| May 19, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The parade of commissioners marching out of the CFTC continues. Christy Goldsmith Romero announced Friday that she would leave the D.C.-based regulator on May 31. This follows announcements last week from Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham and Commissioner Summer Mersinger that they would both be leaving the CFTC soon, with Pham leaving as soon as the Senate confirms new chairman Brian Quintenz
Here is a warning to people at Cantor Fitzgerald. I am going to say something about Howard Lutnick. Lutnick's recent moves-FMX Futures Exchange's challenge to CME's dominance in US Treasury futures, which starts trading today, and his divestment of his longtime stake in Cantor Fitzgerald to his children and outside investors-send a clear message about his intent to avoid conflicts of interest as Commerce Secretary and to position his legacy and enterprises for the next generation.
By fully transferring his economic interests in Cantor Fitzgerald, BGC, and Newmark to family trusts and outside investors, Lutnick is complying with ethical expectations for public officials and signaling a clean break between his government responsibilities and private business dealings. This proactive divestment starkly contrasts Donald Trump's approach with "Trump Coin."
Despite persistent ethical concerns, Trump launched the $TRUMP coin just days before his second inauguration and retained significant personal and family interest in the cryptocurrency as it surged in value. Trump has repeatedly declined to divest or even consider relinquishing his stake in the coin, instead embracing the financial windfall and the lack of regulatory constraints.
Therefore, Lutnick's divestment is a deliberate message about ethical boundaries and institutional stewardship-one that highlights the contrast with Trump's willingness to profit from ventures directly tied to his public profile and office.
Now, I could comment on how he divested his interest in Cantor before the launch of Treasury futures on the FMX Futures Exchange. Still, given the product's nascent stage, I believe it would have a minimal impact on the value of his overall holding.
The Financial Times editorial board has an editorial today titled "How to block the financial scammers on social media" with the subheadline "Big Tech should have a legal duty to check investment advertisers are authorised." The editorial explains that online financial scams are a growing threat, with EU consumers having lost EUR4.3bn to fraudsters in 2022, often through sophisticated social media ads featuring AI-generated deepfakes of celebrities and finance experts. While banks are improving reimbursement mechanisms for victims, the broader harm includes severe financial loss, emotional distress, and eroding public trust in both financial institutions and reputable information sources. Efforts to remove fraudulent ads have proven inadequate, as platforms like Meta struggle to keep up with scam content's sheer volume and persistence.
To address this, the FT editorial board argues that social media companies should face a legal obligation to verify that regulators authorize investment advertisers before allowing them to promote financial products. The EU is considering legislation requiring platforms to block unauthorized financial ads and automatically reimburse scam victims, despite concerns about regulatory overreach and potential conflicts with the Digital Services Act. The editorial concludes that robust consumer protection must be a priority and that the EU and UK should lead by enforcing stricter standards on online platforms to help stem the tide of financial fraud.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: Marex makes New York hire for prime broker push, HKEX appoints new finance chief, Avenir taps former ICE exec Hamilton as chair, ICE leads new listings with host of commodity futures - FOW Data, CFTC's Romero to leave at end of May and ANALYSIS: Broadridge expects heightened Asia trading to continue.
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:
- Options Mania: How Henry Schwartz and Cboe Are Riding a Retail-Fueled Trading Wave from John Lothian News.
- VIX on track for biggest six-week decline on record from MarketWatch.
- ETFs in US Gather Record Net Inflows from Traders Magazine. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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 Options Mania: How Henry Schwartz and Cboe Are Riding a Retail-Fueled Trading Wave JohnLothianNews.com PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.- (JLN) - May 16, 2025 - If you thought the options market couldn't get any hotter, Henry Schwartz of Cboe Global Markets has news for you. "We're seeing record volume again this year. It will be the sixth year in a row with record option volume," Schwartz said at the Options Conference, eyes wide behind his glasses. "We're averaging about 59 million contracts a day. That's up 20% from last year. We had a day of over 101 million contracts." Watch the Henry Schwartz Video »
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Biden Is Diagnosed With an Aggressive Form of Prostate Cancer; The cancer has metastasized to the bone, according to a statement from Mr. Biden's personal office.
Tyler Pager and Gina Kolata - The New York Times
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was diagnosed on Friday with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office said in a statement on Sunday. The diagnosis came after Mr. Biden reported urinary symptoms, which led doctors to find a "small nodule" on his prostate. Mr. Biden's cancer is "characterized by a Gleason score of 9" with "metastasis to the bone," the statement said. The Gleason score is used to describe how prostate cancers look under a microscope; 9 and 10 are the most aggressive. The cancer is Stage 4, which means it has spread.
/jlne.ws/4dnDADb
****** Nearly all men will die with prostate cancer in them, but many will die of something else. Biden's issues are similar in seriousness to my prostate cancer scores, except mine had not metastasized to the bone and were limited in location. My best wishes for him and his family as he deals with this illness.~JJL
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Trump Is Destroying a Core American Value. The World Will Notice.
Michael Posner - The New York Times
In the late 1980s, Joseph Nye, the Harvard political scientist who died this month, developed the concept of "soft power." His central premise, that the United States enhances its global influence by promoting values like human rights and democracy, has guided U.S. foreign policy for decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations. Donald Trump has made clear that he fundamentally rejects this vision. As president, he has ordered a sweeping overhaul of the State Department that will cripple its capacity to promote American values abroad. At the center of this effort are drastic cuts to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor - the State Department's core institution for advancing soft power, which I led under President Barack Obama. Unless Congress intervenes, the debasement of the bureau's role will impair America's ability to challenge authoritarianism, support democratic movements and provide independent analysis to inform U.S. foreign policy. The long-term result will be a United States that is weaker, less principled and increasingly sidelined as authoritarian powers like Russia and China offer their own transactional models of global engagement.
/jlne.ws/4jYBYSJ
****** I think indiscriminate drone use probably hurt American soft power more. ~JJL
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UBS deploys AI analyst clones; Zurich-based bank using OpenAI and Synthesia models to create lifelike avatars of its experts
Simon Foy - Financial Times
UBS has started using artificial intelligence to turn its analysts into avatars, sending videos of the simulated bankers to clients in a move the lender said would free up staff to focus on more productive tasks. The Zurich-based bank is using OpenAI and Synthesia models to create AI-generated scripts and avatars of its analysts following increased client demand for research in video format, UBS said.
/jlne.ws/43AJTjn
***** The nice thing about AI analyst clones is that they don't drink nearly as much when you take them out for lunch. ~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was Coinbase Got Hacked a Little, Matt Levine's opinion piece in Bloomberg. Second was An Incremental Step Along the Journey: The Division of Trading Markets' Frequently Asked Questions Relating to Crypto Asset Activities and Distributed Ledger Technologies, Hester Peirce's statement on the SEC website. And third was a tie between FOW's ANALYSIS: Traders brace for fresh bout of volatility as US policy effects linger and Nikkei Asia's Japan seeks to rein in rice price, after it doubles in a year.
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| Lead Stories | Global supply chains threatened by lack of Chinese rare earths; Licensing delays under new regime put at risk shipments of materials crucial for products from EVs to fighter jets
Edward White, Ryan McMorrow and Harry Dempsey - Financial Times
China has begun allowing some shipments of rare earths under new export control rules, but the slow pace of approvals threatens disruption to global supply chains, according to industry participants. Beijing in early April placed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and permanent magnets that are vital for products ranging from electric vehicles to wind turbines, humanoid robots and fighter jets.
/jlne.ws/4dtyzsO
Lutnick-Built FMX to Start Treasury Futures Trade in Blow to CME
Bernard Goyder and Edward Bolingbroke - Bloomberg
An exchange founded by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is set to start the long-awaited trading of US Treasury futures next week in a blow to CME Group Inc., which dominates that market. FMX Futures Exchange will launch its US Treasury futures as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing private matters. Futures brokers spent Friday testing trades on the exchange, one of the people said. Trading in the contract was intended to start in late March, but there were delays because of operational issues with clearing and tariff-induced volatility. Lutnick spun FMX out of inter-dealer broking giant BGC Group Inc. in April last year.
