| March 01, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Welcome to March. One of the market issues of the moment is bitcoin halving, an event that occurs approximately every four years whereby Bitcoin miners are rewarded half the amount they were previously rewarded for validating and adding new blocks to the blockchain. Since 2022, approximately 900 bitcoins a day have been mined. After the halving, that number will drop to 450 per day.
Where this gets interesting is in the intersection of the reduction of new supply of Bitcoin with the increased investor demand for the newly approved Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. The other element is the return of FOMO, or fear of missing out, as Bitcoin prices climb.
According to a Yahoo News story titled "1 reason for new bitcoin mania: 'simply not enough' supply," since the beginning of February, the new ETF products "have purchased an average of 3,500-4,300 coins each day, according to three analysts who work for crypto money managers." You can see the problem. Production is 900 per day, demand is 3500 to 4300 per day and growing, and production is expected to drop to 450 per day sometime after tax day in April. A Bloomberg story today said BlackRock Inc.'s Bitcoin ETF added a record $520 million, and another story said the ten Bitcoin ETFs took in $673 million all together, which would be 8667 bitcoins for Blackrock and 11,217 Bitcoins altogether for ETFs based on a price of $60K for Bitcoin.
Quite frankly I don't understand why the SEC approved the ETFs in the first place for a product based on something that has a limited supply of 21 million Bitcoin, of which 19.6 million are already in circulation. This is not a product for which higher prices will produce increased production. The supply is the supply, it is capped. Even though Bitcoin is supposed to be a "commodity," it lacks many of the economic features of other commodities that mitigate price volatility, such as true commodity substitution.
It would appear that Bitcoin prices were designed to fly to extreme levels amid the drumbeat of FOMO and the breadth of demand from ETF investors. However, it also appears that Bitcoin is built to become ever more illiquid, erratic and volatile as supply is halved and institutions buy based on growing FOMO retail demand and the float narrows. This has the makings of volatility that is seared into the nightmares of risk managers.
It is often said (by Texans), that everything is bigger in Texas. Well, the Texas wildfire is the largest in state history and now covers nearly 1.1 million acres, Bloomberg reports. But that is not all. The massive blaze, dubbed the Smokehouse Creek Fire, is so big, running across the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma, that it is visible from space. Just ask the two Martians who called NASA to report the fire. OK, I kid, but the fire's infrared thermal image was captured by the GOES-16 satellite that orbits roughly 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface.
The Wall Street Green Summit on March 12 to 13 in New York City is the longest running sustainable investing event focusing on issues like ESG strategies and reporting, carbon trading markets, renewable energy innovation and advances in electric mobility. The summit is held at the Cornell Club in Midtown Manhattan. Register at www.TheWallStreetGreenSummit.com.
LME Asia Week 2024 is coming on June 27 with the LME Asia Metals Seminar from 9:00 to 16:00 at the HKEX Connect Hall in Hong Kong. LME Asia Week brings together leading voices in the global commodities industry to discuss opportunities and challenges facing the industry in the region today. Sponsorship opportunities are available. The LME Asia Week Dinner will take place following the seminar, starting at 18:00 for cocktails and 19:15 for dinner and it is not to be missed. For information and to register email info@lmeasiaweek.com.
Coinbase Institutional, Coinbase's US-regulated futures exchange, saw a single-day record yesterday in unique end users with over 850 accounts contributing to the second-best-ever day of ~$380M notional volume traded in BTC + ETH contracts, Boris Ilyevsky shared on LinkedIn.
Neil Salter has joined the Eurex institutional fixed income sales team, he shared on LinkedIn.
Paul A. Bhatt is moving up at ICE and is now a senior director of trading solutions, he shared 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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The International Energy Agency (IEA) report "CO2 Emissions in 2023" found that global energy-related CO2 emissions increased in 2023. This was largely caused by the impact of drought on hydropower. This rise, however, was lower than in 2022 thanks to expansion of technologies such as solar PV, wind, nuclear power and electric cars. Without these clean energy technologies, the global increase in CO2 emissions in the last five years would have been three times larger. Download the report HERE. The IEA also introduced the first edition of the Clean Energy Market Monitor, which will monitor the rapid growth of clean energy. The report found that from 2019 to 2023, clean energy investment increased nearly 50%, reaching USD 1.8 trillion in 2023 and growing at around 10% per year across this period. Read the press release and download the report HERE. ~SAED
Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- BlackRock's bitcoin ETF draws $520 million in a day as latest rally pumps up investor enthusiasm from Markets Insider.
- US Hedge Fund Profits After Doubling Bet on European Gas Options from Bloomberg.
- Three Trade Ideas FEB 29th from tastylive (video). ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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| Sponsored Content |
Russell 2000 Index Quarterly Chartbook - February 2024
The Russell 2000 Index provides live index tracking data, with historical performance dating back to January 1984. Academic and practitioner research confirms that large-cap stocks behave differently to small-cap stocks and performance is variable. There are sub-periods during which the Russell 1000 outperforms the Russell 2000 and vice versa. Quarterly performance assessments provide valuable datapoints for understanding market sentiment and US economic activity. View the report: HERE
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Rama Pillai's Path to Electronic Trading Showed He is a Good Student
JohnLothianNews.com
Rama Pillai enjoyed being a student and earned three separate degrees before deciding to come to Singapore to accept a position with SIMEX in 1991. Studying the floor-to-screen migration of other exchanges and spearheading a proactive migration plan for SGX showed that Pillai was a good student.
Watch the video »
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Futures Discovery: Physical Delivery VS Cash Settlement
JohnLothianNews.com
Today, we're delving into the fundamental aspect of futures trading-the Settlement Showdown: Physical Delivery versus Cash Settlement. In the dynamic world of futures trading, how contracts are settled is a game-changer, influencing strategies and risks alike. Join me as we explore the two primary methods that define this landscape: Physical Delivery and Cash Settlement.
Watch the video »
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The financial winners and losers of Leap Day
Jack Grieve - Crain's Chicago Business
Today is Leap Day, and as fans of the NBC sitcom "30 Rock" may tell you: real life is for March. But in the real world, Feb. 29 remains real life, and that means real work, real pay and real expenses. The quadannual event ends largely in an economic wash. As NYU Stern School of Business professor Lawrence White put it, the monetary consequences of Leap Day amount to "not a whole hell of a lot."
