| August 16, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Former President Ronald Reagan was famous for reminding us of a Russian proverb, "Doveryai, no proveryai," or "trust but verify." However, it is going to get increasingly difficult to trust what we see in digital formats. Parmy Olson of Bloomberg has a commentary today titled "AI Phones From Google and Apple Will Erode Trust in Everything" with the subheadline "When anyone can manipulate a photo in seconds, it'll get harder to believe what we see and hear." The article by Olson discusses the growing concern over AI features in phones, particularly those from Google and Apple, and how they might erode trust in digital content. The new Google Pixel 9, for example, allows users to easily manipulate photos, such as adding people who weren't originally in the shot. These AI tools, while convenient, make it increasingly difficult to trust what we see, as even everyday users can now alter reality with just a few taps. This trend, combined with similar features from Apple and Samsung, raises questions about the future of digital trust. The article suggests that while these tools offer new conveniences, they also introduce subtle costs-most notably, the potential loss of trust in the authenticity of what we see and hear.
Fenergo, which bills itself as the leading provider of digital solutions for know your customer (KYC), transaction monitoring and client lifecycle management (CLM), today released its half-year annual findings on global financial institution enforcement actions. The report showed that in the first half of 2024, global financial institutions faced a 31% increase in regulatory fines, totaling over $263 million, compared to the same period in 2023. The Asia-Pacific region experienced the largest surge, with penalties rising by 266% to over $46 million. The most significant fines were related to anti-money laundering (AML) violations, which increased by 87% to $113.2 million. Transaction monitoring and suspicious activity report (SAR) breaches also saw a sharp rise, with fines increasing from $6 million to $30.5 million. Banks were the hardest hit, facing $136 million in penalties, followed by digital asset providers and payment firms.
A notable $65 million fine was imposed on the U.S. subsidiary of a Canadian bank for poor risk management practices. As regulatory bodies deploy advanced technologies to detect violations, the trend of increasing penalties is expected to continue in the second half of the year. Financial institutions are urged to strengthen their AML and KYC systems to avoid costly fines and reputational damage, Fenergo said.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking college students to join its SEC Scholars Program for Spring 2025. This 10-week internship offers opportunities in both business and legal fields, and students from all majors are encouraged to apply. Internship locations include Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Fort Worth, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, DC. Remote work may be permitted on a case-by-case basis. Applications are due by August 30, 2024. To learn more, attend one of the online information sessions on August 20, 21, or 28. Apply and get more details at SEC Scholars Program.
ForecastEx, a subsidiary of Interactive Brokers, launched its predictions exchange on August 1, 2024, focusing on US economic and global climate events. The platform is powered by Connamara Technologies' EP3 exchange and clearing technology, which integrates market access, data distribution, order execution, risk management, and regulatory reporting into a single system. EP3 is designed for modern markets, including predictions and crypto, while meeting traditional regulatory needs. In a press release today, both companies expressed enthusiasm for their partnership and the potential to expand the platform's features in the future.
JPX has published a market news & insights piece titled "OSE Derivatives - A GUIDE TO TSE'S BANKS INDEX, ETFS, AND FUTURES" showing that the TSE Banks Index has outperformed other Japanese indexes due to rising interest rates and BOJ policy changes. It tracks 78 banking stocks and has become a key performer, benefiting from higher dividend yields and earnings expectations. Two major ETFs linked to the index have seen substantial growth, with significant increases in assets. Additionally, TOPIX Banks Index Futures, primarily used by institutional investors for hedging, have seen rising trading volumes, playing a vital role in Japan's financial market ecosystem.
Dr. Helen Ezenwa, who has been an adjunct professor at DePaul University and Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as the executive director of the Career Management Center at IIT, has accepted a new role as executive director of the M.A. and Lila Self Leadership Academy at Illinois Tech, assistant professor of business administration, and assistant dean for social innovation at Illinois Tech Stuart School of Business, she shared on LinkedIn.
Here are excerpts from in front of FOW's paywall from some of today's stories: Bitfinex is exploring a partnership with Komainu to integrate the exchange into Komainu's collateral management platform, Komainu Connect. Meanwhile, the US exchange-traded funds (ETFs) market reached a new record in July, marking the second consecutive month of record-breaking activity due to a surge in trading. Additionally, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is taking steps to grow its presence in the environmental sector this year with plans to expand its environmental futures offerings.
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:
- Wall Street's Favorite Options Trade Went Quiet During Market Mayhem from Bloomberg.
- Summer market shock not quite over as investors brace for more turmoil from Reuters.
- The ETF industry's shark-jumping moment from the Financial Times. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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 Navigating the Future of Clearing: Insights from Anthony Attia at FIA's IDXJohnLothianNews.com In a bustling conference hall at the FIA's IDX event, Anthony Attia, a prominent figure in the European clearing industry, shared his insights on the evolving landscape of risk management and clearing house operations. The air was thick with anticipation as industry leaders gathered to discuss the future of financial markets. Watch the video »
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RIA Channel Attracts Top Industry Talent; Hires Veterans Eric Cott and Marni Dacy; Demonstrating its dedication to growth and client value, the firm strengthens its team with top industry talent
RIA Channel
RIA Channel, the leading financial services marketing company specializing in connecting asset managers with financial advisors, announced today the hiring of two industry veterans, Eric Cott and Marni Dacy. Their extensive industry experience will bolster the firm's marketing programs across the asset management, advisor, and private wealth ecosystems.
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***** As reported earlier about Eric Cott's new job.~JJL
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Here is a list of recently updated pages of MarketsWiki over the last two days: Alaron Trading Corporation, AlgoFast, Archipelago, Association of Futures Markets, Asset Managers, Australian Exchanges, Australian Securities Exchange, BATS Global Markets, Brian King, Capstone Global Markets, Category:Asian Exchanges, Category:Association of Futures Markets, Category:Asset Managers, Category:Authors, Category:Australian Exchanges, Category:Australian Securities Exchange, Category:BATS Global Markets, Category:Chicago Board Options Exchange, Category:Merrill Lynch - Former Employees, Category:Self Regulatory Organizations, Christopher McGuire, Dale Spolanic, Dan Fuss, Daniel M. Keegan, Dave Creagan, David Feltes, Drexel Burnham Lambert, EPRA, Gavin Hill, Greg Tanzer, Helen Lofthouse, Infinium Capital Management, LLC, James F. Heinz, Jr., James F. Sullivan Jr., John Detrixhe, John Gage III, Kevin Davitt, Laurie Bischel, Liffe, MF Global Holdings Ltd, Michael Meagher, MotherRock, Pedro Gurrola-Perez, Penson Worldwide Inc., PFGBest, Robin McInerney, Robert B. Moore, Russell Hardy, Sentinel Management Group, Stotler Group Inc., Sugar, Susan Gaughan, Suspicious Activity Reports and Vitol SA
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Thursday's Top Three
Our top clicked item Thursday was Nixon and the End of the Bretton Woods System, 1971-1973, from the Office of the Historian. Second was Nixon Ends Bretton Woods International Monetary System, a video of Former President Nixon announcing the end of the gold standard on August 15, 1971, on YouTube. Third was Dozens of financial groups to pay nearly $400mn in SEC texting probe, from the Financial Times.
