| October 12, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Several years ago I said I wanted to set up a brokerage firm in Paris. I saw a great opportunity. Of course, I did not do so. But Crypto.com is setting up their European regional headquarters in Paris and committing EUR150 million to support their market operations there. Bravo, Crypto.com.
There is a new organization in crypto for people who are not bros. It is called the Association for Women in Cryptocurrency. Its founder is Amanda Wick, a former senior investigative counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives and a former chief of legal affairs for Chainalysis, Inc.
The New York Stock Exchange hosted a discussion yesterday posted to YouTube with Mairead McGuinness, EU Commissioner, Financial Services, to discuss sustainable finance and more.
Finance Magnates reported that SGX's FX futures surged to a record 3.42 million contracts in September, hitting $205 billion traded.
I am trying to decide whether I have the energy to be able to make it to the ALTSO event. It would be the first time heading out to Chicago or going out at night for such an event post my September 1 hip replacement surgery. But I will make a donation, as ALTSO deserves our support.
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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MWE SHORT: Greg Doud - The Concept of Basis
JohnLothianNews.com
In this video from MarketsWiki Education's World of Opportunity event in New York, Gregg Doud, president of the Commodity Markets Council, discussed the concept of basis and how it applies to the financial industry. According to Doud, basis is a fundamentally important concept in the world today. Doud also talked about Dodd-Frank and how it affects the commodity markets.
Watch the video »
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Look at All the Money Cargill Made; The commodities giant posted the highest net profit in its 157-year history. It pays to be king in uncertain times.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg
The recipe for making money if you're a commodities trader is simple: buy natural resources in one place and time and sell them somewhere else later - hopefully making a buck by exploiting the difference. Follow that recipe successfully many, many times, and the profits can be enormous, especially for the biggest players. Consider Cargill Inc., the commodities giant that's also the largest privately-owned company in the US. It reported a net profit of $6.68 billion for the fiscal year ending in May - the most it earned annually in its 157-year history - according to a copy of its accounts reviewed by Bloomberg Opinion. That's a 35% increase from the previous fiscal year, which had also been a record. Revenue in the latest fiscal year rose to $165 billion, from $134.4 billion in 2021.
/jlne.ws/3VoHPVN
****** Cargill is a money making machine - a private one.~JJL
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Angela Lansbury, Screen and Broadway Icon, Dead at 96
Stephen M. Silverman - People
Angela Lansbury, the London-born actress who for seven decades brought a commanding, ladylike presence to stage, screen and television - especially over the 12 years she played dauntless mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher on CBS' Murder, She Wrote - has died. She was 96. "The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 a.m. today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday," her family says in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
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***** The New York Times has a column on the long list of roles Lansbury played in movies and television. She was quite the actress, who is beloved more recently for her role in the long-running TV show "Murder She Wrote."
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King Charles to Be Crowned May 6 in Thousand-Year-Old Ceremony; Charles became monarch when Elizabeth II died in September; Coronation will be held at Westminster Abbey in London
Ellen Milligan - Bloomberg
King Charles III's coronation will take place on May 6 in a millennium-old ceremony at London's Westminster Abbey. The monarch will be crowned alongside his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, with proceedings due to be overseen by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday in a statement. Charles -- who acceded to the throne and was named king last month following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II -- will be 74 at the time of the ceremony making him the oldest person to be crowned in British history.
/jlne.ws/3RVbuCP
****** Some traditions must be upheld no matter how tedious.~JJL
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I toured the Miami neighborhood where Ken Griffin is moving Citadel, his $51 billion hedge fund. I can see why he chose it - 'Wall Street South' lives up to the hype.
Alexandra Hurtado - Insider
Miami has become a hot destination in the finance world, with Brickell even earning the nickname "Wall Street South." Earlier this year, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin announced that the $51 billion hedge fund would be moving its global headquarters from Chicago to Miami - specifically to the city's vibrant finance hub, Brickell.
/jlne.ws/3RUT05z
****** What is the hype?~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our top story Tuesday was Kevin Bacon talks losing "˜most' of fortune to Bernie Madoff: "˜There's obvious life lessons' from the New York Post. Second was Coinbase and Others Could Be Broken Up Under Watchdog's Proposed Crypto Reforms, from Barron's. Third was Ken Griffin's ex-wife also pulling up stakes in Chicago? from Crain's Chicago Business.
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MarketsWiki Stats
27,033 pages; 241,170 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
Editor-in-Chief
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Editor
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| Lead Stories | Japan Bond Market Sets Record for Nothing Happening; Trading of benchmark 10-year bond dries up for four straight sessions as the central bank keeps tight control of yields
Megumi Fujikawa - The Wall Street Journal
Bond traders to the Bank of Japan: Thanks for nothing. For the fourth straight session, none of the latest issue of 10-year Japanese government bonds traded on Wednesday. According to Japan Bond Trading Co., it was the longest streak since March 1999, when comparable data became available. The responsibility for making a normally large market wither away into nothing belongs to the Bank of Japan, which on days such as these is offering a higher price for the 10-year bond than any private firm is willing to pay. That means trading between financial institutions, the kind tracked by market-data firms, dries up.
/jlne.ws/3yz0moe
Hedge Fund Managers Paid for Stockpicking Genius Aren't Showing Much of It; The traditional strategy of mixing long and short equity bets hasn't provided the bear market buffer that clients hoped for.
Nishant Kumar - Bloomberg
Even in the high-pressure, high-pay world of hedge funds, the "long-short" stockpicker is supposed to be somebody special. The style, pioneered seven decades ago by Alfred Winslow Jones, gave hedge funds their name. In addition to betting on their favorite stocks going up (or being long, in Wall Street's argot), they wager on other stocks falling (selling short) and use leverage to juice their gains. The idea is that an investor with true skill at spotting both good and bad companies will be hedged against broader market declines, as long as their shorts fall more than the longs do. And that clients would be willing to pay enormous fees-traditionally 2% of assets per year, plus 20% of profits-for that kind of magic touch.
/jlne.ws/3esUIgP
Crypto Winter Claims High Profile C-Suite Execs; Well-known industry leaders are exiting the digital-asset sector for a range of reasons.
Victoria Vergolina - Bloomberg
What do Michael Saylor, Jesse Powell, Michael Moro, Sam Trabucco, Brett Harrison and Alex Mashinsky have in common? If you said they're dudes in crypto, you'd be correct. If you said they're dudes who used to be crypto CEOs and suddenly weren't anymore, you'd also be correct.
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The world is starting to hate the Fed; It is Joe Biden, not America's central bank, who has the tools to cushion the global blow caused by domestic policy
Edward Luce - Financial Times
A French leader once called the dollar America's "exorbitant privilege". Today's world might go for blunter language. Vector of pain, anyone? Green monster? Whatever we call it, the strong dollar's victims have one culprit in mind - the Federal Reserve. Even Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, is joining in. This week he warned that the Fed was exporting recession in the same way the euro crisis was imposed by Germany's post-2008 dictates. Much of the world is now in danger of becoming Greece.