/jlne.ws/4kLnsxZ
Lutnick Divests Cantor Fitzgerald to Children, Investor 26North
Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sold his stakes in the Wall Street business group he ran for more than three decades, passing ownership to his children and private outside investors and cashing out at least hundreds of millions of dollars. Lutnick's ownership of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald LP has been transferred to trusts for the benefit of his children, including Brandon and Kyle, his two oldest sons, who were appointed earlier this year to oversee the group, according to a statement Monday. Terms weren't disclosed.
/jlne.ws/3SGvxHV
***** Here is The Wall Street Journal's version of this story.~JJL
Gold Markets Are Cited by ECB as a Risk to Financial Stability
Craig Stirling - Bloomberg
Gold markets could be a source of danger to the euro zone's financial stability in the event of geopolitical stress, the European Central Bank said. Demand for physical settlement, the dominance of large-scale traders and opaque transactions all combine to pose a wider threat if things go awry, four staff economists wrote in a note published on Monday that will feature in a bigger risk report scheduled for Wednesday. "Should extreme events materialize, there could be adverse effects on financial stability arising from gold markets," they wrote. "Vulnerabilities have arisen because commodity markets tend to be concentrated among a few large firms, often involve leverage and have a high degree of opacity deriving from the use of OTC derivatives."
/jlne.ws/4mkCThU
Rise in loans to US non-bank financial groups raises systemic risk fears; Lending to buyout firms and private credit groups is up 20% in a year to $1.2tn
Ortenca Aliaj - Financial Times
US bank lending to buyout firms and private credit groups has helped fuel a steep rise in loans to non-bank financial institutions, even as regulators fret that growing ties between the two sectors could become a systemic risk. Loans to non-banks reached approximately $1.2tn by the end of March, according to a report by Fitch Ratings, a 20 per cent increase year on year driven by lending to the private capital industry. Commercial loans were up just 1.5 per cent during the same period.
/jlne.ws/4jkOFXa
Texas Stock Exchange CEO Sees State Muscling In on NYC, Delaware
Joe Lovinger and Julie Fine - Bloomberg
The head of the upstart Texas Stock Exchange said the state is making a serious play to reshape the US financial landscape, using new pro-business laws and a proposed ban on trading taxes to take on longtime power centers on the East Coast. Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation this week aimed at strengthening legal protections for companies and curbing shareholder challenges, part of a broader strategy to lure corporate registrations from Delaware. Meanwhile, a ballot measure in November would ban taxes on securities transactions just as a group of New York lawmakers is pushing to bring back a state levy on stock sales.
/jlne.ws/4dsoe0c
LME Looks to Curb Big Bets as Energy Trader Billions Rock Metals
Jack Farchy and Mark Burton - Bloomberg
The London Metal Exchange is discussing imposing curbs on big positions that would outlaw the sort of outsized bets that have rocked the markets in recent months. The LME, which hosts global benchmark prices for key industrial metals such as aluminum, copper and nickel, has been discussing the appropriate level for position limits in informal conversations with market participants, according to people familiar with the matter. It has suggested it could seek to prevent traders from taking positions in the nearby month's contracts larger than the total inventory, the people said, asking not to be named as the talks are private.
/jlne.ws/4j6PAdp
SEC to Look at Rules for Investing in Private Funds
Lydia Beyoud - Bloomberg
The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a fresh look at rules that make it harder to invest in private funds. Atkins said he will ask agency staff to consider revising 23-year-old rules for private funds that require investments by closed-end mutual fund investors of at least $25,000 and restrict sales to those who meet certain standards. He noted those restrictions have resulted in many retail investors missing out on opportunities in closed-end funds. The goal is to start opening up the nearly $31 trillion private fund markets to more investors, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in prepared remarks for an event in Washington.
/jlne.ws/44MvySc
Singapore Bourse Risks More Delistings Despite New Proposals
John Cheng and Justina T Lee - Bloomberg
Singapore's move to simplify the initial public offering process, part of recent measures to boost its moribund equities market, is unlikely to reverse a yearslong trend of delistings crowding out new listings, analysts say. The Monetary Authority of Singapore on Thursday began seeking feedback on proposals to streamline prospectus disclosures for IPOs. Singapore Exchange Ltd.'s regulatory arm also proposed listings-related reforms.
/jlne.ws/3SJJmW6
Howard Lutnick sells $361mn stakes to comply with US government rules; Trump's commerce secretary will not pay any immediate tax on the gains as he also shifts Cantor ownership to a trust
James Fontanella-Khan - Financial Times
Donald Trump's commerce secretary Howard Lutnick will sell stakes in two publicly listed companies for $361mn to comply with government ethics rules. The Wall Street investor and Trump campaign mega donor will sell his shares in BGC and Newmark for $234mn and $127mn, respectively, the companies said on Monday.
/jlne.ws/4kjNW9k
Workers at top US consumer watchdog sound warning as Trump bids to gut agency
Michael Sainato - The Guardian
Donald Trump's bid to gut the top US consumer watchdog has left the agency unable to protect consumers amid mounting fears of recession, according to workers. For months the Trump administration has pushed to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and fire the vast majority of its workforce. Ripped-off Americans will have "nowhere to turn" if it succeeds, staff told the Guardian. "The agency that Congress created after the last financial crisis to help prevent another financial crisis is currently completely handcuffed from working," said one attorney at the CFPB, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. "And we are on the verge of another major financial crisis, so it's terrifying.
/jlne.ws/4drFhzF
Jamie Dimon's Would-Be Successors Audition for the Top Job at JPMorgan
Investors gather in Midtown Manhattan to see who might become the bank's next CEO
Alexander Saeedy - The Wall Street Journal
The race to replace Jamie Dimon will be on full display Monday. Top executives at JPMorgan Chase are gathering with shareholders for the bank's annual investor day, where they will give an update on the bank's strategy over hours of management presentations. But Monday's confab is also an effective audition for the biggest job on Wall Street. Dimon surprised investors last year when he said he would be stepping down as chief executive officer in less than five years. Then in January, took the unusual step of announcing that a leading candidate to succeed Dimon was out of the running. Jennifer Piepszak, now the bank's chief operating officer, didn't want the job.
/jlne.ws/4doA6QE
'This is the mafia' - How North Korea structures its IT workers like an organized crime syndicate
Amanda Gerut - Fortune
A detailed report on North Korea's cyber-crime operations has revealed the inner workings and structure behind Kim Jong Un's plan to evolve a highly lucrative scheme in which trained tech workers infiltrate American and European businesses. The North Korean IT workers send nearly their entire salaries home to fund the regime's nuclear weapons program, using AI as a key tool. Meanwhile, North Korea has pitted its IT workers against each other to spur competition and rake in more money. The crime syndicate La Cosa Nostra in the U.S. is built around "Five Families" that famously war with each other for money and power. North Korea's prosperous cyber-crime operations are similar, except there is only one family and it belongs to authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un.
/jlne.ws/3EXQMlC
The Top Corporate Board Directors; Who are the most influential directors at big publicly traded U.S. companies? The first annual Wall Street Journal ranking identifies 250 of them.
Theo Francis - The Wall Street Journal
WSJ's inaugural Top Board Directors list ranks 250 influential directors at large, publicly traded US companies. Edward Philip, United Airlines' chairman, tops the list, followed by Home Depot's Stephanie Linnartz and Debra Reed-Klages. Individual director traits drive rankings; company performance plays a smaller role in the evaluation process. They oversee airlines, oil companies, home-improvement chains and makers of products ranging from deodorant to fighter jets. About half are CEOs, or once were. Roughly as many identify as women or racial or ethnic minorities.
/jlne.ws/4jaFKY6
What the US Losing Its Last AAA Credit Rating Means
Finbarr Flynn - Bloomberg
The US government lost its last triple-A credit score from a major international ratings firm after a downgrade by Moody's Investors Service on May 16, in a bleak milestone for the world's largest economy. Explaining the move, Moody's analysts cited more than a decade of inaction by successive US administrations and Congress to arrest a trend of large fiscal deficits. The government's debt-interest costs ballooned when inflation spiked in the aftermath of Covid-19, and are forecast to reach $1 trillion this year, up from $263 billion in 2017, according to Congress's Government Accountability Office.
/jlne.ws/3F8EF5d
Morningstar CEO Sees Private Credit as Avenue to Take On Rivals
Josyana Joshua - Bloomberg
Morningstar Inc. is trying to make its mark by rating loans within the $1.6 trillion private credit market, which could help the firm take on rivals Fitch Ratings, S&P Global Ratings and Moody's Ratings. Those three large firms have dominated public credit ratings, because money managers buying conventional corporate bonds usually need ratings from at least two of them under rules in their investment policy statements.
