| July 11, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Bloomberg's Katherine Doherty is making waves this week with her impactful reporting, with her second story, co-written with Sridhar Natarajan, as the lead story in the John Lothian Newsletter. After breaking exclusive news about Ed Tilly joining Clear Street, she now delivers another significant story on Citadel Securities' new strategy, which aims to reshape Wall Street's trading landscape.
Citadel Securities, under the leadership of CEO Peng Zhao, is planning to offer a white-label trading service to banks and brokerages. This service would allow these financial institutions to manage their customer interactions while Citadel handles the intricate details of their trading desks, including technology, analytics, and order execution. This move targets firms struggling with tighter capital regulations, competitive fee pressures, and the high costs of necessary technology upgrades.
The significance of this strategy is profound. It provides a lifeline to banks and brokerages, such as Deutsche Bank, that have been forced to reduce their stock trading operations due to shrinking margins and escalating operational costs. By leveraging Citadel's advanced technology and efficient trading systems, these firms can cut costs and offer better pricing to their customers. However, there is a potential downside; firms may be reluctant to share revenue with Citadel, especially given its reputation as a disruptive force in the industry.
For Wall Street trading desks, this could mean a further reduction in staffing, with only client-facing roles remaining. This aligns with the broader trend of increasing automation and technological integration in financial markets. Citadel's growing dominance is evident, as it already commands a substantial share of US retail and equity trades, roughly 37% of listed retail stock trades and almost a quarter of all equity trades, and is expanding into fixed-income trading.
Nick Cherney, head of innovation, Janus Henderson Investors; JJ Kinahan, CEO IG North America; Joe Lawler, managing director, Wind Point Partners; and Fred Martin, executive vice president and CFO, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago have joined the board of the Greenwood Project, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering career pathways in financial services for Black and Latino college students.
An opinion piece in the Financial Times from July 9th titled "Delaware is jettisoning its traditional approach of protecting investors" represents a profound departure from the state's long-standing tradition of prioritizing investor protection, a change poised to have far-reaching implications for many firms. The new law allows company management to forge confidential agreements with major shareholders, bypassing traditional board oversight on critical governance issues. This move could grant individual shareholders disproportionate control, such as the unilateral power to hire or fire chief executives, which undermines the balanced governance that has been a cornerstone of Delaware's corporate legal framework. For firms incorporated in Delaware, this legislative change introduces significant uncertainty, potentially eroding investor confidence and destabilizing corporate governance structures that have long been seen as a model of stability and fairness.
Mark Shore, who just left his faculty position at DePaul and switched to an adjunct one, is starting a new position as economist & director at CME Group, he reported on LinkedIn.
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:
- Celebrating Independence and Competition: A Fourth of July Reflection from John Lothian News.
- Short Sellers Gained $10 Billion in Second Quarter Despite S&P 500 Rally from Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance.
- ANALYSIS: ICE surges in German power options after expiry tweaks from FOW. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Vermiculus CEO Envisions Future of Exchange Tech: Microservices and AI Lead the Way
JohnLothianNews.com
In a recent interview at London's Park Plaza Westminster Hotel during the FIA's International Derivatives Week, , CEO of the Swedish technology firm , shared insights into the company's innovative approach to financial technology and its vision for the future of exchange systems.
Watch the video »
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Lance Zinman And Daniel Davis Talk Market Trends And Crypto Regs With John Lothian News
Mondaq
During the FIA's International Futures Industry Conference, Partner and Financial Markets and Funds Global Chair Lance Zinman, and Partner and Financial Markets and Regulatory Co-Chair Dan Davis shared their perspectives on the current state and future trends in cryptocurrency markets, the impact of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules on active traders, the transition to broker-dealer status, proprietary trading, digital asset trading and challenges in asset management with John Lothian News.
/jlne.ws/3Ll43Eo
****** Nice to see Katten leveraging the interview Lance Zinman and Daniel Davis did with JLN at Boca and get some extra media exposure for it.~JJL
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Trump to Speak at Bitcoin Conference
Caitlin Ostroff - The Wall Street Journal
Former President Donald Trump will deliver a speech at the annual Bitcoin Conference later this month. The presumptive Republican nominee has sought to court votes, and money, from the crypto industry. He recently invited holders of his mugshot NFTs-crypto's version of a digital trading card-to his dual Florida residence and social club. In May, he began accepting campaign donations in crypto.
/jlne.ws/3Wgc9UV
*****The full headline was edited. It was supposed to say, "Trump to speak in full sentences at Bitcoin conference." He gets as distracted and wanders in the middle of sentences as much as I do. Squirrel!~JJL
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Tony Robbins Bet $200 Million on a Green-Energy Breakthrough. Proof It Works Remains Elusive.
Scott Patterson and Amrith Ramkumar - The Wall Street Journal
Tony Robbins donned ear protection and stepped inside a nondescript metal building in southwestern Pennsylvania. What the celebrity motivational speaker saw was mesmerizing. The roaring machines in front of him stood three stories tall and had the potential to create a revolutionary new energy source, he later wrote. The inventor of the equipment-and Robbins's guide that day-was Simon Hodson, a white-haired California scientist with a background in cement and food packaging.
/jlne.ws/3S4iyjA
***** Scott Patterson lost me at Tony Robbins.~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our top story Wednesday was World in line for hottest year as 1.5C limit breached for 12 months in a row, from the Financial Times. Second was These 3 Chicago Suburbs Are Among The Wealthiest In America: Ranking, from Patch. And third was CME hires Jain from BGC to focus on crypto derivatives, from FOW, on CME Group's hiring of Priyanka Jain in New York.
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| Lead Stories | Citadel Securities Crafts Plan to Shake Up Banks' Trading Desks; Nascent strategy would have firms deal with their clients, while market-maker handles the behind-the-scenes mechanics
Katherine Doherty and Sridhar Natarajan - Bloomberg
Inside Ken Griffin's Citadel Securities, a new strategy for handling even more of Wall Street's trading is starting to take shape - with implications for struggling banks and brokerages around the world. The goal is to offer such firms a white-label trading service: They would deal with customers while Citadel Securities manages the guts of their trading desks, including technology, analytics and order execution.
/jlne.ws/3LhDJuP
Euronext launches microwave order transmission service; Named Euronext Wireless Network, the offering is expected to enhance the speed of order transmission between London and Bergamo, where Euronext's core data centre is located.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Euronext has launched its new London-based microwave service, named the Euronext Wireless Network (EWIN). The trading venue claims to be the first exchange in Europe to offer 'plug and play' 'order entry in London via microwave technology. The new offering is expected to enhance the speed of order transmission between London, UK and Bergamo, Italy where Euronext's core data centre is located.
/jlne.ws/3S4dNXg
Biden's Pick to Overhaul Troubled FDIC Faces Initial Senate Test
Andrew Ackerman - The Wall Street Journal
Christy Goldsmith Romero, a derivatives regulator tapped by President Biden to head the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., will testify before Senate lawmakers Thursday morning in a crucial test for her nomination. If confirmed, Goldsmith Romero would replace the beleaguered banking agency's longtime chairman, Martin Gruenberg. He bowed to pressure to resign from the FDIC in May after an external investigation found widespread sexual harassment and other misconduct at the agency and lawmakers in both parties berated his leadership. Gruenberg said he would step down after a successor is confirmed by the Senate.
