| December 30, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Jimmy Carter, the longest living ex-president in United States history, died Sunday afternoon in his hometown of Plains, GA. James Earl Carter, Jr., who simply went as "Jimmy" lived 100 years, not having running water in his home until he was 9 years old or electricity until President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Administration brought it to farms in Georgia.
President Joseph Biden has designated January 9 as a national day of mourning, but no other details about the funeral of Carter are available. Normally, U.S. stock markets would be closed the day of the state funeral for a former U.S. president. The NYSE honored the former president this morning with a moment of silence on the trading floor.
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today by Lee Reiners, a lecturing fellow at the Duke Financial Economics Center, who advocates for merging the SEC and CFTC in an opinion pieced titled "Two Agencies That Should Become One" with the subheadline "Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy should encourage Congress to merge the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission."
Reiners argues that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by President-elect Trump's appointees Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has an opportunity to fix a longstanding inefficiency in U.S. financial regulation: merging the SEC and CFTC. Created in different eras, these agencies oversee securities and commodities markets, yet their jurisdictions increasingly overlap, leading to interagency friction, duplicative oversight, and wasted taxpayer money.
Despite bipartisan support for a merger - advocated by figures like Barney Frank, Paul Volcker, and Paul Atkins - political roadblocks, driven by committee politics and campaign contributions, have kept the agencies separate. With DOGE's mission to cut inefficiencies and eliminate redundancies, merging these two regulators represents low-hanging fruit. Such a move would streamline oversight, save resources, and better address emerging challenges, like cryptocurrency regulation.
Before tackling broader reforms, such as regulating crypto under the contentious FIT21 proposal, DOGE can make a lasting impact by consolidating the SEC and CFTC into a single, unified markets regulator, delivering on its promise to modernize government operations.
The Kalshi event contracts linked to the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO were listed as postponed as of Sunday night and this morning and now have disappeared from Kalshi's website search. Kalshi's website is kalshi.com.
The very retired and entirely enjoying himself Gary DeWaal bestowed on JLN's GoFundMe Campaign before Christmas while I was enroute back home after my visit to New York and the NYSE and I missed it. Our total for the campaign is now up to $79,127 raised for our goal of $300,000.
In case you didn't know it, there are different types of glasses for different wines. The Wall Street Journal is here to help you with this subject with a story titled " with the subheadline "Raise one of these glasses for any bottle and every occasion." BTW, there are different glasses for different beers too, which is the subject for another day.
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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 AFX CEO John Shay Advocates for Data-Driven Alternatives to SOFR in Financial Markets JohnLothianNews.com John Shay, CEO of American Financial Exchange (AFX), emphasized the importance of data-driven insights in the financial markets during a recent interview with John Lothian News. Shay highlighted the value of AFX's approach, stating, "The real value of this idea is the data, because the data can sit alongside SOFR (secured overnight financing rate), rather than taking what SOFR has said is this arbitrary credit spread for one, three, six and nine months." He explained that AFX's data empirically demonstrates actual credit spreads, providing a more accurate reflection of market conditions. Watch the video »
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Jimmy Carter, US president and human rights champion, 1924-2024; After a single term in the White House, the Georgia native became an influential moral voice
Jurek Martin - Financial Times
Jimmy Carter, who has died aged 100, can lay fair claim to have been the best ex-president the US ever had. His domestic good works, his mediation in trouble spots around the world and the general sagacity of his advice were all exemplary. As an independent-minded moral voice he had few peers. Yet his one-term presidency, from 1977-81, is still widely dismissed as a disappointment.
/jlne.ws/4gFiQYA
***** A good man who lived by his principles and shared his faith with his teaching, preaching, writing and hammering.~JJL
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Legalizing sports gambling was a terrible bet; With societal ills and sports scandals on the rise, Congress should rein in the betting industry.
Editorial Board - The Washington Post
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush signed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Known as the Bradley Act after its principal author, Sen. Bill Bradley (D-New Jersey), a basketball Hall of Famer deeply concerned about the integrity of competitive sports, the bill forbade states to "sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, license, or authorize by law ... betting, gambling, or wagering" on sports competitions. (There were exceptions for Nevada and three states with sports lotteries.) In 2018, however, the Supreme Court overturned the Bradley Act in the name of states' rights. "Congress can regulate sports gambling directly," Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority, "but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own." Critics warned of an avalanche of ill effects. A dissenting justice, Stephen G. Breyer, cited Congress's fear that legalized betting would "threaten to change the nature of sporting events from wholesome entertainment for all ages to devices for gambling."