/jlne.ws/4k2ObGh
Scott Bok on How Bankers Spread the Gospel of Capitalism; How investment bankers pushed the idea of shareholder maximization.
Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal - Bloomberg
When we think about the prospect of deglobalization (whatever that means) we often think about it in terms of the goods economy. Supply chains get rerouted. Manufacturing becomes more localized, and possibly less efficient. But changes to the global world order also have implications for Wall Street, and the world of dealmaking. On this episode of the podcast, we speak with Scott Bok, the former chairman and CEO of the investment bank Greenhill & Co., which is now part of Mizuho. Scott is the author of the new book, Surviving Wall Street: A Tale of Triumph, Tragedy, and Timing, which covers his long career as an investment banker starting in the early 1980s. We talk about what investment bankers actually do, and also how the great Wall Street dealmaking boom over the last several decades is, in large part, a story of globalization, and the opportunity for firms to roll up localized companies into cross-border giants. He talks to us about how the bankers themselves served as essentially evangelists of the pro-capitalism message of the Reagan era, spreading the gospel of shareholder primacy all around the world.
/jlne.ws/43Cdby7
Small banks fuel revival in blank-cheque Spac deals; Boutique groups have rushed to fill the gap left by Wall Street heavyweights
George Steer and Antoine Gara - Financial Times
A new cast of boutique banks is fuelling a fresh fervour for blank-cheque companies - one of Wall Street's hottest and most controversial products during the pandemic-era bull market. Special purpose acquisition vehicles, or Spacs, exploded in popularity during the Covid-19 crisis, with around 600 deals in the US raising a record $163bn in 2021 before the frenzy died down as global stocks tumbled the following year due to rising interest rates.
/jlne.ws/3YPDEpf
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| Trade War and Tariffs | | A roundup of today's trade war and tariff news and the global economic ripple effects shaping markets, industries, and investment strategies. | Trump warns America's businesses: Eat my tariffs, or pay the price
Analysis by David Goldman - CNN
President Donald Trump is sending a stern warning to Corporate America: He will use his bully pulpit to publicly shame companies that dare to raise prices because of tariffs. After Walmart last week said it would have to jack up some prices because of high costs of the global trade war, Trump on Saturday responded forcefully in a Truth Social post, demanding Walmart reverse its decision. "Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain," Trump said. "Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, "EAT THE TARIFFS," and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!!"
/jlne.ws/4dnAW0d
Trump tariff uncertainty still makes earnings estimates and guidance useless
Brian Sozzi - Yahoo Finance
It has been a week. Stocks entered the green for the year as investors cheered the US-China trade thaw. Five CEOs this week reminded me that this is a truce, not an agreement, and one top Fortune 500 executive who recently met with the Trump administration to discuss tariffs told me the 30% level could be the new norm, barring a major breakthrough.
/jlne.ws/4mmkh15
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| World Conflicts | | News about various conflicts and their military, economic, political and humanitarian impact. | Ukraine Invasion
Russia bans Amnesty International Limited as 'undesirable' organisation
Reuters
Russia's prosecutor general said on Monday it had banned human rights group Amnesty International Limited as an "undesirable organisation", accusing it of backing Ukraine against Russia. Founded in 1961 and headquartered in London, Amnesty International campaigns for human rights across the world, including on behalf of those it designates prisoners of conscience. In its statement, Russia's prosecutor general said that Amnesty International Limited's London office was a "centre for the preparation of global Russophobic projects", and accused it of advocating of behalf of Ukraine, with which Russia is at war.
/jlne.ws/3H3wtDR
Russia launched war's largest drone attack ahead of Putin-Trump call, Ukraine says
Danai Nesta Kupemba - BBC News
Ukraine says Russia has launched its biggest drone attack since the full-scale invasion began, targeting several regions including Kyiv, where one woman died. The barrage came just a day before a scheduled call between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The US President has been urging a ceasefire. Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face talks in more than three years on Friday in Turkey, agreeing a new prisoner swap deal but little else.
/jlne.ws/3Sbk96U
Putin's Plan to Outlast Ukraine and the U.S.; Russia's leader 'blossoms whenever he talks about war' and hopes Trump will give up on a peace deal.
Amy Knight - The Wall Street Journal
After all the speculation about how Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's offer to meet for peace talks in Istanbul, it isn't surprising that Mr. Putin declined. Instead he sent a low-level delegation, headed by the ultraconservative former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky.
/jlne.ws/4msMTpC
How Ukraine lost hundreds of millions on arms deals gone wrong; Desperate to source munitions, Kyiv paid foreign brokers for weapons and shells that were sometimes unusable or never arrived
Isobel Koshiw and Miles Johnson - Financial Times
In 2020 Tanner Cook, a 28-year-old from Arizona, opened a small ammunition shop on a dusty road off a highway on the outskirts of Tucson. Cook's fledgling venture was located in a single-floor beige concrete commercial space with a temporary sign on the wall reading: "OTL IMPORTS". Cook's early customers were local gun enthusiasts, with one Tucson radio host giving OTL Imports a plug to help his "real good buddy" get his company off the ground. "He sells ammo, he sells guns and he's got really good prices," he said. "He's a real good dude!"
/jlne.ws/4jtc7l7
Middle East Conflict
Netanyahu says Israel will control Gaza as aid trucks prepare to enter
Maytaal Angel and Nidal Al-Mughrabi - Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would control the whole of Gaza despite mounting international pressure that forced it to lift a blockade on aid supplies which has left the enclave on the brink of famine. The Israeli military, which announced the start of a new operation on Friday, warned residents of the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday to evacuate to the coast immediately as it prepared "an unprecedented attack".
/jlne.ws/435OtWP
Israel Expands Ground Operation in Gaza, Says Hamas Leader It Targeted Is Likely Dead
Cease-fire talks advance in Qatar as Israel says strikes last week aimed at killing Mohammed Sinwar likely succeeded
Carrie Keller-Lynn and Summer Said - The Wall Street Journal
TEL AVIV-Israel's military began activating troops in Gaza on Sunday as part of a larger ground operation aimed at pushing Hamas to demilitarize and release the remaining hostages it holds, as a senior Israeli official said a strike last week targeting Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar likely killed him. Israel's military said on Sunday that it began "extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip" following a wave of 670 airstrikes it says is targeting Hamas infrastructure like weapons-storage facilities, underground sites, and antitank missile launchers as well as militants.
/jlne.ws/3YQs9hi
Hamas Wanted to Torpedo Israel-Saudi Deal With Oct. 7 Attacks, Documents Reveal; Militant leader Yahya Sinwar feared progress on peace would doom the Palestinian cause
Marcus Walker and Summer Said - The Wall Street Journal
Top leaders of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel aiming to torpedo peace negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to minutes of a high-level meeting in Gaza that Israel's military said it discovered in a tunnel beneath the enclave. Days before the assault that left nearly 1,200 dead, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's Gaza chief, told fellow militants that an "extraordinary act" was required to derail the normalization talks that he said risked marginalizing the Palestinian cause, the document, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said.
/jlne.ws/3YT73im
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Euronext Dublin publishes pre-budget submission to deliver on Programme for Government commitment to support Irish Equity Capital Markets
Euronext
Euronext, the leading European capital market infrastructure, today announces that the Irish Stock Exchange, trading as Euronext Dublin published its pre-budget submission to the Irish Government ahead of Budget 2026. The submission, titled 'Mobilising the Markets to Finance Irish Enterprise Growth', contains four proposals aimed at attracting more companies and retail investors to Ireland's equity capital markets. This submission responds to the strong commitments contained in the new Programme for Government to work closely with Euronext Dublin to ensure future growth of equity capital markets. We are focusing particularly on small to medium-sized Irish companies that are rapidly growing; and to explore opportunities to enhance Irish equity capital markets as a vital source of equity and growth for indigenous businesses.
/jlne.ws/3HeGttS
HKEX Appoints Group Chief Financial Officer
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to announce today (Monday) the appointment of Mr Herbert Hui as Group Chief Financial Officer. Mr Hui joins the Group on 9 June 2025 and succeeds Vanessa Lau, who will continue in her role as HKEX Chief Operating Officer.