/jlne.ws/4bGO5z5
JPMorgan Says Record-High US Stocks Make Hedging Difficult; Investors are looking to equal-weighted S&P 500 Index; Megacap tech firms have propelled stock gains this year
Jan-Patrick Barnert and Michael Msika - Bloomberg
The artificial intelligence rally is driving stocks to fresh all-time highs, and hedging those gains requires greater creativity, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. For traders, the difficulty is hedging any potential downturn while not betting directly against wider momentum and the AI trade, JPMorgan's Cash Equity Trader Matt Reiner wrote in a client note. "Shorts are getting torched," he said. "Investors are more and more looking to balance their books with short equal-weighted S&P 500 Index as a last resort."
/jlne.ws/3S7njZB
Archegos founder Bill Hwang found guilty over fund's collapse; Implosion in 2021 sent shockwaves through US equity markets and cost Wall Street banks billions of dollars
Joe Miller and Joshua Franklin - Financial Times
A New York jury has found former Wall Street trader Bill Hwang guilty of fraud and market manipulation, more than three years after the implosion of his fund Archegos sent tremors through global equity markets and left major banks nursing billions of dollars in losses. The verdict on Wednesday came after an eight-week trial in which prosecutors sought to prove that Hwang lied to lenders and "deceived the market" with secretive trading strategies that allowed him to drive up the share price of a handful of media and technology groups, before a series of adverse events led to a sudden sell-off in March 2021.
/jlne.ws/3zOfykQ
*****Here is The Wall Street Journal's version of this story.~JJL
The CFTC wants millions more to police crypto as cases make up 50% of workload
Joanna Wright - DL News
The chair of the US derivatives watchdog told lawmakers his agency needs more money to police crypto. He was testifying as a senator teased new crypto legislation. The US derivatives watchdog needs more power to police spot crypto markets and keep investors safe - but it also needs more money, its chair told Congress on Wednesday. In the tax year ending in April, about 50% of enforcement actions brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were against crypto businesses, the agency's chair Rostin Behnam said.
/jlne.ws/4bDLdmg
US businesses may soon find that deregulation comes with risks; Recent Supreme Court decisions have hamstrung regulators but they will also make things much more complex
Brooke Masters - Financial Times (opinion)
Chief executives love to blame their struggles on bureaucratic red tape. If only time-consuming and pointless regulations could be removed, they say, their companies would be much more efficient and profitable. In the US, that wish is on the brink of coming true. Late last month, six conservatives on the Supreme Court handed corporate America a scythe. The high court majority shredded a 40-year-old precedent known as the "Chevron deference" that required judges to defer to government experts when laws were ambiguous. They also ruled in a separate case that even long-settled rules can be challenged by new industry players. But CEOs should be careful what they wish for.
/jlne.ws/3zEy4wf
Archegos Founder Bill Hwang Found Guilty on Fraud Charges; The firm's rapid fall led to the loss of more than $100 billion in market value
Peter Rudegeair - The Wall Street Journal
Bill Hwang, the founder of Archegos Capital Management, was convicted Wednesday of manipulating stock prices and defrauding banks in a scheme that minted him a multibillion-dollar fortune before his firm collapsed in March 2021. A New York federal jury found Hwang guilty of 10 out of 11 counts related to running a criminal conspiracy and committing securities and wire fraud. Patrick Halligan, Archegos's former finance chief, was also found guilty for charges related to his role. Federal prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office accused Hwang of misleading banks to borrow billions of dollars as part of an effort to drive up prices of a handful of media and tech stocks in Archegos's portfolio.
/jlne.ws/4bLS0uA
Big Banks' Stress Tests Are Flawed; Financial institutions need a clearer view of their own risks.
The Editorial Board - Bloomberg
By some metrics, the US financial system is in great shape. All 31 banks that underwent the Federal Reserve's stress tests this year maintained adequate capital even in a "severe" economic scenario. Yet that's not as reassuring as it sounds: The tests are flawed, banks still have a poor understanding of their own risks, and regulators may yet succumb to a dangerous complacency. As critics have been pointing out for years, such tests are an inadequate gauge of resilience. The scenarios they test don't always capture the full spectrum of plausible risks that the system may face - such as how a sharp rise in interest rates would take down some banks, as it did Silicon Valley Bank and others early last year. They also don't account for the ripple effects that amplify financial distress. A severe drop in stocks, for instance, might lead to a rush into Treasuries that upends the repo market.
/jlne.ws/3zErVjF
The Risky-Loan Trade Is Back; Yields of 9% are drawing investors to leveraged loans
Vicky Ge Huang - The Wall Street Journal
A corner of Wall Street long shunned by investors is suddenly in demand. Higher rates over the past two years were expected to slam risky corporate borrowers that rely heavily on floating-rate debt. That hasn't happened. Instead, low-rated corporate loans have steadily outperformed investment-grade bonds and are drawing inflows for the first time since 2021. So far this year, everyday investors have poured $12.2 billion into mutual and exchange-traded funds focused on such loans. That is after a combined $27 billion in outflows for 2022 and 2023, according to LSEG data.
/jlne.ws/3WkKNgx
CFTC to consider Senate report on U.S. wheat trading
Ros Krasny - Reuters
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will consider recommendations made this week by a key Senator regarding excessive speculation in U.S. wheat futures, CFTC's top official said on Wednesday. The report, issued by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on behalf of Chairman Carl Levin, focused on how lax regulation may have contributed to the increasing lack of convergence between wheat futures and cash prices.
/jlne.ws/4depZwT
Greenwood Project Announces Strategic Board Expansion With Four Renowned Leaders
Greenwood Project
Greenwood Project, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering career pathways in financial services for Black and Latino college students, proudly welcomes four esteemed business professionals to its Board of Directors: Nick Cherney, Head of Innovation, Janus Henderson Investors, JJ Kinahan, CEO IG North America, Joe Lawler, Managing Director, Wind Point Partners, and Fred Martin, Executive Vice President and CFO, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
/jlne.ws/3zyBuka
ADM taps 3M CFO as beleaguered trader seeks return to normalcy
Gerson Freitas Jr., Bloomberg
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. - working to put an accounting scandal behind it - has hired a 3M Co. executive to oversee its finances and help restore its credibility with shareholders. 3M's Monish Patolawala will become ADM's Chief Financial Officer on Aug. 1, the agricultural commodities trader said in a statement.
/jlne.ws/4bGeflB
Beyond the Data: Higher speed and lower latency fastest growing priorities for algo users; Wesley Bray dives into the latest data from The TRADE's Algorithmic Trading Survey - Hedge Funds, delving into the shifting motivations behind algorithm usage across the buy-side, including key areas of focus for hedge funds going forward.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
The TRADE recently delved beyond the data to share findings from our annual Algorithmic Trading Survey - Hedge Funds 2024, which indicated that hedge funds were happier than ever with their algo providers. Holistically, 2024 proved to be positive for algorithmic trading providers, with the overall rating for performance sitting at 5.86 - significantly higher than 2023 and demonstrating the highest survey average from hedge fund respondents since we began tracking their results separately in 2016.