/jlne.ws/3CyYCwO
Bank of England Expands Market Intervention to Avoid a "˜Fire Sale'; In the final week of its emergency bond-buying program, the central bank is expanding its efforts to restore bond market function.
Eshe Nelson - The New York Times
The Bank of England stepped up its intervention in Britain's bond market on Tuesday, the second expansion of its emergency measures in two days, as it warned of a "material risk" to the nation's financial stability from dysfunction in part of the market. For the past two and a half weeks, Britain's financial markets have faced turmoil after investors rebuffed the tax-cutting and spending policies of Prime Minister Liz Truss and her new government. Economists have widely condemned the policies over concerns they will stoke inflation, which is already near a 40-year high, and require large amounts of borrowing as interest rates rise. The pound dropped to a record low and bond prices fell, which caused bond yields to surge, leaving many Britons facing higher mortgage rates. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund said the government's policies were "complicating" the central bank's fight against inflation.
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CME Group volumes jump as derivatives maintain momentum; The group has seen ADV rise by 21% year on year as investors pile into derivatives in an attempt to navigate the current climate of volatility.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
CME Group has seen its quarterly international average daily volume (ADV) jump to 6.1 million contracts in Q3 2022, up 21% year on year. "Market conditions in the third quarter of the year continued to create a heightened need for risk management globally as clients worked to navigate volatility caused by ongoing geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty," said Derek Sammann, senior managing director and global head of commodities, options and international markets at CME Group.
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Solvency of financial institutions could be bigger threat than liquidity in next crisis, economist says
Vivien Lou Chen - MarketWatch
In a sign of the darkening outlook for the global economy and financial markets, the continuing debate over whether the next major crisis is on the way is shifting into a conversation about just what type of crisis it will be. For Neil Shearing, group chief economist at London-based Capital Economics, the bigger threat is not a liquidity crisis arising from rapidly rising interest rates and falling asset prices worldwide. Rather, it is the threat to the solvency of financial institutions, which usually requires government action, that's more important.
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A 2022 Nobel laureate in economics says rapid interest-rate hikes pose a threat to the financial system
Steve Goldstein - MarketWatch
One of the three Nobel economics laureates, Douglas Diamond, said Monday that the rapid rise in interest rates is a threat to the financial system. At a press conference announcing his award, Diamond said the research he did with Philip Dybvig shows what happens when people start to lose faith in the stability of the system.
/jlne.ws/3MnhO52
Global Wealth to Shrink by More Than 2% This Year, Allianz Says
Carolynn Look - Bloomberg
Global household wealth is on track for its first significant contraction since the great financial crisis of 2008, according to a report by Allianz. After three years of record gains in the value of household financial assets, 2022 is likely to result in a nominal drop of more than 2%, researchers said in a global wealth report published Wednesday. They called this year a "turning point" for global wealth, amid scant signs that a meaningful reversal will follow.
/jlne.ws/3VktHg4
Why the Bank of England's bond-buying facility is little used; Traders fear they will be left holding unwanted gilts if the central bank rejects their offer
Tommy Stubbington and Delphine Strauss - Financial Times
The Bank of England's £65bn bond-buying intervention, which initially succeeded in restoring a semblance of calm to markets, has been much smaller than advertised. Over the first 10 days of the operation, the BoE has purchased just £8.8bn of gilts. Although its daily size was doubled on Monday, and expanded to include inflation-linked gilts on Tuesday, there is little sign the central bank is going to get anywhere near the maximum potential size of the programme by the time it ends on Friday.
/jlne.ws/3Txkvn5
Crypto.com Announces Paris as European Regional Headquarters; Crypto.com Commits €150 Million Investment to Support Market Operations
Crypto.com
Crypto.com, the world's fastest growing cryptocurrency platform, announced today it will invest €150 million in France to support the establishment of its market operations, including a regional headquarters in Paris. This investment follows Crypto.com being registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) after clearance with the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) in September.
/jlne.ws/3g3BWx3
Exiled Wine Billionaire Hit With $416 Million Swiss Tax Bill; Pierre Castel filed tax returns under different name for years; Known as France's wealthiest tax exile, Castel left in 1981
Tara Patel - Bloomberg
Pierre Castel, the French billionaire behind the Nicolas chain of wine shops, was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in Swiss back taxes in a court ruling that found he deliberately hid his identity for decades as head of a global drinks empire. A Geneva appeals court found that Castel, 95, had filed tax returns under one first name between 1982 and 1994 rather than another, by which he is well known as the founder of world's third-largest wine trader. It put taxes and fines owed at around 415 million Swiss francs ($416 million).
/jlne.ws/3Cv33bX
Credit Suisse Faces US Tax Probe, Senate Inquiry Over Accounts
David Voreacos - Bloomberg
The Justice Department is investigating whether Credit Suisse Group AG continued to help US clients hide assets from authorities, eight years after the bank paid a $2.6 billion tax-evasion settlement and pledged to tackle the issue. Investigators are examining whether the bank aided US account holders, particularly with South American passports, who may not have told the Internal Revenue Service about assets totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, according to people familiar with the matter. Former bankers blew the whistle on the bank, court records show.
/jlne.ws/3rLKP0G
Crypto exchange Bittrex pays $29mn to settle US enforcement cases; Financial crime watchdogs extend crackdown against alleged violations of sanctions
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Crypto exchange Bittrex has agreed to pay $29mn to settle enforcement cases with US authorities for "apparent violations" of sanctions against a host of countries, including Iran, Cuba and Syria. The US Treasury said on Tuesday the case against the Washington-based company marked the first parallel enforcement actions by Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the crypto industry.
/jlne.ws/3CSwGFx
Grayscale Brief Says SEC Unfairly Rejected Bid for Bitcoin ETF; Firm wants to convert a $12 billion Bitcoin trust into an ETF Digital-asset manager files opening brief in suit against SEC
Sunil Jagtiani - Bloomberg
Grayscale Investments LLC, the largest crypto asset manager, said the US Securities and Exchange Commission acted arbitrarily in rebuffing a bid to convert its $12 billion spot Bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund. The rejection over the risk of fraud and manipulation in the spot Bitcoin market is "capricious" and "discriminatory" because the SEC has allowed futures-based Bitcoin ETFs and they are exposed to similar concerns, Grayscale said in the opening brief of its lawsuit against the regulator.
/jlne.ws/3MwWhac
In SEC Lawsuit, Grayscale Calls Spot ETF Rejection "˜Arbitrary, Capricious, and Discriminatory'
Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
Grayscale Investments called the the U S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) June decision to reject its application to convert its flagship Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) "arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory" in an opening legal brief filed as part of its lawsuit against the regulator. Grayscale filed suit against the SEC on June 29th, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the regulator's decision, which the SEC has published earlier in the day.