/jlne.ws/3UZtvFk
****** Professor White evidently did not read the story about the New Zealand gas pumps that stopped working on Leap Day due to a software glitch, a kind of Y2K thing for a day.~JJL
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Humanity loves a cup of tea. So where's the futures market? Modern day mugging
Aiden Reiter - Financial Times
To quote the avuncular, 'roided out Iroh, former Fire Nation General and tea aficionado from Avatar: The Last Airbender, "the key to wisdom and tea is proper ageing." So he would be disappointed to learn that, in our world, tea has no futures market. Commodity traders champ at the bit for the latest data on sugar harvests in Brazil, or the precipitation figures for rice-paddy laden regions of Vietnam - but can largely ignore similar signs for tea, the second most popular drink on the planet after water.
/jlne.ws/4c0mzxY
****** Just what we need, a futures market on hot brown water.~JJL
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Thursday's Top Three
Our top story Thursday was the Financial Times' Vladimir Putin warns of wider conflict over Ukraine, subtitled "Russian president makes most explicit threat to use nuclear weapons since full-scale invasion." Second was ICE and IPC Systems to launch cloud-based audio solution for traders, from The Trade. Third was Chairman Behnam to Deliver a Keynote Address and Participate in a Fireside Chat at FIA Boca 2024, from the CFTC.
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| Lead Stories | Hedge Funds Get Closer to Clearing Repo Trades Directly on Eurex
Alice Gledhill - Bloomberg
Eurex Clearing AG plans to start clearing repo trades for hedge funds directly by the middle of the year, a key step toward improving liquidity in a market that has been constrained over the years by tighter financial regulation. The firm, one of the leading global clearinghouses, aims to have hedge funds up and running on their platform "by the summer," executive board member Matthias Graulich said on the sidelines of the Derivatives Forum in Frankfurt on Thursday. The company declined to make public how many funds would be on-boarded by then.
/jlne.ws/431G4ll
Bitcoin ETF Record Gets Broken Yet Again on $612 Million Inflow; Ten Bitcoin-tied ETFs netted $673 million in Wednesday's haul; Surge in spot ETFs help spur demand for the digital asset
Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
Another day, another record across the booming world of Bitcoin ETFs - fueled by fear of missing out on the latest crypto rally. BlackRock Inc.'s iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT) netted $612 million Wednesday in its biggest one-session haul, breaking a record set just a day prior, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Altogether, the 10 new exchange-traded funds investing directly in the world's biggest cryptocurrency took in a net $673 million, even with the outflows seen by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The cash pouring into the funds handily beat their launch day record of $655 million set on Jan. 11.
/jlne.ws/431DLyE
Crypto Mania Drives Record $520 Million Into BlackRock Bitcoin ETF in a Single Day
Isabelle Lee - Bloomberg
Add this eye-popping statistic to the list of superlatives driving crypto's latest boom cycle: A record $520 million stampeded into BlackRock Inc.'s Bitcoin ETF in a single day. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (ticker IBIT) saw its biggest one-session haul Tuesday, marking the largest daily inflow so far among the batch of new US exchange-traded funds investing directly in the world's biggest cryptocurrency. It was also the second-largest daily intake for any US ETF across all asset classes, data compiled by Bloomberg show. And the trading mania continued into Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3OZQpZm
ChatGPT and Google Gemini Are Both Doomed
John Herrman - New York Magazine (opinion)
Last week, users noticed that Google's chatbot, Gemini, was pretty insistent about generating racially diverse images of people. Insistent enough, in fact, that it seemed unable to generate an image of a white pope and replied to a prompt about Nazis with figures of various races in SS uniforms. Soon, screenshots proving Gemini's "wokeness" were going viral: "It is not possible to say who definitively impacted society more, Elon tweeting memes or Hitler," one Gemini response read. It was a peripheral skirmish in a preexisting culture war promoted by people who have been making similar ideological claims about Google and "big tech" for a long time. But it was also genuinely funny and a part of the even longer tradition of making chatbots produce weird, funny, or terrible outputs. Asked for help with an ad campaign promoting meat, a concerned-sounding Gemini suggested people should eat ethical beans instead. Pretty good.
/jlne.ws/3T1YEFC
Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for breach of contract; Suit alleges start-up's deal with Microsoft broke agreement to build 'artificial general intelligence' for humanity
Madhumita Murgia and Cristina Criddle - Financial Times
Elon Musk has sued OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman for breach of contract, alleging they have compromised the start-up's original mission of building artificial intelligence systems for the benefit of humanity. In the lawsuit, filed to a San Francisco court on Thursday, Musk's lawyers wrote that OpenAI's multibillion-dollar alliance with Microsoft had broken an agreement to make a major breakthrough in AI "freely available to the public".
/jlne.ws/3v3xgPk
Britain's FCA rules out major intervention in financial data market
Sinead Cruise and Huw Jones - Reuters
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority confirmed on Thursday that it had ruled out "significant interventions" in the market for stock and bond prices, saying that stopping banks and asset managers overpaying for data "could take years". The regulator examined competition in the markets for credit ratings data from Moody's, S&P and Fitch Ratings, benchmarks and the "highly concentrated" 3.3 billion pound ($4.18 billion) data vendor services market.
/jlne.ws/3T1CZ04
UBS Agreed Up to EUR700 Million Loan for ION's Equity in Prelios
Giulia Morpurgo, Tommaso Ebhardt, Luca Casiraghi and Sonia Sirletti - Bloomberg
UBS Group AG has committed to give a loan of up to EUR700 million ($757 million) to an ION Group holding company slated to take control of Italian asset manager Prelios SpA, in an arrangement that may be extended as the fintech giant awaits a green light from the government. The UBS funds would enable ION to eventually transfer the cash as equity to the unit purchasing the Italian asset manager, people familiar with the matter said. ION could draw down a lower amount of the UBS commitment, and also use cash and alternative sources to finance the equity portion of the deal, the people said, who asked not to be named discussing private details.
/jlne.ws/48B4bZt
Former Credit Suisse wealth head leaves UBS; Exit leaves barely any senior managers from failed Swiss bank remaining at combined group
Owen Walker - Financial Times
The former head of Credit Suisse's wealth management business, Francesco de Ferrari, has become the latest executive of the fallen bank to leave UBS. Less than a year after UBS's rescue of Credit Suisse, just a handful of Credit Suisse senior managers remain at the enlarged Swiss bank, including former chief executive Ulrich Korner.
/jlne.ws/3Ip3aJ6
Trading Technologies closes on ATEO acquisition
Trading Technologies International, Inc.
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform provider, today announced that it has closed on the acquisition of ATEO SAS, a leading provider of post-trade solutions for listed derivatives, expanding TT's reach into clearing and other middle-office technologies and services. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. ATEO will operate as a global managed service hosted in TT's data centers. ATEO's post-trade allocation engine is already fully integrated into the TT order management system (OMS), providing TT OMS clients with seamless access to the functionality.