/jlne.ws/3zCIIUd
Deutsche Bank settles with trader who alleged he was Libor 'fall guy'; Matthew Connolly had sought $150mn from the bank after his exoneration in rate-rigging case
Joe Miller - Financial Times
Deutsche Bank has settled a lawsuit brought by an exonerated former trader who alleged he was the "fall guy" of the Libor rate-rigging scandal. Matthew Connolly, 58, was convicted of fraud in 2018 in one of the highest-profile US trials over the rate manipulation saga that cumulatively cost banks billions of dollars in penalties and fines. He was later branded "the least culpable person" at Deutsche by the federal judge who oversaw the case and fully acquitted on appeal. The former head of Deutsche's New York derivatives trading desk, Connolly sued Deutsche in November 2022, seeking $150mn in damages and accusing the bank of framing him for the crimes of others.
/jlne.ws/460EuBS
The IRS just collected this 'staggering' amount of unpaid taxes from millionaires - and there's more where that came from
Andrew Keshner - MarketWatch
The IRS says it has clawed back more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes from millionaires who were skipping payment of undisputed tax bills - that is, they were skipping them until the agency started stiffening enforcement on rich households. Tax collectors reached the money milestone less than a year after identifying 1,600 wealthy households that needed to pay tax debts worth at least $250,000 apiece, IRS and Treasury officials announced Thursday.
/jlne.ws/3S2ziaY
BP Is on Borrowed Time to Change - Or Else; If there's an all-hands-on-deck response at the oil major's headquarters, that message seems to be lost in translation for concerned investors.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg
Murray Auchincloss had a clear message to his shareholders days after becoming chief executive officer of BP Plc: "I'm focused on growing the value of BP." Nearly six months since his promotion, however, the promised improvement is nowhere to be seen. BP's market value this week fell to a two-year low of roughly £75 billion ($96 billion). Worse, the company is worth today about the same as it was 25 years ago, when oil changed hands at $10 a barrel, rather than today's price of more than $80 a barrel. BP is a shadow of the mighty oil behemoth it once was.
/jlne.ws/4cXoLWo
China's central bank arms itself for rare bond market intervention; People's Bank of China tries to stem rush into sovereign debt amid weakening economy
Cheng Leng - Financial Times
For weeks the People's Bank of China has voiced concern about a bubble forming in the country's sovereign bond market. Now it has moved from talking about the problem to arming itself for its first direct market intervention in decades. On Friday the central bank said it had struck deals with several institutions to borrow several hundred billion renminbi of long-dated bonds that it can sell into the market to try to satisfy demand. The PBoC said it would continue to borrow and sell the bonds on an open-ended and unsecured basis.
/jlne.ws/3zFlj4A
Delaware is jettisoning its traditional approach of protecting investors; Cherished neutrality and circumspection of state's legal framework will be sacrificed if new legislation is enacted
Charles Elson - Financial Times
Delaware, the legal home of a substantial majority of US public companies, last month passed legislation that would lead, in effect, to the self-destruction of its corporate role - with serious consequences for investors worldwide. The bill passed by Delaware's general assembly jettisons the state's traditional approach of protecting investors. Now sent to Delaware Governor John Carney for approval, it would allow the management of companies to strike secret side deals with big shareholders, bypassing the board on governance questions previously reserved for directors. For example, the bill would allow agreements giving a single shareholder veto power over the hiring or firing of a chief executive.
/jlne.ws/3xGlQ5K
BitMEX Pleads Guilty to U.S. Charge Over Anti-Money-Laundering Failure; The plea, which the crypto exchange calls 'old news,' follows regulatory settlements in 2021
Richard Vanderford - The Wall Street Journal
Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has pleaded guilty to a U.S. criminal charge over its failure to maintain an adequate anti-money-laundering program, federal prosecutors said. BitMEX, once among the world's leading crypto platforms, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan to a single count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act. The BSA requires financial institutions take steps to prevent money laundering, but prosecutors said BitMEX flaunted those rules while knowingly doing business with U.S.-based customers.
/jlne.ws/4d02NCp
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | China tells NATO not to create chaos in Asia and rejects label of 'enabler' of Russia's Ukraine war
Ken Moritsugu - Associated Press
China accused NATO on Thursday of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same "chaos" to Asia, a reflection of its determination to oppose strengthening ties between NATO members and Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. The statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson came a day after NATO labeled China a "decisive enabler" of Russia's war against Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3S4bZNY
US announces it will move strategic weapons, including hypersonic missiles, to Germany
Brad Dress - The Hill
The U.S. and Germany on Wednesday announced the movement of more strategic weapons into Europe, including undeveloped hypersonic missile systems, as tensions continue to rise over Russia's war in Ukraine. The White House said that in 2026, it will begin "episodic deployments" of the surface-to-air missile Standard Missile-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons in Germany, which the U.S. said have "significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe."
/jlne.ws/3S52y0B
NATO allies call China a 'decisive enabler' of Russia in Ukraine war as bloc eyes Asia security threats
Simone McCarthy - CNN
China is a "decisive enabler" of Russia's war against Ukraine, NATO leaders said Wednesday, as the defense alliance hardens its stance on Beijing and the "systemic challenges" they say it poses to their countries' security. The joint declaration marks NATO's most pointed tone yet on China's role in a war that has galvanized the 75-year-old bloc, which celebrated its anniversary this week at a three-day leaders' summit in Washington hosted by US President Joe Biden.
/jlne.ws/4eYnnEH
A Ukrainian minister says she's frustrated by the West's inability to adapt its weapons to Russian tactics: report
Mia Jankowicz - Insider
A Ukrainian minister expressed frustration at the pace of adaptation, The Wall Street Journal reported. But Western manufacturers have little incentive to adapt older weapons. A Ukrainian minister has expressed concerns over the lack of adaptation in weapons being sent to Ukraine from the West. Some weapons systems that were immensely effective when they were first deployed in Ukraine have since seen limited results or have even fallen by the wayside as Russian forces adapt their tactics to counter them.
/jlne.ws/3zwuCUc
Cut Off In The Woods, A Dozen Ukrainian Troops Fought Off The Russian Army For Two Months; Cargo-carrying drones kept the men alive.
David Axe - Forbes
In early June, Russian troops from the 83rd Air Assault Brigade stormed a chemical aggregating plant in Vovchansk, the main battleground in Russia's faltering northern offensive. It seems their goal was to capture the plant and use it as a base for crossing the Vovcha River, which threads east to west just south of the plant and forms a natural fortification for the Ukrainians defending southern Vovchansk.
/jlne.ws/45YtHYY
Ukraine Is Fighting Russia With Toy Drones and Duct-Taped Bombs; A cheap, locally assembled flying arsenal is changing the economics of war.
Jake Rudnitsky - Bloomberg
Thousands of Ukraine's deadliest weapons were made on the top three floors of a residential high-rise in Kyiv. The space, which used to be an office for an IT company, contained workstations littered with quadcopters in various stages of assembly, accompanied by clusters of electronic components and circuit boards strewn about the desktops. "It was the cheapest space we could find," Oleksiy Babenko, founder and chief executive officer of Vyriy Drone, said with a shrug.
/jlne.ws/3RXyGTJ
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | The Palestinian Authority's shrinking influence in the West Bank; Surging settler violence, military raids and economic pressure have further undermined the credibility of the PA leadership
James Shotter - Financial Times
Long before the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7, the inhabitants of Zanuta, a Palestinian village in the arid hills of the occupied West Bank, had grown used to attacks by Jewish settlers. But in the weeks after the outbreak of the war, the violence hit such levels that the 140 villagers decided they had no option but to leave.