/jlne.ws/4gYdpUl
***** Crypto.com a week ago announced you can bet on The Big Game, aka the Super Bowl, with event contracts on a new sports trading version of its app. This is taking event trading too far. I have a commentary I will publish on this later today.~JJL
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Chicago Loses Another Financial Firm as Peak6 Moves HQ to Austin; Peak6's largest office was already in the Texas capital; The investment firm will maintain a location in Chicago
Joe Lovinger - Bloomberg
Peak6 Investments will transfer its global headquarters to Austin from Chicago, making it the latest finance firm to dial back its operations in the Midwestern city. The company, with a portfolio that has ranged from early-stage businesses to professional sports teams, said the move will put its executive team closer to the bulk of its workers, a majority of whom are already in Texas. The firm will maintain a Chicago office even after the change. "Texas has been a cornerstone of PEAK6's growth for over a decade," co-Chief Executive Officer Matt Hulsizer said in a statement.
/jlne.ws/4gvKBm4
***** Peak6 has offices in the CBOT Building in the 1929 trading room that looks down LaSalle Street. It was one of the coolest offices around when the financial district was still dynamic and full of people. It will still be a very cool space should Peak6 vacate it, if they haven't already.~JJL
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Let us abandon our 'fat, relentless egos' in 2025; If we focus more on what's going on around us, we may end up feeling better about things
Jemima Kelly - Financial Times (opinion)
"In the moral life," the late Anglo-Irish novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch wrote, "the enemy is the fat relentless ego." One could take out the words "the moral" there and the sentence - from Murdoch's philosophical work The Sovereignty of Good (1970) - would work just as well. It is not only in our inner moral lives that the ego can be so destructive, but in civic and political life too. And when an ego is bruised, it can be particularly dangerous. I have thought about this a lot ever since hearing a segment of an excellent interview with the late foreign correspondent Dame Ann Leslie on the BBC's HARDtalk programme. She was speaking about what it is that "turns powerful people bad". (The whole episode, originally recorded in 2008 and released again upon Leslie's death in 2023, is very much worth the 23 minutes of your time.)
/jlne.ws/4gMqAHW
***** I recommend the book "The Noble Renaissance" by Carrie Lloyd.
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Friday's Top Three
Our most read story last Friday was, Bets Tied to CEO Murder Case Test Limits on Event Contracts from Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance. Second most read was, Singapore's stock exchange hits 20-year low in listed companies from the Financial Times. Third was, Singapore Pulls Ahead of Hong Kong in Race to Be Crypto Hub from Bloomberg.
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| Lead Stories | Jimmy Carter, US president and human rights champion, 1924-2024; After a single term in the White House, the Georgia native became an influential moral voice
Jurek Martin - Financial Times
Jimmy Carter, who has died aged 100, can lay fair claim to have been the best ex-president the US ever had. His domestic good works, his mediation in trouble spots around the world and the general sagacity of his advice were all exemplary. As an independent-minded moral voice he had few peers. Yet his one-term presidency, from 1977-81, is still widely dismissed as a disappointment. In spite of conspicuous achievements - the Panama Canal treaties, the Middle East Camp David accords, the Salt II agreement between Russia and the US to limit nuclear forces, Nato's twin-track approach to the Soviet Union, the new emphasis on human rights - he was defeated in a landslide by an electorate more influenced by spiralling inflation and the debilitating hostage crisis with Iran.
/jlne.ws/3ZTikPr
The Elusive Crime Boss Linked to Billion-Dollar 'Pig Butchering' Scams; Chinese mobster known as Broken Tooth is sanctioned by U.S. but remains free, selling swag and cutting ribbons
Feliz Solomon and Clarence Leong - The Wall Street Journal
Earlier this year, a video surfaced online showing a man identified as the Chinese businessman and reputed mafia boss Wan Kuok-koi giving a thumbs-up and smiling while flying a paraglider over limestone crags in central Laos. Law-enforcement officials around the world say Wan-better known by the nickname Broken Tooth, which he received after a motorcycle crash as a teenager in Macau-has played a central role in the emergence of a virulent new form of cyber fraud known as "pig butchering."