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| Lead Stories | Citadel's Ken Griffin Has Remade the Hedge-Fund Industry, With Himself on Top; His firm's performance is helping win a war of styles in its corner of professional investing
Peter Rudegeair - The Wall Street Journal
Ken Griffin wants visitors to the offices of his $63 billion hedge-fund firm, Citadel, to have no doubt about its standing atop Wall Street. "#1 Most Profitable Hedge Fund Manager of All Time" reads the message emblazoned on elevator doors at its Miami headquarters. It refers to an unofficial industry ranking Citadel scaled following a one-year record haul of $16 billion in 2022. Griffin is eager to tell the world about that, too. "We made more money than any firm has ever made in the history of capital markets," Griffin said of Citadel and a sister company, Citadel Securities. "This is where people come when they want to change the world of finance."
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NYSE Scrubs Plan to List Bitcoin ETF Options; Other exchanges have also withdrawn their applications, but some have re-filed.
Sam Reynolds - CoinDesk
The NYSE has withdrawn a proposed rule change to trade options based on bitcoin ETFs. Other exchanges have also withdrawn similar applications, but have also refiled. The operator of the New York Stock Exchange has withdrawn its application to list and trade options based on the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The SEC extended its review period multiple times after publishing the NYSE proposal for public comment in February 2024, eventually initiating formal proceedings in April, but the proposal was withdrawn by the exchange before a final decision was made. CBOE, where a number of the Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs are traded, also withdrew its application, but has since re-filed with a much more extensive proposal, according to documents spotted by Bloomberg's James Seyffart.
/jlne.ws/3ywPWZP
Giant Metal Stockpile in Singapore Sparks Rare Warehouse Battle; Traders are using 'rent sharing' deals to minimize costs; Zinc, lead inventories rose almost 1,000% through May 2023
Alfred Cang - Bloomberg
Metal stockpiles are surging in Singapore, and slowing global demand is only part of the reason. Refined zinc and lead have been pouring into Singapore since the middle of last year, making one of the smallest countries in the world a critical vault for companies including Trafigura Group and Glencore Plc. The combined inventories of the two base metals in the London Metal Exchange's Singapore-registered warehouses have grown more than tenfold since May 2023 to a record of almost 430,000 tons in recent weeks, according to bourse data.
/jlne.ws/3M7Pu7n
Quants Are Poised to Unleash a Wave of Cash in Stock Market
Natalia Kniazhevich - Bloomberg
The largest unwind in US equities since the Covid-19 pandemic is over, and now trend-following quant funds are ready to return to the stock market. Over the past month, so-called systematic funds, which buy stocks based on market signals and volatility moves rather than company fundamentals, have sold the largest dollar-volume of equities in four years, according to Scott Rubner, global markets division managing director and tactical specialist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
/jlne.ws/46S3Z96
India central bank asks banks to push direct rupee-dirham settlement, sources say
Nimesh Vora and Jaspreet Kalra - Reuters
The Indian central bank has told banks that deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to settle at least a part of their trade payments directly using the rupee and dirham, according to five banking sources. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hasn't given banks a specific target but has asked them to report the extent of such payments to it on a regular basis, the sources said.
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Regulatory penalties for global financial institutions surge 31% in H1 2024
Fenergo
Fenergo, the leading provider of digital solutions for know your customer (KYC), transaction monitoring and client lifecycle management (CLM), today released its half-year annual findings on global financial institution enforcement actions, revealing a 31% surge in the value of fines issued in H1 2024 compared to H1 2023. Asia-pacific firms saw the biggest rise in penalties imposed, totalling over $46m - a 266% increase compared with H1 of 2023. Global financial regulators levied 80 fines in the first half of 2024, totaling $263,252,003 for non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, including know your customer (KYC), as well as sanctions, suspicious activity reports (SARs), and transaction monitoring violations. In the same period last year, regulators issued over $201m in penalties for the same types of violations. The findings - which relate to enforcement actions spanning EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific - indicate a multi-year trend of increasing fines, as watchdogs continue to crackdown on illicit behaviour across the globe.
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Wall Street's Favorite Options Trade Went Quiet During Market Mayhem; Activity in 0DTE contracts slumped as investors changed tack; Drop in volumes may reassure critics warning boom is risky
Lu Wang - Bloomberg
A surprising thing happened during the early August stock convulsions: The one corner of the market most suited to riding short-term moves fell unusually silent. Trading of options with zero days to expiry, or 0DTE, slumped last Monday as the selloff swept global equities. About 1.1 million such contracts tied to the S&P 500 changed hands, roughly 30% below the one-month average, according to analytics firm SpotGamma.
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Wall Street Just Got Its Most Volatile ETF as Risky Bets Boom; MicroStrategy 1.75x leveraged ETF is most volatile in US: BI; More issuers looking to push the envelope, says BI's Balchunas
Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
In a part of the US market for exchange-traded funds that has become known for increasingly risky products, a new offering has debuted that stands out in the crowd. Defiance, a $1.4 billion asset manager, on Thursday launched the Defiance Daily Target 1.75X Long MSTR ETF under the ticker MSTX. The fund looks to offer daily leveraged returns on MicroStrategy Inc. The stock, which has been seen as a Bitcoin proxy because of the company's holdings of the digital token, has a 90-day volatility of about 97%. That would likely make the new ETF the most volatile in the US, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. For comparison, the same volatility measure comes in at 66% for Tesla Inc. - another stock prone to sizable swings - and 63% for Nvidia Corp., data compiled by Bloomberg show. For SPY, the giant State Street fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index, it's 14%.
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Connamara Technologies' EP3â„¢ Exchange and Clearing Platform Powers Interactive Brokers' ForecastEx Predictions Exchange
Connamara Technologies
ForecastEx successfully launched its innovative predictions exchange for contracts on US economic and global climate events on August 1st, backed by Connamara Technologies' fully integrated EP3 exchange and clearing technology. ForecastEx, a wholly owned subsidiary of Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: IBKR), is licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO). US economic events offered on ForecastEx include Unemployment Claims, Consumer Price Index, Retail Sales, Fed Funds, Housing Starts, and others. Global climate events include temperatures and atmospheric CO2.
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Carry Trade That Blew Up Markets Is Attracting Hedge Funds Again; Yen shorts have risen around 30 to 40% in past week, ATFX says; Any hint of BOJ keeping rates on hold may embolden yen sellers
David Finnerty and Ruth Carson - Bloomberg
A popular yen-centered carry trade that blew up spectacularly two weeks ago is staging a comeback. Japan's currency has weakened more than 5% against the dollar since Aug. 5, when a cocktail of hawkish Japan monetary policy moves, jitters around US earnings and a feeble jobs report catapulted the yen to a seven-month high.
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'Dr Doom' files to launch ETF based on his calamitous outlook; Nouriel Roubini, who gained fame after predicting the global financial crisis, says his fund will take account of new risks
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
Nouriel Roubini, aka Dr Doom, has been dishing up his downbeat takes on the global economy and markets for decades. Now investors will finally get the chance to see how his gloomy insights translate into financial returns as Roubini, who earned his Dr Doom moniker for foreseeing the 2008 global financial crisis, turns to managing money for the first time at the age of 66.
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Millennium Opens Singapore Office as Asia Credit Trading Soars; Use of electronic trading in Asia has jumped from a decade ago; Demand for USD corporate bonds is also surging, the firm says
Olivia Raimonde - Bloomberg
Millennium Advisors has expanded its trading and sales operations into Asia to take advantage of surging demand for electronic trading and US dollar bonds in the region. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based trading firm opened a new office in Singapore, after considering potential locations in Hong Kong and Dubai, the company said. Trading began on July 3 with three employees. "We have been thinking about it for quite some time," Laurent Paulhac, the firm's group chief executive officer, said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg News. "The most challenging question in business is not what to do but when to do it. These markets are evolving quickly and you need to be there."