/jlne.ws/3VVQQ9T
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | BME successfully listed first warrants using CONNEXOR
BME
As a key issuer of Structured Products, Societe Generale has become the first to use Connexor in the Spanish market, benefitting from major efficiency gains in the listing process of warrants, certificates, structured notes, fixed income and other products; CONNEXOR has been successfully implemented by BME by admitting the first warrants from Societe Generale in a fully automated process. For issuers of structured products, CONNEXOR brings unprecedented automation and standardization benefits, including scalability through uniform processes, high data quality and cost savings.
/jlne.ws/4eRzmnP
Unscheduled component change in SDAX
Deutsche Borse Group
STOXX Ltd. has announced an unscheduled component change in the SDAX index. SYNLAB AG will leave the SDAX because it does not meet the requirement, existing listing on the Regulated Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FSE)" any more (rulebook, section 5.4.2 Breaches of basic criteria).
/jlne.ws/4cWFYzj
DTCC's FICC Unveils Public-Facing Value at Risk (VaR) Calculator, Increasing Transparency for Market Participants
DTCC
New FICC tool will calculate the Value at Risk for a given portfolio, providing market participants with further insight into market value, positions and risk profiles ahead of SEC Expanded U.S. Treasury Clearing Rule.
/jlne.ws/3WiZKQb
EEX Press Release - Study shows: Security of electricity supply can be guaranteed by the market
EEX
How can security of supply be efficiently guaranteed in the electricity market? This question was analysed by the Berlin-based consultancy Connect Energy Economics on behalf of the Association of Energy Market Innovators (BNE), the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) and the European Energy Exchange (EEX) in the current study "The order of transformation - security of supply in the electricity market", which was published today.
/jlne.ws/4f0B1XU
Nasdaq Announces End of Month Open Short Interest Positions in Nasdaq Stocks as of Settlement Date June 28, 2024
Nasdaq
At the end of the settlement date of June 28, 2024, short interest in 3,052 Nasdaq Global MarketSM securities totaled 12,156,830,526 shares compared with 12,415,199,809 shares in 3,063 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of June 14, 2024. The end of June short interest represent 3.37 days average daily Nasdaq Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.44 days for the prior reporting period.
/jlne.ws/4cxVcLx
INE Releases an Announcement on 2023 Outstanding Market Contribution Award for Overseas Brokerage Firms
SFE
Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) releases an Announcement on 2023 Outstanding Market Contribution Award for Overseas Brokerage Firms, as shown below: Owing to their excellent performance in client service, market development and supporting clients in participating in Shanghai futures market, Shanghai International Energy Exchange grants the 2023 Outstanding Market Contribution Award to 20 Overseas Brokerage Firms, including 1 Overseas Special Brokerage Participant and 19 Overseas Intermediaries. The list of award winners is in the Appendix.
/jlne.ws/467DP1G
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Sterling Trading Tech Resources its Successful Asia Initiative with Local Business Development and Client Service; Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore Markets to Benefit from Industry Experts
Sterling Trading Tech
Following on its two previous strategic announcements of launching Asia in 2024, today Sterling Trading Tech (Sterling), in response to local market demand, is building the initiative further by resourcing it with local business development experts. Industry veterans Clara Lee and Jason Yoon-Hendricks have been recruited as APAC Sales Directors. Both have extensive experience in business development and relationship management. Lee was previously with Eventus and MSCI (in analytics). Prior to Sterling, Yoon-Hendricks has served with Refinitiv, Thomson Reuters, and REDI Global Technology. They are responsible for building out Asia market share - part of Sterling's overall growth plan and trajectory.
/jlne.ws/3zyN9zs
Liquidnet names new head of international for the Americas; New appointment brings over 20 years' experience in institutional equity trading; previously held positions at SageTrader and Instinet.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Liquidnet has appointed Jeffrey Crane as head of international for the Americas, as part of the firm's continued investment in its cross-border business. Crane brings more than two decades of experience in institutional equity trading to the role.He joins from SageTrader where he most recently served as managing director and head of sales, overseeing new business growth for domestic and international trading.
/jlne.ws/3WgVOPN
Tax preparation company Intuit to lay off 1,800 as part of an AI-focused reorganization plan
Matt Ott - AP
Tax preparation and financial software company Intuit announced an AI-focused reorganization plan Wednesday that includes laying off about 10% of its workforce. The company behind QuickBooks and TurboTax said it was laying off 1,800 employees, but that it expects to hire at least that many in fiscal 2025 as it accelerates its focus on incorporating artificial intelligence into its products and services. In an email to employees, CEO Sasan Goodarzi said more than 1,000 of the layoffs were employees that were not meeting the company's elevated expectations.
/jlne.ws/4cYaI38
A.I. Helped Spot a Copper Bonanza. It Could Transform More Than Mining; The site, in Zambia, could make billions for Silicon Valley, provide minerals for the energy transition and help the United States in its rivalry with China.
Max Bearak - The New York Times
Peering into their computer screens in California last year, the data crunchers watched a subterranean fortune come into focus. What they saw transported them 10,000 miles across the world, to Zambia, and then one more mile straight down into the Earth. A rich lode of copper, deep in the bedrock, appeared before them, its contours revealed by a complex A.I.-driven technology they'd been painstakingly building for years. On Thursday, their company, KoBold Metals, informed its business partners that their find is likely the largest copper discovery in more than a decade. According to their estimates, reviewed by The New York Times, the mine would produce at least 300,000 tons of copper a year once fully operational. That corresponds to a value of billions of dollars a year, for decades.
/jlne.ws/4bGBEDo
Goldman Sachs to launch three tokenization projects by end of year, says digital assets chief
Leo Schwartz - Fortune
As its peers in traditional finance push deeper into crypto-including BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF and Fidelity's trading platform-Goldman Sachs is preparing to make a move of its own. This comes as the 150-year-old banking behemoth is seeing a major uptick in interest from clients, digital assets global head Mathew McDermott told Fortune. McDermott says Goldman Sachs intends to expand its crypto offerings, including ambitious initiatives in the red-hot sector of tokenization, where so-called "real-world assets" such as money market funds and real estate holdings are issued on public or private blockchains. According to McDermott, Goldman Sachs is set to launch three tokenization projects by the end of the year with major clients, including its first in the U.S.
/jlne.ws/4cvOq8S
Bridging The Gap: Aligning Exchange Technology With C-Suite Vision
Join Industry Leaders at AFM's Groundbreaking 2024 Tech Workshop hosted by Exberry
Guy Melamed - Exberry
The financial industry is at a critical juncture. Exchanges worldwide are exploring future technological landscapes, grappling with frustrations and pain points in current systems. They're considering market evolution from multiple perspectives - business, regulatory and technological. We're witnessing a convergence of executive and technological layers, signalling a shift in the industry's DNA and paradigm.
/jlne.ws/3xGpHzK
Goldman Sachs Plans To Launch Tokenization Funds, RWA Marketplace
Hope C - CoinMarketCap
/jlne.ws/4bGzOT0
Apple Avoids EU Antitrust Threat With Tap-and-Pay Probe Settlement; EU accepts Apple pledge to open up payment tech to rivals; Firm still faces mounting EU antitrust scrutiny in other areas
Samuel Stolton and Jennifer Surane - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3W24yIp
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Supreme Court Ruling Threatens the Framework of Cybersecurity Regulation; The Supreme Court's striking down of the Chevron Doctrine will have a major effect on the determination and enforcement of cyber regulation in the US.