/jlne.ws/3DNKmUQ
The systemic financial risk at the heart of Trump Mk II; Incoming president is picking nominees with vested interests to be in charge of key regulatory areas
Patrick Jenkins - Financial Times
The key nominations to Donald Trump's top team are in some ways like those of many presidents before him - overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly rich and significantly drawn from the financial services industry. And yet Trump's nominees differ in one important respect. They are not mainstream. In particular the list contains no prominent bankers, breaking the tradition (even upheld by Trump Mk I) that financier appointments would normally be drawn from the likes of Goldman Sachs. This is true across the board - from vice-president-elect JD Vance, a venture capitalist, and Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, to incoming UK ambassador Warren Stephens, a self-made investment banker, and new Turkish ambassador Tom Barrack, a private equity and property investor.
/jlne.ws/40cvZm0
Banks Want In on Tether's Billions in Stablecoin Profits; Banks are starting to issue stablecoins for payments, payroll; SocGen, Standard Chartered are among banks expanding efforts
Olga Kharif and Yizhu Wang - Bloomberg
Until recently, banks watched from the sidelines with envy as stablecoin market leader Tether Holdings boasted of billions in profits. Now they want in. Earlier this year, Societe Generale - Forge made its Euro-backed stablecoin - which basically represents fiat on a blockchain ledger - available to retail investors. Financial group Oddo BHF SCA is also working on a Euro-denominated one, and London-based Revolut is considering issuing its own version. AllUnity, a venture involving Deutsche-Bank owned DWS, plans to issue another next year, and BBVA is also working on an entry.
/jlne.ws/4a1yLxQ
A Record-Shattering $1 Trillion Poured Into ETFs This Year; Assets in U.S. exchange-traded funds grew by more than 30% in 2024
Jack Pitcher - The Wall Street Journal
Investors plowed more than $1 trillion into U.S.-based exchange-traded funds in 2024, shattering the previous record set three years ago and raising Wall Street hopes for an even bigger year ahead. The rebound from last year's lackluster flows marked a broad embrace of U.S. assets in a year in which the S&P 500 gained around 25%, analysts said. Longer-term trends also played a role as investors extended a yearslong practice of swapping their mutual funds for the greater tax advantages and easy trading of ETFs. Total assets in U.S.-based ETFs reached a record $10.6 trillion at the end of November, according to monthly ETFGI data, an increase of more than 30% from the start of 2024.
/jlne.ws/4fEolFe
BlackRock's bitcoin fund became 'greatest launch in ETF history'
Sidhartha Shukla - Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc.'s iShares unit offers more than 1,400 exchange-traded funds around the world, yet none of them have performed quite like this. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) smashed industry records in its launch year of 2024. In just 11 months, it grew to a behemoth with more than $50 billion in assets. Simply put, no ETF has ever had a better debut.
/jlne.ws/3PnBdVz
Bank Insiders Are Leaking Data on Client Accounts as Scams Surge; Prosecutions across US reveal sales via social media, dark web; Industry has fended off legislation that could boost liability
Tom Schoenberg - Bloomberg
The new staffer was supposed to help Toronto-Dominion Bank spot money laundering from an outpost in New York. She instead used her access to bank data to distribute customer details to a criminal network on Telegram, according to prosecutors in Manhattan. Local detectives who searched her phone allegedly found images of 255 checks belonging to customers, along with other personal information on almost 70 others.
/jlne.ws/3VYbZ3U
BNP Paribas Cardif Signs Share Purchase Agreement for AXA IM
MarketsMedia
After entering into exclusive negotiations on August 1st, AXA and BNP Paribas Cardif announce the signing of the Share Purchase Agreement for AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM). This signing follows the completion of the information-consultation procedure on strategic issues with the relevant employee representative bodies of both AXA and BNP Paribas groups.
/jlne.ws/3Pflzvo
Statement from Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery Jr. on the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council's Vote to Adopt Recommendations That Will Cut Child Poverty by 50% Across New York State; Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery, Jr. released a statement on the New York State Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council, established by law in 2022 to identify policies that would effectively cut child poverty by 50% by 2032, which voted to adopt final recommendations that would achieve this goal.
Robinhood.org
Today, the New York State Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council, established by law in 2022 to identify policies that would effectively cut child poverty by 50% by 2032, voted to adopt final recommendations that would achieve this goal. The recommendations are put forth to Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate President Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie for consideration in the upcoming FY26 state budget.