/jlne.ws/3Fgyxb2
Announcement
Athex Group
The Athens Stock Exchange informs the investment community that during works on the HERMES system, older announcements from listed companies appeared on its website with today's date. The issue was fully resolved within a very short period and concerned announcements from December 16th, 2024, of the following companies: Lamda Development, Metlen Energy & Metals, Sarantis S.A., ELINOIL Hellenic Petroleum Company S.A., Real Consulting S.A., ADMIE Holding S.A., Alpha Services and Holdings S.A., Fourlis Holdings S.A., Epilektos S.A.
/jlne.ws/3H2KBgy
New Articles of Association Approved
HKEX
Reference is made to the announcements issued by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited ("HKEX") on 27 February 2025 and 30 April 2025, which include, among others, the proposed adoption of HKEX's new Articles of Association ("New Articles") and the passing of the special resolution for the proposed adoption of the New Articles at the annual general meeting of HKEX held on 30 April 2025 ("AGM"), respectively.
/jlne.ws/3SboaIp
JSE SME Rise Continues to Make Lasting Impact on South Africa's SME Sector
JSE
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) recently hosted an event to mark the continued growth of the SME Rise Initiative, the exchange's programme dedicated to empowering Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) across South Africa. Launched with the vision of bridging gaps that stunt the growth of the SME sector, SME Rise continues to play a pivotal role in providing a comprehensive support platform that addresses the needs of funding readiness, market access and capital matching. Since inception, the initiative has grown significantly, becoming a cornerstone of the JSE's commitment to sustainable and inclusive economic development.
/jlne.ws/4k8r510
CME Direct Software Enhancement Coming May 18
CME Direct
On this Sunday, May 18 (trade date Monday, May 19), there will be a CME Direct software upgrade.
/jlne.ws/3FkPNvG
Selection of SX Brands 2025
JPX
Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) select and award the designation of "SX (Sustainability Transformation*) Brands" to a group of progressive companies. These are corporations that are enhancing their ability to create a source of funds for growth in a sustainable manner, using SX to improve their corporate value.
/jlne.ws/4ks3194
Financial advisors view direct indexing as "essential" to remain competitive in wealth market
LSEG
FTSE Russell, the global index provider, announced today the findings from its second annual direct indexing survey. The results, based on the responses of over 400 financial advisors, suggest continued strong growth for direct indexing. The report provides insights that could help mitigate barriers to adoption and uncovers different advisor perceptions by age and channels.
/jlne.ws/4duTWdo
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Nvidia plans to sell tech to speed AI chip communication
Max A. Cherney and Wen-Yee Lee - Reuters
Nvidia said on Monday it plans to sell a technology to others that will tie chips together in order to speed up the chip-to-chip communication needed to build and deploy artificial intelligence tools. Nvidia launched a new version of its NVLink tech called NVLink Fusion on Monday that it will sell to other chip designers to help build powerful custom AI systems with multiple chips linked together.
/jlne.ws/4dnAb7n
Revolut Plans to Invest EUR1 Billion in France, Apply for License
Aisha S Gani and Claudia Cohen - Bloomberg
Revolut Ltd., Europe's largest digital bank, plans to invest more than EUR1 billion ($1.1 billion) in France and apply for a local banking license as the fintech eyes an expansion across Europe. At the Choose France business summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, the London-based firm said it was setting up its new western European headquarters in the city, pledged to bring the investment over three years and hire at least 200 workers in the period.
/jlne.ws/4doDsDx
Italy's data watchdog fines AI company Replika's developer $5.6 million
Reuters
Italy's data protection agency has fined the developer of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot company Replika 5 million euros ($5.64 million) for breaching rules designed to protect users' personal data, the authority said on Monday. Launched in 2017, San Francisco-based startup Replika offers users customised avatars that can have conversations with them. The 'virtual friend' is marketed as being able to improve the emotional wellbeing of users.
/jlne.ws/4knEAt9
Why Apple Still Hasn't Cracked AI; Insiders say continued failure to get artificial intelligence right threatens everything from the iPhone's dominance to plans for robots and other futuristic products.
Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett - Bloomberg
Back in 2018 it looked like Apple Inc.'s artificial intelligence efforts were finally getting on track. Early that year, Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief, gathered his senior staff and announced a blockbuster hire: The company had just poached John Giannandrea from Google to be its head of AI. JG, as he's known in the industry, had been running Google's search and AI groups. Under his leadership, teams were deploying cutting-edge AI technology in Photos, Translate and Gmail-work that, along with the 2014 acquisition of the pioneering British company DeepMind, had given Google a reputation as a leader in AI.
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Anthropic Is Trying to Win the AI Race Without Losing Its Soul; Dario Amodei has transformed himself from an academic into the CEO of a $61 billion startup.
Shirin Ghaffary - Bloomberg
Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei received a message on Slack one day in mid- February: Senior members of his company's safety team were concerned that, without the right safeguards, the artificial intelligence model they were about to release to the public could be used to help create bioweapons. This startling revelation came at a time when pressure was already ratcheting up on Amodei. The model in question, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, was only days away from release, as Anthropic PBC sprinted to keep pace with competitors who were rushing their own models to market. At the same time, the 42-year-old Amodei, a bespectacled ringlet-haired man who'd spent the early years of his career in academic labs carefully extracting the eyeballs of dead salamanders, was in the process of closing a multibillion-dollar investment round valuing Anthropic at more than $60 billion.
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Saudi 'Data Embassy' Plan Can Help the US Fight Chinese AI; Sequestering information on foreign soil under American legal jurisdiction could prevent technology from slipping into China's hands.
Dave Lee - Bloomberg
There are multiple ways to tackle any problem, and fending off China in the global AI race is no different. If you're President Joe Biden, you take the approach of greatly limiting how many US-designed semiconductors can be used for Chinese artificial-intelligence efforts - first by barring sales directly to the country and then by placing tighter scrutiny on AI exports to other countries, like Saudi Arabia, to reduce the risk that China gets the tech through the backdoor.
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Nvidia in advanced talks to invest in PsiQuantum, The Information reports
Reuters
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AMD to sell ZT Systems' manufacturing business to Sanmina in $3 billion deal
Reuters
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Xiaomi Aims to Spend $7 Billion on Building Own Chip This Decade
Debby Wu - Bloomberg
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Nvidia chief announces major Taiwan chip investments; Jensen Huang reveals plans for new Taipei base and AI supercomputer as he stresses island's global importance
Michael Acton - Financial Times
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Here's Proof That the Fed Needn't Fear a Tokenized World; A new report demonstrates that central banks can port their monetary policy tools into a evolving financial ecosystem.
Aaron Brown - Bloomberg
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Nvidia Pushes Further Into Cloud With GPU Marketplace; The chip giant has created DGX Cloud Lepton, a new service that will make its AI chips directly available to developers across a variety of cloud platforms
Belle Lin - The Wall Street Journal
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Intel's new CEO says the company has 55% of the data centre market
Reuters
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Nvidia, UAE's MGX Plan to Build Europe's Largest Data Center
Omar El Chmouri - Bloomberg
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Ripple Signs Two More Payment System Customers in UAE Expansion
Shaurya Malwa - CoinDesk
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Personal data taken in UK legal aid cyber attack
Reuters
A "significant" amount of personal data, including criminal records, of applicants who had applied for legal aid since 2010 was accessed and stolen in a cyber attack, Britain's Legal Aid Agency said on Monday. It said it became aware of the attack on April 23 and had worked with the National Crime Agency since. On Friday, it discovered the attack had been more extensive than originally understood and the attackers had accessed information relating to legal aid applicants, forcing it to shut down its online services.
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Florida man loses $38K to fake loan scam after bogus computer alert set up by cryptocurrency thieves
Sarah Li-Cain, AFC via Moneywise
John Klingel lost $38,000, and it all started when he saw a pop-up on his computer. He told WPTV 5 in West Palm Beach that because the message appeared to be from a cybersecurity company he normally does business with, he was more apt to believe that it was real. The thieves then called him and said that someone had taken out a loan in his name to use for gambling and that he could get his name back in good standing by depositing at a Bitcoin Teller Machine (BTM).
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North Korea Stole Your Job; For years, North Korea has been secretly placing young IT workers inside Western companies. With AI, their schemes are now more devious-and effective-than ever.
