m.-plus the fare for the car service to get them home late at night. Talk about incentivizing after-hours work! But the cultural work winds have changed. Today, bosses are motivated to retain employees because the labor market is so shallow: Finding and keeping good employees is a priority for everyone. And when employees aren't able to shut off their emails and texts, they can simply call a recruiter and find a new job.
/jlne.ws/4fFxPS7
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Daily marijuana use linked to increased risk of deadly head and neck cancers, study finds
Sandee LaMotte - CNN
Using marijuana daily for years may raise the overall risk of head and neck cancers three- to five-fold, according to a new study that analyzed millions of medical records. "Our research shows that people who use cannabis, particularly those with a cannabis use disorder, are significantly more likely to develop head and neck cancers compared to those who do not use cannabis," said senior study author Dr. Niels Kokot, a professor of clinical otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
/jlne.ws/4dGznt6
Why Weight-Loss Drugs Are Billion-Dollar Blockbusters: QuickTake
Madison Muller and Emma Court - Bloomberg
Obesity is among the world's most common health conditions, but for years medicine had few effective approaches to offer short of surgery. That's why there's been so much excitement about a new class of drugs that's helping patients shed dozens of pounds at far lower risk - and generating billions in revenue for pharmaceutical companies. The mania over these drugs is drawing responses from businesses as varied as airlines, dialysis centers and big box chains, sending stock markets into a frenzy. Novo Nordisk A/S's Ozempic was publicized by Hollywood, where it also became a punchline, and now Eli Lilly & Co. is making a splash with Zepbound. The next frontier is weight loss drugs that can be taken by mouth rather than injected. Some doctors are even prescribing the drugs to treat a leading cause of infertility in US women.
/jlne.ws/4dmEUFs
Covid cases on the rise: Is it too late for a vaccine? Timing the vaccines to match Covid waves has been an ongoing challenge for public health officials.
Berkeley Lovelace Jr. - NBC News
With Covid cases surging this summer, the upcoming rollout of updated vaccines in the fall raises an important question: Will they arrive in time to make a difference? Covid waves haven't followed a seasonal, predictable pattern like the flu, which typically starts spreading in the fall and peaks in late winter and spring. Flu shots, which take two weeks to be fully protective, are generally recommended in September or October. The new Covid vaccines, which target the KP.2 strain, a descendant of the highly contagious JN.1 variant that emerged last winter, are expected to be distributed in the coming weeks.
/jlne.ws/3AvAVI2
Covid-Linked Stocks Back in Play as Asia Sees Surge in Cases; Test kit, drug makers rally in China, South Korea and Japan; Analysts say performance unlikely to evolve into extended boom
Sangmi Cha - Bloomberg
Shares of Covid test kit and drug makers are in the spotlight in Asia, posting strong gains in recent days following a surge of cases. Among the top performers is Chinese Covid test maker Daan Gene Co., which has jumped 17% this week. In Japan, drug-maker Daiichi Sankyo Co. rose as much as 5.6%, the most in about a week, while South Korea's Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co. pared gains after a five-session 71% rally.
/jlne.ws/3AinXNM
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China admits Hong Kong-flagged ship destroyed key Baltic gas pipeline 'by accident'
South China Morning Post
Beijing has admitted that a Chinese-owned ship damaged a critical Baltic Sea gas pipeline running between Estonia and Finland last October, but says it was an accident. The South China Morning Post understands that the Chinese authorities conducted an internal investigation and recently communicated the results to governments in the European countries.
/jlne.ws/3yB5pb8
China's treasury market rattled as central bank squares off with bulls
Reuters
Chinese government bonds fell sharply on Monday following a turbulent week in which the central bank started intervening heavily to stem a plunge in long-dated yields even as the economy is struggling. China's 10-year treasury futures dropped 0.6% in their worst day in 17 months, while the bond yields, which move inversely to prices, jumped roughly 4 basis points. But die-hard investors say the bull market in government bonds still has legs, citing China's wobbly economy, deflationary pressures and low investor appetite for riskier assets.
/jlne.ws/3SLJF3c
China pledges billions more in funds to aid disaster-stricken farm regions
Joe Cash and Farah Master - Reuters
China's central bank said on Tuesday it will provide an additional 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) to banks to support rebuilding areas devastated by floods, after recent extreme weather damaged around 6 million acres of crops. The world's largest agricultural importer has in recent weeks been plagued by Typhoon Gaemi lashing its eastern seaboard, record rains in its southern rice fields, and intense heat waves across its northern corn and wheat yielding regions.
/jlne.ws/4djoZId
Wave of Chinese Copper Fills Warehouses Abroad as Demand Weakens
Bloomberg
Copper and nickel made in China flooded overseas into warehouses tracked by the London Metal Exchange last month, as tepid domestic demand triggers a wave of exports that has weighed on global prices. China, the largest metals market, is typically a significant net copper importer, but weak local conditions have reversed global trade flows in recent months, weighing on prices. Chinese-origin copper made up 72% of the increase in exchange-monitored inventories in July, and accounted for 53% of the total at the end of the month, up from 45% in June, LME data showed.
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China Drives African Lithium Surge to Lock in Key Battery Metal
William Clowes - Bloomberg
Chinese miners and refiners are driving a surge in African lithium output, shrugging off concerns over a glut to lock in future supplies of the critical battery metal. The continent is projected to account for almost 11% of global supply this year, compared with close to zero at the start of the decade, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. That's projected to increase to more than 14% by 2028.
/jlne.ws/3M2XJl3
Thousands of Bankers Are Quitting Their Jobs in India; Attrition at Indian firms ranks among the highest in the world; Younger employees jump from bank to bank for salary boosts
Preeti Singh and Ruchi Bhatia - Bloomberg
India's banks are expanding into new geographies and businesses, driven by a nationwide credit boom and a go-go period of economic growth. But the pressure for firms to deliver has yielded a worrying side effect: one of the world's worst attrition rates for bankers. As more of India's 1.4 billion people seek out loans, some managers are driving their youngest staff to the brink, pushing thousands out of the industry. By one estimate, attrition in finance is nearly double the global average and far higher than other large countries like the US, Japan and Germany, even after India's rate dipped slightly in the most recently available data.
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