| January 27, 2025 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The launch of DeepSeek, a groundbreaking AI chatbot developed by a start-up in Hangzhou, China, has triggered a global market panic, sending tech stocks plummeting and wiping out an estimated $1.2 trillion in value, The Telegraph reported. DeepSeek's ability to rival Western AI competitors at a fraction of the cost-just $5.6 million compared to the billions spent by U.S. tech giants-has sent shockwaves through the industry. The Nasdaq dropped over 3% in premarket trading, while Nvidia's shares fell more than 12%, potentially erasing $400 billion from its market value. The Japanese conglomerate SoftBank also suffered an 8% decline following its announcement as a key investor in a $500 billion U.S. AI infrastructure project spearheaded by Donald Trump.
DeepSeek's efficiency and cost-effectiveness, praised by analysts like William Beavington of Jefferies, highlight its disruptive potential. The app, which quickly topped Apple's download charts, performs tasks similar to its Western counterparts, such as writing lyrics, creating recipes, and aiding in personal development plans. Industry figures like the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen have likened its debut to "AI's Sputnik moment," signaling a competitive shift in the global AI landscape and a wake-up call for the U.S. tech industry.
The Wall Street Journal has a story about the Chinese AI company titled "Silicon Valley Is Raving About a Made-in-China AI Model" with the subheadline "DeepSeek is called 'amazing and impressive' despite working with less-advanced chips." A couple of related Bloomberg stories are What Is China's DeepSeek and Why Is It Freaking Out the AI World? and DeepSeek Is a Blow to the Case for Buying Big US Tech. The Financial Times chimed in with a story titled "Advances by China's DeepSeek sow doubts about AI spending" with the subheadline "Start-up's model raises questions about need for huge western hardware investment." Toby Nangle of the FT also offered this observation, "DeepSeek sell-off shows the risks of a concentrated US stock market," with the subheadline "Should investors turn to equally weighted index products?"
In a fascinating story in The Wall Street Journal excerpting Bill Gates' new memoir, "Bill Gates: I Coded While I Hiked as a Teenager. Was I on the Spectrum? Probably," Gates traces the roots of his entrepreneurial journey back to his teenage years, when hiking adventures with Boy Scouts fostered his love of exploration and independence. Alongside friends like Mike and Rocky, he embarked on challenging expeditions through the Pacific Northwest, honing decision-making skills and a sense of autonomy. Simultaneously, at Lakeside School, Gates and classmates including Paul Allen accessed an early computer, sparking their passion for programming. Gates found parallels between coding and hiking, as both required persistence, creativity, and self-reliance. His time spent developing lean, efficient code during hikes laid the groundwork for his future endeavors.
This dual exposure to camaraderie in the wilderness and the intellectual thrill of computing set the stage for Gates' later achievements. By college, his ability to innovate and lead culminated in the creation of Microsoft with Paul Allen, where early coding projects evolved into software that revolutionized the tech world. Gates credits his parents' support and their nuanced understanding of his neurodivergence for enabling him to navigate this unique path, blending curiosity, ambition, and a sense of responsibility into his legacy.
The Financial Times' FTfm: Fixed Income special report examines how Donald Trump's presidency and broader economic trends are influencing fixed income markets. Fund managers remain optimistic about US high-yield bonds, though some warn of overheating in certain areas. Navigating the volatility of US Treasuries under Trump's policies has become a key focus for investors, as these traditionally safe assets are now viewed as riskier bets. Emerging markets, such as Mexico and Malaysia, are bracing for challenges as Trump's trade policies push up the cost of dollar-denominated debt. Meanwhile, the "barbell" effect is disrupting traditional bond funds, with cheaper passive funds and alternative assets rising in popularity, echoing trends seen in equity markets. Despite warnings from China's central bank about risks in its bond market, global investors remain confident that systemic financial disruptions are unlikely. Lastly, lower inflation makes gilts an appealing choice for investors, offering predictable and steady income streams.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) will host the 27th Annual AFM Conference on February 13-14, marking a return to the African continent for Association of Futures Markets members and partners. This event brings together global exchanges, clearinghouses, consultants, IT vendors, and other key stakeholders, continuing its tradition of fostering collaboration and innovation in the financial markets. Register HERE.
Here are the headlines from in front of FOW's paywall from some recent stories: ICE Futures Abu Dhabi to launch equity derivatives in February, CME launches new Bitcoin futures, weekly gas futures - FOW Data, ANALYSIS: Bursa Malaysia confirms leadership change amid derivatives push, Equity derivatives volatility to remain 'nuanced' under Trump - Saxo, ANALYSIS: ICE and Eurex eye new European long bond futures and ANALYSIS: Deribit sees untapped pools of institutional flow after record year.
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:
- Bitcoin Braces for $7.8B Options Expiry as Market Volatility Looms from Yahoo Finance.
- FLASH FRIDAY: Andy Lowenthal, Travelin' Man from Traders Magazine.
- CFTC Names Whistleblower Director Brian Young as Acting Enforcement Chief from The Wall Street Journal. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Japan's Single Stock Options Markets Primed for Revitalization after Regulatory Improvements
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 CQG Expands Global Footprint with MIAX Onyx Launch, AI-Powered Trading, and South American Growth Initiatives JohnLothianNews.com CQG is gearing up for the launch of the Miami Futures Exchange (formerly MGEX) launch in early 2025 of its Onyx platform, which CQG lent some expertise to help them develop, Alli Brennan, managing director, head of the Americas & EMEA told John Lothian News in an interview at FIA EXPO in November. Brennan was interviewed alongside CQG Vice President of Execution Technology Kevin Darby. Watch the video »
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Prediction market Kalshi enters sports betting ahead of Super Bowl, days after naming Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor
Stuart Dyos - Fortune
Kalshi announced its entry into sports betting, allowing users to place bets in all 50 states, with the Super Bowl just two weeks away. The move came days after naming Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor. The prediction market Kalshi, which became famous for letting people make bets on the U.S. presidential election, is expanding into sports.
/jlne.ws/4halW6P
***** This is just like a big game of Whack-A-Mole!~JJL
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SEC-CFTC Merger Sounds Like a Win for DOGE. Don't Be Fooled; The two agencies have multiple goals, which necessitates complex organizations.