Bobbie Johnson - Wired
On paper, the first candidate looked perfect. Thomas was from rural Tennessee and had studied computer science at the University of Missouri. His résumé said he'd been a professional programmer for eight years, and he'd breezed through a preliminary coding test. All of this was excellent news for Thomas' prospective boss, Simon Wijckmans, founder of the web security startup C.Side. The 27-year-old Belgian was based in London but was looking for ambitious, fully remote coders.
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Warning: This Printer Vendor's Software Contained Malware
PC Mag
If you own a printer from China-based Procolored, watch out: The company's driver files are full of malware, including a Windows-based backdoor. Karsten Hahn, a researcher at cybersecurity vendor G Data, reported the findings on Thursday. "A printer company provided infected printer software for half a year," he said. Hahn began investigating after YouTuber Cameron Coward at Serial Hobbyism received a printer from Procolored, a provider of direct-to-film printers, which can be used for creating custom T-shirts. While testing the printer for a review, the built-in antivirus Windows Defender and Google's Chrome browser alerted him of malware threats on his PC.
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Binance, Kraken Thwarted Social Engineering Attacks Similar to Coinbase Hack
Francisco Rodrigues - CoinDesk
Binance and Kraken, two of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, were recently targeted in a wave of social engineering attacks similar to the one that led to a major data breach at Coinbase. Hackers approached customer support agents with bribery offers and detailed instructions for contacting attackers through Telegram, Bloomberg reports citing people familiar with the matter. Both exchanges managed to block the attempts without losing any customer data.
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Cybersecurity Firm Cyera Valued at $6 Billion in Funding Round
Kate Clark and Katie Roof - Bloomberg
Data security business Cyera is set to be valued at $6 billion in a new investment round, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The $500 million financing would almost double the company's $3.4 billion valuation from late last year. It's led by Lightspeed, Greenoaks and Georgian, with participation from existing investors Accel, Sequoia Capital and Sapphire Ventures.
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Op Risk Benchmarking 2025: the FMIs; Exchanges and CCPs respond to regulatory scrutiny and evolving threats with tighter vendor management and scenario refreshes
Risk.net
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Regeneron to buy bankrupt DNA testing firm 23andMe for $256 million
Reuters
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | How Trump's crypto business partners left their old clients in the lurch
Lawrence Delevingne - Reuters
(Note language in paragraphs 5 and 15 that readers may find offensive)
In May last year, Jonathan Lopez invested about $1 million worth of cryptocurrency in Dough Finance, a small trading platform that made it easy to make risky bets using borrowed funds. Initially, the 31-year-old investor and motivational speaker from Miami did well. Part of Dough's appeal for users was "looping," where traders borrow against their crypto holdings to buy more of the same asset and then use that new asset as collateral to buy even more. Each "loop" increases risk and Dough made those highly technical trades as easy as a few clicks. Lopez paid a 5% fee on the crypto he deposited in Dough, and co-founder Chase Herro personally showed him how to use the platform and cheered him along, according to documents made public in subsequent litigation between the two men.
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Crypto elite increasingly worried about their personal safety
Anthony Ha - TechCrunch
Cryptocurrency executives and other investors with significant wealth from crypto holdings are getting more serious about personal security, according to stories this weekend in both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.While cryptocurrencies have always created unique security risks, it seems there's a rising threat of violent abduction due to the growing value of Bitcoin, as well as new concerns after a recent Coinbase breach exposed customers' personal information. (Coinbase said the breach affected less than 1% of its customers.) For example, three masked men recently attempted to abduct the daughter and granddaughter of the CEO of French cryptocurrency company Paymium, only to be driven off by the family's neighbors.
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Severed Fingers and 'Wrench Attacks' Rattle the Crypto Elite; As bitcoin soars, investors and executives are taking their swollen digital wallets offline for safety. Criminals are coming after them, violently.
Sam Schechner, Robert McMillan and Angus Berwick - The Wall Street Journal
PARIS-The screams echoed down the narrow street in a trendy neighborhood here early Tuesday morning: "Help! Help! Help!" Three men in black masks had jumped on a 34-year-old woman whose father runs Paymium, a French cryptocurrency exchange. Brandishing canisters of mace and what looked like a gun, the masked men attempted to force the woman and her toddler into an idling white van disguised as a delivery truck.
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CRYPTO CRACKDOWN: HMRC to introduce rules for Crypto holders as fresh tax crackdown launched; We've outlined what to do and how to avoid a hefty fine
James Flanders, Chief Consumer Reporter - The Sun (UK Edition)
HMRC is ramping up pressure on cryptocurrency users with the introduction of new measures aimed at curbing tax avoidance. From January 1, 2026, individuals buying and selling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum will need to provide their personal information to the platforms they use. In the UK, you need to report crypto earnings to HMRC because any profit you make from selling, exchanging, or using cryptocurrency can be subject to taxCredit: Reuters
The move is designed to clamp down on tax avoidance and ensure that individuals and businesses are paying the correct amount of tax on their crypto dealings.
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US crypto funds top $7.5B inflows in 2025 as investor appetite grows; US crypto funds marked their fifth consecutive week of positive inflows, fully recovering from a $7 billion sell-off in February and March.
Zoltan Vardai - CoinTelegraph
Crypto investment products in the United States have attracted over $7.5 billion worth of investment in 2025, with a fifth week of net positive inflows last week signaling growing investor demand for digital assets. US-based crypto investment products attracted $785 million worth of investment last week, pushing the year-to-date (YTD) total to over $7.5 billion, according to a May 19 report by digital asset manager CoinShares.
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Breaking Down Trump's Entanglements With Crypto; Sector has been one of the biggest winners in the president's second term
Amrith Ramkumar - The Wall Street Journal
President Trump's embrace of crypto is boosting the sector, raising ethical concerns related to his business interests and family involvement. Representatives of Trump's family have held discussions about investing in the U.S. arm of the crypto exchange Binance. Trump's sons-Donald Jr., Eric and Barron-are involved in World Liberty Financial, a business launched in September.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Trump endorses idea that Supreme Court ruling blocking his deportations under Alien Enemies Act is 'illegal'
Ariana Baio - The Independent
President Donald Trump endorsed the idea that the United States Supreme Court had placed an "illegal injunction" on him by temporarily blocking his administration's ability to deport Venezuelans, accused of being gang members, without due process, while litigation on the matter plays out in lower courts. On Truth Social on Saturday, Trump reposted two posts made by attorney Mike Davis, a close Trump ally and the founder of the Article III project, calling the court's recent decision "illegal" and claiming it was "heading down a perilous path" by not allowing Trump to continue a constitutionally questionable action.
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El-Erian says the era of U.S. exceptionalism is on pause
Jules Rimmer - MarketWatch
Mohamed El-Erian, the former chief executive of bond giant Pimco and Allianz's chief economic adviser, said the era of U.S. exceptionalism isn't conclusively over. "It's been put on pause," said El-Erian in a phone interview with MarketWatch. "It's too early to say if the damage inflicted is irreversible." But he said the tariff wars and the attendant uncertainty need to stop.
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A Tiny Bank in Trump Tower Is Enriching the President's Sons; Dominari surged after bringing on Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr.; It's part of lucrative pattern they've embraced since election
Annie Massa, Bailey Lipschultz, and Dylan Sloan - Bloomberg
From its New York headquarters on Trump Tower's 22nd floor, Dominari Holdings Inc. operates a tiny investment bank that, less than three years ago, pivoted from developing cancer therapies into finance. Since then it has lost about $70 million. One of its senior executives was named in a now-settled complaint alleging "Boiler Room" style business practices at an earlier employer. And it has been stockpiling Bitcoin.
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Foreign groups are stealing $1 trillion a year through identity theft - and DOGE is just letting it happen
John Bowden - The Independent
A new report details how the federal government is ignoring billions of dollars in identity theft-related fraud every year as outdated systems leave government agencies and Americans both vulnerable to scammers. The report from Socure, a firm which sells identity verification services, found that fraudsters are using stolen identities to scam government agencies out of billions and bilk Americans from receiving benefits they are entitled to in the process. The problem is so vast, according to the report, that false or fraudulent claims originating from crime rings primarily based abroad make up between 2 percent to 12 percent of all applications for US government services.