Kevin Townsend - SecurityWeek
A recent Supreme Court ruling has shifted regulatory enforcement from the federal agencies to the judicial system. On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court struck down a legal principle known as the Chevron Doctrine (or Deference). This doctrine dates to a 1984 Supreme Court ruling (Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council) that allows federal agencies to use their own expertise to interpret ambiguities in the law. It became the foundation for the federal system of regulation through federal agencies: agency rules, intended to clarify and implement statutory intentions, could be enforced by the agencies themselves. This applied technical expertise and relative speed to the application of law. But the latest SCOTUS ruling abandons the need for courts to show deference to agency expertise, overruling the forty-years-old practice.
/jlne.ws/4cNJD2A
Apple Issues New Spyware Attack Warning To iPhone Users
Kate O'Flaherty - Forbes
Apple has issued a new spyware attack warning to users in 98 countries. It's the second time the iPhone maker has released an alert of this nature over the last few months. Apple issued a similar spyware alert back in April when it warned iPhone users in 92 countries they had been targeted in attacks. Apple hasn't given much information about the latest spate of spyware attacks and it's not yet known which countries are affected, according to a report on TechCrunch. However, users in India reported receiving the new alert.
/jlne.ws/3VXn1pf
Cisco adds heft to cybersecurity push with acquisitions, new talent
Bob Violino - NetworkWorld
With new leadership, key acquisitions, and a platform-based vision, Cisco is betting big on security. Cisco's dominance in networking and telecommunications products and services is well established, but its role in cybersecurity is less cemented. It has provided security software and network security appliances for some time, and it's one of the dominant players in network firewalls and network access control, according to Neil MacDonald, vice president and distinguished analyst at research firm Gartner. However, these segments are not growing as fast as newer areas of security such as secure access service edge (SASE), security service edge (SSE), and cloud security, MacDonald says.
/jlne.ws/3LjaEyV
Microsoft's cybersecurity dilemma: An open letter to Satya Nadella
Matthew Rosenquist - HelpNetSecurity
Microsoft is suffering cybersecurity failures due to systemic problems with strategic leadership. The world is witnessing an alarming trend of cybersecurity issues with Microsoft products and services. Over the past several years, Microsoft has suffered several serious attacks with cloud and email environments being compromised. In some cases, customers were kept in the dark, giving attackers additional time to exploit victims and entrench themselves deeper to the detriment of those affected.
/jlne.ws/4eXSuQO
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | FTX lawyers counter Jump Trading's $264 million damages claims; Jump Trading subsidiary Tai Mo Shan claimed $264 million in damages from Alameda Research for a loan deal that never materialized. FTX lawyers argue the claim is invalid as the loan never commenced.
Danny Park - The Block
The FTX-Alameda bankruptcy estate challenged Jump Trading subsidiary Tai Mo Shan's $264 million claim surrounding a loan deal from Alameda Research, where FTX lawyers argued the claim to be invalid as they claim the loan never commenced. Tai Mo Shan claimed nearly $264 million in damages from Alameda Research's non-delivery of 800 million Serum (SRM) tokens, from a loan agreement dating back to August 2020. SRM is the native cryptocurrency of FTX-backed decentralized exchange Serum, which collapsed alongside FTX exchange in 2022.
/jlne.ws/3xSk0i2
Goldman Sachs to launch three tokenization projects by end of year, says digital assets chief
Byleo Schwartz - Fortune
As its peers in traditional finance push deeper into crypto-including BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF and Fidelity's trading platform-Goldman Sachs is preparing to make a move of its own. This comes as the 150-year-old banking behemoth is seeing a major uptick in interest from clients, digital assets global head Mathew McDermott told Fortune.
/jlne.ws/4bAewpT
Crypto Speculation Index Slide Suggests Bitcoin Bull Market Reset
Key gauge shows that the speculative forth prevalent during the first quarter has dissipated.
Omkar Godbole - Coindesk
Bull markets are observed to stall during periods of excessive optimism, only to resume after the speculative froth has been cleared. Capriole Investment's crypto speculation index shows that the speculative excesses prevalent during the first quarter have dissipated, indicating a potential for a renewed bullish price action in bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency by market value.
/jlne.ws/45ZvtJb
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Bipartisan bill would ban members of Congress from trading stock
Taylor Herzlich - NY Post
A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday struck a deal on new legislation that bans members of Congress from trading stock. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Jon Ossoff of Georgia in pushing the new bill - following a string of failed efforts to prevent lawmakers from gaining an alleged advantage over the general public.
/jlne.ws/4bH8m7z
Sen. Stabenow, lawmakers look to forge ahead on legislation that will give the CFTC authority over crypto citing urgency
Sarah Wynn - The Block
A bill to regulate crypto and give the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission authority over "digital commodities" is rolling ahead as some lawmakers push for legislation in the coming months. In a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing titled "Oversight of Digital Commodities," Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who chairs that committee, said she plans to send language to fellow members this week.
/jlne.ws/4bDU4Vj
As the U.S. Commodities Regulator Urges Fast Crypto Action, Senators Still Scrambling; The CFTC chief issued his strongest pitch yet for Congress to act, but the Senate Agriculture Committee's top Republican says the panel's effort isn't yet satisfying the industry.
Jesse Hamilton - CoinDesk
While Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said that her latest legislative proposal for overseeing the crypto markets is on the way to her panel's fellow members this week, the committee's top Republican said his meetings with the digital assets industry indicate that those businesses don't yet like what they're seeing.
/jlne.ws/4cThRRX
Trump to Address Bitcoin Event in Show of Support for Crypto; Bitcoin 2024 organizers say Trump will deliver speech July 27
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Donald Trump will speak at a Bitcoin conference this month, according to the event's organizers, an address that would highlight his growing embrace of the cryptocurrency industry. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is due to deliver his speech on July 27 on the main stage of the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tennessee, organizer BTC Media LLC said in a statement late Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3XXld26
Pelosi urges Biden to make a decision; Clooney calls for withdrawal
The Washington Post
In a Wednesday morning interview, longtime House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the decision to continue running for reelection is up to President Biden. He has so far been adamant that he should keep running, amid increasingly public concerns within the party about his candidacy following his poor debate performance last month. "We're all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short," Pelosi (Calif.) said.
/jlne.ws/3LhCz2g
US Allies Still Prefer a Weak Biden Over an Erratic Trump; No matter who wins the presidency in November, US global leadership will be shaky.
Hal Brands - Bloomberg Opinion
The global democratic community is strong, but it isn't particularly stable right now. Amid the unending political churn of post-Brexit Britain, the Conservatives just suffered a historic drubbing at the hands of a Labour Party that isn't especially popular. Sunday's French elections produced a muddle in which the center lost ground to the left and the nationalist right.
/jlne.ws/3RZBEqY
France Must Find EUR15 Billion Annually to Meet EU Demands; Brussels tally shows extra revenue or savings needed; Paris faces government gridlock in aftermath of snap election
Jorge Valero - Bloomberg
France's next government will need to find more than EUR15 billion ($16.2 billion) in extra revenue or savings a year to meet European Union demands, according to people with knowledge of the assessment. With current Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire vowing to leave the public finances on a steady course when he leaves office, the tally provides a glimpse of the challenge faced by President Emmanuel Macron in getting a coalition government together whose likely constituent parties all want higher spending.