/jlne.ws/4gQeywQ
Enforcement of Anti-Money-Laundering Law Blocked After Court Reversal; Businesses will not have to reveal their owners after an appeals court reversed a move that would have forced them to disclose the information by Jan. 1.
Mattathias Schwartz - The New York Times
Millions of corporate entities will not have to share information about their owners with the Treasury Department after an appeals court reversed a decision that would have required them to do so by Jan. 1. Under the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money-laundering law that passed in 2020, companies would have had to turn over the identities of their "beneficial owners," the people who own 25 percent or more of the company, or exercise significant control over it, by next year. But the law has been challenged in the courts. Earlier this week, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit paused an injunction by a lower court, which allowed the law to go into effect.
/jlne.ws/4gzpWNU
Shrinking Colorado River will take a toll on the nation's food supply
Sunny Tsai - FoxBusiness via Yahoo
The shelves and prices at your local grocery store could look a little different soon. The Colorado River, which provides water for about 15% of our country's agriculture, is shrinking, and the current agreement that divvies up the water usage ends in 2026. The Imperial Valley in Southern California relies 100% on the Colorado River for its water. This valley receives less than three inches of rain a year, yet still produces about two-thirds of the country's winter produce.
/jlne.ws/3VU3JBR
Macau Sees Bond Listing Surge in Pivot Away From Gambling
Filipe Pacheco and Kiuyan Wong - Bloomberg
Macau is hosting a record amount of bond listings as the world's top gambling hub boosts efforts to diversify its economy and establish itself as an alternative financing hub for Chinese firms. A combined $28.1 billion of bonds have started trading this year on the Chongwa (Macao) Financial Asset Exchange Co., a local exchange known as MOX, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Around 63% of these new notes are yuan-denominated and mostly issued by Chinese local government financing vehicles, or LGFVs.
/jlne.ws/4gyxjW9
PwC is using 'prompting parties' to teach employees how to use AI in a low-stakes setting
Kelsey Vlamis - Business Insider
PwC hosts "prompting parties" to help employees experiment with generative AI tools. The firm's chief learning officer said employees needed a safe, low-stakes format to experiment with it. PwC announced last year it was investing $1 billion over three years to expand its AI capabilities. Generative AI is reshaping the workplace, but many employees are still unsure how to use it. PwC, a Big Four professional services firm, is addressing that gap with "prompting parties." In 2023, PwC announced it was investing $1 billion over three years to expand its AI capabilities. Later that year the company launched My AI, an upskilling initiative for employees to get trained on how to use AI responsibly.
/jlne.ws/41PK7Tq
Elon Musk backtracks on defending skilled migrant visas to calm Maga Republicans
Cameron Henderson - The Telegraph via YahooFinance
Elon Musk has proposed a reform of the H1-B visa programme - Allison Roberts/Reuters
Elon Musk has rowed back on his defence of skilled worker visas in an apparent bid to patch up divisions in the Republican Party. The Tesla billionaire admitted that H1-B visas are "broken" and proposed potential reform, as he sought to quell a brewing civil war with Donald Trump's Maga base over the immigration scheme which permits highly-educated foreigners to work in the US for up to six years.
/jlne.ws/3VXQL6l
Elon Musk's fight with Maga reveals split on immigration within Trump's circle; President-elect's new allies in Silicon Valley suffer backlash over foreign workers from his core supporters
Stefania Palma and Michael Acton - Financial Times
A battle between Elon Musk and Maga supporters over immigration has highlighted a fracture between Donald Trump's new backers in Silicon Valley and his more radical base. The rift over immigration policy and visa schemes for foreign workers stemmed from Trump's appointment of Sriram Krishnan, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, as the White House's senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence. The move prompted a backlash from Trump's "Make America Great Again" base on X, which quickly spiralled into a debate over H-1B visas - a programme aimed at highly skilled foreign labour critical to US technology groups.
/jlne.ws/4iXQMRr
Prepare for a Bumpy Year in Coffee, Oil and Other Commodities; What I'm watching might give you the jitters.