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Charles Koch's Firm Backs New CLO Fund for the Public Market; Sound Point relied on Koch capital to start CLO equity fund; Fund trades on public market, allowing individuals to invest
Miles Weiss - Bloomberg
Billionaire Charles Koch's closely held company is cashing in on the appetite of individuals for one of the riskiest corners of the loan market. When money manager Sound Point Capital Management recently started a new closed-end fund tied to loans, an affiliate of the Koch family bought a large portion of it. The fund, Sound Point Meridian Capital, invests in CLO equity, securities that Âare first in line to absorb losses on loans to leveraged companies that are packaged into collateralized loan obligations.
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The fight over the UK's fraud compensation scheme; Forcing banks to refund £415,000 opens door to fresh scams, industry warns
George Parker, Akila Quinio and Michael O'Dwyer - Financial Times
Some in the Treasury call the scheme "a disaster waiting to happen". But for consumer advocates, it provides "vital protections for scam victims". A new regime forcing banks and payment companies to reimburse fraud victims up to £415,000 is due to start on October 7. The City, which fears the plan could force smaller firms out of business, is lobbying heavily to delay or weaken the measures. The scheme is now a flashpoint between ministers, who are obliged to respect the independence of City watchdogs, and the Payments Systems Regulator, which is determined to press ahead with the plan.
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Fireside Friday with... State Street's Peter Vincent; The TRADE sits down with Peter Vincent, head of trading in EMEA at State Street, to discuss how trader skillsets are continuing to evolve, the dynamics of his own desk, and which market structure changes to look out for in the rest of 2024.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
How would you describe the dynamic and makeup of your desk? We very much work as one team. Traders often need to cover their colleagues' books, so we also emphasise and nurture trust and confidence in each other.
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UOB becomes first Singaporean bank to join LSEG NDF matching platform; The London Stock Exchange Group's (LSEG) non-deliverable forwards matching platform went live last November.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
Singaporean bank UOB has become the first in the country to join LSEG FX's NDF Matching and clear its first trade using LCH ForexClear. The platform, aimed at the global FX market, combines the benefits of an NDF CLOB with clearing.n Rohit Verma, head of post-trade Asia Pacific at LSEG, said: "As a leader in the Asian NDF market and Singapore's first LCH ForexClear member, we look forward to supporting their clearing activity on the platform."
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russian lawmaker Butina says the West is 'poking the bear' with Ukraine incursion
Reuters
Russian lawmaker Maria Butina on Wednesday said that the West was involved in the Ukrainian incursion into sovereign Russian territory and was thus "poking the bear" in a dangerous escalation. The United States and other Western backers of Ukraine have denied that they were informed beforehand of the dramatic attack on Russia's Kursk region. "Of course they are involved," Butina told Reuters when asked if the West was involved. "When I studied in the United States the main rule was: 'Don't poke the bear'. What the West is doing today? They are poking the bear."
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Britain: Ukraine permitted to use U.K.-donated weapons in Russia ground offensive
Paul Godfrey - United Press International
Ukrainian forces are authorized to use British-supplied weapons in their ground offensive on western Russia, London indicated on Thursday. The Ministry of Defense said its policy was that Ukraine had the right to use the weapons to defend itself, including on Russian territory, provided it does not breach international law. The waiver did not, however, apply to Anglo-French-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles -- a caveat the new Labor government reiterated within days of taking office July 5.
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Russia hastily builds trenches in Kursk
Iona Cleave - The Telegraph
Ukrainian forces have advanced further into Russia as the Kremlin began building trenches far behind the front lines in a sign of deepening concern about the potential extent of the invasion. Oleksander Syrsky, Ukraine's army chief, said that his forces had pushed another 2km into the border region of Kursk, capturing 100 more prisoners of war. Kyiv's troops filmed themselves inside a captured Russian command point, as Moscow struggled to halt the cross-border incursion that has now lasted more than a week.
/jlne.ws/4fXJ2h4
Russia appears to have diverted several thousand troops from occupied Ukraine to counter Kursk offensive, US officials say
Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand - CNN
Russia appears to have diverted several thousand troops from occupied territory inside Ukraine to counter a surprisingly successful Ukrainian offensive inside Russian borders in a move that potentially weakens Moscow's war effort, two senior US officials told CNN. The development has drawn American attention and US officials are now working to determine precisely how many troops Russia is moving, but sources said multiple brigade-sized elements made up of at least 1,000 troops each appeared to have shifted to the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an operation last week.
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Belarus says there is a high chance of armed provocation from Ukraine
Reuters
Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said on Friday there was a high probability of an armed provocation from neighbouring Ukraine and that the situation at their shared border "remains tense", the state-run Belta news agency reported. Khrenin's comments came more than a week after Ukraine sent thousands of troops across Russia's western border in a surprise incursion.
/jlne.ws/3AsmwfS
Russia diplomat says Ukraine wouldn't have attacked Nord Stream without US approval
Reuters
Russia's ambassador to Washington said on Friday that he did not believe Ukraine would have attacked the Nord Stream gas pipelines without the tacit approval of the United States, and that Russia would identify and punish those behind the attack. A sharp pressure drop on the pipelines under the Baltic Sea was registered on Sept. 26, 2022 and seismologists detected explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about who sabotaged the multibillion-dollar project that carried Russian gas to Germany. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which occurred off the Danish island of Bornholm and ruptured three out of four lines of the system.
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Ukraine Grain Trader Says Too Risky to Rely on Black Sea Ports
Kateryna Chursina and Aine Quinn - Bloomberg
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Russian court gives 12-year treason sentence to Russian-American over $50 charity donation
Christian Edwards - CNN
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Russian MP says Ukrainian incursion could lead to global war, RIA reports
Reuters
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Ukraine's incursion disrupts Putin's war of attempted conquest; Russia may be forced to rethink its claim that any peace deal must take account of who controls territory on the ground
Lawrence Freedman - Financial Times
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US oil services group SLB expands in Russia as competitors withdraw; Texas-based company has signed new contracts and recruited hundreds of staff despite the war in Ukraine
Jamie Smyth, Anastasia Stognei and Chris Cook - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3WGGD1m
As Ukraine Invades Russia, Kyiv's Troops Are in Trouble on the Eastern Front; Ukrainian soldiers are overmatched in some areas and deployments in the trenches can stretch for months
Ian Lovett and Nikita Nikolaienko - The Wall Street Journal
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Gaza Reduced to 42 Million Tonnes of Rubble. What Will It Take to Rebuild? As US-backed ceasefire talks restart in Doha, calls to reconstruct the Strip are becoming louder
Fadwa Hodali, Fares Akram, Jason Kao, Jennah Haque, Jeremy C. F. Lin - Bloomberg
Moving through the Gaza Strip to avoid Israeli air strikes, Rana Abu Nassira often used Google Earth to look at the home she had been forced to abandon. Unaware that the geobrowser's imagery does not update in real time, the 37-year-old was reassured to see the house she shared with her husband and son had survived the chaos and bombardments of the Israel-Hamas war.
/jlne.ws/3MabkqI
High-stakes Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks stretch into second day; Mediators focus on Israeli position in bid to end war in Gaza and damp rising tensions across region
Neri Zilber - Financial Times
Crunch talks over a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza stretched into a second day in Doha on Friday, as international mediators sought to broker an agreement that would also aim to ease growing regional hostilities and avoid full-scale war between Israel and Iran. The US, along with Egypt and Qatar, convened the meeting in a bid to break months of deadlock in negotiations and finalise a deal that would halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of Israeli hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group.