/jlne.ws/3S1Y4b8
Wealthy French Spooked by Election Explore Possible Moves Abroad; Left parties pledged to raise taxes on the rich in campaign; Hung parliament has created uncertainty about future policies
Tara Patel - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4eVUXLH
Russia declares newspaper The Moscow Times 'undesirable' amid crackdown on criticism
The Associated Press
/jlne.ws/4eRC4K1
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Crypto Exchange BitMEX Pleads Guilty to Violating the Bank Secrecy Act From 2015 to 2020; Four BitMEX executives have previously pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
BitMEX has pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), according to a Wednesday announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). According to newly published court documents, the Seychelles-based crypto exchange willfully failed to set up an adequate know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) program at the exchange between September 2015 and September 2020, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged the exchange with offering illicit crypto derivative trading services to U.S. customers and the DOJ charged four of the exchange's employees with violating the BSA.
/jlne.ws/3zDHpV7
Banks Face Old Foe as Senate Weighs Biden's Pick to Run FDIC; CFTC's Goldsmith Romero tapped to lead an agency in crisis; Confirmation hurdles include election, congressional calendar
Lydia Beyoud and Will Kubzansky - Bloomberg
As the top watchdog for the US government's bank bailout program after the 2008 financial crisis, Christy Goldsmith Romero took a tough stance against bankers who committed fraud or abused public funds. By the end of her decade-plus tenure at the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the agency's investigations had helped put more than 70 bankers in prison - a tally it highlighted in reports to Congress.
/jlne.ws/4cQNGeV
Regulators fine Citigroup $136 million in setback for CEO Jane Fraser
David Hollerith - Yahoo Finance
Regulators slapped Citigroup (C) with $136 million in fines for failing to resolve long-standing deficiencies surrounding controls and risk management, a setback for CEO Jane Fraser as she tries to turn around the giant New York bank. The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced the action late Wednesday, just two days before Citigroup is set to report its second-quarter earnings.
/jlne.ws/3Wg3odA
Citi Fined $136 Million for Failing to Fix Regulatory Issues
Katanga Johnson - Bloomberg
Citigroup Inc. will pay almost $136 million in fines to US bank regulators over issues related to data-quality management and risk controls. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that its penalty was for Citi violating an enforcement action from 2020. The bank will pay $61 million to the Fed and about $75 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
/jlne.ws/3XZT6j8
UK accounting watchdog bans Autonomy CFO jailed over fraud; Financial Reporting Council also hits Sushovan Hussain with £450,000 bill to cover costs of probe
Simon Foy - Financial Times
The UK accounting watchdog has hit Autonomy's former finance chief Sushovan Hussain with a £450,000 bill and banned him from working in Britain's accounting industry for two decades following "admissions of misconduct" relating to a 2018 fraud conviction. The Financial Reporting Council said on Thursday that it had agreed a settlement with Hussain, who was sentenced to five years in prison in the US in 2019 for accounting fraud linked to the $11bn sale of the software company to Hewlett-Packard.
/jlne.ws/3W2suem
Ex-Love Island Stars Plead Not Guilty to Promoting FX Schemes; Influencers accused of promoting unauthorized FX trades
Katharine Gemmell - Bloomberg
A group of reality TV stars and social media influencers pleaded not guilty to accusations that they promoted an unauthorized foreign exchange trading product to millions of Instagram followers. The Financial Conduct Authority charged Emmanuel Nwanze, 30, and Holly Thompson, 34, of running an Instagram account that gave advice on buying and selling contracts for difference without authorization. Nwanze allegedly ran the FX trading platform and issued unauthorized financial promotions.
/jlne.ws/3zL3X66
China Regulator Said to Ask Some Banks to Cut Back Bond Risk
Bloomberg News
China's financial regulator asked some rural lenders to shorten the average duration of their bond holdings, according to people familiar with the matter, as authorities seek to safeguard the banking sector amid a relentless rally in the debt market. Local branches of the National Financial Regulatory Administration looked into banks' bond investments among other things during their monthly checks, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter hasn't been made public. The move followed a similar request made by the central bank, the people said.
/jlne.ws/3Y4kLPX
Testimony of Chairman Rostin Behnam Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry's Hearing on the Oversight of Digital Commodities
CFTC
Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member Boozman, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today as Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Agency) to discuss the state of the digital asset commodity market. Before I begin, I would like to recognize and thank my fellow CFTC Commissioners and CFTC staff for their dedication and commitment to serving the American public.
/jlne.ws/3S23O4M
ASIC and APRA issue final rules and information for the Financial Accountability Regime
ASIC
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) have published new information to help insurers and superannuation trustees prepare for the commencement of the Financial Accountability Regime (FAR). The FAR already applies to the banking industry, and takes effect for the insurance and superannuation industries from 15 March 2025. It imposes a strengthened responsibility and accountability framework to improve the risk governance cultures of APRA-regulated entities, their directors and most senior executives.
/jlne.ws/4626jtp
ASIC acknowledges royal assent of the DBFO Act
ASIC
ASIC acknowledges royal assent of the Treasury Laws Amendments (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes and Other Measures) Act 2024 (DBFO Act). Royal assent of the DBFO Act marks an important step in advancing reforms to financial advice regulation as part of the Commonwealth Government's response to recommendations 7, 8, 10, 13.1-13.5 and 13.7-13.9 of the Quality of Advice Review.
/jlne.ws/4f0BYiW
FCA overhauls listing rules to boost growth and innovation on UK stock markets
FCA
The new rules are the biggest changes to the listing regime in over 3 decades. They aim to support a wider range of companies to issue their shares on a UK exchange, increasing opportunities for investors. In rules published today, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out a simplified listings regime with a single category and streamlined eligibility for those companies seeking to list their shares in the UK.
/jlne.ws/4bGBWdc
"Growth and Opportunities in the ILS Market: A Singapore Perspective" - Speech by Mr Lim Cheng Khai, Executive Director, Financial Markets Development Department, Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Artemis ILS Asia 2024 on 11 July 2024
Steve Evans - MAS
1. Good morning. Thank you for having me back at the Artemis ILS Asia Conference. I am happy to see the conference back for its sixth installation in Singapore. To our international guests, a warm welcome.
2. Artemis Asia is always a highlight in the insurance industry's calendar of events. It is an important platform for risk cedants, sponsors and investors to exchange insights and identify valuable opportunities in the ILS market, with a focus on Asia.
/jlne.ws/4cZfWeX
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Politics may be volatile this year, but markets aren't: Morning Brief
Julie Hyman - Yahoo Finance
Washington has been abuzz with questions about whether Joe Biden should step aside as presidential candidate ever since his poor debate performance a couple of weeks ago. But while political TV networks and newspaper editorial pages have been hotly discussing the issue, equity markets barely shrugged. That's not an unusual reaction, but it remains somewhat puzzling given that this is an unusual election on a number of fronts.
/jlne.ws/3VVKHul
Trading houses lure top talent from BP, Shell
Dmitry Zhdannikov and Julia Payne - Reuters
Several high-profile energy traders have in recent weeks quit oil majors for trading houses, multiple sources told Reuters on Thursday, as talent follows assets swapping hands and as trading houses ramp up bonuses. Trading houses such as Vitol and Trafigura have acquired tens of billions of dollars worth of assets from oil majors over the past decade, using profits which jumped since 2022 due to energy markets' volatility caused by Russia's war in Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3RYHaKz
Column: Investing through index funds is more popular than ever, so why is it becoming controversial?