Javier Blas - Bloomberg (opinion)
Before it's too late, order your espresso. It will be more expensive in 2025, and anyone trading - or observing - energy and commodity markets into the new year will need caffeine to survive. First, a bit of honesty - 2025 looks awfully foggy. The supply-and-demand balance of key commodities can swing from hugely oversupplied to massively in deficit, depending on unpredictable politics. My crystal ball is about as good as anyone else's about what Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu and several others will do. More than ever, predicting commodity prices in the new year is about forecasting political choices.
/jlne.ws/3ZYqTZ1
Bond Vigilantes Are Putting Governments on Notice; Yield increases show that investors are closely watching whether advanced economies have the ability to deal with high debt and rising borrowing costs.
Mohamed A. El-Erian - Bloomberg (opinion)
On a rather quiet final Friday of the year, I used my Bloomberg Terminal to check how key government bond yields in advanced economies have changed in 2024. After all, these are widely regarded as the most accurate gauge of the economic outlook, including growth, inflation and central bank policies. It is, therefore, interesting to see the many ways in which bond yields defied the majority of forecasts in 2024 and consider what that means for the year ahead. The first thing that struck me is the extent to which 10-year bond yields have increased in a year that saw central banks in advanced economies begin cutting interest rates and during which record amounts flowed into fixed-income investments.
/jlne.ws/4fDCW3R
The 10 Top London Restaurants to Book in 2025; In the year's most anticipated new openings, Gordon Ramsay turns his gaze skyward and finance powerhouse Carbone lands in the UK.
Kate Krader - Bloomberg
Let's start with the bad news: This was a big year for the closure of storied London restaurants. First and foremost was the legendary French dining establishment Le Gavroche, the Sloane Square property the Roux family ran for 57 years before shutting its doors in January. Beyond that, MasterChef star Monica Galetti's Mere and the high-profile Galvin at Windows, on the top floor of the London Hilton on Park Lane, have been mourned. One of the UK's biggest chefs, Jason Atherton, closed three places in 2024, including his uber-popular Pollen Street Social.
/jlne.ws/49UEBkp
Why 2025 Could Be a Great Year for Big Banks; After a few bumpy years of both successes and setbacks, lenders might finally be firing on all cylinders
Jon Sindreu - The Wall Street Journal
Top global banks have taken off in recent years, but ascents can be bumpy. In 2025, they might get to relax while on cruise speed. The Federal Reserve recently signaled that interest rates might only be cut twice in the year ahead as a result of stickier-than-expected inflation, prompting stocks generally to sell off. But rates being "less high for longer" is actually great news for banks, and the latest sign that 2025 might be a good year for almost all of the many business lines that comprise large universal lenders.
/jlne.ws/40bVZOn
Year in a word: Fascism; The right-wing ideology is no longer confined to the dark underbelly of history
Gideon Rachman - Financial Times (opinion)
Fascism (noun) A political ideology - once thought to be dead - that seems to be undergoing a global revival. The 2024 US election was unusual because it featured a lively debate about whether one of the candidates was a fascist. General John Kelly, who served as Trump's chief of staff during his first term, ignited the debate by telling reporters that his former boss matched a dictionary definition of fascism that he had found online: "a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology...characterised by a dictatorial leader, centralised autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy." The Trump campaign responded to this accusation by saying that Kelly had "beclowned himself" and repeated false accusations. Some of Trump's more sophisticated defenders argued that the charge is misplaced because Trump is not a militarist. Indeed, the incoming president campaigned as the pro-peace candidate and promised to end forever wars.
/jlne.ws/3ZYfpop
Let us abandon our 'fat, relentless egos' in 2025; If we focus more on what's going on around us, we may end up feeling better about things
Jemima Kelly - Financial Times (opinion)
"In the moral life," the late Anglo-Irish novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch wrote, "the enemy is the fat relentless ego." One could take out the words "the moral" there and the sentence - from Murdoch's philosophical work The Sovereignty of Good (1970) - would work just as well. It is not only in our inner moral lives that the ego can be so destructive, but in civic and political life too. And when an ego is bruised, it can be particularly dangerous. I have thought about this a lot ever since hearing a segment of an excellent interview with the late foreign correspondent Dame Ann Leslie on the BBC's HARDtalk programme. She was speaking about what it is that "turns powerful people bad". (The whole episode, originally recorded in 2008 and released again upon Leslie's death in 2023, is very much worth the 23 minutes of your time.)