/jlne.ws/4fFk59Q
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | 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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2024 Full-year Results Market Release
ASX
Attached is a copy of the market release relating to the 2024 Full-Year Financial Results.
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Closure Of Bursa Malaysia In Conjunction With Prophet Muhammad's Birthday And Malaysia Day - Trading Resumes On 17 September 2024
Mondovisione
Bursa Malaysia Berhad ("Bursa Malaysia" or "the Exchange") and its subsidiaries will be closed on 16 September 2024 (Monday) in observance of both Prophet Muhammad's Birthday (Maulidur Rasul) and the Malaysia Day public holiday. Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries will resume operations, and carry out trading and settlement activities as usual on 17 September 2024 (Tuesday).
/jlne.ws/3M8oEw0
Meeting of the Index Maintenance Sub-Committee (Equity)
NSE
A meeting of the Index Maintenance Sub-Committee (Equity) of NSE Indices Limited will be held on August 23, 2024 after the market hours to conduct a periodic review of stocks in various Nifty equity indices. A press release announcing changes in these indices shall be issued thereafter.
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Yale Spinout in Quantum Field Draws US Intelligence Agency Money
Jane Lanhee Lee - Bloomberg
Sequoia Capital-backed Quantum Circuits Inc. raised more than $60 million from investors including a fund set up by the US Central Intelligence Agency, as concern grows about quantum computing's potential security implications. Sequoia's only portfolio company in the nascent field said on Thursday it won an investment from In-Q-Tel Inc., a nonprofit that deploys funds from US intelligence agencies. Quantum Circuits will use the money to commercialize time on its superconducting quantum computer which boasts built-in error-detection.
/jlne.ws/3X3QJLc
Ex-Google CEO Schmidt advised students to steal TikTok's IP and 'clean up the mess' later
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez - Fortune
In a talk at Stanford University, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt discussed the future of AI, touched on geopolitics, and went on an anti-remote work rant that he later walked back. He also gave students some questionable advice. In a now-deleted video (he asked for it to be taken down, he told the Wall Street Journal) Schmidt mentioned a business opportunity that could arise if the U.S. ever banned TikTok, as lawmakers from both parties tried to do earlier this year.
/jlne.ws/4dMkFB2
Revolut Says Secondary Share Sale Valued Firm at $45 Billion
Aisha S Gani - Bloomberg
Revolut Ltd. said a secondary share sale that allowed the company to give employees liquidity for their stakes valued the company at $45 billion. The round was led by investors Coatue, D1 Capital Partners and Tiger Global, according to a statement. Morgan Stanley served as sole placement agent on the deal.
/jlne.ws/3Xhe9Nn
Revolut joins Europe's biggest banks with $45 billion valuation after share sale
Tommy Reggiori Wilkes - Reuters
Britain's Revolut has been valued at $45 billion through a secondary share sale to new and existing investors, the financial technology firm said on Friday, making it worth more than some of Europe's biggest banks. The share sale, which enables current employees to cash out some of their shares, is being led by Coatue and D1 Capital Partners, and existing investor Tiger Global, Revolut said. The valuation cements Revolut's position as one of Europe's most valuable fintechs.
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Google's antitrust defeat could shape AI markets; Court ruling on search could prevent companies from dominating newer markets
Richard Waters - Financial Times (opinion)
A frequent criticism of regulators in the tech world is that they are always fighting the last war. Markets move too fast for slow-moving antitrust investigations and legal cases to have much effect. That complaint is about to be put to the test in the artificial intelligence market, which has been on a tear since the launch of ChatGPT. The US court ruling that declared Google an illegal monopoly in internet search is barely a week old, but there are already close similarities in the way competition is developing in AI. Will the search ruling do anything to influence the way the market develops?
/jlne.ws/3XhhNa1
Nvidia vs. the startups: AI chip challengers chase efficiency; Asia seen as strategic location for applications run by PCs, industrial devices
Ryohtaroh Satoh - Nikkei Asia
/jlne.ws/3M9ZnBo
Consensus Nabs $11 Million to Build AI Search Engine for Academics; Students, doctors and health-conscious consumers use Consensus to answer questions.
Shirin Ghaffary - Bloomberg
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Every American's Social Security number, address may have been stolen in hack
Daniel Miller - FOX 5 DC
A hacking group called USDoD claims to have stolen 2.7 billion records of personal information from Americans, including their Social Security numbers and physical addresses. USDoD offered to sell the stolen records, which included personal data for everyone in the US, UK, and Canada, to a forum of hackers. The data was stolen from National Public Data, a platform that offers personal information to employers, private investigators, staffing agencies and others doing background checks. After a group of hackers claimed to have stolen personal information several months ago from a data broker, a member of the group reportedly shared most of the sensitive data on an online forum for stolen data.
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Google Confirms an Iranian Group Is Trying to Access Emails Linked to Both US Presidential Campaigns
Associated Press
Google said Wednesday that an Iranian group linked to the country's Revolutionary Guard has tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump since May. The tech company's threat intelligence arm said the group is still actively targeting people associated with Biden, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic candidate last month when he dropped out. It said those targeted have included current and former government officials, as well as presidential campaign affiliates.
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Mayor of Columbus, Ohio, Says Ransomware Attackers Stole Corrupted, Unusable Data; Hackers recently stole data from Ohio's largest city, but what they got was not usable and no personal information about city workers was made available online, the mayor said.
Associated Press
Hackers recently stole data from Ohio's largest city, but what they got was not usable and no personal information about city workers was made available online, the mayor said. Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther confirmed the data breach and noted Tuesday that the city never received a ransom request. The city learned Friday that most of the data published to the dark web by the ransomware group Rhysida was corrupted or encrypted, he said.
/jlne.ws/3Au1XzO
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto Hacks Double to $1.6 Billion as Prices Jump, Report Shows; Number of heists rose slightly, centralized exchanges targeted; Bitcoin made up 40% of the proceeds of this year's heists
Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
The value of crypto hacks almost doubled to $1.6 billion in the first seven months of 2024, inflated by a jump in digital-asset prices, according to Chainalysis Inc. While the value of funds stolen has surged, the number of hacks rose only marginally to 149 so far this year, up from 145 in the corresponding period of 2023, according a report published by the blockchain analytics firm on Thursday. "Many crypto asset prices have increased significantly in 2024 and a large part of the growth in value stolen is likely due to that price appreciation," said Eric Jardine, cybercrimes research lead at Chainalysis, in an emailed response to Bloomberg News.
/jlne.ws/3AAfYf3
A Coinbase user thought he called customer support. Instead he lost $100,000 in 20 minutes to scammers
Jeff John Roberts - Fortune
The crypto market was heating up and Fred, who is in his 60s and lives in Connecticut, figured it was a good time to shift some of the positions he held in his Coinbase account. After encountering some difficulties with the website, Fred decided to call the company. He searched for Coinbase on Google and, at top of the page, he saw an ad that prominently displayed a customer service phone number. Upon calling it, a representative informed Fred that he had "one of the older accounts" but required updating. That's when the trouble began.
/jlne.ws/3SM7mIv
Dubai court recognizes crypto as a valid salary payment; UAE lawyer Irina Heaver said the ruling shows the growing acceptance of crypto in employment contracts, recognizing the evolving nature of Web3 financial transactions.
Ezra Reguerra - Cointelegraph
In a significant update to the United Arab Emirates' judiciary approach to crypto, the Dubai Court of First Instance recognizes salary payments in crypto as valid under employment contracts. Irina Heaver, a partner at UAE law firm NeosLegal, explained that the ruling in case number 1739 of 2024 shows a shift from the court's earlier stance in 2023, where a similar claim was denied because the crypto involved lacked precise valuation. Heaver believes this shows a "progressive approach" to integrating digital currencies into the country's legal and economic framework.