Aaron Brown - Bloomberg
A proposal to merge the two big financial regulators is back on the table as President Donald Trump's newly appointed Department of Government Efficiency looks to trim the federal bureaucracy. This is a bad idea, but to see that we have to step back a bit. Everyone wants to cut waste and corruption, and to make government more efficient. But that's hard work. Attempts often backfire, creating new red tape and getting in the way of people doing their jobs.
/jlne.ws/4hvD8Um
****** With any merger, there is a winner, usually the dominant party. That would be the SEC. The U.S. futures industry has no interest in having the SEC regulate it.~JJL
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The Maga vision of corporate life will struggle; Davos shows how many companies are convinced diversity and environmental measures make financial sense
Pilita Clark - Financial Times
Last Monday, as the newly sworn-in President Donald Trump announced the US government would now only recognise two genders, male and female, a triumph of corporate diversity was being applauded, loudly, in Davos. It was directed at a boss who had just told an event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum about a transgender employee who had long dreamt of adopting a baby girl and buying a house for her mother.
/jlne.ws/4jyTVYs
*****According to one reading of President Trump's executive order on gender, he is now the first female president of the United States. See this story in The Guardian for details on that interpretation.
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday, by a long way, was Wall Street Enters Darker Age With Most Stock Trading Hidden, from Bloomberg. Second was the Unopposed Motion For Leave to File Supplemental Appendix to Defendants' Motion For Summary Judgment in the case of Sheldon Langer et al. vs. CME Group and the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. Third was FLASH FRIDAY: Andy Lowenthal, Travelin' Man, from Traders Magazine.
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| Lead Stories | How Chinese A.I. Start-Up DeepSeek Is Competing With Silicon Valley Giants; The company built a cheaper, competitive chatbot with fewer high-end computer chips than U.S. behemoths like Google and OpenAI, showing the limits of chip export control.
Cade Metz and Meaghan Tobin - The New York Times
The day after Christmas, a small Chinese start-up called DeepSeek unveiled a new A.I. system that could match the capabilities of cutting-edge chatbots from companies like OpenAI and Google. That alone would have been a milestone. But the team behind the system, called DeepSeek-V3, described an even bigger step. In a research paper explaining how they built the technology, DeepSeek's engineers said they used only a fraction of the highly specialized computer chips that leading A.I. companies relied on to train their systems.
/jlne.ws/4axZEcO
Trump Seizes Wartime Powers in Battle for More Fossil Fuels; Obscure laws to be marshaled to build pipelines, power plants; 'God Squad' to weigh projects that threaten endangered species
Jennifer A Dlouhy and Ari Natter - Bloomberg
President Donald Trump's declaration of an energy emergency opens the door to wield sweeping Cold War-era powers and little-known authorities to fast track pipelines, expand power grids and save struggling coal plants. By invoking the country's national and economic security, the plan lays the foundation for energy projects to move forward with unprecedented speed - even if it involves encroaching on habitat for endangered species or tapping powers usually reserved for wartime.
/jlne.ws/4haGVXo
UK Set to Make T+1 Switch in 2027 in Tandem With Europe; The US, Canada and others made the switch in May last year; UK taskforce chair urges firms to work on automation now
Greg Ritchie - Bloomberg
The taskforce spearheading the UK's shift to a faster trading regime is recommending the same transition date as the European Union, teeing up a coordinated move favored by the finance industry. The UK should switch to a one-day settlement cycle known as T+1 on Oct. 11 2027, according to Andrew Douglas, chair of the government-appointed team advising on the transition. That's the same date that the European Securities and Markets Authority has recommended, though formal political approval is still required in both jurisdictions.
/jlne.ws/3Wztd8i
Trump's Crypto Venture Divides the Industry He Aims to Support; The president's promotion of a speculative digital coin left some crypto investors feeling blindsided, while others saw it as a gimmick that undermined the industry's credibility.
David Yaffe-Bellany and Eric Lipton - The New York Times
Dressed in ball gowns, tuxedos and "Make Bitcoin Great Again" baseball caps, a crowd of some of the country's most powerful cryptocurrency executives gathered a few blocks from the White House for a lavish party three days before President Trump's inauguration, toasting an incoming administration that had vowed to promote the industry's interests. Even Snoop Dogg joined the festivities, offering a rendition of "Don't Stop Believin.'" But the crypto millionaires and billionaires were caught off guard by what happened next. At 9 p.m. on Jan. 17, with the festivities in full swing, Mr. Trump announced on social media that he was launching a new cryptocurrency - a so-called memecoin known simply as $Trump. The surprise disclosure raised fresh ethics and legal concerns about the ways in which Mr. Trump continues to cash in on his power and fame, in this case by marketing a digital asset in an inherently volatile and speculative market to millions of his followers.
/jlne.ws/42uyXUf
Five Takeaways From Bill Gates's Interview With The Wall Street Journal; The billionaire philanthropist speaks about his early years, geopolitics, past mistakes and how he isn't always checking his phone
Sarah E. Needleman - The Wall Street Journal
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has spent the past quarter of a century focused on philanthropy and investing in startups. Recently, he sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker. The billionaire discussed his childhood and why he thinks he likely would have been diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum if he were a kid today. He also weighed in on President Trump's reform task force led by fellow billionaire Elon Musk, U.S.-China relations and his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
/jlne.ws/3PPy5SC
Zhan Ketuan: Chinese crypto and AI mogul becomes US target; Billionaire faces setbacks as he tried to build China's answer to Nvidia
Ryan McMorrow and Kathrin Hille - Financial Times
Chinese crypto and artificial intelligence mogul Zhan Ketuan is facing a crisis. US custom officials in recent months have impounded some shipments of Bitcoin mining rigs made by his company Bitmain. The pressure on the 45-year-old billionaire ramped up further this month, after Washington sanctioned his other companies that design and source artificial intelligence processors. It is not the first time that Zhan's ambitions to build China's answer to Nvidia have jeopardised his business empire. Bitmain was nearly undone five years ago by his heavy spending to develop AI chips, sparking a civil war with his co-founder for control of the company.
/jlne.ws/40OyyuD
Monte Paschi 'Unthinkable' Move on Larger Rival Stuns Italy
Sonia Sirletti, Steven Arons and Julia Janicki - Bloomberg
The last time Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA bought another lender, it was the beginning of the road to collapse and nationalization. So when Paschi announced an unsolicited EUR13.4 billion ($14.1 billion) offer for larger rival Mediobanca SpA on Friday morning, Italy's financial sector was in shock. The government had as recently as November been knocking on doors for a buyer for Paschi.