/jlne.ws/3EEo0Ui
Celius Bankruptcy Professional Bills Are Already Into Millions; A near-$3 million advisory bill has already been submitted; Crypto restructurings are a new market for lawyers, advisers
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
The first bills from the army of lawyers and advisers working on the bankruptcy of crypto lender Celsius Network LLC are in and already adding up to millions of dollars. Alvarez & Marsal North America LLC, a financial adviser for debtors, has asked to be paid about 80% of a near-$3 million bill for work involving 20 staffers over July 14 to Aug. 31, according to a filing Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3Mnk7VK
CFTC Chair: Don't expect crypto tech to be a 'free pass' from regulation
Kollen Post - The Block
The head of the CFTC explained his thinking behind a push for more regulatory authority in crypto, as well as the significance of a recent pursuit of a DAO. "We're gonna have to adapt, there's no doubt about it. This is not a very in-the-box moment," says Rostin Behnam, who chairs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Behnam was speaking at DC Fintech Week, during which he addressed the CFTC's recent blitz to get more regulatory authority in crypto. Of this push, Behnam explained: "What I've advocated for and what I've asked Congress for is very clearly spot authority over commodity tokens."
/jlne.ws/3MnQ7Jo
Former Google ads boss launches "˜Web3' search startup with backing from Coinbase, top VCs
Ryan Browne - CNBC
A top former Google executive wants to make searching the blockchain easier with his new startup. Sridhar Ramaswamy, who led the internet giant's ad business from 2013 to 2018, has started a new company called nxyz. The venture is officially launching Wednesday after attracting investment from several top investors, he told CNBC exclusively.
/jlne.ws/3yB7pgh
The Fed Did Print Oil Once. Those Days Are Gone The era of cheap money fed the US oil boom. Now that it's over, high energy prices could be here to stay.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg Opinion
Welcome to Elements, our daily energy and commodities newsletter. In today's take, Javier Blas argues that the tighter monetary policy needed to fight inflation may have the perverse impact of keeping oil prices high. It's certainly true that diesel prices, critical for keeping the global economy running, are high and climbing. To get Elements sent directly to your inbox, click here. Today's Take: Oil Without Cheap Money "You can't print energy!" As the US Federal Reserve hiked interest rate to fight inflation, the rallying cry from many in the oil industry has been that monetary policy can't resolve the current energy shortages that are pushing prices higher.
/jlne.ws/3EASRRR
Blue Ocean ATS Plans to Extend Hours
Shanny Basar - MarketsMedia
Blue Ocean ATS, which launched in October last year for overnight trading of US stocks, is planning to extend its hours of operation into the pre-trade session and after-hours trading in 2023. The Blue Ocean ATS session allows trading of US stocks during US overnight hours, from 8PM ET to 4AM ET, from Sunday to Thursday.
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | British spy chief says Russian military 'exhausted' in Ukraine
Niamh Cavanagh - Yahoo! News
The United Kingdom's top spy chief said Russia is in a "desperate situation," as its military forces are "exhausted" by an attempted invasion of Ukraine that has now dragged into its eighth month. "The costs to Russia, in people and equipment, are staggering," said Jeremy Fleming, the top British intelligence official, who spoke Tuesday at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a London think tank. "We know, and Russian commanders on the ground know, that their supplies and munitions are running out."
/jlne.ws/3RWFrm5
Putin Says All Infrastructure at Risk After Nord Stream Hit; Russian leader condemns gas-pipeline blasts as act of terror; Moscow's adversaries benefit from the attacks, Putin says
Bloomberg News
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said any energy infrastructure in the world is at risk after the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. The attacks were an act of terror that set "the most dangerous precedent," the Russian president told a Moscow energy forum on Wednesday. "It shows that any critically important object of transport, energy or utilities infrastructure is under threat" irrespective of where it is located or by whom it is managed, he said.
/jlne.ws/3RZZT5w
Europe Gas Swings as Russian War Risk Counters Higher Stockpiles; President Putin has threatened more attacks in Ukraine; as inventories are building, easing some fears for the winter
Verity Ratcliffe - Bloomberg
European natural gas prices fluctuated as fears that Russia's escalating war in Ukraine could hit supplies countered steadily building stockpiles in the continent. Benchmark futures swung between gains and losses. President Vladimir Putin threatened more missile attacks after cities across Ukraine were hit this week in the most intense barrage of strikes since the first days of the invasion. While orders for gas through Ukraine were stable for Wednesday, markets are nervous about risks to pipelines that are the last remaining route carrying the Russian fuel to western Europe.
/jlne.ws/3CsaG2P
Russia Sends More Fuel to Army In Ukraine Amid Mobilization
Bloomberg News
Russia has been increasing fuel deliveries to its military units near and inside Ukraine, with shipments reaching the highest since the invasion as the Kremlin mobilizes its forces against Kyiv's counteroffensive. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel deliveries to the Russian Defense Ministry's units in six regions bordering Ukraine as well as the annexed Donetsk and Luhansk regions rose to almost 220,000 tons in September, according to Bloomberg calculations based on an analysis of railway data. That's about four times the volume of a year earlier and exceeds shipments in March, the first full month after the invasion.
/jlne.ws/3erP1Qe
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Fixed Income market briefing October 2022
Lee Bartholomew, Head of Fixed Income Product R&D - Eurex
Reflecting on the businesses' third quarter performance, there is much to be positive about. The team continued to work hard to keep key initiatives on track, with several launches planned for October. Despite the holiday period, we were able to increase the dialogue with our members, liquidity providers and clients. The focus of these interactions was to discuss upcoming product initiatives and outline our roadmap for 2023. It was also a time to exchange and share perspectives, insights and updates on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in 2023 and beyond. More on this later.
/jlne.ws/3TiseVY
Nasdaq Announces End of Month Open Short Interest Positions in Nasdaq Stocks as of Settlement Date September 30, 2022
Nasdaq
At the end of the settlement date of September 30, 2022, short interest in 3,450 Nasdaq Global Marketâ„ securities totaled 10,500,336,239 shares compared with 10,247,432,237 shares in 3,449 Global Market issues reported for the prior settlement date of September 15, 2022. The end of September short interest represents 2.80 days average daily Nasdaq Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.03 days for the prior reporting period.
/jlne.ws/3yuL1VZ
ASX Group Monthly Activity Report - September 2022
ASX
Listings and Capital Raisings
In September 2022, total capital raised was $5.5 billion, down 49% on the previous corresponding period (pcp).
/jlne.ws/351gPmZ
Handling of Tick Sizes from October 31 onward
JPX
As previously announced, TSE have applied a separate set of narrower tick sizes to TOPIX100 constituents from January 14, 2014 onward (as prescribed in Rule 14, Paragraph 3, Item 1-b of the Business Regulations; hereinafter referred to as "narrow tick sizes"). The handling of the application from October 31 onward shall be as follows.
/jlne.ws/3Ckxz80
The Investor Rights Protection Club discussed the procedure for obtaining licenses to unlock assets
MOEX
On October 12, 2022, at an extraordinary meeting of the Investor Protection Club, the participants discussed the procedure for obtaining licenses to unlock the assets of Russian investors.
/jlne.ws/3emXfsM
MIAX Options Exchange - Experienced an MEI Connectivity Issue - All Systems Operating Normally
MIAX
Please be advised that the MIAX Options Exchange experienced an MIAX Express Interface (MEI) connectivity issue at approximately 09:50:40 through 09:51:18. We are investigating the root cause.