/jlne.ws/3YOgGzA
BlackRock Overtakes Grayscale by AUM for Listed Crypto Products
Hope C - CoinMarketCap
According to CoinShares' Head of Research, James Butterfill, BlackRock surpassed Grayscale in assets under management (AUM) for publicly-listed crypto products faster than anticipated. This shift underscores the influence of established ETF providers and their rapid market dominance.
/jlne.ws/4dmZiq0
Capula, Schonfeld, Point72 Among Hedge Funds Riding Bitcoin ETFs; Millennium trimmed stakes but remains among the top holders; 701 new funds reported positions in spot-Bitcoin ETFs
Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
Hedge funds, pensions and banks continued to lavish capital into exchange-traded funds that invest directly in Bitcoin, as more traditional investors embrace the asset class that US regulators begrudgingly helped push into the mainstream at the beginning of the year. Among the most well-known buyers that have emerged are hedge funds like Millennium Management, which held shares in at least five Bitcoin ETFs, according to a Bloomberg analysis of second-quarter filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm, which has $68 billion in assets under management, trimmed its stakes in the ETFs significantly from the prior quarter but remained as the top holder for most of the funds, including BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT).
/jlne.ws/3YHDzEQ
Every Norwegian now indirectly owns $27 worth of Bitcoin as sovereign wealth fund ups crypto stake
Ryan Hogg - Fortune
Norway's $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund has made a bold start to the year, growing by double digits, shedding its exposure to tech giants, and diving deeper into the crypto space.
/jlne.ws/4dpJliP
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | The red state surprise about America's green transition; Initiatives like America's Inflation Reduction Act are a first step, not a silver bullet
Gillian Tett - Financial Times
Sometimes politicians get wise. More often they get accidentally smart - or lucky. And this week, as America marks the second anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, that second point looks newly relevant. The reason is that when US President Joe Biden unexpectedly unveiled the IRA on August 16 2022, it primarily seemed a crowd-pleaser for Democrats: the bill aims to slash carbon emissions by offering about $400bn subsidies for renewable energy technologies, such as solar power and electric vehicles.
/jlne.ws/4dptfpk
Donald Trump's economic plans would hurt US business, report claims; Centre-left Third Way think-tank criticises ex-president's plan to raise tariffs and curb skilled immigration
Lauren Fedor - Financial Times
The prospect of another four years of Donald Trump "should make business leaders shudder", a leading Democratic think-tank has said, pointing to his plans including higher tariffs that could drive up costs for companies and consumers. In a report published on Friday, the centre-left think-tank Third Way said Trump's protectionist trade proposals, threats to end the Federal Reserve's independence and vows to crack down on immigration, including for skilled workers, should alarm executives.
/jlne.ws/3STkImn
UK government woos Revolut as fintech favours US for potential IPO; City minister Tulip Siddiq calls in Britain's largest fintech for talks after regulator granted critical banking licence
Emma Dunkley and Akila Quinio - Financial Times
The Treasury intends to emphasise London's appeal in planned talks with Revolut as Britain's most valuable fintech continues to favour a potential New York listing after securing a critical UK banking licence. City minister Tulip Siddiq is expected to meet Revolut in the autumn as part of a series of one-to-one talks with businesses, according to the Treasury.
/jlne.ws/3M6qr4H
US State Dept OKs potential $5 billion sale of Patriot missiles to Germany
Reuters
The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of up to 600 Patriot air defense missiles to NATO ally Germany for an estimated cost of $5 billion, the Pentagon said on Thursday. "The proposed sale will improve Germany's capability to meet current and future threats and increase the defensive capabilities of its military," the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
/jlne.ws/3M7b9fT
Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand's youngest prime minister
Devjyot Ghoshal - Reuters
On the campaign trail in rural Thailand last year, Paetongtarn Shinawatra reminded voters of her influential billionaire family's legacy of populism in what was her electoral debut. The 37-year-old, who spent weeks at the hustings while visibly pregnant, delivered mixed results. Her Pheu Thai party came only in second in 2023's election but cobbled together a ruling coalition after the vote-winner was blocked by military-backed lawmakers.
/jlne.ws/46LJ0EJ
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Baker Tilly unit lands FCA's first auditor censure; UK financial regulator alleges MHA failed to properly prepare client asset reports
Simon Foy - Financial Times
A unit of Baker Tilly International has landed the first censure of an auditor by the UK's financial regulator after it allegedly failed to adequately prepare client asset reports. The Financial Conduct Authority said on Thursday that MHA failed to prepare four client asset reports to the required standard between 2015 and 2019 relating to two regulated financial companies, and did not notify the regulator of as many as 25 rule breaches by the companies it had audited.
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PwC fined record £15mn by FCA over London Capital & Finance; Big Four firm failed to report belief that investment group might have been involved in fraudulent activity
Simon Foy - Financial Times
The UK's financial regulator has hit PwC with a record £15mn fine for failing to alert the watchdog to suspected fraudulent activity at London Capital & Finance, the now-defunct investment group at the centre of one of the country's worst retail savings scandals in recent years. The Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday that it had imposed a £15mn penalty on the Big Four accounting firm after it failed to report to the regulator its belief that LCF might be involved in fraudulent activity.
/jlne.ws/3YSNd7P
Can You Solve This Insider-Trading Puzzle in Seven Clues or Less? Keep your pen and paper handy.
Jim Bumgardner - Bloomberg
Akiko, Elena, Mukhtar and Sam were all exhausted after a long day of corporate hobnobbing in Sun Valley, Idaho. To relax, they gathered in Mukhtar's pied-a-terre to play Conquest!, a game of world domination. While they did, each had a different drink and talked about their jobs-all at different companies. Months later, investigators from the US Securities and Exchange Commission would reconstruct the evening as part of an inquiry into alleged stock market manipulation by one of the executives. Despite the SEC's efforts, the investigators couldn't figure out two details from the night in question. Using the clues and illustration below, can you name the person...
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SEC Obtains Final Judgments Against Former Executives for Their Roles in $100 Million Accounting Fraud
SEC
On August 14, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered final judgments against Brent Whiteley and Michael Scott for their roles in a multi-year accounting fraud they engaged in while they were senior executives of Houston-based seismic data company SAExploration Holdings, Inc. (SAE). The SEC's complaint alleges that Whiteley, Scott and two other former SAE executives falsely inflated the revenue of SAE by approximately $100 million and concealed their theft of millions of dollars from the company. The SEC's complaint further alleges that Whiteley separately stole additional company funds through a fictitious invoice scheme.
/jlne.ws/4cBOkfm
PwC fined £15 million for failing to alert the FCA to suspected fraudulent activity at London Capital & Finance plc
FCA
The FCA has fined PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) for failing to report to the regulator their belief that London Capital & Finance plc (LCF) might be involved in fraudulent activity. This is the first time the FCA has fined an audit firm. PwC encountered significant issues throughout their 2016 audit of LCF. A senior individual at LCF acted aggressively towards auditors, and the firm provided PwC with inaccurate and misleading information. PwC found the audit very complex, and it took considerably longer to complete than anticipated. LCF's actions, and PwC's own work on the audit, led PwC to suspect that LCF might be involved in fraudulent activity. PwC was duty bound to report those suspicions to the FCA as soon as possible, but they failed to do so.