/jlne.ws/3OXCnHS
Exxon to Cut Trader Salaries in Latest Overhaul to Pay Structure
Chunzi Xu, Laura Hurst, Jack Wittels and Kevin Crowley - Bloomberg
Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to cut some traders' salaries as part of a pay overhaul that will include cash performance bonuses at the end of the year, as well as long-term incentives. The company informed traders in the US and Europe this month that base salaries would be cut to better align with industry norms, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing internal business. In some cases, the cuts could be offset by higher bonuses, said the people.
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Online Brokerage Webull Shed Crypto Exposure Ahead of SPAC Deal
Carly Wanna and Bailey Lipschultz - Bloomberg
Webull Corp.'s efforts to list in the US were hampered by the online brokerage offering cryptocurrency to its users, according to the firm's US chief executive officer, as the company prepares to go public by merging with a blank-check vehicle. The online broker platform agreed a deal with SK Growth Opportunities Corp. that gives the combined company a pro forma enterprise value of about $7.3 billion, the firms announced Wednesday. The expected listing on Nasdaq, after clearing shareholder and regulator approvals, would follow several attempts to go public via an initial public offering, according to group president and US CEO Anthony Denier.
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Ellevest Women and Wealth Survey 2024 Reveals A New Era Of Women's Financial Confidence, The "Feminization of Wealth"; The Great Wealth Transfer will make women more affluent and confident than ever, potentially reshaping American society, according to new data from the investing and wealth management company for women
Ellevest
Ellevest, the investing and wealth management company built by and for women, today released the Ellevest Women and Wealth Survey 2024: Great Wealth Transfer, revealing that while 94% of women surveyed believe their economic power is being underestimated, receiving a financial windfall increases women's confidence nearly 2 times.
/jlne.ws/49v4JBx
The Texas Wildfire Is So Big, You Can See It From Space; The largest fire in the state's history now covers nearly 1.1 million acres, and has destroyed cattle ranches.
Zahra Hirji and Krishna Karra - Bloomberg
A massive fire blazing across the Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma this week spans nearly 1.1 million acres (1,700 square miles), making it the largest fire in Texas history. The inferno, dubbed the Smokehouse Creek Fire, is so big that it's visible from space.
/jlne.ws/3P2XzvS
Ponzi scheme that tapped Harvard Business School network shut down; Vladimir Artamonov accused by New York attorney-general of targeting other alumni
Andrew Jack - Financial Times
An alleged Ponzi scheme run by a Harvard MBA who solicited money from fellow alumni of the prestigious US business school has been shut down by a New York court after collecting more than $2.9mn. New York attorney-general Letitia James said Thursday her office had secured the court order to freeze funds controlled by Vladimir Artamonov, after being alerted of the suicide of one of his clients who lost $100,000.
/jlne.ws/3V0YhO6
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | US Sanctions Are Moving Closer to Disrupting Russia's Crude Exports
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
Sanctions by the US Treasury are quietly turning up the heat on Russia's oil exports - to the point where they may soon be at risk of curtailment, writes Bloomberg oil strategist Julian Lee. Since the Treasury first started designating individual tankers back in October, a total of 40 vessels have been identified. Of those, 14 were named on Feb. 23 and the rest before then. A handful of ships are also stuck with Russia's Sokol crude grade on board.
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Russia's fear of putting its planes in danger may be the very thing getting them shot down, experts say
Sinead Baker - Business Insider
Russia's tactics for protecting its aircraft are giving Ukraine more time to shoot them down, air warfare experts told Business Insider. Ukraine has taken down a host of aircraft since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, with its success rate seemingly rising this month. On Wednesday, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence said it had taken down its 10th Russian fighter jet in just 10 days.
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Ukraine Drafts Crucial Farm Workers in Desperate Rush to Bolster Military; A new wave of mobilization poses one of the severest challenges yet for Ukraine's farmers as the country faces a third year of war.
Kateryna Chursina, Celia Bergin, Aine Quinn, Krishna Karra and Marie Patino - Bloomberg
Andrii Pastushenko has kept his farm in Kherson region operating through two years of war - including eight months of Russian occupation. Members of his staff have been injured, dozens of his 700 cows killed or wounded by active fighting, warehouses and power transformers damaged and he's barely generated a profit since the invasion started. But it's now that he's facing one of the most acute threats to his operations.
/jlne.ws/49AX1pd
Document From 2022 Reveals Putin's Punishing Terms for Peace; Draft peace deal drawn up shortly after Russia's invasion shows Ukraine was confronted with becoming a neutered state
Max Colchester - The Wall Street Journal
Russian President Vladimir Putin has in recent weeks publicly hinted that he would be open to discussions to end the war in Ukraine on Moscow's terms, as Kyiv's military momentum stalls. The outlines of a deal the Russian leader likely wants can be seen in a draft peace treaty drawn up by Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in April 2022, about six weeks after the start of the war. Western officials and analysts say those objectives remain largely unchanged after two years of fighting: Turn Ukraine into a neutered state permanently vulnerable to Russian military aggression.
/jlne.ws/4bWBvwK
Ukraine Drafts Crucial Farm Workers in Desperate Rush to Bolster Military; A new wave of mobilization poses one of the severest challenges yet for Ukraine's farmers as the country faces a third year of war.
Kateryna Chursina, Celia Bergin, Aine Quinn, Krishna Karra and Marie Patino - Bloomberg
Andrii Pastushenko has kept his farm in Kherson region operating through two years of war - including eight months of Russian occupation. Members of his staff have been injured, dozens of his 700 cows killed or wounded by active fighting, warehouses and power transformers damaged and he's barely generated a profit since the invasion started. But it's now that he's facing one of the most acute threats to his operations.
/jlne.ws/49AX1pd
2 Years After Russia's Invasion, Ukraine Needs More Than Just Our Aid. It Needs Our Attention.
Andy Oare - Military.com (opinion)
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Have western brands that stayed in Russia made the right call after all? Two years into the war, European and US consumers barely know which companies are still there and which have left
Anne-Sylvaine Chassany - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3IluqZc
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Berlin and Paris join outcry over Israel's role in Gaza aid convoy deaths; Dozens killed after crowds rush towards food and IDF troops open fire
Neri Zilber and Sam Jones - Financial Times
Germany and France on Friday expressed alarm at the deaths of dozens of Gazans seeking humanitarian aid as Israel faced an outcry over its troops opening fire close to an aid convoy. Germany, which has been a staunch ally of the Jewish state since its war with Hamas began in October, called for an explanation from Israel "as a matter of urgency" and urged a humanitarian ceasefire in the conflict, which has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza.