/jlne.ws/4gMqAHW
People: All shook up at the SEC, Krens succeeds Litvack at Isda, and more; Latest job changes across the industry
Joshua Walker - Risk.net
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is in for a shakeup in the new year with the incoming Trump administration. On November 21, chair Gary Gensler announced he was stepping down effective January 20, 2025. SEC commissioner Jaime Lizárraga will also depart, effective January 17, while Caroline Crenshaw's renomination has been cancelled after being delayed on December 11. The vote, which was rescheduled for December 18, was called off after co-ordinated lobbying from the crypto industry, of which Crenshaw is an overt critic.
/jlne.ws/4fyfkxC
How an Iran Oil Tycoon Got Inside the Western Financial System; Hossein Shamkhani used citizenship-by-investment programs to gain access to the international banking system -- a position he protected through relationships in the UAE and Washington.
Ben Bartenstein - Bloomberg
On a winding road hugging Dominica's palm-dotted shores stand a string of partially finished luxury hotels. A few miles north, sits the future home of the Portsmouth Marina - a development seeking to draw superyachts to the island. They are testament to a bet Dominica made three decades ago on citizenship by investment, or CBI. In essence, the tiny Caribbean nation has dished out passports to foreigners in exchange for significant lump sums. It's brought billions into the economy, while offering an easy additional nationality to anyone whose origins might raise red flags in the financial community.
/jlne.ws/4iPnogt
Cboe plans Q2 dispersion futures listing; Expectations of post-US-election uncertainty drives launch, and could help bank equity desks hedge OTC risks
Bernard Goyder - Risk.net
Cboe is planning to list dispersion futures in the second quarter of 2025, as the exchange operator looks to lure more liquidity from the over-the-counter equity derivatives market into the listed world. Catherine Clay, head of derivatives at Cboe Global Markets, says listing the instruments will give investors more tools to handle uncertainty as president-elect Donald Trump begins his second term.
/jlne.ws/40i74xy
OTC derivatives hit $730 trillion peak in H1 2024 Interest rate and FX derivatives drive notional spike
Joshua Walker - Risk.net
Notional amounts of over-the-counter derivatives climbed 9.4% to a record high of $729.8 trillion in the first half of 2024, data from the Bank for International Settlements shows. The spike was driven by interest rate derivatives, with notionals rising 9.3% to $578.8 trillion, marking their highest level in a decade.
/jlne.ws/4j7WBfs
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Ukraine-Russia Gas Transit Deal At Critical Moment of Truth; A deal allowing Russian gas to transit to EU ends on Dec. 31; Slovakia is stepping up pressure for flows to continue
Ewa Krukowska - Bloomberg
The future of gas transit through Ukraine is at a turning point. If a last-minute deal isn't struck by Wednesday, billions of cubic meters in gas flows could come to a halt. Ukraine is under mounting pressure from Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and a group of central European companies to keep gas moving from its eastern border with Russia into the European Union following the expiration of a transit agreement on Dec. 31.
/jlne.ws/40bVILm
Zelenskiy Pushes Back Against Slovakian PM's Power-Cut Threat
Daniel Hornak - Bloomberg
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pushed back at a threat by Slovakia to cut off back-up power supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv stops transporting Russian gas to central Europe. It appears Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Robert Fico, the Slovak prime minister, "the order to open the second energy front against Ukraine at the expense of the Slovak people's interests," Zelenskiy said on Saturday in a lengthy post on X.
/jlne.ws/41To8Lq
British Army trains Ukrainian officers how to detect and manage battle stress in their troops
Danielle Sheridan - The Telegraph
The British Army has been training Ukrainian troops in mental health first aid, it has been revealed. Earlier this year as an extension of Op Interflex, the British-led multinational operation to train the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the British military started quietly teaching Ukrainian officers and commanders how to detect and manage signs of battle stress in their soldiers. The Combat Stress Signposting Course (CSSC) was launched following a rise in recruits reporting trauma exposure and mental health struggles and was initiated on the request of Ukraine's armed forces moral and psychological support department.
/jlne.ws/4gQoK8G
Azerbaijan president urges Moscow to compensate families of air crash victims; Ilham Aliyev blames Russia for Christmas Day tragedy that claimed lives of 38 people
Polina Ivanova - Financial Times
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to "admit its guilt" in the crash of one of its national carrier's passenger planes on Christmas Day, demanding Moscow compensate the families of the 38 people killed. The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 plane was en route from Baku to the southern Russian city of Grozny when it began to run into trouble on Wednesday and diverted to Aktau airport in Kazakhstan, where it crash-landed.