/jlne.ws/3X68WI1
SFC consults on proposals to abolish mixed media offers
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today launched a two-month consultation on proposals to abolish mixed media offers (MMOs) to facilitate a fully electronic process for public offerings and enhance the efficiency of the regulatory process in Hong Kong (Note 1). To this end, the SFC proposed amendments to the Companies (Exemption of Companies and Prospectuses from Compliance with Provisions) Notice to remove the exemption permitting MMOs.
/jlne.ws/3X6IMoq
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Markets Are Way Out of Line With Reality, According to These Measures; Three popular stock market valuation tools are saying the rebound of the past couple of weeks is a fools' rally. Unfortunately, long-term investing isn't so easy.
James Mackintosh - The Wall Street Journal
The pushback I most often receive from readers is that true investors should ignore the day-to-day swings in the markets that obsess traders and just buy and hold stocks. There's a kernel of truth in this: Most fund managers underperform, so what chance do individuals dabbling in the markets have? Better to buy the index. However, even the longest-term thinkers should adjust their portfolios when prices are way out of line with reality (the dot-com bubble or the Covid bust, bonds at close to zero yield, the SPAC/cannabis/clean energy bubble of late 2020-21). The question is how to judge.
/jlne.ws/4dNP2H1
Canadian Pension Saves in Bond Market by Being Boring; CPPIB moved to more predictable sales schedule few years ago; Strategy helped narrow bond spreads in the secondary markets
Chunzi Xu - Bloomberg
Canada's largest pension fund has found a winning formula to cut its borrowing costs: be more predictable. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board started selling Canadian-dollar debt on a more regular and predictable schedule a few years ago, and that's drawn loyalty from some investors. CPPIB is following a playbook that many provincial governments in Canada stick to, in part to meet pre-determined budget goals.
/jlne.ws/3AsU5P1
The End of Fabulous Money Market Rates Is Near; You have been able to earn solid returns by parking your money in fairly safe places, our columnist says. But that won't last much longer.
Jeff Sommer - The New York Times
While stocks and bonds have zigged and zagged, often painfully, over the last few years, one area of the markets has been blissfully steady: money market funds. For more than a year, with minimal risk, investors have been able to get more than 5 percent annually - and substantially beat inflation - by just parking their cash in fairly reliable places. This wonderful refuge from the market storms isn't disappearing. But with short-term interest rates likely to fall soon, the shelter will become less comfortable, and it's time to get ready.
/jlne.ws/3As4D0O
Hong Kong Expected to Add Health, Tech Names to Benchmark Index; Quarterly review likely to focus on healthcare, tech stocks; Many new joiners expected after single addition in last review
Sangmi Cha - Bloomberg
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index may add more stocks in health-care, tech and logistics sectors in an upcoming quarterly review after including only one firm in May. Chinese drugmaker Innovent Biologics Inc., chip packaging provider ASMPT Ltd, and container shipper Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. are among the names touted by analysts as candidates to join the equity benchmark. Hang Seng Indexes Co. announces the results on Friday.
/jlne.ws/3AuWicH
The Rich Can't Sell Their Art, So They're Borrowing Against It
Katherine Doherty and Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
A wealthy client at Bank of America Corp. put up his fine-art collection so he could borrow enough to buy a sports franchise. Another posted his cache of 19th century American landscapes to renovate his estate. Such is the burgeoning world of art lending - where pieces are used to secure loans, allowing their affluent owners to tap their collections for cash without having to part with prized possessions. Art sales have slowed, forcing many to reevaluate their options. The major May New York auction season fell about 23% by value from the prior year, with the world's richest waiting on the sidelines to buy.
/jlne.ws/3YLHmAS
Are You Using the Right Tax Breaks to Boost Investment Returns? Americans have more options than ever to shelter their investments from taxes. Here's how to make smart use of five major types of accounts.
Laura Saunders - The Wall Street Journal
Many of us rushed this month to check how our investments were faring when markets gyrated. Do I have too much in growth stocks? Is my bond mix right? Should I deploy cash now? These are valid concerns. But here's a bigger, more basic question: How are my savings spread across tax-sheltered savings accounts? The answer could have a major impact on your investment returns.
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Distressed Exchanges Reach Highest Level Since 2009, S&P Says
Irene Garcia Perez - Bloomberg
Distressed exchanges remain the leading cause of defaults this year and are at their highest since 2009, driven partly by companies that have defaulted more than once, according to a report by S&P Global Ratings. The global year-to-date default tally stood at 87 at the end of July, four fewer than the previous year and just one above the five-year average. In just over half of the cases, the default was triggered by a distressed exchange, according to the report released on Thursday.
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Those of us in our fifties have to fight for every basis point we can; Boosting investment returns sure beats working for longer in order to retire
Stuart Kirk - Financial Times
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Carbon-Removal Firms Have One Very Big Backer. That's a Problem.; Microsoft dominates this nascent market, but to scale it up more companies need to start buying these high-quality offsets
Yusuf Khan - The Wall Street Journal
Carbon-removal projects that suck CO2 out of the atmosphere are getting increasingly popular among companies looking to offset their emissions, with investment more than doubling in just the past year. Most of the money, however, is coming from just one buyer: Microsoft. The tech giant has the deep pockets to back these expensive removal projects. More companies will need to get on board if the sector is to reach a scale that could eventually lower costs for smaller businesses looking to buy the offsets.
/jlne.ws/3yGq8ud
How Booming Electricity Demand Is Stalling Efforts to Retire Coal and Gas, in Charts; Companies are redoing the math behind the green-energy transition amid the rise of AI data centers
Ashley Cai - The Wall Street Journal
Coal is the electricity sector's largest and dirtiest source of emissions. As of 2023, the U.S. was expected to take offline 133,000 megawatts of coal power by 2035, or about 70% of its remaining coal capacity.
/jlne.ws/3YOmSrk
Last month marked the world's hottest July on record, US scientists say; This year could beat 2023 for the hottest year on record as 15-month heat streak extends, according to Noaa
Oliver Milman - The Guardian
The world just had its hottest July ever recorded, elongating a string of monthly temperature highs that now stretch back for 15 consecutive months, US government scientists have announced. Last month was about 1.2C (2.1F) hotter than average across the globe, making it the hottest July on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday. This means that every month for the past 15 months has beaten its previous monthly record.
/jlne.ws/3YMGb4o
The red state surprise about America's green transition; Initiatives like America's Inflation Reduction Act are a first step, not a silver bullet
Gillian Tett - Financial Times
Sometimes politicians get wise. More often they get accidentally smart - or lucky. And this week, as America marks the second anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, that second point looks newly relevant. The reason is that when US President Joe Biden unexpectedly unveiled the IRA on August 16 2022, it primarily seemed a crowd-pleaser for Democrats: the bill aims to slash carbon emissions by offering about $400bn subsidies for renewable energy technologies, such as solar power and electric vehicles.
/jlne.ws/4dptfpk
Wind Beat Coal Two Months in a Row for U.S. Electricity Generation; The shift occurred as the cost of wind power and other renewable energy is rapidly declining and coal is being pushed out by natural gas.
Minho Kim - The New York Times
Wind turbines generated more electricity than coal-burning power plants across the United States in March and April, outstripping the dirtiest fuel for two consecutive months for the first time, according to the Energy Information Administration. The crossover in wind and coal generation is the latest milestone in the country's energy transition as renewables rise and coal declines. In recent years, breakthroughs in technology have lowered the cost of building new wind turbines, solar panels and battery storage, helping renewable energy replace coal as the cheapest power source in many places.