/jlne.ws/3UVljpF
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Fireside Friday with ... Euronext's Anthony Attia; The TRADE sat down with Anthony Attia, global head of derivatives and post-trade of Euronext, to unpack the current state of play of post-trade across Europe, including how regulators are addressing the fragmented market, key roadblocks to consolidation, and the potential for a T+1 shift across the region.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
How can Europe's fragmented post-trade environment be tackled by regulators? The current debate within the European Union on centralised supervision in the long term is strategic. Looking ahead, I think that further supervisory convergence would enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall framework.
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Euronext order entry technical issue persists, will not be resolved before close of day; "Clients are advised not to send Good Till Date orders with validity date today as they will be rejected," said Euronext.
Claudia Preece - The Trade
Euronext - cash markets and derivatives markets - is currently experiencing technical issues on its order entry GTD with validity date, with the problem not expected to be resolved before close of day. The issue, categorised as "technical" by the venue began at 9.37am CET today, 29 February, affecting the order entry service for all cash instruments and all derivatives products.
/jlne.ws/3UVn7ir
B1G Numbers February 2024: Key Figures from SIX Swiss Exchange; Watch the new "B1G Numbers" video and get first-hand information about the trading and listing activity in the past month on the Swiss stock exchange.
SIX
B1G Numbers February 2024: Key Figures from SIX Swiss Exchange; Trading volumes continued their positive development. With CHF 112,8 bn in February 2024, turnover was almost 32% higher than in February 2023. Compared to the previous month, the number of transactions remained stable, with 4,108,158, while all segments except for equities recorded an increase.
/jlne.ws/49P4ykJ
TMX Group Welcomes International Mining Community to PDAC 2024
TMX Group
TMX Group, the global exchange leader in mining, is a patron sponsor of the 2024 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's (PDAC) International Convention, being held on March 3-6, 2024, in Toronto.
/jlne.ws/48ux0Xq
Climate reporting to help companies ride the green transition
Singapore Exchange Group
All listed issuers to report from FY2025 and large non-listed companies from FY2027. The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) have provided details of mandatory climate reporting for listed issuers and large non-listed companies.
/jlne.ws/42WjT05
SIX Exchanges Figures: February 2024
BME
SIX publishes the monthly key figures for SIX Swiss Exchange and BME Exchange about the trading and listing activity in Switzerland and Spain
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CME Group Executives to Present at 2024 Raymond James Annual Institutional Investors Conference
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that Global Head of Financial & OTC Products Tim McCourt, Chief Accounting Officer Jack Tobin and Executive Director of Investor Relations Adam Minick will present at the 45th Annual Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference on Tuesday, March 5, at 8:40 a.m. (Eastern Time).
/jlne.ws/3wuNPnK
Notice of Disciplinary Action; #CME 22-1585-BC, Effective Date 29 February 2024
CME
Non-Member: Chunyu Mao. CME Rule Violation: Rule 575. Disruptive practices prohibited (in part) all orders must be entered for the purpose of executing bona fide transactions. Additionally, all non-actionable messages must be entered in good faith for legitimate purposes. Penalty: In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered Mao to pay a fine of $20,000 and serve a 30-business day suspension from access to any trading floor owned or controlled by CME Group and from direct and indirect access to any designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization or swap execution facility owned or controlled by CME Group.
/jlne.ws/3SWuHGQ
Trading Overview in February 2024
Japan Exchange Group
Japan Exchange Group released Trading Overview in February 2024. Cash Equity Market In February 2024, the daily average trading value for the Prime Market (domestic common stocks) was JPY 5.8126 trillion.The daily average trading value for the ETF market was JPY 310 billion. Derivatives Market.In February 2024, total derivatives trading volume was 34,708,506 contracts.
/jlne.ws/49UN2eh
JPX Monthly Headlines - February 2024
Japan Exchange Group
JPX group companies undertake various initiatives and disseminate information with the aim of providing the most attractive markets to all users.
Every month, we showcase the highlights of these efforts in short and concise summaries just for you.
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24 113 Policy Relating to Position Management Arrangements Update of Accountability Levels
London Metal Exchange
This Notice informs Members and other market participants of updates to the "Single Prompt Accountability Levels" and the "All Prompt Accountability Levels" for Copper, Nickel, Lead and Tin, pursuant to paragraph 58 of the Policy Relating to Position Management Arrangements (the "Policy").
/www.lme.com/en/News
Straits Times Index (STI) quarterly review
London Stock Exchange Group
One change to the constituents of the STI. FTSE Russell announces that there will be one change to the constituents of the Straits Times Index (STI), following the March 2024 quarterly review. Frasers Centrepoint Trust has been added to the STI and Emperador has been removed from the index.
/jlne.ws/3UZiiVm
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Exegy adds intraday data to iceberg order detection tool; New addition will deliver summary files every 10 minutes, offering traders visibility of iceberg orders throughout the day to make better informed, data-driven decisions.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Trading infrastructure provider Exegy has added intraday signals to its AI-powered iceberg order detection offering, Liquidity Lamp. The development will offer quantitative traders visibility on the volume of iceberg orders throughout the day using summary files delivered every 10 minutes.
/jlne.ws/431iw0f
Clearwater Analytics Selected by T. Rowe Price to Power Stable Value Investment Operations; Clearwater Brings Best-In-Class Solution to Stable Value Fund Holders
Clearwater Analytics
Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN), a leading provider of SaaS-based investment management, accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, today announced its Clearwater for Stable Value solution has been selected by T. Rowe Price to support the global investment management firm's growing stable value fund business.
/jlne.ws/3SWcOrJ
Column: They say San Francisco is coming back as a tech hub, but it never really left
Michael Hiltzik - LA Times
Michael Suswal's first eye-opening encounter with the vibrancy of San Francisco came in 2017. That's when he and his fellow co-founders of Standard AI, an artificial intelligence startup funded by the incubator Y Combinator, moved from New York to San Francisco for the summer. "Initially we planned on going back to New York," says Suswal, 44. "But after living in the Bay Area for two or three months, between us we had way more network contacts than we had had in our combined 50 years living in New York."
/jlne.ws/4307cBo
Analysis-Wall Street hunts for more AI gold after Nvidia's soaring rally
Lewis Krauskopf - Reuters
Money managers are scrambling to cash in on the stock market's interest in artificial intelligence, as a stunning rally by Nvidia sparks a search for other companies that are capitalizing on the technology. Shares of Nvidia - whose chips are the gold standard in the AI industry - are up about 60% this year after tripling in 2023. The run has pushed its market value to roughly $2 trillion, making it the third-largest U.S. company by market cap after Microsoft and Apple.