/jlne.ws/3CppH9u
Mediobanca Said to Question Strategic Fit, Value of Paschi Deal; Lender worries top dealmakers, private bankers could leave; Some analysts expressed skepticism, while Rome backs a deal
Sonia Sirletti - Bloomberg
Mediobanca SpA sees little merit in a takeover by Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA because the strategies of the two lenders aren't a good match and it doesn't believe a combination would create value, according to people familiar with the matter. Siena-based Monte Paschi focuses on commercial and retail lending, while Mediobanca is a specialized investment bank and wealth management firm. A tie-up risks diluting income growth at Mediobanca, which is less reliant on interest rates, and could prompt top dealmakers and wealth managers to flee, the people said, asking to not be named because the matter is not public.
/jlne.ws/3PQmQcM
Treasury's Cash Pile Is a 'Wild Card' With New Administration
Liz Capo McCormick and Alexandra Harris - Bloomberg
A change in the US Treasury's leadership is likely to shift how the department treats the cash it parks at the Federal Reserve, with strategists warning of implications that stand to ripple across the nation's debt market. Bank of America Corp. and Wrightson ICAP LLC are among firms that say the Treasury could hold less money in its account at the Fed as its cash balance - a buffer of funds to ensure the US can always pay its bills - dwindles. This would allow the government to sell less short-term debt and potentially save the taxpayers money now that the debt ceiling has been reinstated and the cash pile is shrinking. The balance is expected to keep falling until the debt limit is lifted or suspended again.
/jlne.ws/4h7WTRT
UBS Axes Hundreds of Jobs in Switzerland as Integration Steps Up
Noele Illien - Bloomberg
UBS Group AG has begun a wave of job cuts in its home market Switzerland, with hundreds of employees receiving notice in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. The current round impacts both higher management levels and lower ranks, the people said, who asked not to be named discussing private details. Employees are able to enter a program which allows up to a year to find a new role within the bank, the people said.
/jlne.ws/4hcWAVW
Nomura Cuts About 10 Global Markets Staff to Trim Costs; Departures at Japanese bank include rates, digital staffers; Global markets team generates nearly half of Nomura's revenue
William Shaw and Takashi Nakamichi - Bloomberg
Nomura Holdings Inc. has let go about 10 people in its sales and trading teams as part of the Japanese bank's latest push to trim costs, according to people familiar with the matter. Those departing include analysts and directors, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private information. Most of the cuts were in London, one of the people said, adding that three worked in rates and another three in the digital office.
/jlne.ws/4hwmNyz
Risk for SocGen From French Turmoil Is Receding, Barclays Says
Macarena Munoz Montijano - Bloomberg
The French political turmoil that hit lenders in the country has eased enough to represent a more limited headwind for Societe Generale SA, according to a Barclays Plc analyst. "The French risk has not disappeared, but it's dissipated enough in our view to represent a more limited risk for SocGen," analyst Flora Bocahut wrote in a note Monday as she upgraded the recommendation on the lender to overweight from equal-weight and boosted its price target 37%.
/jlne.ws/4gjuwyW
Julius Baer chair to step down in latest shake-up; Romeo Lacher will not seek re-election, triggering new reshuffle at Swiss wealth manager following Signa crisis
Simon Foy - Financial Times
Julius Baer has said that its chair Romeo Lacher will step down, in the latest management shake-up at the Swiss wealth manager following a crisis triggered by its exposure to failed property group Signa. In a statement on Monday, the company said Lacher, who has chaired the bank and wealth manager since 2019, would not seek re-election at its annual meeting in April. It added that Lacher had informed the board last year of his intention to resign.
/jlne.ws/4aANlg3
UK banks clash with Bank of England over rules on loss-absorbing debt; Lenders warn rules will harm City's competitiveness and impose 'significant costs' on the sector
Martin Arnold - Financial Times
UK banks have urged the Bank of England to dilute its plans for handling failing lenders, arguing that they go beyond equivalent rules in the US or the EU, and will impose "significant costs" on the sector. The City of London's clash with the central bank comes as the government is pressing regulators to do more to revive economic growth by slashing the bureaucratic burden faced by businesses. Trade body UK Finance said the BoE would "create capital instabilities" and be "burdensome" for the sector if it gives itself extra powers to wipe out a special form of debt that is designed to be written-off during a crisis.
/jlne.ws/40wF3kC
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine hits large Russian oil refinery, power plant and weapons chip plant in Ryazan and Bryansk
Doug Cunningham - United Press International
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces confirmed an attack overnight that hit Russia's Ryazan Oil Refinery and the Ryazan Thermal Power Plant, leaving them ablaze Thursday morning. "As a result of the strikes, fires broke out at the production facilities of the Ryazan Oil Refining Company and at the Ryazan oil pumping station," the General Staff statement said. "Also, the microelectronics plant 'Kremniy El' in Bryansk was hit. This is one of the key enterprises of the microelectronics industry of Russia."
/jlne.ws/4awgLMc
Putin echoes Trump's claim that conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided had he been in office
Vladimir Isachenkov - Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday echoed U.S. President Donald Trump's claim the conflict in Ukraine could have been prevented had he been in the White House in 2022. He also said Moscow is ready for talks with the U.S. on a broad range of issues. In an interview with Russian state television, Putin praised Trump as a "clever and pragmatic man" who is focused on U.S. interests.
/jlne.ws/4hpWSbG
Ukraine replaces commander of eastern front after Russia captures another town
Olena Harmash - Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy replaced the commander of the eastern front, the most heated battlefield of the Ukraine war, after Russian forces captured another strategic town there. Brigadier-General Andriy Hnatov was replaced as the battlefield commander in the east by Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi, overall commander of ground forces, who will keep his previous duties. Hnatov was given a role overseeing training and communications.
/jlne.ws/4hbemcn
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| Middle East Conflict | | News about the current conflict in the Middle East that began with the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. | Palestinians Stream Back to Northern Gaza on Foot After Hostage-Release Breakthrough; The cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas continues to hold
Omar Abdel-Baqui, Abeer Ayyoub and Anat Peled - The Wall Street Journal
Thousands of Palestinians began returning to a ravaged northern Gaza and what was left of their homes and families, after Hamas agreed to release more hostages than expected this week to keep its cease-fire with Israel in place. Israel allowed displaced Gazans to begin crossing a military zone that bisects the enclave on Monday after Israeli forces refused their movement over the weekend, when the return of Palestinians was expected per the cease-fire deal. Israel had said it wouldn't allow Gazans to move north after Hamas didn't release a civilian hostage on Saturday, something that was agreed as part of the deal, according to an Israeli official.