/jlne.ws/4g1oFj9
Maersk joins study to explore potential of nuclear powered container-shipping
Stuart Stone - Business Green
Danish shipping group signs up to Lloyds Register and Core Power next-generation nuclear container ship study. Shipping and logistics giant A.P. Moller Maersk has agreed to take part in a study that aims to explore the potential for nuclear-powered container shipping as a low carbon maritime solution across Europe, alongside maritime services provider Lloyd's Register (LR) and UK shipping tech specialist Core Power.
/jlne.ws/3X7J6DB
Oil Driller Borr Sees Wave of Shallow-Water Rigs Retiring; Fewer specialized rigs will lead to higher day rates, CEO says; About 20% of world's oil comes from shallow-water drilling
David Wethe - Bloomberg
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USDA Seeks Easier Rules For Crops to be Used in Green Fuels; Push follows tax credit guidance impacting corn and soy; USDA chief also warns on limiting foreign biofuel ingredients
Kim Chipman - Bloomberg
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Dealer Treasury Holdings Jump to a Record After Market Shakeup; Aggregate holdings rose to $361 billion in week to Aug. 7; Elevated repo rates suggest balance sheets are getting full
Alex Harris - Bloomberg
Primary dealers hold the most Treasury securities on record, an indication that balance sheets are filling up after a global selloff in risk assets last week sent investors flying into haven assets.
Aggregate holdings of Treasuries - which are comprised of coupon bonds, T-bills, floating rate notes and TIPS - by primary dealers rose to a record $361 billion in the week through Aug. 7, compared to $323 billion the week prior, Federal Reserve Bank of New York data show.
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Private-Equity Firms Desperate for Cash Turn to a Familiar Trick; Companies backed by firms are taking on more risky debt to pay dividends to investors
Laura Cooper - The Wall Street Journal
Private-equity firms eager to pay their investors are returning to an old habit: loading up companies with risky debt. The rush into junk debt is letting buyout firms deliver payments to investors-and themselves-during a sharp slowdown in deals that is making it hard to sell portfolio companies. The transactions, which rely on low-rated debt, are known on Wall Street as dividend recapitalizations.
/jlne.ws/4fNjR0s
Marex plots interest rate clearing push UK broker is live on LCH and plans to be a "day one" clearing member on FMX
Luke Clancy - Risk.net
Commodities specialist Marex Capital Markets is looking to make a splash as a clearing broker for interest rate products. The London-based firm became the first non-bank member of LCH's SwapClear service in June and cleared its first interest rate swap trade earlier this month. Thomas Texier, head of Marex Clearing, says a "handful of clients" have already signed up to use the swaps clearing service. "We're going to start in a conservative way, as we normally do in in clearing," says Texier.
/jlne.ws/3AuWMzx
JPMorgan Taps New Global ETF Head to 'Double Down' on Active Funds; London-based Travis Spence now oversees $190 billion ETF arm; Firm's active ETFs have drawn $27 billion globally this year
Katie Greifeld - Bloomberg
JPMorgan Asset Management is elevating Travis Spence - a 20-year veteran of the firm - to global head of its $190 billion exchange-traded fund business. Spence, who begins immediately, now oversees all aspects of the business from product development to capital markets to distribution, according to a press release Thursday. He will continue to be based in London.
/jlne.ws/3SPq2Hz
Deutsche Bank CIO Urges Tail-Risk Hedging Despite Market Calm; Geopolitical risks threaten to drive new spikes in volatility; Markets 'no longer priced to perfection,' Nolting says
Natalia Kniazhevich - Bloomberg
Calm has been restored to Wall Street as US stocks resumed their climb this week but Deutsche Bank AG says investors still need to gird their portfolios against future wild asset swings. "We expect volatility to stay at higher levels due to seasonality and change in markets which are no longer priced to perfection," said Christian Nolting, Deutsche Bank's global chief investment officer. Expectations have been reset after the once unstoppable equities rally stumbled on a weak jobs report and "good news is now good news and bad news is bad news."
/jlne.ws/3X6VJyH
Exclusive: Deutsche Bank's proposed Postbank case settlement offer rejected by plaintiffs
Tom Sims - Reuters
Deutsche Bank has proposed a settlement to shareholders who sued Germany's largest bank for underpaying them for the acquisition of Postbank but the offer is too low, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said on Friday. The lawyer, Jan Bayer, rejected the bank's proposal as a "crackhead" offer that is "dead on arrival". Any settlement would mark a significant development in years-long litigation that has cast a shadow over Deutsche Bank and recently forced it to set aside 1.3 billion euros ($1.43 billion) ahead of any possible payout.
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JPMorgan: You can profit 70% of the time you buy the dip in corporate debt
Jessica Nix and Bloomberg - Fortune
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KeyCorp Deal Could Be a Model for Regional Banks
Telis Demos - The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3YP2jLy
HSBC's Play for Mideast Wealth Marred by Exits, Regulatory Curbs; HSBC hired Aladdin Hangari to overhaul Mideast wealth business; Wealth division is seen as key to the bank's future growth
/jlne.ws/4dIKRw9
Citadel and DE Shaw slashed Nvidia holdings ahead of market rout; Renaissance and Marshall Wace added to positions in chipmaking giant in second quarter, filings show
Rafe Uddin and Will Schmitt - Financial Times
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BlackRock says blended finance at 'turning point' as deals grow
Sheryl Tian Tong Lee - Bloomberg
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Bridgewater steps back from China as biggest hedge fund slashes stock bets for 7th quarter
South China Morning Post
/jlne.ws/3WNlfrh
Man Group Quants Are Riding Private Boom for Public Stock Trades; Models use NLP to extract revenue figures from unlisted equity; Private market firms closer to pulse of economy: Man Numeric
/jlne.ws/46QR0Eu
Billionaire Rokos Names Sebag-Montefiore CEO of His Hedge Fund
Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3M9kLXu
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Larger teams found to reduce innovation and limit promotion hopes; Academics who publish research with many co-authors are less likely to receive tenure or grants
Andrew Jack - Financial Times
Larger teams are less innovative and limit their members' career prospects, according to a wide-ranging study of US academics that claims to have broader implications for business, the military and other organisations. The recent trend in scientific research has been to assemble increasingly large teams who jointly publish ever more journal articles. But the consequence has been that their members receive fewer research grants, are promoted more slowly, are less likely to receive tenure and are more likely to quit, the study found. The analysis, "The rise of teamwork and career prospects in academic science", was published this week in Nature Biotechnology, a leading peer-reviewed journal. Its findings contrast with recent pressure in academia to build larger interdisciplinary teams in order to bring in a wider variety of perspectives.
/jlne.ws/3YTpiEW
CEOs Are Running Companies From Afar Even as Workers Return to Office; Starbucks, Victoria's Secret CEOs are living in other states; Leaders running companies long distance has become more common
Lily Meier - Bloomberg
For Starbucks Corp., its primary home is Seattle. Yet its freshly minted chief executive officer isn't living in the same city or even state as its headquarters - an emerging trend of top leaders living a plane ride away at a time when many employees are seeing less flexibility than before. Indeed, this week Victoria's Secret & Co., based in Columbus, Ohio, named a new CEO who will be in New York.
/jlne.ws/3YM53ZO
More young men are becoming NEETs than women-not in employment, education, or training Orianna Rosa Royle - Fortune
There's a growing cohort of Gen-Zers who are rejecting life's major milestones and becoming NEETs-that is, "not in employment, education, or training". Many of them are college-educated men.