/jlne.ws/43fNvG1
AMD's Market Value Tops $300 Billion on Wave of AI-Fueled Rally
Ryan Vlastelica - Bloomberg
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shares jumped Thursday, with the chipmaker extending a surge to hit its latest in a series of fresh records this year. The stock rose 9.1%, a climb that resulted in the company's market capitalization closing above $300 billion for the first time. Shares have more than doubled off an October low. The company is seen as one of the primary beneficiaries of artificial intelligence, and last month, optimism about new AI processors helped AMD shares recover from a weak forecast.
/jlne.ws/3UUDRq1
Alphabet Faces 'Clear and Present Danger' of Falling Short in AI; Errors with AI responses have contributed to stock weakness; The problems have overshadowed its growth and lower valuation
Jeran Wittenstein and Ryan Vlastelica - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3IihmUo
Elon Musk Sues OpenAI, Altman for Breaching Firm's Founding Mission; Suit says OpenAI puts profit ahead of benefiting humanity; Musk is raising money for a competing venture called xAI
Saritha Rai - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/48wAdG5
Merrill and Wells Fargo are taking Bitcoin ETFs even more mainstream
Lloyd Lee - Business Insider
/jlne.ws/42XFsgy
Alibaba Triggers Price War in Cloud Computing With Steep Cuts; JD.com took less than a day to respond to Alibaba's move; The cloud is emerging as a key AI battlefront in China
Jane Zhang - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3P1VQXV
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Businesses foresee major impact from new SEC cybersecurity disclosure rules
Help Net Security
While 98% of security professionals and executives have started working to comply with the new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cybersecurity disclosure ruling, over one-third are still in the early phases of their efforts, according to AuditBoard. 81% of respondents say the new SEC cybersecurity disclosure ruling will substantially impact their business. 54% of those, however, report being highly confident in their organization's ability to comply with the disclosure ruling.
/jlne.ws/49zkuHy
Industry Reactions to NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: Feedback Friday; Industry professionals comment on the official release of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0.
Eduard Kovacs - SecurityWeek
NIST this week announced the release of version 2.0 of its Cybersecurity Framework (CSF). This is the first major update to the CSF since its creation a decade ago. The cybersecurity framework was originally created for critical infrastructure organizations, but CSF 2.0 is designed to help all organizations reduce risks, regardless of sector, size, or level of security sophistication. For Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, NIST expanded the core guidance and created additional resources to help organizations use the CSF to its full potential.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | SEC in 'Enforcement-Only Mode' for Crypto, Commissioner Peirce Says at ETHDenver
Danny Nelson - CoinDesk
U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce said the top U.S. investment watchdog is in an "enforcement-only mode" when it comes to crypto, underscoring the uphill battle the industry faces against a litigious SEC. Speaking at ETHDenver Thursday, Peirce, the most crypto-friendly of the SEC's five commissioners, bemoaned that a regulator needed to attend the annual gathering of crypto developers, investors and marketers focused on Ethereum, the number two blockchain behind bitcoin.
/jlne.ws/3TgHipQ
Scaramucci's SkyBridge Jumps 16% This Year as Bitcoin Rallies; Scaramucci expects Bitcoin to double over the next 18 months; About a third of SkyBridge's $2.4 billion assets are in crypto
Abeer Abu Omar - Bloomberg
Anthony Scaramucci's hedge fund, SkyBridge Capital, has returned 16% so far this year amid a rally in Bitcoin. "Our coin business, which is our digital asset business, is up about 35% and so we're having a very strong start to the year," Scaramucci said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Abu Dhabi. "Our asset base has gone up 40% over 14 months." Scaramucci's comments came on Wednesday, when Bitcoin was hovering below $60,000. The token has since rallied further and prices are closing on an all-time high.
/jlne.ws/3Ih0ai4
Bitcoin ETFs and Crypto Separately Managed Accounts: What RIAs Need to Know
Nathan McCauley - CoinDesk
The recent approval by the SEC of spot Bitcoin ETFs was nothing short of historic, offering a new avenue for safe and compliant access to the largest cryptocurrency. Since January 10, there have been over $10 billion in inflows, helping drive a favorable outlook for Bitcoin and the broader market. For retail investors especially, spot Bitcoin ETFs simplify access to Bitcoin backed by secure custody while removing the complexity of managing private keys themselves. With rising interest in crypto, Bitcoin ETFs raise new questions for institutions managing client assets: How should we meet client demand for digital asset exposure? What investment vehicles are best?
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Grayscale lobbies SEC to approve options on spot bitcoin ETFs
Hannah Lang - Reuters
Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments is urging the U.S. securities regulator to greenlight options on its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, a move that would open the product to a new class of investors. In a letter sent Wednesday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein said an SEC rejection of options on its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust would "unfairly discriminate" against its shareholders, noting that the regulator has previously approved options on ETFs tied to bitcoin futures.
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Architect of Trump's social media deal sues to block transaction
Tom Hals - Reuters
A former executive of the blank-check acquisition vehicle that plans to take Donald Trump's social media company public sued to block the deal until he obtained a larger payout, according to a lawsuit docketed on Thursday in Delaware. ARC Global Investments II, which is controlled by Patrick Orlando, said it was being short-changed the amount of stock it should receive in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) once it merged with the former president's Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (TMTG).
/jlne.ws/49LlyYy
Biden Seeks Plan to Tap Russian Assets for Ukraine by G-7 Summit; US president wants to see progress by the June summit in Italy; Biden doesn't think use of frozen funds replaces need for aid
Alberto Nardelli, Jennifer Jacobs, and Viktoria Dendrinou - Bloomberg
US President Joe Biden wants the Group of Seven nations to make progress on plans to tap frozen Russian sovereign assets to help support Ukraine by the time the leaders meet in June, according to people familiar with the matter. G-7 officials have been discussing options to use the $280 billion of immobilized Russian Central Bank assets, including using the money as collateral to raise debt or issuing guarantees against the frozen funds, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
/jlne.ws/3P2Y6hm
Yellen Says Russia Assets Are No Substitute for Ukraine Aid; Biden wants G-7 progress on the frozen assets issue by June; European officials raise concerns about seizing Russian funds
Viktoria Dendrinou - Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said any plan to seize or monetize some $282 billion in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine cannot be viewed as a replacement for urgently needed assistance for the embattled country that's been held up in Congress. "I don't see a real substitute for Congress providing Ukraine the aid it needs this year," Yellen said in an interview Thursday in Sao Paulo. "I don't think anyone can fill that gap."