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Trump meme coin dinner likely to include mostly non-Americans based on top $TRUMP holders
MacKenzie Sigalos - CNBC
With President Donald Trump's private dinner for top meme coin holders less than a week away, the leaderboard is awash with crypto wallets that are effectively anonymous. On May 22, the top 220 $TRUMP holders are invited to a dinner with the president at his Virginia golf club outside of Washington, D.C. The event was announced last month, and the tally closed Monday night. The nature of the pseudonymous wallets raises questions about the true identities and motivations of the token's largest holders, who have bought a seat at the table with a U.S. president.
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Hawaii's Prized Kona Coffee Fields Have Become a Target for ICE; The Trump crackdown has reached the volcanic Island of Hawaii, where immigrants, some of them undocumented, are crucial to cultivating the rare coffee.
Miriam Jordan - The New York Times
On the mist-wreathed slopes of Mauna Loa, where the earth is rich with volcanic memory and the Pacific glimmers in the distance, a coveted coffee - Kona - is coaxed from the soil. Nurtured by the Island of Hawaii's unique mingling of abundant sunshine, afternoon rain and lava-infused soil, Kona coffee retails for more than $30 for an eight-ounce bag. With a devoted following around the world, the distinct coffee has been a point of pride for the Big Island, and for the thousands of immigrants from Latin America who for decades have handpicked the beans in the Kona fields. Now the fate of many of those immigrant workers is uncertain, as is the future of the island's coffee industry.
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The Real Threat of the Nonprofit "Terrorism" Provision in Trump's Big Bill
Shirin Sinnar - Slate
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Trump DOJ considers making it easier to indict members of Congress; The plan would end the requirement that the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section approve prosecutions of lawmakers and other public officials
Peter Wade - Rolling Stone
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The Stark Math on the GOP Tax Plan: It Doesn't Cut the Deficit; House Republicans advance bill late Sunday, as budget analysts across the political spectrum warn that the proposal worsens the U.S. fiscal picture
Richard Rubin - The Wall Street Journal
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The Trump Administration Leaned on African Countries. The Goal: Get Business for Elon Musk.
Joshua Kaplan, Brett Murphy, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski - ProPublica
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A Brexit Reset With Big Red Lines? Yes, Minister; The scars of the UK's acrimonious EU split will take longer than one summit to heal.
Lionel Laurent - Bloomberg
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EU's EUR150 Billion Defense Fund Receives Preliminary Approval
Jorge Valero - Bloomberg
The European Union's 27 member states gave initial approval to a EUR150 billion ($169 billion) https://jlne.ws/4kj2oyu
Americans in Race for European Residency See Doors Slamming Shut; The rush to secure passports and visas comes as many countries tighten immigration rules.
Alice Kantor - Bloomberg
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Exclusive-India plans stricter rules for companies with foreign ownership, sources say
Shubham Batra and Sarita Chaganti Singh - Reuters
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Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah leaders among terrorists who pay Elon Musk for X subscriptions, study finds
Gustaf Kilander - The Independent
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | German antitrust head sees divergence in rhetoric with US peers, not in substance
Foo Yun Chee - Reuters
Germany's antitrust head Andreas Mundt on Monday addressed mounting concerns about the deviation in approaches between European regulators and their U.S. peers, saying the divergence is more in terms of rhetoric than substance. Such worries have been amplified in recent months by U.S government and lawmakers' criticism of EU scrutiny of Big Tech and fines levied on U.S. companies for breaching EU rules.
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The White House Got 'Overcriminalization' Right; Reducing "regulatory overcriminalization" is a good thing. Do we really need mattress-tag policing?
Stephen L. Carter - Bloomberg
I've been hard on President Donald Trump during these onerous early months of his second term, but when he's right, he's right. In particular, his executive order on the reduction of "regulatory overcriminalization" pays welcome attention to a growing problem both parties have tended to ignore: the federal government's race toward making everyone a felon. Understand the point. Federal crimes are defined by Congress. Some are spelled out in the US Code. Most aren't. Instead, they're the result of rules adopted by federal agencies, which fill in the details themselves. Sounds reasonable, right? And it wouldn't be a bad idea ... if there weren't too many such administratively created rules and they were easy to find.
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CEO Compensation Disclosure Gets Fresh Scrutiny From Trump's SEC
Lydia Beyoud - Bloomberg
The US Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a roundtable next month to discuss executive compensation disclosure rules, which Chair Paul Atkins said have grown "increasingly complex and lengthy." "It is less clear if the increased complexity and length have provided investors with additional information that is material to their investment and voting decisions," Atkins said in a statement Friday, when the SEC announced the June 26 roundtable.
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Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero Announces Departure from CFTC
CFTC
On February 26, 2025, I announced that I will step down from the Commission and retire from federal service. My final day at the Commission will be May 31. It has been a tremendous honor to conclude my 23 years of federal service at an agency with such an important mission to ensure that financial markets perform their critical role in the U.S. and global economies. At my confirmation hearing, I testified that my highest priority would be to ensure that markets work well. During my tenure, derivatives markets experienced significant growth, while remaining resilient and financially stable through times of market stress and volatility. For that, I am most proud of the CFTC's work. I am also proud of the CFTC's work to strengthen customer protection and market integrity. I want to recognize the wonderful CFTC staff who are dedicated public servants, especially the Division of Enforcement, who worked with me to strengthen market integrity and protect customers.
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SEC Announces Roundtable on Executive Compensation Disclosure Requirements
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it will host a roundtable on June 26, 2025, to discuss executive compensation disclosure requirements. SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins issued a statement today regarding the roundtable, including questions for the staff to consider. Members of the public are also encouraged to provide their views on these questions, either in advance or after the roundtable.
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Prepared Remarks Before SEC Speaks
Paul S. Atkins, Chairman - SEC
Thank you, Cicely, for your kind introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, I am very happy to be with you at my first SEC Speaks conference as SEC Chairman, though I have been a regular at this event over the past 15 years or so.[1] The event has experienced some rather precipitous fits and starts over the past couple of years, and I shall make sure that it stays on track as valuable, comprehensive public outreach by the agency.
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Remarks at the 12th Annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation
Paul S. Atkins, Chairman -SEC
Considering the ongoing changes in financial landscapes, the need for thorough economic analysis of the Commission's actions becomes increasingly important. High-quality economic analysis is an essential part of any SEC rulemaking. It is critical that a rule's potential benefits and costs be considered in ensuring that it is in the public's interest. It also helps that it happens to be the law. From Pedro's introduction, you can see that this is my third tour of duty at the SEC - having previously served from 1990-1994 on the staff of former Chairmen Richard Breeden and Arthur Levitt, as a Commissioner from 2002-2008, and now as Chairman.
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Statement on the Upcoming Executive Compensation Roundtable
Paul S. Atkins, Chairman - SEC
When the Commission instituted tabular executive compensation disclosure in 1992,[1] then-Chairman Richard C. Breeden championed an easily comprehensible disclosure regime centered around a graphical presentation of total executive compensation with comparisons against compensation of executives in peer firms and against the issuer's performance.[2] In the intervening years, disclosure requirements have been expanded to focus more and more on variations of components of compensation, rather than on total compensation. While it is undisputed that these requirements, and the resulting disclosure, have become increasingly complex and lengthy, it is less clear if the increased complexity and length have provided investors with additional information that is material to their investment and voting decisions.
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Horses and Bourses: Remarks at the 12th Annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Given that the SEC is a market regulator, I am disappointed when deprecation of economic fundamentals slips into the Commission's work. An incident recounted by Ulysses S. Grant in his memoirs reminded me of a quibble I had with the justification for a recent Commission rulemaking. When Grant was about eight years-old, his father dispatched him to buy a horse: impressive, even if his negotiating skills proved not to be. Grant's father thought the horse worth only twenty dollars, but told the young Grant-who desperately wanted the animal-that he should start by offering twenty dollars and could work his way up to twenty-five. The future Union general and U.S. president implemented his father's instructions as follows: "Papa says I may offer you twenty dollars for the colt, but if you won't take that, I am to offer twenty-two and a half, and if you won't take that, to give you twenty-five."[1] He paid twenty-five.
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ASIC announces financial reporting and audit focus areas for FY 2025-26
ASIC
ASIC today has published its financial reporting and audit focus areas for the 2025-26 financial year and highlighted the progress of its ongoing financial reporting and audit surveillance programs. 'These surveillance programs aim to enhance the integrity and quality of financial reporting and auditing in Australia. We expect all entities to provide reports and audits that are accurate, complete and informative,' said ASIC Commissioner Kate O'Rourke.