/jlne.ws/4jzUvF6
Trump Says He Wants to 'Clean Out' Gaza, Send Refugees to Egypt and Jordan; President says move could be temporary or long-term
Dov Lieber, Carrie Keller-Lynn, Saleh al-Batati and Summer Said - The Wall Street Journal
TEL AVIV-President Trump said he wants to "clean out" the Gaza Strip and urged Jordan and Egypt to take in refugees either temporarily or for the long term, a move that has been rejected by Arab countries since the war began. The president said he told King Abdullah II of Jordan in a phone call on Saturday that he wants the monarch's country to receive Palestinians. He said he expected to make a similar request of Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, in a coming phone call.
/jlne.ws/3Cy8kmQ
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | ICE to Launch MSCI Equity Index Futures on ICE Futures Abu Dhabi; Launch Extends Equities Access to Gulf and Indian Markets
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today announced plans to launch MSCI® Equity Index Futures contracts on ICE Futures Abu Dhabi on February 24, 2025, subject to regulatory review. This launches a new asset class for trading at ICE Futures Abu Dhabi and will include: Micro MSCI GCC Countries Index Futures, Micro MSCI Qatar Index Futures, Micro MSCI UAE Index Futures and Micro MSCI India Index Futures. The contracts, all denominated in US dollars, will provide investors with a way to access Gulf and Indian equity markets and manage equity risk in the region.
/jlne.ws/42w75z7
Fixed Income and Thematic Investing Drives AUM for ETFs Benchmarked to ICE Indices to Record Level in Asia-Pacific in 2024
Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, today announced record 2024 growth in assets under management (AUM) for Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) benchmarked to ICE's indices listed on Asian exchanges. This growth was driven by strong retail interest in fixed income and thematic investing in the region, and occurred as ICE has continued to expand its global index offering to include more fixed income, thematic, equity and international indices that match the strategies of the global investment community.
/jlne.ws/3Ct2jYF
INE has released its Circular on Releasing the Revised Clearing Rules of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange and Other Implementing Rules
SFE
Shanghai International Energy Exchange has released its Circular on Releasing the Revised Clearing Rules of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange and Other Implementing Rules, as shown below: The revised Clearing Rules of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange and revised Enforcement Rules of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange have been reviewed and adopted by the Board of Directors of Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), and reported to China Securities Regulatory Commission. These rules are hereby released and shall take effect since January 27, 2025.
/jlne.ws/3WCbexX
Approved Application for Spot Call Butter Regularity
CME Group
/jlne.ws/3WB2zvB
Approved Application for Spot Call Dry Whey and Spot Call Nonfat Dry Milk Regularity
CME Group
/jlne.ws/3PRN2DO
Approved Applications for Spot Call Dry Whey and Spot Call Nonfat Dry Milk Regularity
CME Group
/jlne.ws/42qdY5a
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | China's shoestring AI humiliates US and could undermine Trump
Samuel Montgomery - The Telegraph
A Chinese AI model built on a shoestring budget has shocked Silicon Valley and presented a major challenge to Donald Trump. DeepSeek, a language model that can generate human-like conversation, was released on the same day as Mr Trump's inauguration. It has since been tested against some of America's most powerful AI (artificial intelligence) models, such as chatGPT, and in some cases has come out on top.
/jlne.ws/3Enu3OT
Meta to Spend as Much as $65 Billion on AI Efforts in 2025
Dana Wollman and Kurt Wagner - Bloomberg
Meta Platforms Inc. plans to invest as much as $65 billion on projects related to artificial intelligence in 2025, including building a giant new data center and increasing hiring in AI teams, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said Friday. The company intends to use the funds to build a data center "so large that it would cover a significant part of Manhattan," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. Meta plans to bring around a gigawatt of computing power online in 2025 and is projected to end the year with more than 1.3 million graphics processing units, he added.
/jlne.ws/40w0guL
Mistral's Secret Powerbroker Keeps Europe's AI Hopes Alive; Arthur Mensch is the public face of French AI champion Mistral, but another startup's CEO has been critical to its $6 billion valuation
Benoit Berthelot and Mark Bergen - Bloomberg
A year ago, Europe had multiple AI startups that could plausibly compete with OpenAI and Google. Now it has Mistral. Well-financed artificial intelligence startups in Germany and the UK have sputtered or stopped making major models, leaving the French startup darling left to convince customers, investors and politicians that Europe can hold its own on the critical technology.
/jlne.ws/40Bn1xF
Skip the Hype, Here's How AI 'Agents' Can Really Help; Forget super assistants. The real transformation is happening one task at a time.
Parmy Olson - Bloomberg
So-called agents are meant to be the next big thing in artificial intelligence this year. If the breathless headlines about them are to be believed, you might think your job is on the line. It's not (for now at least) - but some back-office occupations probably are. Last week, OpenAI announced its first agent-like tool called Operator, which carries out online tasks like navigating to a website and clicking on buttons, according to the company. But the idea is not unique. Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Anthropic and Salesforce Inc. have all launched platforms for agents, or AI systems that can act autonomously. Imagine, for instance, a customer service bot that doesn't just generate information, but can also book an appointment or lodge a complaint. Mark Zuckerberg has said they'll replace mid-level software engineers this year, and earlier this month, Axios reported that a tech firm was preparing to release software that could autonomously handle complex tasks at a "PhD level." The hype around AI agents and their capabilities has reached fever pitch.
/jlne.ws/4gdgajF
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Breaking Bad star's X account hacked for memecoin scheme; Dean Norris, known for playing Hank Schrader in the TV series Breaking Bad, had his X account hacked to promote a memecoin using his likeness, which hit a peak value of over $8 million.