Michael Hiltzik - LA Times
The share of adult Americans who own stocks is approaching an all-time high of 63%, which may explain why events such as the surge in "meme" stocks like GameStop gets such generous play in the news. But it doesn't explain why the investment vehicles that dominate Americans' portfolios - passive mutual funds tied to market indexes such as the Standard & Poor's 500 - have traditionally drawn so much less interest in the news media.
/jlne.ws/3S52qhD
How Options Can Supercharge Your Retirement Income
Steven M. Sears - Barron's
If you are lucky, and make more good decisions than bad ones, you will one day find yourself gray-haired, in good health, and with plenty of money. You will likely have most everything you could want or need, but you will still be interested in generating income. A reader asked for direction on this phase in life when there are no more big paydays, you have run your race, and time is measured in years, not decades. One solution to generating income is enhancing the financial industry's advice to diversify investments, often among exchange-traded funds that charge low fees.
/jlne.ws/3Wha3UK
Lumber prices are at record lows - what that means for buyers and homebuilders
Myra P. Saefong - MarketWatch
Lumber prices have come full circle in the years following the pandemic - reaching record highs in 2021, then falling to record lows as higher interest rates led to a drop in U.S. residential construction. But there's now an opportunity for buyers and homebuilders alike. The dynamics of lumber pricing since the COVID-19 pandemic have, on balance, been "highlighted by a gradual weakening of demand from the frantic pace of a few years ago," said Steve Loebner, vice president, forest products & risk management at Sherwood Lumber.
/jlne.ws/467ECzx
Investors shun riskier junk bonds as bankruptcy filings jump; Gap between borrowing costs of most and least risky debt widens as traders fret over impact of high US interest rates
Harriet Clarfelt - Financial Times
Investors are selling out of the riskiest US junk bonds in favour of higher-quality debt, amid a surge in bankruptcy filings and concerns over how the weakest corners of corporate America will survive a prolonged period of high interest rates. The gap in borrowing costs between companies rated triple-C and lower - the lowest rungs of the $1.3tn US junk bond market - and double-B - the highest rung - has surged to almost its widest level since May last year, according to Ice BofA data, as investors seek safer names.
/jlne.ws/3WiQfjO
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Green economy ranks second best performing industry globally in past decade
Sidhi Mittal - edie
A new analysis has revealed that the global green economy now boasts market capitalisation of $7.2trn, positioning it as the 'second-best-performing-industry' worldwide over the past decade.
/jlne.ws/3Lj8orr
Barclays Sees $30 Billion Selloff Risk Amid New EU ESG Fund Rule
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
Asset managers offering ESG funds in Europe may need to offload close to $30 billion in stocks and bonds if they intend to hold onto the label under new rules, according to research by analysts at Barclays Plc. "We do expect most managers to choose to retain their name, and therefore sell excluded holdings," Barclays analysts led by Charlotte Edwards said in a note on Thursday. That's "particularly on the active side, as these funds are typically marketed with a sustainable name in order to attract a certain group of investors."
/jlne.ws/3zDiiBM
Jefferies Funded Some Fake Water; Also Aspiration carbon credits, OpenAI board seats and popping balance balls.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
Water ... Ponzi ... ?
This is a fun one: A hedge fund that's part of Jefferies Financial Group sued its former portfolio manager, claiming he orchestrated an investment of more than $100 million in a Ponzi-like scam. The fund, 352 Capital, filed a lawsuit last week against Jordan Chirico, saying he directed the purchase of a large quantity of bonds issued by a company that claimed to operate thousands of filtered water vending machines. According to the suit, Chirico knew these machines didn't exist but put 352's money in the scheme in part to recoup his own investment.
/jlne.ws/3XRCRV8
BP Is on Borrowed Time to Change - Or Else; If there's an all-hands-on-deck response at the oil major's headquarters, that message seems to be lost in translation for concerned investors.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg Opinion
Murray Auchincloss had a clear message to his shareholders days after becoming chief executive officer of BP Plc: "I'm focused on growing the value of BP." Nearly six months since his promotion, however, the promised improvement is nowhere to be seen. BP's market value this week fell to a two-year low of roughly £75 billion ($96 billion). Worse, the company is worth today about the same as it was 25 years ago, when oil changed hands at $10 a barrel, rather than today's price of more than $80 a barrel. BP is a shadow of the mighty oil behemoth it once was.
/jlne.ws/3zEcNmp
Texas Bitcoin mines threaten to crash the power grid-and are already causing energy prices to spike
Inside Climate News via Fast Company
/jlne.ws/3S1AkDY
BP-owned company is selling carbon credits on trees that aren't in danger, analysis finds
Luke Barratt and Miranda Green - The Guardian
/jlne.ws/3LoO73C
Google's Former Carbon Project Gets $40 Million to Trap CO2; Startup 280 Earth will capture carbon from air in Oregon; Technology can use waste heat from internet data centers
Rafaela Jinich - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3LjVc5H
This 'Doomsday Glacier' is melting faster than scientists thought. Now Earth's biggest cities are at risk
Dr Ella Gilbert - BBC Science Focus
/jlne.ws/3xGi8Jm
Azerbaijan to start climate fund with $500mn of oil money; COP29 host intends to launch venture with contribution from state company
Alice Hancock and Attracta Mooney - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4bEokiR
OECD urges governments to cushion green shift for low-skilled workers; Call from Paris-based organisation comes amid rising voter discontent in Europe over economic impact of shift to net zero
Delphine Strauss - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4cVuYCf
China Pauses New Coal-Based Steelmaking for First Time in Years
Audrey Wan - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3zzx6Bj
'Critical juncture': Global steel sector urged to take 'bold and universal action' to meet climate goals
Stuart Stone - BusinessGreen
/jlne.ws/3Y5J0Nk
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | 'Weaponization' of Reserves Is a Top Risk for Central Banks
Naomi Tajitsu - Bloomberg
Central bank reserve managers are increasingly worried about the safety of their currency assets, citing rising geopolitical risk across the world, according to a UBS Group AG survey. The so-called "weaponization" of FX reserves was listed as a top risk by a third of the participants, double last year's amount. The biggest concern for 87% of 40 central banks surveyed by UBS was a further escalation in the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, China and the US, as well as the situation in the Middle East.
/jlne.ws/4cGV5gM
Inside Goldman Sachs' expanding but risky financing engine
Saeed Azhar and Paritosh Bansal - Reuters
A Goldman Sachs bet put in place in 2021 on lending to private funds has helped drive record revenues in fixed-income financing. Now, the Wall Street bank is pushing even deeper into the growing but risky market. The fund finance unit, housed in the bank's global banking and markets division, lends money secured by different types of assets to private equity and other funds. Such assets, however, can be hard to value and trade, and some loan products are yet to be tested in a downturn, making lending against them risky.
/jlne.ws/3xTAeYg
JPMorgan aims to amass 15% of US consumer deposits, boost credit card share
Nupur Anand and Lananh Nguyen - Reuters
The biggest U.S. bank wants to get even bigger. JPMorgan Chase has set an ambitious goal of attracting 15% of the country's consumer deposits, Marianne Lake, its CEO of consumer and community banking, told Reuters in an interview at the company's New York headquarters. The bank had an 11.3% share of U.S. retail deposits at the end of June 2023, the latest available data.