/jlne.ws/3RVGse3
Nasdaq September 2022 Volumes and 3Q22 Statistics
Nasdaq
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today reported monthly volumes for September 2022, as well as quarterly volumes, estimated revenue capture, number of listings and index statistics for the quarter ended September 30, 2022 on its investor relations website.
/jlne.ws/3CQ3mPK
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | BNP Paribas signed an agreement for the acquisition of Kantox
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas is pleased to announce the signature of an agreement for the acquisition of Kantox, a leading leading fintech for automation of currency risk management. Kantox's software solution has managed to successfully re-bundle the Corporate FX workflow, offering a one-stop-shop, API driven, plug-and-play solution which has emerged as a unique technology within the B2B cross-border payments sector. Kantox's technology provides unrivalled level of automation and sophistication to Corporates in setting up hedging strategies.
/jlne.ws/3CRWSje
How Jump Crypto Is Supporting Web3 Projects Across the DeFi Ecosystem
Kade Garrett - CoinDesk
Prior to his current role in the special projects group at Jump Crypto, Steve Kaminsky began his career in the traditional finance (TradFi) sphere, working in fixed income markets at Goldman Sachs. This experience has helped him understand the differences - and similarities - between these two interrelated worlds. Jump Crypto, the crypto arm of Jump Trading Group, focuses on ecosystem building, infrastructure development, quant research and trading, and has grown to nearly 200 employees globally.
/jlne.ws/3CN7dx4
Google Chases Amazon and Microsoft in Cloud With AI Technology; At Next '22 event, company unveils Intel-powered machines and new services as it looks to make gains on rivals.
Julia Love and Davey Alba - Bloomberg
Google on Tuesday announced a broad swath of updates to its cloud offerings, aiming to capitalize on its strength in artificial intelligence to gain market share from rivals. The new services - announced at Google's Next '22 event - include Vertex AI Vision, which is designed to make it easier to use AI technology such as image recognition. There's also an AI-based service called Translation Hub that translates documents in 135 languages, the Alphabet Inc.-owned company said.
/jlne.ws/3yBCEbg
"Two Problems for FinTech to Solve: Cross-Border Payments and ESG Data"
Ravi Menon - Monetary Authority of Singapore
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
I am grateful to SWIFT for the opportunity to speak to this distinguished gathering of finance and business leaders from across the world. Most of us here have an affiliation to finance or to technology, or more likely to both. Indeed, the extensive application of technology to enhance the design and delivery of financial services has become a defining feature of the last decade - the FinTech phenomenon. FinTech is increasingly pervasive across not just traditional financial institutions but also non-financial players ranging from small start-ups to large technology firms providing financial services.
/jlne.ws/3ennWha
Twitter Faces Only Bad Outcomes If the $44 Billion Musk Deal Closes; The company has been damaged by the drama over the deal, and things look bumpy if it goes through.
Kurt Wagner - Bloomberg
When Twitter Inc. co-founder Jack Dorsey invited Elon Musk to speak at a companywide retreat in early 2020, he asked the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer a prescient hypothetical question. "If you were running Twitter-by the way, do you want to run Twitter?" Dorsey joked as employees laughed. "What would you do?"
/jlne.ws/3RUOeVE
Robo-Adviser Betterment Launches Customized Crypto Portfolios; Betterment is the latest financial firm looking for ways to give clients direct access to cryptocurrencies
Vicky Ge Huang - The Wall Street Journal
Betterment LLC, the largest independent online financial adviser, is launching four thematic crypto investing portfolios for its retail and adviser customers. The product launch, scheduled for Wednesday, is the latest sign of mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies despite a $2 trillion wipeout in the crypto market since last November. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the country's oldest bank, said Tuesday that it would begin safeguarding clients' cryptocurrencies.
/jlne.ws/3SXhrjV
WisdomTree to Launch its First Blockchain-Enabled Fund
MarketsMedia
WisdomTree, the exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded product sponsor, has made effective its first open-end fund with share records that can be tokenized on blockchains. The WisdomTree Short-Term Treasury Digital Fund (WTSY) tracks the Solactive one to three-year Treasury index. WTSY is the first open-end fund with share records that can be tokenized on either the stellar or ethereum blockchains according to WisdomTree. The fund operates on a blockchain but does not invest in any cryptocurrencies.
/jlne.ws/3Ta7grW
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | The Latest Funding News and What it Means for Cyber Security in 2023
The Hacker News
The White House has recently announced a $1 billion cyber security grant program that is designed to help state and local governments improve their cyber defenses, especially about protecting critical infrastructure. The recent executive order stems from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that was signed almost a year ago. That bill allocated $1 billion for protecting critical infrastructure against cyber-attack in the wake of a series of high-profile ransomware attacks such as the one that brought down the Colonial Pipeline.
/jlne.ws/3g4ZvFq
Vista Equity Nears Roughly $4.5 Billion Deal for Cybersecurity Provider
Laura Cooper - WSJ
The private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners is near a deal to purchase the cybersecurity provider KnowBe4 Inc. for about $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, a rare leveraged buyout as financing for such deals has become harder to secure. The deal, which is expected to be unveiled Wednesday assuming the talks don't drag out or fall apart, values KnowBe4 shares at nearly $25 each. The stock closed at $21.59 on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3Mxi7u3
Paul Weiss turns to ex-DOJ official to co-lead cybersecurity practice
Sara Merken - Reuters
John Carlin, most recently a top U.S. Justice Department official serving under deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco, has joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to co-lead its cybersecurity and data protection practice, the New York law firm said on Tuesday.
Carlin, a former Morrison & Foerster partner who has held a number of senior government positions, will be a Washington, D.C.-based partner in Paul Weiss's litigation department. He left his role as principal associate deputy attorney general in July, a firm spokesperson said.
/jlne.ws/3rOBZPL
Hybrid work requires cybersecurity communication & transformation
Steve Riley - Security Magazine
Hybrid work means heightened cybersecurity concerns. Why? Because as businesses move away from on-premises operations and their employees regularly access company data in the cloud; practice BYOD; and connect to potentially unstable networks, legacy security controls can no longer overcompensate.
/jlne.ws/3rPRg2K
Google Cloud's Chronicle SIEM takes on Microsoft Sentinel
Kyle Alspach - Protocol
Long before Phil Venables got to Google Cloud, he had it on his mind that someone needed to fix the technology that powers security operations, the day-to-day work of monitoring and responding to alerts that is the heart of cyberdefense for many organizations. Ideally, they'd create a new security operations platform that would require less time spent managing data and setting up "plumbing" between tools.
/jlne.ws/3yAn4N0
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Why Celsius Doxxed Hundreds of Thousands of Users
Daniel Kuhn - CoinDesk
Celsius Network, the bankrupt crypto lender, accidentally doxxed all of its users. Last week, more than 29,000 pages of court documents hit the servers, revealing the financial details of hundreds of thousands of users that kept money on the "neobank" Celsius. The information appears to have been released as part of standard bankruptcy procedure as Celsius winds its way through the Chapter 11 restructuring process after freezing customer accounts in July. About 600,000 customer accounts are affected by the disclosure, revealing their wallet addresses, transaction histories, crypto holdings, recent transactions and other information.