Stephen Katte - CoinTelegraph
TV star Dean Norris had his X account hijacked to promote a memecoin that used his likeness as part of a pump and dump scheme. In a Jan. 26 video posted to his X account, Norris, best known for his role as Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad, said he was hacked, and the memecoin, DEAN, was a "complete, fake scam." The actor blasted Reddit users whom he claimed "called me all sorts of shit for something I didn't do. Go fuck yourselves." The post promoting the token has been taken down, but users took screenshots of the original and subsequent posts from the hackers, which included an apparent doctored photo of Norris holding a piece of paper with the ticker DEAN and its launch date.
/jlne.ws/4aB1Sbn
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | In China, a Cat-and-Mouse Game to Rein In Crypto; Recent court cases reveal how middlemen are facilitating a booming trade, eluding a crackdown
Brian Spegele and Rebecca Feng - The Wall Street Journal
Three years ago, China's government imposed sweeping restrictions on trading cryptocurrencies. But that hasn't stopped brokers, including Chen Xin, from helping people convert large amounts of Chinese yuan into crypto. Working as a middleman in China's underground financial system, Chen would routinely accept more than $100,000 in cash and then swap it for the cryptocurrency tether using overseas trading platforms. He knew not to ask too many questions about where the cash came from-but he assumed a lot of it wasn't clean.
/jlne.ws/4gdvz3w
Andreessen Horowitz to close London office in pullback from UK crypto investing; Silicon Valley investor says it wants to refocus on US market with Donald Trump in office
Ivan Levingston and Anna Gross in London, Arash Massoudi in Davos and George Hammond in San Francisco - Financial Times
Andreessen Horowitz is closing its London office and pulling back from its much-touted expansion into the UK, as the Silicon Valley investor seeks to refocus on the US cryptocurrency industry following the election of Donald Trump. The group made a high-profile entry into the British capital in 2023, opening its first office outside the US with a focus on the UK's crypto industry amid a crackdown on digital assets by American regulators.
/jlne.ws/3PUHw3r
MicroStrategy buys more bitcoin while adding capital raising tools
Monique Mulima - Bloomberg
MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR) bought $1.1 billion of Bitcoin (BTC-USD), after announcing plans for the early redemption of convertible notes and approving an increase to amount of authorized common shares. The Tysons Corner, Virginia-based enterprise software company turned leveraged Bitcoin proxy has bought Bitcoin for 12 consecutive weeks and now owns over 2% of all the tokens that will ever exist. Co-founder and Chairman Michael Saylor has been ramping up purchases of the original cryptocurrency since the election of President Donald Trump, whom Saylor called "The 1st Bitcoin President," in a post on X.
/jlne.ws/4gl4L17
Another Publicly Traded Firm Starts Stockpiling Bitcoin; Real estate firm Fathom, which trades publicly on the Nasdaq, is adopting a Bitcoin reserve strategy by buying the cryptocurrency.
Mat Di Salvo - DeCrypt
Another Nasdaq-listed company is adopting the increasingly fashionable Bitcoin standard. Real estate tech company Fathom Holdings (NASDAQ: FTHM) announced Thursday that it will allocate up to half of its excess cash reserves to the orange coin after the firm's board approved the move.
/jlne.ws/4hqBP9H
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | White House in talks to have Oracle and US investors take over TikTok, NPR reports
Reuters
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app's global operations, National Public Radio reported on Saturday. Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok's China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a minority stake in the company, but the app's algorithm, data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok's Web infrastructure, NPR reported.
/jlne.ws/3PQidiT
Trump Freezes Energy Department Spending, Loans
Ari Natter - Bloomberg
The Trump administration has halted spending, loans and other actions at the Energy Department as part of a "comprehensive review" to ensure they align with the president's priorities, according to a memo from the agency's acting secretary seen by Bloomberg. The Jan. 20 memo freezes the awarding of grants, loans, funding opportunities, procurement announcements, rules, studies and activities including personnel moves and publication of rules and studies, until approval by acting secretary Ingrid Kolb.
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Trump's former lawyer calls for Bank of America investigation amid 'cancel culture' row; John Eastman believes his accounts were closed because the bank 'did not like his political views'
Susie Coen - The Telegraph
Donald Trump's former lawyer has urged the US president to begin an investigation into Bank of America, which he claims closed his accounts because of his political views. John Eastman said he has still not been given an explanation for why his accounts of 40 years were closed by the banking giant, but believes it was an example of "cancel culture brass in the corporate boardroom".
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Lina Khan warns of 'catastrophic consequences' if Trump gives free hand to private equity; Joe Biden's antitrust boss also raises prospect of powerful monopolies corrupting US politics
Stefania Palma - Financial Times
Lina Khan has warned of "catastrophic consequences" for America if Donald Trump's antitrust officials fail to scrutinise private equity groups that are buying up chunks of the US economy. The recently departed chair of the US Federal Trade Commission told the Financial Times that private equity groups posed a threat to the country's healthcare system.
/jlne.ws/3WyyDAh
US may put 'very big bounty' on Taliban leaders, Secretary of State Rubio says
Kanishka Singh - Reuters
The U.S. may place a "very big bounty" on the top leaders of the Taliban, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday, adding he was hearing that the Taliban held more American hostages than previously reported. "Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported," Rubio said in a post on social media platform X. "If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on Bin Laden," he added. The post did not give further details or specify the number of Americans held by the Taliban.
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How Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Got a Pardon From Trump; Allies of the online drug bazaar's founder made the case to the president that the two men shared enemies
Eliza Collins, Aruna Viswanatha, and Sadie Gurman - The Wall Street Journal
Ross Ulbricht's first hopes for clemency died when a mob of Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Trump had planned to commute the life sentence of the founder of the Silk Road online drug bazaar at the end of his first term, according to former U.S. officials and a political consultant who worked to secure Ulbricht's release. But in the fallout from the attack, White House officials said they didn't want to further antagonize the Justice Department, which had prosecuted him, the consultant, Brian Anderson said.
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Trump Wants to Unleash the Banks. End the Bailout Culture First.