/jlne.ws/3IlAJfc
Climate Takes a Back Seat in High-Profile California Primary Campaigns. One Candidate Aims to Change That
Liza Gross - Inside Climate News
You've probably never heard of Joby Bernstein. Judging by the polls, many in the Silicon Valley district he's running in haven't heard of the 28-year-old Stanford University student either. Bernstein's campaign is flying beneath the radar-just like the climate crisis he considers an existential threat to future generations. For a state distinguished by passing ambitious measures to combat global warming, the issue has been conspicuously absent from its high-profile races.
/jlne.ws/3V1vZ6e
Elizabeth Warren's Tax Guru Makes Case at G-20 to Soak Global Billionaires; French economist Zucman invited to pitch plan at Brazil summit; Brazil seeks to get debate going on worldwide wealth charges
Andrew Rosati and Maria Eloisa Capurro - Bloomberg
Brazil wants billionaires to pay more in the global fight against poverty. To sell the idea, it's enlisting a French economist famous for tracking down where the world's ultra-rich hide their money. Gabriel Zucman, an assistant professor at University of California Berkeley, is promoting a proposal for a global minimum wealth tax to the finance chiefs gathered in Sao Paulo for the G-20 this week. His Thursday presentation is part of Brazil's campaign to ensure the summit doesn't get derailed by arguments about war and great-power politics - and makes progress on tackling problems like inequality and climate change too.
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Bankrupt Lordstown Motors to Pay $26 Million to Settle SEC Probe; Regulator alleges that automaker misstated demand for EV truck; Ohio-based automaker filed for bankruptcy in June 2023
Austin Weinstein - Bloomberg
Bankrupt electric vehicle manufacturer Lordstown Motors Corp. agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the firm exaggerated the demand for its electric pickup truck. The automaker made misleading statements about its pre-orders for the truck, called the Endurance, and misrepresented how quickly it could deliver the trucks, according to the SEC. The firm rose to prominence after former US President Donald Trump hailed it for saving auto-maker jobs.
/jlne.ws/3SWrYxi
Do Not Believe Bank Lobbyists' Fearmongering About Basel III
Mayra Rodriguez Valladares - Forbes
Not a day goes by that a bank lobbyist or bank executive is unduly criticizing important bank regulations called Basel III and now referred to as Basel III endgame. These rules are intended to make the banking system safer and to avoid taxpayer bailouts. In fact, the number of bank lobbyists is at its highest level since the financial crisis according to a Reuters analysis of Open Secrets data.
/jlne.ws/3USP6PM
SEC Charges Lordstown Motors with Misleading Investors about Company's Flagship Electric Vehicle; Company's former auditor charged with violating auditor independence standards
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Lordstown Motors Corp. with misleading investors about the sales prospects of Lordstown's flagship electric pickup truck, the Endurance. Lordstown, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023, went public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2020.
/jlne.ws/3T28pn0
SEC Investor Advisory Committee to Discuss Proposals to Improve Equity Market Structure and Examine the Use of Materiality as a Disclosure Standard
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on March 7 at 10 a.m. ET at the SEC Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The meeting will also be webcast on the SEC website.
/jlne.ws/3T1GkME
Court Enters Final Judgment Against Wisconsin Investment Adviser For Defrauding Seniors
SEC
On February 28, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin entered a final judgment against Anthony B. Liddle, formerly of Wausau, Wisconsin. Liddle operated Prosper Wealth Management, LLC, an investment adviser formerly registered with the State of Wisconsin.
/jlne.ws/4bWTDqo
3-month synthetic sterling LIBOR - 1 month to go
FCA
FCA issues final message before the end-March 2024 deadline and a reminder of the expected cessation of US dollar synthetic LIBOR at end-September 2024. It is now 1 month until the 3-month synthetic sterling LIBOR setting ceases permanently on 28 March 2024. This is the last remaining synthetic sterling LIBOR setting, and its end marks another critical milestone in the transition away from LIBOR.
/jlne.ws/3uWnTRF
ASIC disqualifies NSW director for maximum five years after failure of seven companies
ASIC
ASIC has disqualified Alaa El Hassan of Sydney, New South Wales, from managing corporations for 5 years due to his involvement in the failure of seven companies that went into liquidation during 2018 and 2019. Mr Hassan was a director of seven companies which operated across a variety of industries including the hospitality, construction, cleaning and electrical industries:
/jlne.ws/49z85Dg
ASIC seeks orders to wind up Prospero Markets Pty Ltd
ASIC
ASIC has applied to the Federal Court to wind up retail OTC derivative issuer Prospero Markets Pty Ltd (Prospero) on just and equitable grounds. ASIC commenced its investigation into Prospero following the Australian Federal Police's Operation Avarus-Nightwolf which resulted in former officers and responsible managers of Prospero being charged with money-laundering offences in October 2023 relating to the Changjiang Currency Exchange money remitting chain.
/jlne.ws/42VZ44R
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | ADM Delays Annual Report as It Warns on Internal Accounting
Simon Casey - Bloomberg
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., the US agricultural trader, said it has delayed the publication of its annual report and warned that it anticipates reporting a "material weakness" in the company's internal financial reporting practices. The brief update is the first from ADM since it stunned investors and the commodities trading world in January with the announcement that it was placing Chief Financial Officer Vikram Luthar on administrative leave pending an internal probe. The US Attorney's Office in Manhattan has launched an investigation into the accounting practices, people familiar with the matter said last month.
/jlne.ws/3uSwTXS
Home-Buying Dreams Dashed for Typical US Family Since 2020
Alex Tanzi - Bloomberg
The income needed to comfortably afford a home in the US has leapt 80% since 2020, far exceeding a 23% increase in median income over the same period, according to a post on Thursday by Zillow. The real estate website found home buyers today need to make more than $106,000 a year, up $47,000 from 2020, a change driven largely by higher prices and borrowing costs. "Housing costs have soared over the past four years as drastic hikes in home prices, mortgage rates and rent growth far outpaced wage gains," said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow.
/jlne.ws/49AdfiD
China Quants Making Big Cap Bets Weather Stock Turmoil
Justina Lee - Bloomberg
A group of systematic investors betting on large Chinese companies has emerged largely unscathed from this year's "quant quake" that's sparked turmoil in the stock market and a crackdown by regulators. Rules-based funds investing in large stocks have weathered the equity storm as blue-chip companies outperformed on haven demand and buying by state funds. In one lens into the opaque world of quantitative trading, a Bloomberg-compiled portfolio that makes long and short bets on Chinese large caps has gained about 11% this year through Thursday, after posting the best month since 2014 in January.