/jlne.ws/3SWMY5B
Crypto Startup Funding Plunges to Lowest Level in Over a Year; VC funding for crypto startups sank 37% in the third quarter.
Hannah Miller - Bloomberg
Crypto startups are suffering from this year's mass selloff of digital currencies. Venture capital investment in the industry sank to its lowest level in more than a year during the third quarter, according to data from research firm PitchBook. Globally, VC firms invested $4.44 billion in crypto startups in the quarter, a 37% decline from the same period in 2021, the PitchBook numbers show. The funding drop is even more severe compared with the highs of the first quarter, when venture capitalists poured a record $8.83 billion into crypto and blockchain companies.
/jlne.ws/3Cv3V0d
Crypto Attack Swipes $100 Million From DeFi Service Mango
Sidhartha Shukla - Bloomberg
An attacker spirited away about $100 million from decentralized finance provider Mango by manipulating the price of its token in an exploit that wiped out depositors on the crypto platform. The heist began with two accounts funded with the stablecoin USD Coin, the platform said Wednesday on Twitter. The accounts took large positions in Mango perpetual futures, causing the price of the Mango token to spike.
/jlne.ws/3COvgvC
Valkyrie to Liquidate Bitcoin Balance Sheet ETF After Limited Uptake
Danny Nelson - CoinDesk
Crypto asset manager Valkyrie Funds said Tuesday it will liquidate its Balance Sheet Opportunities ETF (VBB), a bitcoin bull-focused investment vehicle that fizzled during its less than one year life. The fund will be liquidated at the end of October, said the company in a statement, and then delisted from Nasdaq where it has traded since December 2021. Investors who hold the exchange-traded fund through liquidation will get a cash redemption for the value of their shares, according to regulatory filings.
/jlne.ws/3MoTGPk
Crypto Miner Core Scientific Will Defend its Interests in Celsius Bankruptcy
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
Crypto hosting and mining company Core Scientific (CORZ) has said it intends to pursue what it feels it is owed by Celsius Mining, the mining affiliate of the beleaguered crypto lender. The firm said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Wednesday that it "intends to vigorously defend its interests" and that it has retained legal advisors to assist it with relation to Celsius Mining.
/jlne.ws/3TcjeS7
How Market Manipulation Led to a $100M Exploit on Solana DeFi Exchange Mango
Shaurya Malwa - CoinDesk
A rogue crypto trader utilized millions of dollars to manipulate the prices of Mango's MNGO tokens on the namesake decentralized exchange (DEX) to eventually drain over $116 million in liquidity from the platform. The exchange allows users to trade spot and perpetual futures using its on-chain trading interface at low fees. Some $30 million worth of crypto was traded on the exchange in the past 24 hours, as per CoinGecko data. The move stemmed amid ongoing drama surrounding a bad debt within the Solana DeFi ecosystem that involved the lending application Solend and Mango.
/jlne.ws/3MrU5AB
Binance made "˜grossly inaccurate' UK filings, joint venture partners allege; Corporate statements raise questions about crypto exchange's operations in Britain
Joshua Oliver and Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Binance has been accused by the co-owner of a UK subsidiary of filing a "grossly inaccurate" annual report for one of the British entities associated with the world's largest crypto exchange. The directors of Dimplx, a UK company formed as part of a joint venture with Binance, said the 2020 financial statements for one of Binance's UK companies "do not accurately report" the nature of its business, its turnover, assets and liabilities, "including potential tax liabilities".
/jlne.ws/3yz0iFi
Blockchain Development Platform Tatum Raises $41.5M From Octopus, Circle, Others
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
Blockchain development platform Tatum has raised $41.5 million in funding from Octopus Ventures, Circle, Leadblock Fund and founders of crypto exchange Bitpanda, among others. Tatum's aim is to slash the time-to-market of blockchain application development. Its platform simplifies the creation of blockchain operations in single lines of code to streamline the development process, incorporating features such as smart contracts, fee and payment solutions, real-time alerts, and crypto-exchange functions.
/jlne.ws/3esU7vB
Meta Debuts $1,500 VR Headset Targeting Working Professionals; The Quest Pro is the latest device in Zuckerberg's metaverse pursuit
Kurt Wagner - Bloomberg
Meta Platforms Inc. unveiled its newest virtual-reality headset on Tuesday, a foray into the world of high-end VR devices designed to entice creators and working professionals to adopt Mark Zuckerberg's vision for an immersive digital future. The Meta Quest Pro is the company's latest offering in a product line previously branded as Oculus. The Quest Pro includes a number of technological advancements from the company's Quest 2 headset, which was launched in late 2020.
/jlne.ws/3VwA0gO
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | What are ESG and 'woke capitalism'? State treasurers weigh in on fight over where tax money goes; The divide is over whether ESG investing is socially conscious or partisan.
Stephanie Ebbs - ABC News
In the final month before the midterm elections, much of the attention will focus on high-profile races to choose governors, senators, representatives and more. But another debate has been heating up further down the ballot among the officials charged with safeguarding states' money. Some Republican state treasurers are now arguing that "woke capitalism" is a threat, and they're taking action to push back against it.
/jlne.ws/3CQyGxL
Washington, D.C., Is Starting to Crack Down on Crypto; Here's where the White House, the SEC and other government agencies currently stand on digital assets.
Victoria Vergolina - Bloomberg
Back in March, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that directed every relevant federal agency to work on guidance related to digital assets and to submit a report with their recommendations. We're now in that "time to report back" window, and the White House, along with other government agencies, have started providing updates on their findings. The White House's policy recommendations included suggestions for better consumer and investor protections.
/jlne.ws/3rLC7Qb
DraftKings CEO Sees California Sports Betting Approval in 2024
Christopher Palmeri - Bloomberg
DraftKings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jason Robins said online sports betting in California probably won't become legal this year. "More than likely this will pass in 2024," Robins said Tuesday at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, a big industry trade show. Robins said it's been hard to drum up support for Proposition 27 ahead of next month's vote because opponents of the ballot measure are spending more than $100 million on advertising.
/jlne.ws/3ClB5PE
Joe Biden warns of "˜consequences' for Saudi Arabia after oil production cuts; US president vows to re-evaluate relations with Riyadh after Opec move threatens price surge
James Politi - Financial Times
Joe Biden warned that Saudi Arabia would face "consequences" for defying Washington by announcing large cuts to oil production last week as he vowed to re-evaluate the US relationship with Riyadh in talks with Congress next month. "I'm not going to get into what I'd consider and what I have in mind. But there will be consequences," the US president told CNN in an interview on Tuesday night. "When the House and Senate get back [after the midterm elections]"‰."‰."‰."‰there's going to be some consequences."
/jlne.ws/3ERNQ7F
The World's Hunger for US Oil and Gas Has Biden Walking a Tightrope High; prices pose a political risk at home, but allies abroad are desperate for aid.
Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
The message from President Joe Biden's administration to oil executives was familiar, but the tone was more urgent than ever. Help us protect consumers at home by sending less American-made fuel overseas and boosting stockpiles, US officials pleaded during a virtual meeting in late September, one in a series of similar gatherings held this year with companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Marathon Petroleum Corp. Yet again, industry leaders didn't budge.