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IOSCO Publishes Final Reports on Finfluencers, Online Imitative Trading Practices and Digital Engagement Practices
IOSCO
Reports represent third wave of comprehensive Retail Investor Online Safety strategy to address online fraud, promote safe investing and enhance global cooperation.
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SFC revokes Mui Chok Wah's licence and bans him for two years
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has revoked the licence of Mr Mui Chok Wah and its approval of him to act as a responsible officer of KCG Securities Asia Limited (KCGSA) following his criminal conviction for theft and delay in notifying the SFC of his criminal charge. Mui has also been banned from re-entering the industry for two years from 16 May 2025 to 15 May 2027 (Note 1). On 13 June 2024, Mui was arrested and charged by the Hong Kong Police Force for stealing a wallet left on an ATM machine. He was convicted of theft by the Eastern Magistrates' Courts on 11 September 2024 (Note 2).
/jlne.ws/3YQhCCW
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Back-to-back hedging is back on the table for autocall issuers; Deal activity is picking up as prop shops compete with hedge funds for structured products risk
Helen Bartholomew - Risk.net
Structured products issuers typically hedge the exotic risks of autocallable notes by slicing and dicing these exposures into bite-sized derivatives trades, such as dispersion and corridor variance swaps, that can be sold to sophisticated investors. Now, they're serving up the whole enchilada - offloading the full spectrum of exotic parameters associated with autocall exposure to buy-side clients via so-called back-to-back hedges.
/jlne.ws/3SI1qjn
The 'Sell America' Trade Makes a Comeback; Investors sold stocks and bonds after Moody's downgraded the U.S. credit rating, potentially complicating negotiations around Republicans' tax plan.
Andrew Ross SorkinEdmund LeeBernhard WarnerSarah KesslerMichael J. de la Merced and Lauren Hirsch - The New York Times
The "sell America" trade is back in focus on Monday. Investors are bracing for a triple threat of an inflationary trade war, President Trump's tax cut plan swelling the federal deficit, and fallout from Moody's cutting America's triple-A credit rating. That adds pressure on the White House to make trade deals, and on House Speaker Mike Johnson to win over Republican fiscal hawks to make Trump's big campaign vow - permanent tax cuts - a reality.
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U.S. Drillers Say Peak Shale Has Arrived; Lower oil prices are expected to precipitate a decrease in crude output that won't easily be reversed
Benoit Morenne and Collin Eaton - The Wall Street Journal
U.S. oil production is expected to decline in 2026, marking the first year-on-year decrease in roughly a decade, outside of the pandemic. Shale companies are slowing production because of low crude prices and pressure to return cash to shareholders. The Permian Basin's output growth is slowing, and other large fields haven't recovered since 2020, suggesting an end to shale dominance. President Trump, who promised to uplift oil and gas, is set to preside over a decline in shale production.
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Guess Where Harvard's Private Equity Will Likely End Up; Financial advisers and retail investors are late to the PE party, but they're an attractive target all the same.
Nir Kaissar - Bloomberg
Imagine an institutional investor that allocates a big chunk of its portfolio to illiquid private assets but then needs to sell some of those investments to raise cash. Or a fund company that makes a fortune on actively managed mutual funds for decades, but its investors move their money to low-cost index trackers. Or a financial research company built around selling ratings of actively managed funds that people no longer buy. Those may sound like three unrelated problems, but they all have a single solution, apparently: Sell private assets to financial advisers and unsuspecting retail investors.
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The Big Risk of Not Taking on Enough Risk
Merryn Somerset Webb - Bloomberg
Everyone wants you to take on more risk. Do you want to meet your dreams-buy a house, support your kids and live well in your old age? Then get out of cash and into equities. Sharpish. Sure, cash has a role to play in your savings says Schroders' Duncan Lamont in a note this week. You need a cash emergency fund, a buffer to keep you financially resilient in times of trouble, and you'll obviously want to keep your house deposit in cash while you are looking for your forever home (find out how to do this in our housing series here).
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Carry Trade Window Opens on Easing Trade Tensions, Barclays Says
Prima Wirayani - Bloomberg
Carry trades may make a near-term comeback as easing US-China tariff tensions reduce pressure on central banks to cut interest rates, according to Barclays Plc. The bank favors the dollar, Brazilian real, Colombian peso, Indian rupee and Mexican peso, analysts including Erick Martinez wrote in a May 18 note, while preferring euro-funded trades as peak tariffs erode the downside risks for the greenback.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | This land is their land: Trump is selling out the US's beloved wilderness; During the McCarthy era's darkest days, public lands came under attack. History now repeats itself - and this may be the last chance to defend what's ours
Nate Schweber - The Guardian
In 1913, on a remote, windswept stretch of buffalo-grass prairie in western North Dakota, Roald Peterson was born - the ninth of 11 children to hardy Norwegian homesteaders. The child fell in love with the ecosystem he was born into. It was a landscape as awe-inspiring and expansive as the ocean, with hawks riding sage-scented winds by day and the Milky Way glowing at night.
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Florida's Housing Market Softens as Climate-Related Costs Mount; Rising insurance and condo fees have left homeowners struggling to keep up. A major hurricane this summer would only make it worse.
Leslie Kaufman and Prashant Gopal - Bloomberg
Florida real estate prices are in decline again - and this time, real estate experts say, the costs of living with climate change may deepen the down phase of the usual boom-and-bust cycle. Sky-high insurance rates and condo fees, stemming in part from extreme weather, are weighing more heavily against the benefits of year-round sunshine and zero income tax, complicating an already tough situation with borrowing costs. The climate cost burden on state homeowners isn't likely to ease soon. "This is a non-cyclical phenomenon," said Jesse Keenan, a real estate professor at Tulane University who focuses on climate adaptation. "This is resetting the baseline values of housing in Florida."
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Rare-Earths Plants Are Popping Up Outside China; U.S., Brazil are among countries building capacity to mine and refine metals for EVs and smartphones
Samantha Pearson and Jon Emont - The Wall Street Journal
In a warehouse deep in Brazil's savanna, machines churn through piles of red clay to produce chalky rocks packed with metals critical for making electric cars, smartphones and missiles. But what is particularly precious about these minerals is their intended destination: They are bound for the U.S., not China. China mines some 70% of the world's rare earths, the 17 metallic elements primarily used in magnets needed for civilian and military technologies. But its 90% share of processing for rare earths mined around the world is what really concerns officials from other countries working to secure their supply.
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The AI revolution changing how we predict the weather; Rapidly advancing technology is helping meteorologists to make more accurate and detailed forecasts even further into the future
Clive Cookson and Michael Peel - Financial Times
The era of delivering operational weather predictions by computer began for the UK Meteorological Office in 1965 with a room-sized processor nicknamed Comet. Six decades later, the country's national forecaster is part of another technological revolution, this time driven by artificial intelligence. AI is supercharging predictions for the ever-shifting patterns of cloud, precipitation and temperature mapped dynamically on a giant screen at the organisation's headquarters in the south-western city of Exeter.
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Data Centers' Hunger for Energy Could Raise All Electric Bills; Individuals and small businesses may end up bearing some of the cost of grid upgrades needed for large electricity users, a new report found.
Ivan Penn - The New York Times
Individuals and small business have been paying more for power in recent years, and their electricity rates may climb higher still. That's because the cost of the power plants, transmission lines and other equipment that utilities need to serve data centers, factories and other large users of electricity is likely to be spread to everybody who uses electricity, according to a new report.
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British carbon prices rise after news of deal on EU link
Susanna Twidale - Reuters
Britain and the European Union will work towards linking their respective carbon markets as part of a wider reset in relations, they said on Monday, leading to a 6% rise in British carbon prices. Both the EU and UK charge power plants and other industrial entities for each metric ton of carbon dioxide they emit as part of wider efforts to cut emissions and reach climate targets.