/jlne.ws/3WQQS36
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Congo Needs 3.5 Million Doses of Mpox Vaccines, Minister Says; Country can stop spread by vaccinating 2.5 million people; Cost will be hundreds of millions of dollars, Kamba says
Michael J Kavanagh - Bloomberg
Democratic Republic of Congo needs 3.5 million doses of mpox vaccines to stop an outbreak of the virus that has infected more than 15,600 people, Health Minister Roger Kamba said. The central African country will need to vaccinate about 2.5 million people to control the virus, which has killed about 550 people since the beginning of the year, he said Thursday in a briefing broadcast on national television.
/jlne.ws/4fFMsVD
Some doctors are embracing compounded versions of popular weight loss drugs; During shortages, the FDA allows compounding pharmacies to make versions of drugs that are "essentially a copy" of brand-name medicines.
Berkeley Lovelace Jr., Jason Kane and Stephanie Gosk - NBC News
Some health care providers say they're starting to feel more comfortable prescribing compounded versions of the blockbuster weight loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, even as others have lingering concerns about the ingredients used in them. It has been no secret that, even with a prescription in hand, the weight loss drugs can be hard to get hold of. They're pricey - a month's supply can cost more than $1,000 - and are often in shortage.
/jlne.ws/4dvOSEQ
Mpox's Changing Face Poses Challenge to Containment Efforts; WHO declared outbreak a global public health emergency; New strain spreads fast, related to dangerous version of virus
Janice Kew and Antony Sguazzin - Bloomberg
Changes in the virus that causes mpox are just the latest challenge facing disease trackers trying to contain an outbreak of the virus that's become a global health emergency. The surge of cases is centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country roughly the size of Western Europe that's been wracked by decades-long conflict, severe poverty and malnutrition as well as camps housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Now, just like the coronavirus, influenza and the many other pathogens that pose persistent risks, the virus is mutating, further complicating the effort to track its spread.
/jlne.ws/3X4JFxS
Mpox virus detected in Pakistan, health authorities say
Mushtaq Ali and Charlotte Greenfield - Reuters
Pakistan's health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Friday, though they did not yet know the strain of the virus. A health ministry spokesperson said the sequencing of the confirmed case was underway, and that it would not be clear which variant of mpox the patient had until the process was complete.
/jlne.ws/3AsSAQK
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Chinese Convertible Bonds Rocked by Once-Unthinkable Defaults
Bloomberg
Jimmy Yang believed he was making a boring but safe investment when he bought convertible bonds of China Grand Automotive Services Group Co. in May. The country's 801 billion yuan ($119 billion) convertible debt market was long an oasis of small but sound returns, providing shelter even during last year's brutal market downturn. But by mid-July, the 38-year-old lost half of his 1 million yuan investment as tighter capital market rules led to panic selling in small-cap stocks and their related bonds, including Grand Auto's.
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Chinese firm says US$900,000 of gold stolen in armed attack on mine in Ghana
South China Morning Post
A Chinese mining company has revealed that it lost 12kg (26lbs) of gold - worth US$900,000 - in an armed robbery in Ghana earlier this year. Shenzhen-listed gold mining firm Beijing Xiaocheng Technology Stock Co disclosed in its half-year financial report released on Wednesday that "five to six" suspects had been arrested and detained at a police station in Ghana.
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SC Launches Growmatch to Bridge Financing Gaps and Drive Sustainable Growth in Agri-business
Securities Commission Malaysia
The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today unveiled GROWMatch, a new matching initiative that allows agri-business entrepreneurs to showcase their projects and attract necessary funding. This initiative aims to address the financing gap faced by agri-businesses and promote sustainable growth in the sector. The Minister of Digital, YB Tuan Gobind Singh Deo delivered the keynote address at the event. Alternative financing options in the capital market can help spur the country's economic growth and address food security challenges.
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Foreign Investors Are Trading Japan's Stocks Like Never Before; Global funds bought and sold record amounts last week; Investors ended up being net buyers as stocks rallied
Masaki Kondo - Bloomberg
The turmoil triggered by the Bank of Japan's recent interest rate hike has produced two more entries for the record book: All time highs for both inflows and outflows in the nation's stocks last week. Global investors were net buyers of Japanese stocks in the week ending Aug. 9 as trading recovered from an historic rout. Gross sales totaled ¥31.3 trillion ($210 billion), the most since at least 2005, preliminary data from the Ministry of Finance showed. Gross purchases were ¥31.9 trillion, also a record over the same period, making them net buyers.
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Alibaba's Long-Awaited China Stock Link May Provide Timely Boost; China investors seen driving inflow of up to about $20 billion; Addition to Stock Connect should have positive impact, BI says
Jeanny Yu - Bloomberg
Chinese investors finally being able to buy shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. may provide a much-needed boost for the e-commerce firm's stock, with an inflow of up to about $20 billion into next year. The company first hatched the plan for an upgrade to a primary listing in Hong Kong two years ago amid heightened tensions with the US. It may at last be realized by the end of the month, paving the way for it to join a program that connects the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses to the Hong Kong exchange.
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Ghana Locked in Talks to Borrow $500 Million From Cocoa Traders; Cocobod seeks temporary funding as talks with lenders continue; Banks skeptical of crop harvest in season that starts October
Ekow Dontoh - Bloomberg
Ghana is talking with cocoa traders to borrow $500 million to finance industry operations, as it faces delays in concluding an annual syndicated loan from its usual lenders amid uncertainty over crop output. Industry regulator Ghana Cocoa Board is negotiating with bean traders including Olam Group Ltd. and Barrry Callebaut AG to raise at least a third of the $1.5 billion it wants to borrow, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Kazakhstan to Correct False Harvests That Echo Soviet-Era Deceit; Regional officials overestimated some crops to win favor; Deputy Prime Minister says accurate statistics are required
Nariman Gizitdinov - Bloomberg
Regional officials, seeking to win favor with Kazakhstan's leadership, overestimated the country's grain harvest by as much as 3 million tons last year, according to the deputy prime minister. In a throwback to Soviet-era misinformation, Kazakhstan's grain crop was overstated by about 20%. The figures, including 2.1 million tons of wheat, were falsified by regional heads in a system that rewarded higher production, Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin, who's responsible for trade and agriculture, said in interview. Now the government wants to correct the figures, as they're distorting the strengths and weaknesses of the Kazakh agricultural sector, as well as causing subsidies to be misallocated. The misleading numbers could also hinder the country's drive to expand farm output, Zhumangarin said.
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A Loss-Making $872,000 Investment That's Putting India's Markets Chief on the Defensive; Buch's liquidated investment seized on by Hindenburg in salvo; Tenure extension is threatened by political fallout: sources
Advait Palepu, Chiranjivi Chakraborty, and Ruchi Bhatia - Bloomberg
A nearly decade-old personal investment is coming back to haunt India's top market regulator just months before the government faces a decision on whether to renew her tenure. The money-losing $872,762 investment by Securities and Exchange Board of India chief Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband was thrust into the spotlight this month by Hindenburg Research LLC, the US short seller that's one of the parties being queried by the regulator over its campaign against the Adani Group.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Are Selfies the Secret to LinkedIn Success? Experts Weigh In
Charlie Wells - Bloomberg
A few days ago, I wrote this story about something that has been striking not just me and my aging millennial cohort, but a lot of people on the internet lately: LinkedIn has gotten really personal. But first... Now back to LinkedIn. If you haven't noticed this shift, log into the app or website and soon you'll see. A place long known for "thought leadership" and veiled professional gloats (How many times have you seen someone say they are "so humbled" by a promotion?), LinkedIn is starting to feel a bit more like Facebook, Instagram and maybe even TikTok. People are posting selfies from the gym. Others are writing confessional poems that feel like diary entries. And some are even trash-talking colleagues and companies.
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