/jlne.ws/48z5w2R
Your Stock-Market FOMO Is Rational; Despite high valuations and AI exuberance fears, history suggests that being uninvested when rates start falling would be a bad idea
Jon Sindreu - The Wall Street Journal
If you have fear of missing out-or FOMO-when deciding whether to invest in stocks, it is because you might indeed miss out. It is hard to shake the feeling that the market might be a bit frothy. Even as central bankers rein in expectations for rate cuts, investors have embraced bets on generative artificial intelligence. The Nasdaq closed at a high Thursday, finally rising above the previous peak recorded on Nov. 19, 2021.
/jlne.ws/3Vik6ZR
Once a Hot Stock-Market Trend Has a Name, Its Best Days Are Likely Past; Still, new research finds that for named trends such as FAANG and the Magnificent Seven, market-beating returns can last for about a year
Derek Horstmeyer - The Wall Street Journal
Once a stock-market trend has been identified and named-think FAANG or the Magnificent Seven-the headiest gains are typically past. But riding a trend after it has been named can deliver market-beating returns for another year or so before the trade loses momentum and gives back some of the gains. To study the performance of named stock-market trends, my research assistants (Matthew Rickard and Camila MarÃn Builes) and I did a deep-dive on eight named trends over the past 10 years that were popularized by the mainstream media and covered by more than three such organizations.
/jlne.ws/49xXI2R
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | World-first carbon border tax shows teething problems; Few companies comply with reporting deadlines on CO2-heavy imports
Alice Hancock - Financial Times
A small fraction of European companies have complied with an early reporting deadline on their carbon-intensive imports, underlining the challenge of EU efforts to tax Co2 heavy products entering the bloc from 2026. The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is the world-first effort to introduce a tax on carbon-intensive imports to prevent a flood of cheap imports from countries with highly polluting industries from undercutting the bloc's heavy industries, which are subject to strict climate regulation and have to pay for greenhouse gas pollution under the bloc's emissions trading system.
/jlne.ws/4bRlQz3
Emissions reach record high despite growth in clean energy, IEA says; Advanced economies break link between growth and carbon pollution but developing economies remain dependent
Rachel Millard - Financial Times
The world's carbon dioxide emissions from energy rose yet again to a new high in 2023 despite fossil fuel use falling in the advanced economies of the EU and US, the latest International Energy Agency report shows. Emissions reached a record 37.4bn tonnes as droughts and rising energy demand pushed up fossil fuel use, a rise of 1.1 per cent, or 410mn tonnes, compared to the year before.
/jlne.ws/49QLFxd
US Firms Cut Emissions Most When Government Subsidizes Solutions
Akshat Rathi - Bloomberg
Would the US still be committed to climate action if Donald Trump becomes president again? The most common answer - from climate diplomats to renewable CEOs - is companies will take the baton and continue to pursue a cleaner energy transition as they did during Trump's first term. Yet a new research study finds this view doesn't give enough credit to how much US companies still depend on the financial incentives that governments provide to make carbon-cutting solutions cheaper.
/jlne.ws/3IkSpI0
Climate finance: UK accused of 'moving goalposts' to meet £11.6bn pledge
Sidhi Mittal - edie
The UK's aid watchdog is accusing the Government of modifying the calculation methods for its international climate finance (ICF) targets, potentially allowing more spending to be classified as ICF without increasing the actual amounts reaching countries in need. During COP15 in 2009, the UK pledged to allocate a minimum of £5.8bn in ICF by 2020-21, which was subsequently doubled in 2019 to at least £11.6bn over the following five years until 2025-26. It forms part of a collective commitment from wealthy nations to deliver $100bn of annual climate finance to the Global South.
/jlne.ws/431IBfl
Insight: Inside a copper output plunge at No. 1 global producer Codelco
Fabian Cambero and Alexander Villegas - Reuters
Beneath the world's largest open-pit copper mine in Chile lies a tunnel complex filled with dust so dense that machines frequently break down and workers can't operate without spacesuit-like helmets. Conveyer belts often stall and have caused at least one fire. Construction mistakes have led to collapses and two large electromagnets designed to clear damaging objects haven't been functional in four years.
/jlne.ws/3P3UFqC
Unilever launches UK regenerative agriculture programme for mustard and mint farmers
Matt Mace - edie
/jlne.ws/49AYYlA
Tesla must face race bias class action by 6,000 Black US workers
Daniel Wiessner - Reuters
/jlne.ws/431pwKq
Texas battles second-largest wildfire in US history; Blazes driven by strong winds and unseasonably dry and warm conditions
Myles McCormick and Kenza Bryan - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3TiwlnC
What It's Like to Live in the Most Polluted Place on Earth
Antony Sguazzin - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/49AN3UV
Starbucks union seeks national template for US bargaining
Waylon Cunningham and Daniel Wiessner - Reuters
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Citadel Securities Hires Millennium's Kotecha as APAC Head
Lulu Yilun Chen and David Ramli - Bloomberg
Citadel Securities LLC has hired Millennium Management LLC's Vikesh Kotecha as its Asia-Pacific head, as the market-making firm expands its business in the region. Kotecha will start later this year and be based in Hong Kong, the Miami-based company said in a statement on Thursday. He will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Peng Zhao.
/jlne.ws/3SXEkVK
SNB Chief Jordan to Exit After Decade of Currency and Bank Drama
Bastian Benrath and Craig Stirling - Bloomberg
Thomas Jordan will leave the Swiss National Bank later this year after more than a decade as president, ending an era where his institution was at the heart of currency and banking turmoil that rippled around the world. Switzerland's longest-serving central bank chief, the 61-year-old native of Biel in the country's northwest will step down in September. An SNB spokesperson declined to comment on who could succeed Jordan; given past practice, Vice President Martin Schlegel is a likely candidate.
/jlne.ws/49TSgXL
TD Bank Earnings Beat Estimates on Strength in Capital Markets Unit
Christine Dobby - Bloomberg
Toronto-Dominion Bank beat analysts' estimates on an increase in revenue driven by strength in both its capital-markets unit and growth in loans and deposits in the lender's domestic retail business. The lender earned C$2 a share on an adjusted basis in the fiscal first quarter, it said in a statement Thursday, ahead of the C$1.94 average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. It reported total revenue of C$13.7 billion ($10.1 billion) for the three months through January, beating forecasts of C$12.2 billion.
/jlne.ws/3P5KYZ4
US Hedge Fund Profits After Doubling Bet on European Gas Options
Priscila Azevedo Rocha - Bloomberg
A US hedge fund specializing in natural gas profited from an unusually large bet that volatility would ease in Europe, showing the growth of the options market after banks and hedge funds piled in following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Miami-based Statar Capital LLC doubled its EUR350 million investment buying EUR50 put options in early November, according to a people familiar with the situation who asked not to be named because the matter is private. The fund closed the position throughout February in line with declining prices in the region that have also led to lower volatility. The profit has led traders to call it 'the trade of the year'.