/jlne.ws/3s7Pp9X
Rio Tinto's Aging Quebec Plant Gets $535 Million Upgrade in Critical Metals Push
Mathieu Dion - Bloomberg
A Rio Tinto Plc plant in Quebec is getting an upgrade -- and backing from Canada's government -- to help the mining giant slash greenhouse gas emissions and boost output of metals crucial to electric vehicles. Rio Tinto is spending about C$515 million ($374 million) on its Fer et Titane plant in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec for upgrades that include electrifying furnaces and replacing coal in a push to cut the facility's carbon emissions in half by 2030.
/jlne.ws/3ST6BeQ
Russian media confronts new problem: Reality
Alexander Nazaryan - Yahoo! News
Last week a Russian radio station conducted an interview with an official in Kherson, one of the four regions illegally annexed by Russia as part of its invasion of Ukraine. Like virtually all media in Russia, the station, Radio Rossii, follows an unspoken rule of hewing to the Kremlin's line about the "special military operation" launched in February going more or less according to plan. That the spetzoperatsiya is a full-blown war, or that the war is going poorly, is a taboo topic within Russia.
/jlne.ws/3rLBPZB
How India's proposed digital rupee would be different from cryptocurrency
Niharika Sharma - Quartz
The Reserve bank of India (RBI) is set to pilot digital currency. "E-rupee or digital rupee will provide an additional option to the currently available forms of money. It is substantially not different from banknotes, but being digital it is likely to be easier, faster, and cheaper," said the central bank's Oct. 7 concept note (pdf). The RBI has been working in a phased manner towards a digital currency's launch, although there is no deadline.
/jlne.ws/3RUgY0K
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Federal Court Orders Texas Fraudulent Forex Trader and His Company to Pay Over $940,000
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a consent order on October 7 for a permanent injunction, monetary sanctions, and equitable relief against Troy Mason of Grand Prairie, Texas, and his company, Ztegrity, Inc., formerly based in Houston, Texas.
/jlne.ws/3RTBY7R
SEC Expands WhatsApp Scrutiny to Money Manager Communications; Agency queries record-keeping policies at dozens of firms; SEC, CFTC recently fined Wall Street banks record $2 billion
Lydia Beyoud - Bloomberg
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether asset managers used WhatsApp and other outside messaging apps to conduct official business, ratcheting up its probe into Wall Street's record-keeping practices. The regulator has recently sent letters to investment firms requesting information on their employees' communications practices, according to three people familiar with the matter. Dozens of firms have received the queries into which devices and apps they allow for official communications, said one of the people who, like the others, asked not to be identified discussing the matter due to its sensitivity. The SEC, which declined to comment, also wants to know whether the investment firms are retaining electronic records generated on those platforms, the person said.
/jlne.ws/3CMHwwx
The Auditor's Responsibility for Fraud Detection
SEC
Fraud causes significant losses to investors each year. Frauds that affect issuers and their investors may involve asset misappropriation, financial reporting misconduct, or, more generally, corruption. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners ("ACFE") estimates that organizations lose 5% of revenue to fraud each year, an estimated loss of $4.7 trillion on a global scale.[2]
/jlne.ws/3yuIoDB
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Fraud Guarantee Co-Founder for Engaging in Fraudulent Securities Offering
SEC
On October 11, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against Florida resident Lev Parnas for his role in participating in an offering fraud that raised millions of dollars from investors.
/jlne.ws/3TdzmTd
SEC Obtains Court Order to Enforce Investigative Subpoenas Against Two Principals of Broadway Musical Fund
SEC
On September 29, 2022, the Hon. Jesse Furman, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, granted the Securities and Exchange Commission's application to enforce subpoenas for production of documents and testimony issued to Curtis Wayne Cronin ("Cronin") and John Joseph ("Joseph"), both Managing Partners of Broadway Strategic Return Fund, LP (the "Fund"), a fund that invests in securities related to theatrical productions.
/jlne.ws/3rOshNn
Totem Wealth financial adviser permanently banned from providing financial services
ASIC
ASIC has permanently banned Totem Wealth Pty Ltd director James Carlos Reynolds, of Robina, Queensland, from providing financial services.
From 2017 to the time of banning, Mr Reynolds was the sole director of Totem Wealth, an advisory firm that purported to offer "˜lifestyle' financial advice.
/jlne.ws/3rPTwXU
ESMA announces strategic priorities for the next five years
ESMA
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its Strategy for 2023 - 2028. In the Strategy, ESMA details its long-term priorities and how it will use its competences and toolbox to respond to future challenges and developments.
/jlne.ws/3g11kDA
SFC reprimands and fines Asia Research & Capital Management Limited $1.75 million and bans former senior executive Billy Wong Yim Chi for two months
Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined Asia Research & Capital Management Limited (ARCM) $1.75 million for failures relating to its non-compliance with the European Union's short selling reporting requirements (EU Regulation) and to promptly notify the SFC of its material regulatory breaches (Note 1).
/jlne.ws/3yC5Kau
Justice Department Money-Laundering Team Names Leaders as Ukraine War Raises Its Profile; Section becomes an increasingly important player amid Biden administration's response to Russia invasion
Dylan Tokar - The Wall Street Journal
A team of federal prosecutors who specialize in tracing the flow of dirty money will assume new leadership as the Justice Department ramps up its efforts to police sanctions on Russia and to seize assets held by Russian oligarchs. The Justice Department on Tuesday named two veteran prosecutors to lead its money-laundering and asset-recovery section. The section has become an increasingly important player amid the Biden administration's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3RWVhgm
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Rich Millennials Have Lost Confidence in Stock Market, BofA Says; A new survey by the bank finds that the young and wealthy prefer assets like cryptocurrency, real estate and private equity.
Nur Dayana Mustak and Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
Wealthy young Americans have lost confidence in the stock market as a primary vehicle for creating wealth and are increasingly turning to alternative investments to fund their futures, a Bank of America survey has found. Individuals ages 21 to 42 with at least $3 million in assets have only a quarter of their portfolio in equities, compared with more than half for those who are older, according to the study, which was released Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3g0hWLN
David Einhorn Says Value Investing Might Never Come Back
Hema Parmar and Sonali Basak - Bloomberg
Hedge fund manager David Einhorn said he doesn't know if value investing will ever be in vogue again. "I don't know that it ever comes back," the Greenlight Capital founder said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the Robin Hood Investors Conference in New York. Einhorn, 53, said most value investors are being put out of business, citing "serious changes to the market structure."
/jlne.ws/3enmJWW
UK Turmoil Spawns the Return of Bond Vigilantes; They won't be satisfied with just Britain. Their presence is extending to Germany, Italy and emerging markets.
Mohamed A. El-Erian - Bloomberg
The turmoil in the UK bond market threatens not only the stability of the country's financial system but also the economic and social well-being of most of its citizens. It is a situation that is going from bad to worse, and other countries must watch it carefully. Underpinning the recent disruption is the reemergence of the bond vigilantes - a debt-disciplining financial force that, long repressed, is starting to reassert itself.