Ross Levine - Barron's (commentary)
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AOC Says Democrats in Congress Are Doing Insider Trading: 'People Think That Everyday People Are Stupid'
Bibhu Pattnaik - Benzinga
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Interior Department says Gulf of Mexico now renamed to Gulf of America, Denali to Mount McKinley
Faris Tanyos - CBS News
/jlne.ws/3QcPGEB
EU Likely to Delay Russian Fuel Phase-Out Plan by a Month
Ewa Krukowska and John Ainger - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4gfSY48
Spain warns far right is exploiting anger over climate disasters
Nationalist Vox party has seized on 'visceral' public reaction to mishandling of floods, says transport minister
Barney Jopson and Philip Georgiadis - Financial Times
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Commissioner Kristin Johnson's Keynote Address at the University of Chicago Law School: Charting the Future of Financial Regulation
CFTC
Good afternoon. Thank you to Dean Miles, Professor Birdthistle and the broader University of Chicago Law School for the kind invitation to join you for today's event. We can often learn a great deal about the future by looking at the past. About 4,000 years ago (c. 2000 B.C.E.), Phoenician sailors developed charts and observations of the Sun and stars. Early mariners' compasses were inaccurate or inconsistent because they lacked an understanding of magnetic variation. Later, the astrolabe, sextant, chip log, gyroscopic compass, radar, and GPS replaced earlier, primitive tools.
/jlne.ws/40P1kvq
Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda Names Acting Senior Staff
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda's selections for several senior roles in acting capacities across the Commission to fill vacancies created by recent departures.
/jlne.ws/42wef6t
SEC Charges AI Startup CEO and His Wife with Elaborate $60 Million Fraud Involving Fake Financial Documents and Forged Audit Reports
SEC
On January 23, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Alexander Beckman, the former CEO of San Francisco-based GameOn Inc., with defrauding investors out of more than $60 million by falsely inflating the financial performance and commercial success of GameOn. The SEC also charged Beckman's wife, Valerie Lau, a licensed attorney, with fraud.
/jlne.ws/3EdVdIc
SFC reprimands and fines Hang Seng Bank Limited $66.4 million for misconduct in selling practices of investment products
SFC
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined Hang Seng Bank Limited (HSB) $66.4 million for serious regulatory failures in relation to the bank's sale of collective investment schemes (CIS) and derivative products and overcharging its clients and making inadequate disclosure of monetary benefits to them during various periods over the course of nine years between February 2014 and May 2023 (Notes 1 and 2).
/jlne.ws/3CslIsO
SEBI launches 'Dharohar -Milestones in the Indian Securities Market'; A Digital Knowledge Repository
SEBI
Today, on the occasion ofRepublic Day, SEBI has launched a digital knowledge repository, "Dharohar -Milestones in the Indian Securities Market". The Indian securities market, known for its diverse products, participants, and institutions, has a long-standing history of organized trading over the past 150 years. Dharohar has been designed to document and showcase this rich heritage and evolution of the Indian securities market. The repository features a website, that also includes an interactive timeline of significant events and 3D galleries, offering an engaging experience to visitors. This has been designed for a wide audience, including students, investors, researchers, journalists, market participants and the general public.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | The Extra Reward for Owning Stocks Over Bonds Has Disappeared; There is little sign of crimped demand for equities among individual investors, who remain bullish after two years of blockbuster gains
Hannah Erin Lang - The Wall Street Journal
Stocks haven't looked this unattractive, by at least one measure, since the aftermath of the dot-com era. Plenty of investors are piling in anyway. The equity risk premium, often defined as the gap between the S&P 500's earnings yield and that of 10-year Treasurys, turned negative in late December for the first time since 2002 and sat last week at negative 0.15 percentage point.
/jlne.ws/4jpFVQN
Crypto's Richest Man Turns VC Firm Into Giant Family Office
Muyao Shen, Suvashree Ghosh and Ryan Weeks - Bloomberg
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, a few months out of prison and worth $70 billion thanks to the relentless crypto rally, is turning the former venture capital arm of his Binance Holdings Ltd. into a family office. Binance Labs, which oversees about $10 billion of crypto-related assets, will be renamed YZi Labs, according to a statement on Thursday. Zhao brought back Ella Zhang, who helped set up Binance Labs in 2018 and left two years later, to run the outfit. YZi Labs will also manage the wealth of Binance co-founder Yi He, with whom Zhao has three children.
/jlne.ws/4g94U80
Financial Advice on Social Media Is Growing. And Risky.; Everyday investors are turning to financial influencers, or 'fin-fluencers,' to learn how to manage their finances, but experts say rooting out misinformation is challenging.
Isabella Kwai - The New York Times
Amy Ryan was panicking about her savings when she went online for advice. It was April 2020, and the stock market had plunged, draining a nest egg that she had built up over the years. Ms. Ryan, a 43-year-old sales engineer from Wales, had dumped her portfolio in the crash and was afraid of losing even more. Looking for guidance, she found Kevin Paffrath, a prolific finance influencer who discussed the economy and investing on his Meet Kevin YouTube channel.
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The Three Forces Shifting the Investment Landscape; Mean reversion in markets is far from guaranteed in a world of economic dispersion and tech exceptionalism.
Mohamed A. El-Erian - The Wall Street Journal
Three factors heavily influenced the financial landscape over the last 12 months - AI-focused technological optimism, hoped-for leveling up, and higher government bond yields. All three will continue to be in play this year but in a manner that suggests greater volatility, and the need for an investing rethink that incorporates a larger universe of opportunities in both public and private markets. Optimism about the productivity-enhancing potential of exciting tech innovations is reflected in the extent to which a handful of companies have led the surge in the S&P 500 Index from one record level to the next. It is a well-founded sentiment, given the many ways in which artificial intelligence will improve what we do and how we do it. It is also warranted by the speed with which advances are being made. The money being thrown at the sector and the frequency of upgrades has some in the industry readily admitting that they are not sure where the technology will be in the next two year
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Investors offloaded record volume of private equity stakes in 2024; Booming secondary market as pension funds and buyout groups seek alternative ways to cash out
Ivan Levingston and Alexandra Heal - Financial Times
Investors offloaded a record amount of private equity stakes on the second-hand markets last year, as the prolonged drought in dealmaking has encouraged pension funds and buyout groups to seek other ways to cash in their investments. Volumes traded globally reached $162bn in the so-called secondary market, where investors in private equity or other private funds sell their stakes to new investors for cash, or the fund managers themselves sell company stakes to new funds.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Tying Biodiversity to Carbon Credits Could Help Save Nature, Says Singapore's President; Speaking at Davos, Tharman Shanmugaratnam called for nature markets to be stapled together, but others argue they should develop independently
Joshua Kirby - The Wall Street Journal
Business's impact on the natural world puts much of the global economy at risk, and more investment is needed to halt and reverse that degradation, Singapore's president and other speakers told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But the market for biodiversity-offsetting projects still lags well behind carbon markets. A shortfall of some $700 billion needs to be bridged to finance efforts to restore and conserve the natural world-on which around half of the world's economic activity depends-according to estimates by the WEF. But the market in credits for biodiversity projects remains limited, especially compared with the more mature carbon markets, according to WEF nature chiefs Akanksha Katri and Alessandro Valentini.