/jlne.ws/49PsCDo
Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley to Step Down; The low-cost fund manager's assets grew more than 80% to $9 trillion during his tenure
Jack Pitcher - The Wall Street Journal
Vanguard Group Chief Executive Mortimer J. "Tim" Buckley will retire by year-end, the company said Thursday, capping a six-year tenure during which the investment manager's assets increased more than 80%. Buckley was tasked with expanding a firm that was already a behemoth when he took over in 2018. Now with $9 trillion in assets under management, Vanguard is the second-largest money manager in the world after BlackRock. It has largely built itself by offering some of the lowest-cost funds in the industry.
/jlne.ws/48A0Wl6
ETF industry observers advise caution when adjusting portfolios; Global elections, regional conflicts and sky-high US equity prices might test the patience of investors this year
Emma Boyde - Financial Times
Passive investors whose ethos is to try to take very long-term views on their portfolio construction face some hard choices. This year, a record number of people globally will go to the polls, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East show no signs of abating and on a purely technical basis investors have to ask themselves whether the US market, which tends to have a heavy weighting in many portfolios, can continue to trade at record highs.
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | One Reason Hybrid Work Makes Employees Miserable; And how to fix it
Cal Newport - The Atlantic
If you ask Americans with a desk job what they want, many say flexibility. Specifically, they want control over where that desk is located and when they work at it. Luckily for them, the American workplace is by some measures more flexible than ever before. About half of U.S. workers have "remote-capable" jobs. And Gallup data suggest that a majority of those jobs are now hybrid, meaning that employees can split time between home and the office. Despite this greater flexibility, however, surveys from last year found that Americans were more stressed and less satisfied with their job than they were during the worst of the pandemic.
/jlne.ws/48DGRdE
Does a 4-day workweek work? Companies share results after 1 year; 61 companies opted to participate in a four-day week pilot study in the U.K.
Leah Sarnoff - ABC News
Do fewer working hours boost a company's overall productivity? A recent study out of the United Kingdom suggests the four-day workweek model benefits businesses and employees alike. One year after 61 U.K. companies opted to participate in a four-day week pilot study, 89% of the companies continued to keep the structure in place. More efficiency, happier employees and lower turnover rates are among the positive results found by the study, announced this week.
/jlne.ws/3uPK38b
9 Statistics That Prove Return to Office Mandates Don't Work
Adam Rowe - Tech.co
Last August, reports surfaced of the internal response that SVP of Amazon Video and Studios Mike Hopkins gave when asked about the reasoning behind Amazon's huge push for a return to the office following years of remote and hybrid work. As Hopkins put it, he had "no data either way" to justify the unpopular decision. Perhaps if Hopkins had looked a little closer at all the surveys, studies, and government data that have emerged across the past few years, he would have found that missing data - data that indicates Amazon's choice was the wrong one all along.
/jlne.ws/3IEm5QF
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Older U.S. adults should get another COVID-19 shot, health officials recommend
The Associated Press
Older U.S. adults should roll up their sleeves for another COVID-19 shot, even if they got a booster in the fall, U.S. health officials said Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans 65 and older should get another dose of the updated vaccine that became available in September - if at least four months has passed since their last shot. In making the recommendation, the agency endorsed guidance proposed by an expert advisory panel earlier in the day.
/jlne.ws/3V0Xtc2
A large US health care tech company was hacked. It's leading to billing delays and security concerns
Devna Bose - Associated Press
Health care providers across the country are reeling from a cyberattack on a massive U.S. health care technology company that has threatened the security of patients' information and is delaying some prescriptions and paychecks for medical workers. The hack could also disrupt discharging people from the hospital, a major hospital association said. Change Healthcare announced Thursday that a ransomware group that had claimed responsibility for the attack was at fault. Change Healthcare also said it is assessing the impact of the attack, which it first acknowledged on Feb. 21 and has affected billing and care-authorization portals across the country.
/jlne.ws/3wIR1My
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | India Looks Elsewhere for Oil as US Sanctions Crimp Russia Trade
Rakesh Sharma and Sudhi Ranjan Sen - Bloomberg
Tightening enforcement of US sanctions is denting India's oil trade with Russia, forcing processors to consider other supplies, according to refinery executives familiar with the matter. Russia is still the dominant supplier to India, but there are signs refiners are buying more from elsewhere. Overall imports from Saudi Arabia are 22% higher this month than January, with the biggest private refiner - Reliance Industries Ltd. - taking its highest volume since May 2020, according to Kpler.
/jlne.ws/3IiBtlh
Nickel May See Deficit on Indonesia Hurdles, Macquarie Warns
Eddie Spence - Bloomberg
The global nickel market could swing to a surprise deficit this year if growth in Indonesian output is constrained by slow mining permit approvals, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. While the bank's base case is for a surplus of less than 40,000 tons, that may be in jeopardy if Jakarta's approvals are slow and full-year growth in local production dips below 13%, analysts including Jim Lennon said in a note. "This is a major change from our recent forecasts," they wrote.
/jlne.ws/3wIGu40
Liquidity Trap Looms for China as Funding Looks Cheap Everywhere
Iris Ouyang - Bloomberg
Funding costs are sliding across Chinese markets as Beijing attempts to revive consumer and business spending to stave off deflation pressures. Yields on benchmark government bonds have dropped to the lowest since 2002, while policy-sensitive short-term interest rate swaps are close to levels last seen during the pandemic in 2020.
/jlne.ws/49xTKa9
Owners of Indonesian Palm Oil Producer ANJ Consider Sale, Sources
Elffie Chew - Bloomberg
The two main owners of PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya are considering selling their stakes in the palm-oil producer and seeking a valuation of $400 million to $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Financial advisers have been asked to submit proposals for the possible sale of the Jakarta-listed company known as ANJ, the people said, asking not to be named as the matter is private.
/jlne.ws/3v36KWl
Egypt Gets First of UAE Payments After $35 Billion Land Deal
Tarek El-Tablawy and Mirette Magdy - Bloomberg
Egypt has received the first transfers from the $35 billion in funds pledged by the United Arab Emirates, a massive package of financing that brings closer a currency devaluation and should unlock more international assistance. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said some of the UAE money has been deposited in Egypt's central bank and additional installments are expected on Friday. This reflects "clear" assistance and support on the part of the Gulf state, he said during a televised event on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/48E2Dhp
Chile's Codelco says 85% of energy supply will be renewable by 2026
Reuters
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