/jlne.ws/3emAJAu
Americans Are Pushing Up Luxury Real Estate Prices in Paris; High-end properties in the French capital are in demand as the strong dollar draws US buyers overseas.
Alice Kantor - Bloomberg
Luxury properties in Paris are selling for record prices this year as Americans take advantage of a strong dollar to snap up high-end overseas homes. The average price of a prime Parisian property - defined as homes that sell for more than 3 million euros ($2.9 million) - rose 9% to 5.47 million euros in the first half of this year from 5 million euros in 2020, according to real estate agency Barnes. With demand surging, the agency is expecting its sales volumes this year to top a record-setting 2021.
/jlne.ws/3g4uHEM
Disease and war are shaping our economy; As the new IMF report focuses on continuing downside risks, what can and should be done?
Martin Wolf - Financial Times
It was not familiar economic forces that caused the upheavals of recent years, but Covid and the war in Ukraine. This reminds us that the most destructive forces we know are indifferent nature and wicked humanity. In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF stresses the "cost of living crisis" and the economic slowdown in China. Yet the policy response to Covid, the unbalanced recovery from that disease and Vladimir Putin's war caused the former, while China's response to Covid caused the latter. Disease and war have indeed shaken our world.
/jlne.ws/3Ey7lBV
Andrew Bailey rules out extending Bank of England intervention; Governor sticks with Friday deadline for central bank action and tells pension funds they have three days left
Chris Giles, Adam Samson, Tommy Stubbington and Josephine Cumbo - Financial Times
Andrew Bailey dashed the hopes of pension funds on Tuesday, ruling out continuing the Bank of England's £65bn bond-buying intervention into next week. The BoE governor said that although strains had been felt, market conditions in the government bonds "seemed calmer" on Tuesday after it had staged its second emergency intervention in two days.
/jlne.ws/3ence62
Vanguard to close a US ETF for the first time; The $44mn US Liquidity ETF has failed to build scale since its 2018 debut
Jackie Noblett - Financial Times
Vanguard has announced it intends to close a US exchange traded fund, marking a first for the asset manager despite its 20 years in the market. The firm intends to liquidate the $44mn Vanguard US Liquidity Factor ETF in November, the firm announced. The fund, the smallest in its six-fund suite of factor-tilting products, has failed to gain scale since its 2018 debut. The remaining funds have a combined $3.4bn in assets, the manager noted in the release.
/jlne.ws/3fPpIYz
Industry body warns on property sector's failure to cut emissions; Change in regulation or economic shock could quickly expose mispricing of less green buildings, says Urban Land Institute
George Hammond - Financial Times
Property groups across Europe risk major writedowns unless they take urgent steps to reduce carbon emissions from buildings they own, according to an industry research group. European property owners, investors and valuers have failed to account for the cost of transitioning to net zero, the Urban Land Institute said, resulting in a widespread overvaluation of offices, shops and residential property, which it describes as a "carbon bubble".
/jlne.ws/3CR5l6r
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | ESG Strategy Too Hot for SEC Is Attracting Fund Bosses in Europe
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
An ESG strategy that's too controversial for US regulators and some major ratings companies has been embraced by Fidelity International and other European financial firms as a way to safeguard long-term returns. Double materiality, whereby an investor doesn't just screen for the environmental, social or governance risks facing their portfolio, but also measures its ESG impact on the world, isn't incorporated in Securities and Exchange Commission rules or proposals. Nor does it shape the bulk of ESG ratings provided by firms such as MSCI Inc. But in Europe, the idea is gaining serious traction in the market and among regulators.
/jlne.ws/3SUXoTp
BlackRock, Citi CEOs Won't Be Returning to Key Climate Talks; Absences come as credibility of some net-zero pledges in doubt; This year's COP coincides with dangerous increase in CO2
Alastair Marsh - Bloomberg
The biggest climate event of the calendar looks set to draw far fewer chief executives than it did just a year ago.m BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink won't be at the COP27 summit in Egypt next month and will instead attend a meeting of the firm's board of directors, according to people familiar with his plans. Citigroup Inc. CEO Jane Fraser will also stay away, as will Bill Winters of Standard Chartered Plc, spokespeople for the banks said. All three made a point of attending in 2021.
/jlne.ws/3Th6Ksw
Desperate Europeans Return to the World's Oldest Fuel for Warmth; "˜It's back to the old days' as demand for firewood soars due to gas shortage.
Lars Paulsson and Josefine Fokuhl - Bloomberg
Not far from Berlin's Tempelhof airport, Peter Engelke is putting up a new security gate at his warehouse because of concerns about desperate people pilfering his stock. The precious asset at risk is firewood. Engelke's actions reflect growing anxiety across Europe as the continent braces for energy shortfalls, and possibly blackouts, this winter. The apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline is the latest sign of the region's critical position as Russia slashes supplies in the standoff over the war in Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3CSpfhB
Greenland Ice Sheet May Be More Vulnerable to Climate Change, Study Finds
Lucinda Cameron - Press Association
Climate change may be having more impact on the melting Greenland ice sheet than previously thought, new research suggests. The study found rising air temperatures amplify the effects of melting caused by ocean warming, leading to greater ice loss from the world's second largest ice sheet.
/jlne.ws/3Sa9IOB
Climate change puts energy security at risk; Countries must triple investment in renewable energy
World Meteorological Organization
The supply of electricity from clean energy sources must double within the next eight years to limit global temperature increase. Otherwise, there is a risk that climate change, more extreme weather and water stress will undermine our energy security and even jeopardize renewable energy supplies, according to a new multi-agency report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO's State of Climate Services annual report, which includes inputs from 26 different organizations, focuses on energy this year because it holds the key to international agreements on sustainable development and climate change and, indeed, to the planet's health.
/jlne.ws/3MpMX7S
Anti-ESG Can Be Good Business; Also Elon Musk Twitter miscellanea, crypto custody, margin lending, the economics Nobel and Damien Hirst dot NFTs.
Matt Levine - Bloomberg
My basic view of bubbles is that if you can identify a bubble, and you have some free time, the right move is to sell into the bubble. Not sell short, mind you, which is risky; you don't know when the bubble will pop. Sell long. Get into the business that is bubbly, because that's where the money is. There is demand; become the supply. My model of Adam Neumann is that he correctly identified a huge bubble in venture funding for fast-growing not-quite-tech companies, positioned himself in front of a firehose of SoftBank money, and became dynastically wealthy as that bubble popped. He was the Big Short of the recent tech bubble, but without the timing risk of actually selling short.
/jlne.ws/3ekvRvH
Why there can be no net-zero without protecting nature; With many companies still getting to grips with acknowledging the importance of combating nature loss, Andy Beanland of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development argues for a fundamental shift in attitude that recognizes nature and biodiversity as material to business
Andy Beanland - IMD
For years, some of the world's biggest and most influential companies have been setting ambitious plans to cut their carbon emissions as part of humanity's biggest challenge in the 21st century: to reduce global warming. More than 3,000 such companies have now signed up to the Science-Based Targets Initiative, a global partnership that includes the United Nations Global Compact and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to reduce their emissions in line with climate science.