/jlne.ws/4jzMJuS
ESG's Real Sin Isn't Ideology, But That It's Useless; The approach to green investing could be on its way to being banned.
John Authers - Bloomberg
Amid Trump 2.0's first week, it was easy to lose sight of a Trumpian shift that has been underway for a while, thanks to the intersection of Red State politicians and the US courts. ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing was already under attack. Now, it might become illegal. Matt Levine has recently covered an attempt by a group of attorneys general to argue that index investing is illegitimate on antitrust grounds. Tennessee's attorney general declared ESG investing dead after announcing a settlement with BlackRock over allegations that it was concealing the ESG principles in its corporate stewardship from its investors. BlackRock must now beef up its proxy-voting disclosures.
/jlne.ws/4gaD1w9
China's surging power demand creates a climate conundrum
Bloomberg
China's electricity demand is becoming a key focal point in the global fight against climate change. As the world's largest polluter, China holds outsized sway over whether emissions can be reduced fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. The country's breakneck adoption of clean energy technology has created hope that it will peak and start reducing greenhouse gases far earlier than its stated goal of 2030.
/jlne.ws/40N27Nm
Texas asks Wall Street firms for details about DEI efforts
Bloomberg and Saijel Kishan via Fortune
Texas and nine other Republican-led states are ratcheting up pressure on Wall Street's diversity programs, asking firms about their policies on hiring and supplier selections as the Trump administration moves to gut DEI. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on Thursday to the firms saying they appear to "unlawfully advance discriminatory" diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and demanded they respond to a series of questions about their programs. He said the companies may have breached their fiduciary duties by pursuing an "ulterior political motive or agenda."
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Barclays Delays EU Office Move to Paris Until at Least 2027; Irish capital has served as Barclays' EU base after Brexit; Bank had mooted shifting office to Paris as soon as this year
Laura Noonan and Olivia Fletcher - Bloomberg
Barclays has delayed any move of its European Union headquarters to Paris until 2027 at the earliest, putting the potential relocation at least two years behind its original timeline. The UK's second-largest listed bank by assets picked Dublin as its EU base in the aftermath of Brexit, but has been publicly deliberating a relocation to Paris since 2023. At the time, Barclays said the shift could take place in the following 24 months, implying 2025 would be the moment to move. Two people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg News that work around the relocation was taking longer than expected.
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TD Bank Names New Head of Financial Crime Risk Management'; Jackie Sanjuas succeeds Herb Mazariegos, who will leave the bank while supporting a smooth transition Connor Hart - The Wall Street Journal
Toronto-Dominion Bank named Jackie Sanjuas as its global head of financial crime risk management, succeeding Herb Mazariegos, who will leave the bank while supporting a smooth transition, the company said Thursday. Sanjuas's appointment comes after the bank said it would make sweeping changes including a new chief executive officer, cuts to executive payouts and an overhaul of its board, as it looks to move past a costly money-laundering scandal.
/jlne.ws/4hcVQ36
America's Best Stock Picker Keeps Beating Passive Funds; Fidelity's Adam Benjamin keeps proving wrong the narrative that actively managed funds are inferior to those tracking indexes.
Matthew A. Winkler - Bloomberg (opinion)
For the third time in four years, the stock picker beating everyone is Fidelity Investments Inc.'s decoder of computer chips, crushing every measure of performance as the more popular passively managed index funds tracking market benchmarks proved little more than also-rans in 2024. He is Adam Benjamin, the 53-year-old who took charge of Boston-based Fidelity's Select Semiconductors Portfolio mutual fund in 2020 after two decades focusing on the industry that invigorates smartphones, virtual reality headsets, autonomous driving, cloud computing transition, electric vehicles and US national security.
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Return-to-Office Mandates Apply to Everyone, Except a Chosen Few; The new hybrid-work hierarchy means star employees get to work from home
Ray A. Smith - The Wall Street Journal
Millions of workers across the country are being given return-to-office marching orders. But the rules are different for stars and top performers. Companies including Amazon.com, AT&T and JPMorgan Chase have called workers back to the office five days a week recently, with bosses citing a need for collaboration and connection. Nearly 80% of 400 CEOs in a 2024 KPMG survey said they expect employees to be in offices full time within the next three years. Employees with unique skills and talents, however, are often being offered more flexibility than their peers, labor researchers and recruiters say. The privilege gets extended to those with a proven record of exceeding performance quotas, or whose brains and personal brands make them a hot target for competitors to poach. Sometimes it is also about seniority. In other cases, your work-from-home status depends on what team you're on.
/jlne.ws/3PPdgqL
New Zealand Eases Visa Rules to Allow Visitors to Work Remotely; Government targets IT workers from Southeast Asia and the US Hopes to boost tourism to aid economic recovery from recession
Ainsley Thomson - Bloomberg
New Zealand has relaxed its visa rules to allow foreign visitors to work remotely while in the nation as it leans on tourism to help drive an economic recovery. The government will target highly skilled people, particularly IT workers from Southeast Asia and the US, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis said at a press conference at Wellington Airport on Monday.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Why RFK Jr. Is Dangerous to Public Health; He's made millions from referring clients to trial lawyers, and he advocates mass tort litigation that would ruin the vaccine industry.
The Editorial Board - The Wall Street Journal
President Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary in return for his presidential endorsement. But Senate Republicans have an obligation to scrutinize his giant closet of business conflicts and dubious ideas. Mr. Kennedy is scheduled to appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday. Expect him to obfuscate about his ties to trial lawyers, anti-vaccine views, and support for sundry progressive causes. While presenting himself as a truth-teller and slayer of government corruption, he's as slippery as Anthony Fauci.
/jlne.ws/4ge6OUL
CIA now backs lab leak theory to explain origins of Covid-19; Analysis released by new director, John Ratcliffe, suggests the agency believes totality of evidence makes a lab origin
Associated Press via The Guardian
The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the coronavirus pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released on Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has "low confidence" in its own conclusion.