/jlne.ws/4iZhU2w
Putin apologises for Azerbaijan plane crash without admitting Russia at fault; Kremlin says Russian president has spoken to Azerbaijan counterpart after crash in which 38 people died
Tom Wall - The Guardian
Vladimir Putin has apologised for a "tragic incident" in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on Christmas Day, but stopped short of admitting Russia was responsible. The Kremlin said in an official statement that Putin had spoken to Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, on Saturday by phone in his first comments since the crash, which killed 38 of the 67 people onboard. "Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured," the statement said.
/jlne.ws/3ZVcddd
Kremlin threatens retaliation as European Telegram ban of Russian state media sparks outrage
AFP News
/jlne.ws/40eezp7
US announces $5.9 billion in military and budget aid to Ukraine
Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal - Reuters
/jlne.ws/4fDhpIO
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Behind the Dismantling of Hezbollah: Decades of Israeli Intelligence; A Times investigation shows how extensively Israel penetrated the Lebanese militia, closely tracking the group's commanders and culminating in the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Mark Mazzetti, Sheera Frenkel and Ronen Bergman - The New York Times
Right up until he was assassinated, Hassan Nasrallah did not believe that Israel would kill him. As he hunkered inside a Hezbollah fortress 40 feet underground on Sept. 27, his aides urged him to go to a safer location. Mr. Nasrallah brushed it off, according to intelligence collected by Israel and shared later with Western allies. In his view, Israel had no interest in a full-scale war. What he did not realize was that Israeli spy agencies were tracking his every movement - and had been doing so for years.
/jlne.ws/403bQ0y
Israel built an 'AI factory' for war. It unleashed it in Gaza. Years before the Gaza war, Israel transformed its intelligence unit into an AI testing ground, triggering a debate among top commanders about whether humans were sufficiently in the loop.
Elizabeth Dwoskin - The Washington Post
After the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces deluged Gaza with bombs, drawing on a database painstakingly compiled through the years that detailed home addresses, tunnels and other infrastructure critical to the militant group. But then the target bank ran low. To maintain the war's breakneck pace, the IDF turned to an elaborate artificial intelligence tool called Habsora - or "the Gospel" - which could quickly generate hundreds of additional targets. The use of AI to rapidly refill IDF's target bank allowed the military to continue its campaign uninterrupted, according to two people familiar with the operation. It is an example of how the decade-long program to place advanced AI tools at the center of IDF's intelligence operations has contributed to the violence of Israel's 14-month war in Gaza.
/jlne.ws/41VC07R
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Futures exchanges look to ride credit ETF wave; Proponents hope for increased buy-side trading, with three exchanges competing for market share
Ben St Clair - Risk.net
The growing success of futures contracts referencing corporate bonds has been over a decade in the making. In the time since, several major exchange efforts failed to jumpstart the product, and corporate bond trading has changed dramatically from its former reliance on bank inventories and over-the-counter transactions. Today, a sizeable portion of the market trades on electronic platforms, where non-bank liquidity providers price and execute sometimes hundreds of bonds at once.
/jlne.ws/4gVjosL
Is the Stock Market Open on New Year's Eve? Here's the Holiday Trading Schedule
WSJ Staff
Are markets open on New Year's Eve? Yes. U.S. bond markets will close early, at 2 p.m. ET, on Tuesday, Dec. 31. What about global markets? Some important international markets will be shut, or close early, on New Year's Eve. Exchanges in London and Hong Kong, for instance, will close early, while there will be no trading in Japan.
/jlne.ws/4iXNIVx
January 1st And 2nd, 2025 Declared Official Holidays For Qatar Stock Exchange
Mondo Visione
Qatar Stock Exchange has announced, based on the instructions of the Qatar Financial Markets Authority regarding official holidays, that Wednesday and Thursday, corresponding to January 1st and 2nd, 2025, will be official holidays for Qatar Stock Exchange on the occasion of the year-end closure. Official working hours will resume on Sunday, January 5th, 2025.