/jlne.ws/3g1XV7g
ESG Needs a Shared Language; As a cross-sector collaboration, ESG means different things to different people, but systems change will require building a shared understanding between diverse stakeholders.
Mark Horoszowski - Stanford Social Innovation Review
ESG investing has been all over the headlines lately, and not in a good way. As discussions about ESG become more and more polarized-while progressive politicians push for aggressive regulations, billionaires like Elon Musk call it a "scam" and nonprofits accuse businesses of greenwashing-leaving consumers increasingly confused. As a result, as Witold Henisz puts it, the ESG movement is being delayed, which is already "having a substantive and dangerous impact," delaying needed climate action and stymying progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
/jlne.ws/3TelA2L
Regulations and Recession Fear Are Making Managers Rethink ESG; Almost half of asset managers plan to pause or reconsider their current ESG strategies, according to KPMG.
Hannah Zhang - Institutional Investor
Asset managers are pumping the brakes on environmental, social, and governance strategies. Forty-eight percent of asset management CEOs plan to pause or reconsider their ESG efforts over the next six months, according to KPMG's 2022 U.S. CEO Outlook, which is expected to be published on Tuesday. Thirty-one percent of the CEOs said they had already done so.
/jlne.ws/3yyLq9R
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Credit Suisse CEO Tries to Shield Employees from the Storm; The Swiss bank is under pressure after numerous scandals have cost it several billion dollars.
Luc Olinga - TheStreet
Reassuring internally and externally. This is the mission that Ulrich Körner set for himself at a time when Credit Suisse, founded in 1856, is going through one of the most difficult and painful periods in its history. Körner, who took over as CEO last August, wants to give the impression that all is well, that the boat is sailing smoothly, despite the fact that the waters are threatening. But sometimes this exercise turns into a tough balancing act.
/jlne.ws/3EBD05o
Credit Suisse faces U.S. tax probe, senate inquiry - Bloomberg News
Reuters
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Credit Suisse continued helping U.S. clients hide assets from authorities, eight years after the Swiss bank paid a $2.6-billion tax evasion settlement, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3Mt2tjw
Banks Turn to Less Lucrative Deals to Cope With M&A Loan Drought; US has seen a 55% plunge in corporate loans for M&A this year; Adds to headache for banks with hung debt from leveraged deals
Jacqueline Poh and Josyana Joshua - Bloomberg
Banks globally are finding there are fewer corporate acquisitions to finance now, forcing lenders to focus on a less lucrative business: giving loans to corporations looking to cover rising expenses amid high inflation. The value of global acquisitions has dropped about 29% compared with the same time a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, amid widespread market volatility that's left firms dealing with soaring interest rates. That's led to a drop in new business for banks arranging high-grade loans backing deals, with a 55% slump in the US year-to-date compared with the same period in 2021 and a similar plunge in Europe.
/jlne.ws/3SXs8D6
Credit Suisse Was Part of Foreign-Exchange "˜Conspiracy Network,' Lawyer Says
Zijia Song and Chris Dolmetsch - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG was part of a "conspiracy network" focused on rigging the foreign exchange market, a lawyer said in opening arguments in an antitrust suit against the bank. Christopher Burke, who is representing a group of plaintiff pension funds and other investors, told jurors on Tuesday that Credit Suisse and 15 other banks participated in online chatrooms in which they colluded on spreads for currency pairs from late 2007 through 2013.
/jlne.ws/3SVTlpW
Wedbush Financial Services Acquires Significant Stake in Velocity Trade; Investment expands Wedbush's global footprint with connectivity to over 20 International Liquidity Centers and an extension into FX Prime Clearing services
Wedbush press release via Businesswire
Wedbush Financial Services, the parent company of Wedbush Securities Inc, is making a significant investment in Velocity Trade, making it the largest outside shareholder (subject to regulatory approval). Velocity Trade is a global brokerage firm offering access to global OTC and exchange listed markets, as well as customized Wealth Management solutions via its WealthTech product suite. This investment expands Wedbush's global presence in new asset classes and commodities trading, enhancing its robust suite of client offerings, to become one of the world's leading non-bank global multi-asset financial services providers.
/jlne.ws/3CuEXhe
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Risk of Covid death almost zero for people who are boosted and treated, White House Covid czar says
Spencer Kimball - CNBC
People who stay up to date on their vaccines and receive treatments when they have breakthrough infections face almost no risk of dying from Covid-19, a top health official said on Tuesday. Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, said the U.S. has made major strides in fighting Covid since the early days of the pandemic when thousands of people were dying daily from the virus.
/jlne.ws/3rOYqVe
COVID-19 can increase your risk of developing 44 neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's, new study suggests
Alexa Mikhail - FORTUNE
COVID-19 can impact the risk of developing a host of neurological disorders. While long COVID's impact on people is still being critically studied, new research found that the virus may increase the risk of developing memory problems and even Alzheimer's in the year after initial infection. "It's really sobering," says epidemiologist and researcher on the study Ziyad Al-Aly in an interview with WBUR. "COVID-19 is really not as benign as some people think it is."
/jlne.ws/3yvfUJO
Covid: Professor warns of two new "˜telltale' symptoms as cases rise; Professor Tim Spector of the Covid Zoe app warned that people should get tested immediately if they see these two symptoms
Thomas Kingsley - The Independent
A leading professor has warned people to assume they have Covid if they wake up with two telltale symptoms. Professor Tim Spector, founder of the Covid Zoe app, warned that fatigue in the morning, even after a good night's sleep, and a sore throat might be signs of infection.
/jlne.ws/3VfcfcZ
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | New York City Rents Have Jumped Faster Than Any Other Major US City; Report from comptroller says a lack of building in the five boroughs has added to surging housing costs.
Paulina Cachero - Bloomberg
Rents in New York have increased faster than in any other major city over the past year, according to a report from comptroller Brad Lander. Lander, who oversees the city budget, is spotlighting something that's obvious to anyone who has looked for an apartment, or had their lease come up for renewal, in recent months.
/jlne.ws/3yzjtyR
U.S. Gulf grain exports slowed by low Mississippi River
Karl Plume - Reuters
U.S. crop exports at Louisiana Gulf Coast terminals were at their lowest level in nine years for the first week of October, a period when export shipments typically accelerate, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data issued on Tuesday. Low water on southern sections of the Mississippi River closed the major shipping waterway for days last week, halting the flow of grain barges from Midwest farms to the nation's largest grain shipping port.
/jlne.ws/3emI8zJ
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Survival Tips for Tech Startups as Funding Dries Up; Tech optimism replaced by gloomy outlook at Singapore forums; Venture funding has dwindled to lowest level in nine quarters
Yoolim Lee - Bloomberg
For years, becoming a unicorn was the main goal of startups. Now, with venture funding drying up and many young firms' survival in doubt, another creature is the talk of the town: the cockroach. Venture capitalists and technology chieftains converged in Singapore in recent weeks to hobnob over a number of high-profile annual conferences, marking the city-state's grand coming-out-of-Covid party. Yet gone was glamor and talk of blitzscaling, and participants instead focused on the drastic need for conserving cash and a dimming future.
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