/jlne.ws/3S2GzaS
Quant Hedge Funds Dealt Fresh Blow From China's Short-Sale Curbs
Bloomberg
One after another, the money-making trading formulas for China's quantitative hedge funds are disappearing. After blaming quants for roiling the stock market and phasing out their leveraged market-neutral strategy earlier this year, regulators are deepening restrictions on short selling, jeopardizing long-short products that manage an estimated 50 billion yuan ($6.8 billion).
/jlne.ws/3XXlJ02
Pimco Warns Credit Market Returns Fail to Compensate for Risks
Michael Mackenzie - Bloomberg
Investors are being insufficiently compensated for the risks of lending in the credit market as more capital chasing too few opportunities curbs returns, according to Pacific Investment Management Co. The excess premium for less-liquid investments has dropped below 100 basis points, less than half the return it should offer, Mohit Mittal, chief investment officer of core strategies at Pimco, wrote in report released Wednesday. Covenants that traditionally protected lenders in private credit markets have also deteriorated.
/jlne.ws/3Wg3x0C
Ailing Hedge Funds Turn to Brazil's Hot Private-Credit Market
Cristiane Lucchesi, Giovanna Bellotti Azevedo and Leda Alvim - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4cATlWe
Private Equity's Creative Wizardry Is Obscuring Danger Signs
Kat Hidalgo, Allison McNeely, Neil Callanan and Eyk Henning - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4cAJUGe
Quant Mutual Fund Defies Industry Norm With Leveraged Nasdaq Bet
Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3W23DYc
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Can online reporting stop workplace microaggressions? Staff at law firm Hogan Lovells can now log harassment on a tech platform - but some suggest they talk about their problems instead
Emma Jacobs - Financial Times
Law firm Hogan Lovells has launched a new way to improve relations in the workplace. If staff experience unacceptable behaviour like someone taking credit for their work, or microaggressions such as bias related to age, gender or race, they can now log it online, discreetly flagging the problem to management.
/jlne.ws/4crUM9j
Millions of people not working is 'unacceptable' says Labour
Faarea Masud - BBC News
Rising levels of worklessness are "unacceptable" and require "immediate action", the new Labour government's jobs minister has said. Liz Kendall is proposing several measures including a new national jobs and careers service to tackle record youth unemployment and rising numbers of those out of work due to long-term sickness. On her first ministerial tour as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Ms Kendall will also announce a more localised approach to upskill those out of work and tackle the root causes of unemployment. But the Conservative party said the government must "wake up" to the "huge cost" the reforms will cost the taxpayer.
/jlne.ws/3XYcyfN
White-Collar Work Is Just Meetings Now; The meeting-industrial complex has grown to the point that communications has eclipsed creativity as the central skill of modern work.
Derek Thompson - The Atlantic (paywalled)
The paradox of the modern white-collar worker is that she is simultaneously more and less alone than her analogue in any previous generation. On a given weekday, the share of the labor force working from home is roughly four times higher than it was before the pandemic. At no other point in modern history have so many workers spent so much time in a room by themselves during the weekday.
/jlne.ws/45YAIZO
The Question Aging Bosses Should Ask Themselves; Leadership and aging were urgent issues for American companies even before President Biden's halting debate
Callum Borchers - The Wall Street Journal
It's time to confront an urgent question: Am I the leader I used to be? The risk of avoiding this question is playing out in Washington right now. And while the fate of the free world might not rest on the answer for most of us, the futures of our companies and co-workers just might.
/jlne.ws/4bGPoht
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | FTC to Sue Drug Managers Over Insulin Prices; Antitrust agency is investigating how PBMs and manufacturers negotiate discounts
Liz Essley Whyte and Anna Wilde Mathews - The Wall Street Journal
The Federal Trade Commission is preparing to sue the largest three pharmacy-benefit managers over their tactics for negotiating prices for drugs including insulin, after a two-year investigation into whether the companies steer patients away from less-expensive medicines. The agency plans to file lawsuits taking aim at business practices related to rebates brokered with drug manufacturers, people familiar with the matter said. The FTC is also investigating the role that insulin manufacturers play in the negotiations, one of the people said.
/jlne.ws/3LiM4y3
Jury Finds Healthcare Company CEO Misled Investors Over Covid-19 Tests; Marc Schessel, now the former CEO of SCWorx, claimed the company had a contract to acquire millions of test kits
Sabela Ojea - The Wall Street Journal
A federal jury has found SCWorx's former Chief Executive Marc Schessel guilty for his participation in a scheme to mislead investors about the healthcare company's procurement of Covid-19 rapid test kits. The jury convicted Schessel, who founded the company in 2012 and headed it until 2021, of two counts of securities fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the District of New Jersey said Wednesday. Schessel made false claims in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic about having a binding contract to acquire millions of Covid tests from an Australian supplier, the prosecutor's office said, leading to a surge in the company's share price.
/jlne.ws/3zFULA7
Outliving Your Peers Is Now a Competitive Sport; Longevity zealots vie in contest to slow aging; 'that crazy guy trying to not die.'
Alex Janin - The Wall Street Journal
Longevity has officially become a competitive sport. Welcome to the "Rejuvenation Olympics." In this contest founded by tech entrepreneur and longevity bro Bryan Johnson, anti-agers take their health obsession to new levels. Just not dying isn't enough. Instead, you have to not-die better than your competitor.
/jlne.ws/45WwphH
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | UK overtakes India as world's third biggest venture capital market; Britain now only behind US and China as British Business Bank's confidence grows
James Hurley - The London Times
Britain pulled ahead of India amid an industry slump in which the number of deals plunged last year Share Save The UK has overtaken India as the world's third largest venture capital market amid an industry slump in which investment and deal numbers dropped markedly last year. The British Business Bank, the state economic development agency, said there were reasons to be optimistic about the UK's ability to attract and finance fast-growing companies despite the slowdown. Venture investment declined by 48 per cent to £8.8 billion in 2023 in the UK compared with the previous year, while the number of deals fell by 25 per cent to 2,152.
/jlne.ws/4cR3bCQ
Japan's 40-Year Government Bond Yields Hit 3% for First Time
Hidenori Yamanaka - Bloomberg
Japan's 40-year government bond yield touched 3% for the first time since this maturity was first issued in 2007. As domestic life insurers who are usually big buyers stayed cautious ahead of the Bank of Japan's July 31 policy decision, selling pressure came from market players including overseas investors.
/jlne.ws/3Wj6gXd
Regional Japan Lender Dangles Megabank Pay for Market Hires
Taiga Uranaka - Bloomberg
Yamaguchi Financial Group Inc., a regional lender headquartered on the western tip of Japan's biggest island, is considering paying new hires with securities market expertise around the same compensation as staff at the nation's largest banks. Competition among financial institutions to hire bond traders and other specialists is intensifying as the Bank of Japan nudges interest rates higher, which is increasing trading volatility and opportunities for market professionals.
/jlne.ws/3Wi1cCe
UK announces biggest overhaul of listings regime in decades; A win for venture capital firms and sovereign wealth funds as they will be allowed to hold 'supervoting' shares
Michael O'Dwyer - Financial Times
Regulators have approved the biggest overhaul of rules for London-listed companies in three decades as the UK attempts to revive its capital markets, which have been pummelled by international competition and an outflow of investment. The new listing rules will hand more power to company bosses to make decisions without shareholder votes, and give companies more flexibility to adopt dual-class share structures used by founders and venture capital firms to give themselves stronger voting rights than other investors.
/jlne.ws/3WgSiVv
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