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Clean Energy Is Under Attack Even Where It's Booming; Federal tax credits for wind and solar power are on the chopping block, and states are weighing tougher rules
Jennifer Hiller - The Wall Street Journal
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Wells Fargo's commodity book hits record size after 36% surge; Notional growth far outpaces Wall Street heavyweights
Lorenzo Migliorato - Risk.net
Wells Fargo's commodity derivatives expanded to a record $136.7 billion in notional amount in the first quarter, outpacing those of larger Wall Street rivals that typically dominate the space. The book surged 35.3% quarter on quarter, past the previous peak of $115 billion recorded in Q2 2022. Although Wells Fargo's notional remained smaller than that of larger broker-dealers, its rate of growth was markedly higher. Notional grew by around 12% at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan
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ON THE MOVE: Northern Trust Canada Adds Jeff Alexander; Campbell Global Names Angie Davis
Anna Lyudvig - Traders Magazine
Jeff Alexander has joined as President and CEO of The Northern Trust Company, Canada, and Principal Officer of the affiliated The Northern Trust Company, Canada Branch based in Toronto. He succeeds Katie Pries, who has led Northern Trust in Canada since 2020 and will take on a newly created global role focused on Northern Trust's anti-money laundering processes.
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Jamie Dimon's time as JPMorgan CEO is winding down. Investors are saying 'do not go.'
David Hollerith - Yahoo Finance
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon's time as top boss is winding down when his stature on Wall Street and in the nation's capital is arguably at an all-time high. Investors, as a result, may not be ready for the 69-year-old executive to exit the stage just yet. They are saying, "Jamie Dimon, do not go!" Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo, who has covered JPMorgan for decades, told Yahoo Finance.
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HSBC launches new capital markets and advisory group
GlobalData
HSBC Holdings has announced a reorganisation of its capital markets and corporate advisory divisions, establishing a new entity aimed at enhancing its presence in the expanding private credit sector. The newly formed capital markets and advisory group will consolidate HSBC's global financing and investment banking operations under a unified management framework, reported Bloomberg.
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BNP Paribas Says It's Launching EUR1.08 Billion Share Buyback
Steven Arons - Bloomberg
BNP Paribas SA has launched the share buyback planned for 2025, worth EUR1.08 billion ($1.2 billion), it said in a statement on Monday. The French bank received the approval from the European Central Bank and "a contract was concluded with an investment services provider acting independently," it said. The purchase period starts today and will end on June 20 at the latest.
/jlne.ws/4dkXxui
Wall Street Banks Bet on Emerging Markets After Wasted Years
Selcuk Gokoluk - Bloomberg
Wall Street's emerging-market faithful are finally seeing better returns after missing out for years as US stocks soared. Morgan Stanley Investment Management, AQR Capital Management, Bank of America Corp. and Franklin Templeton are among those betting the tables may finally be turning in favor of developing-market equities. Bank of America's Michael Hartnett calls them "the next bull market." AQR predicts they'll deliver local-currency returns of almost 6% annually in the coming five to 10 years, outpacing a 4% gain for US shares in dollars.
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Dubai Hedge Fund Magellan's Boss Faces Complaints From Ex Trader
Nishant Kumar, Abeer Abu Omar, and Hema Parmar - Bloomberg
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Carlyle on Japan Hiring Spree After New $3 Billion Buyout Fund
Lisa Du - Bloomberg
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Hedge Funds Reload Long Yen Trades Ahead of G-7 Meeting
David Finnerty - Bloomberg
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Ivy League endowments struggle with secondary private equity sales amid funding crunch; US college funds are also rushing to complete sales ahead of potential changes to investment taxes
Mary McDougall, and Sun Yu and Antoine Gara - Financial Times
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | I'm a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking.
Aneesh Raman - The New York Times
There are growing signs that artificial intelligence poses a real threat to a substantial number of the entry-level jobs that normally serve as the first step for each new generation of young workers. Uncertainty around tariffs and global trade are only likely to accelerate that pressure, just as millions of 2025 graduates enter the work force. We saw what happened in the 1980s when our manufacturing sector steeply declined. Now it is our office workers who are staring down the same kind of technological and economic disruption.
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The Next Great Job Churn Is Already Starting; San Francisco's sluggish labor market may signal the AI disruptions ahead.
Conor Sen - Bloomberg
The geography of employment in the US is being shaped by two distinct trends. The first is low levels of housing churn and, therefore, interstate migration, a normal part of the business cycle that should eventually turn around. More consequential are signs that artificial intelligence is beginning to suppress hiring in some of the most technology-centric parts of the country such as the San Francisco Bay Area - a shift that may portend a structural change in the labor market.
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The 'Great Hesitation' That's Making It Harder to Get a Tech Job; Economic uncertainty and AI are causing employers to think twice about all but the most sterling candidates
Katherine Bindley - The Wall Street Journal
The uncertain economic climate is adding to tech workers' woes. Those who have jobs are staying put, trying to figure out how they can stay relevant with the pivot to artificial intelligence and continued threat of layoffs. Those job hunting are finding recruiters insisting salary expectations be divulged in the first phone call, job postings pulled at the last minute and bots ruling out their résumé before it lands in front of a human. Companies are prolonging their hiring processes, leveraging contract workers or holding out for candidates who check every single box-and then some. "It's the great hesitation," says George Denlinger, operational president of U.S. technology talent solutions with staffing firm Robert Half. "The hiring process might be two to three times longer than it was a year ago."
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | What a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Like Biden's Means for Patients; While prognoses for prostate cancer patients were once measured in months, experts say that advances in treatment and diagnosis now improve survival by years.
Gina Kolata - The New York Times
Prostate cancer experts say that former President Joseph R. Biden's diagnosis is serious. Announced on Sunday by his office, the cancer has spread to his bones. And it is Stage 4, the most deadly of stages for the illness. It cannot be cured. But the good news, prostate cancer specialists said, is that recent advances in diagnosing and treating prostate cancer - based in large part on research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department - have changed what was once an exceedingly grim picture for men with advanced disease.
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Federal Officials May Limit Recommendations for Covid Vaccine; With new testing requirements, it's not even clear whether new Covid or flu shots can be made available this fall.
Apoorva Mandavilli - The New York Times
Come this fall, only older Americans and those with chronic health problems may be urged to get the Covid shot - assuming the vaccine is available at all. For years now, scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been debating whether to continue to recommend that Americans 6 months of age and older be immunized, or to switch to a so-called risk-based strategy targeting only the most vulnerable, as is the practice now in most other countries. The advisers are expected to decide on a way forward at a meeting in June. But the debate may have become irrelevant. New requirements for clinical testing of vaccines, announced earlier this month, may delay the availability of shots that had formerly been updated annually without complicated trials.
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Chinese Trader Who Made $1.5 Billion on Gold Builds a Giant Bet on Copper; Plastics billionaire Bian Ximing is all in on the red metal.
Alfred Cang - Bloomberg
A reclusive Chinese billionaire whose prescient gold trades turned into an eye-catching windfall has now become the country's biggest copper bull, amassing a bet worth nearly $1 billion in a market jolted by escalating competition between the US and China. Bian Ximing, who made an early fortune in plastic tubes before seeking a quiet life in Gibraltar, has made waves over the last two years with his investment in Chinese gold futures, betting on what he argued would be a global effort to reduce reliance on the dollar and counter inflation worries. His fund came in just as bullion was beginning a record-breaking ascent - and made roughly $1.5 billion in profit in the process, according to Bloomberg calculations.
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America's College Towns Go From Boom to Bust; Many state universities are losing more students every year, failing the local economies they once fostered
Konrad Putzier, Douglas Belkin and Anthony DeBarros - The Wall Street Journal
MACOMB, Ill.-At Western Illinois University, an empty dorm that once held 800 students is now a police training ground, where active-shooter drills have left behind overturned furniture, rubber-tipped bullets and paintball casings. Nearby dorms have been razed to weedy fields. Two more dorms are set to close this summer. Frat houses and homes once filled with student renters are empty lots. City streets used to be so crowded during the semester that cars moved at a crawl. No more.
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Canadians Fear Trump's Tariffs Will Create a 'Ghost Town' in Ontario; President Trump's tariffs on auto parts are already causing job losses in Windsor, Ontario, the heart of an industry that makes components for vehicles bound for the United States.
Ian Austen - The New York Times
When asked what their city would be without auto-parts makers, Pauline Ridley and Colleen Barrette, two union officials, quickly replied, "A ghost town." President Trump's tariff war against Canada has unleashed widespread anxiety in Windsor, Ontario, the country's auto-making capital. Much of it has focused on the fate of large vehicle assembly plants.
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