/jlne.ws/3WwDIsM
This is the healthiest meal in the world (and, yes, it includes cheese and chocolate); One top nutritionist has created a perfectly balanced three-course meal that your gut - and tastebuds - will be thankful for
Emily Craig - The Telegraph
When it comes to the healthiest meal you could eat, there's so much conflicting information that it can be tricky to think of what it may contain. Should it be void of any carbohydrates? Without a trace of fat? Does a balanced meal really have to mean a flavourless salad? Dominique Ludwig studied at King's College London, the top university for nutrition in the country, and has 600,000 Instagram followers who avidly follow her diet advice. Here, she has crafted a perfectly balanced three-course meal that's full of flavour, based on the latest scientific research and offers a cascade of nutrients that your heart, brain and gut will eat up.
/jlne.ws/3Ct3BCZ
Reid Hoffman Raises $24.6 Million for AI Cancer Research Startup; The LinkedIn co-founder is starting Manas AI with 'The Emperor of All Maladies' author Siddhartha Mukherjee
Berber Jin - The Wall Street Journal
Tech investor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is teaming up with cancer researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee on an artificial intelligence drug discovery startup that is launching with $24.6 million of initial funding. The company, named Manas AI, will first focus on breast cancer, prostate cancer and lymphoma before broadening its scope to include other illnesses.
/jlne.ws/3EbyBrL
Covid isn't as bad this winter. Flu is worse. Here's why.; The covid wave this winter is less severe compared with previous years, with hospitalization rates down and wastewater levels lower.
Fenit Nirappil - The Washington Post
Ever since the novel coronavirus reached the United States five years ago, it has unleashed punishing winter waves of illness. But the usual covid uptick is much more muted this winter and appears to have peaked. The virus is less rampant in wastewater compared with winters past. Hospitalization rates have gone down. You are what you read. Reveal your 2024 reader type with Newsprint. Instead an unusual medley of ailments emerged this season - walking pneumonia, RSV, norovirus and bird flu - along with the more familiar foe: influenza, which is garnering more attention than covid this time around because the hospitalization rate is three times as high.
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US Biotech Says Drug Thwarted Muscle Loss in Wegovy Patients; Mid-stage trial shows more lean mass in older volunteers; Drugmakers are racing to develop muscle-saving obesity drugs
Ashleigh Furlong - Bloomberg
An experimental drug from a US biotech helped prevent muscle loss in patients taking Novo Nordisk A/S's Wegovy in a new study. Patients taking Veru Inc's experimental treatment enobosarm with Wegovy had a 71% reduction in lean mass loss after 16 weeks, compared with those just taking Wegovy and a placebo, the US biotech said Monday, citing initial clinical trial results.
/jlne.ws/42w1kSb
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Currency Volatility Set to Wipe Out Emerging-Market Carry Trades
Matthew Burgess and Prima Wirayani - Bloomberg
Emerging market investors are turning increasingly wary of carry trades as the threat of tariffs from the Donald Trump administration and the prospect of further dollar gains squeeze returns. Latin American currencies, often bought as part of such trades, face pressure from domestic fiscal issues along with the prospect of trade tensions with the US, according to Mackay Shields and Pictet Asset Management. Carry trades involve borrowing in currencies from countries with relatively-low interest rates, like the yuan or yen, and investing those funds in markets with higher rates.
/jlne.ws/42vwqJF
UK confirms October 2027 alignment with EU and Switzerland for T+1 transition; The major European markets officially align on T+1 transition on 11 October 2027 as the UK prepares to reveal roadmap for a successful transition.
Jonathan Watkins - The Trade
The UK's Accelerated Settlement Taskforce (AST) is recommending that the UK moves to the T+1 settlement cycle for securities on 11 October 2027 in line with its European counterparts. Andrew Douglas Despite the UK being the first to tout the date for transition, the EU and Switzerland both confirmed the date in recent months, with the UK - as expected - now mirroring the day which the shortened settlement cycle will come into force. The taskforce is now set to reveal final recommendations and implementation plan will be published at the start of February which will contain a roadmap for participants to follow for a smooth transition.
/jlne.ws/42tq8tU
Hong Kong prepares for influx of listings from mainland China; Bankers expect territory to benefit from US-China tensions and Beijing's capital controls
Arjun Neil Alim in Hong Kong - Financial Times
Hong Kong is setting its sights on a $20bn listings revival this year as it aims to exploit worsening US-China tensions and the sluggish mainland Chinese equity market. Investment banks in Hong Kong are expecting a rush of listed Chinese companies, led by battery maker CATL, to set up a secondary listing in the offshore territory. These "A to H" listings - from mainland China's "A" shares to Hong Kong - could raise as much as $20bn in new funds, said bankers. A replenished pipeline would mark a sharp pick-up in activity for Hong Kong, which has lost some high-profile international companies such as cosmetics company L'Occitane and struggled to replace them.
/jlne.ws/40xpFVd
Chinese Investors With Few Options Turn to Dividends; Companies with good payouts are now the hottest bet in China markets
Jacky Wong - The Wall Street Journal
Chinese stocks have been a money pit for the past few years. But for investors willing to look past the wreckage, some companies are giving back. The domestic Chinese stock market remains a shadow of its former self, even after snapping a three-year losing streak in 2024. The CSI 300 index-which tracks the largest companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen-has shed around a third of its value since its 2021 peak. The pain runs even deeper for stocks listed in Hong Kong and the U.S., where tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent have been hit hard by regulatory crackdowns and slowing growth.
/jlne.ws/3Cq3zM8
PBOC Injects Record Liquidity Using Its New Tool, Delays RRR Cut
Bloomberg News
China's central bank injected a record amount of cash into the financial system via a new tool in January, delaying more high-profile policy easing as it prioritizes stabilizing the yuan. The People's Bank of China conducted 1.7 trillion yuan ($234 billion) of so-called outright reverse repurchase agreements using three- and six-month contracts to keep liquidity ample, it said in a statement Monday. That's the biggest operation since officials started the program in October as part of an overhaul of their policy toolbox.
/jlne.ws/3PW7Dqs
Sudan's biggest oil refinery is on fire as its bloody civil war rages
The Associated Press
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Brazilian Meat Packer JBS Buys Half of Major Egg Producer; Egg prices are rising on concern over bird flu outbreaks; JBS will look to leverage its poultry business to aid growth
Clarice Couto - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/40pOIsY
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