/jlne.ws/4fK3qRb
Boerse Stuttgart Group With Record Year 2024 - Trading Volume Of The Group's Three European Exchanges Increases By 16 Percent - Tripling Of Digital Business - Broker EUWAX AG Once Again Achieves Excellent Results
Mondo Visione
In a dynamic market environment, Boerse Stuttgart Group achieved the highest revenues in its history in 2024. The Group was very successful in all of its strategic business areas and continued on its path of structural growth. Key figures in the capital markets and digital business of the sixth-largest exchange group in Europe developed very positively.
/jlne.ws/3W28BF9
Withdrawal of an Approved COMEX Copper Warehouse
CME Group
/jlne.ws/3VXvF7W
Risk Management and Monitoring: Refreshed Client Systems Wiki Site Launch
CME Group
/jlne.ws/4a0hHba
Trading Overview in Year 2024 & December 2024
JPX
/jlne.ws/3PiZxIm
KRX, KSD Sign MOU to Establish Information Sharing System
Regulation Asia
The information sharing system will help both organisations automate tasks and speed up the issuance and listing of securities.
/jlne.ws/4gztAaP
LuxRI Fund Index
LuxSE
Revision of the LuxRI Fund Index on 2 January 2025; In accordance with the rules governing the LuxRI Fund index, the executive committee of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange has decided to rebalance the LuxRI Fund index (base 1,000 as at 01/07/2013).
/jlne.ws/3ZZFFPi
LuxX Index
LuxSE
Revision of the LuxX Index on 2 January 2025; In accordance with the rules governing the LuxX index, the executive committee of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange has decided to rebalance the LuxX index (base 1,000 as at 04/01/1999).
/jlne.ws/3VW5u1y
Final Contract Adjustment
Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (BEPC)
Plan of Arrangement; The Bourse and CDCC wish to inform you that Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE: BEP; TSX: BEP.UN) (the "Partnership") and Brookfield Renewable Corporation ("BEPC") (TSX, NYSE: BEPC) announced on December 20, 2024, the completion of their previously announced plan of arrangement.
/jlne.ws/4fGW1Cl
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | AI Needs So Much Power, It's Making Yours Worse
Leonardo Nicoletti, Naureen Malik, Andre Tartar - Bloomberg
Every day, Americans reach into their refrigerators or turn on their dishwashers without much thought given to the electricity flowing through their homes. But a hidden problem now threatens these seemingly mundane tasks: distorted power supplies. The term for the issue is "bad harmonics." It may seem a bit esoteric, but you can think of it like the static that can be heard when a speaker's volume is jacked up higher than it can handle. Electricity travels across high-voltage lines in waves, and when those wave patterns deviate from what's considered ideal, it distorts the power that flows into homes. Bad harmonics can force home electronics to run hot, or even cause the motors in refrigerators and air conditioners to rattle. It's an issue that can add up to billions of dollars in total damage.
/jlne.ws/49UHulj
In 2024, artificial intelligence was all about putting AI tools to work
Matt O'Brien and Sarah Parvini - Associated Press
If 2023 was a year of wonder about artificial intelligence, 2024 was the year to try to get that wonder to do something useful without breaking the bank. There was a "shift from putting out models to actually building products," said Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton University computer science professor and co-author of the new book "AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell The Difference."
/jlne.ws/4iSWQL9
AI does not mean the robots are coming; The technology will transform existing machines, such as cars, long before it allows the creation of androids
Robin Harding - Financial Times (opinion)
Pepper the humanoid robot was born in 2014. It enjoyed a brief wave of hype, including a visit to the Financial Times to meet the editor. "This is a robot that behaves autonomously, powered by love," declared Masayoshi Son, the head of its main backer, SoftBank. Alibaba and Foxconn also invested hundreds of millions in the effort to make robotics a ubiquitous part of daily life. Yet it was not to be. You still find the occasional Pepper in a public library in Japan, unplugged, its head bowed, like a four-foot tall Pinocchio that dreamt of becoming a real boy but never did. Production halted in 2021 and only 27,000 units were ever made. Yet the vision of humanoid robots - of machines so like ourselves they can perform all the work we do not want to - is too alluring to abandon for long.
/jlne.ws/4gRHSDi
British tech giant boss resigns amid row over China security fears
James Titcomb - The Telegraph
Simon Beresford-Wylie is to step down as chief executive of Imagination Technologies in 2025
The chief executive of one of Britain's biggest semiconductor companies is stepping down amid claims the business transferred key technology to China. Simon Beresford-Wylie has told Imagination Technologies he will resign next year, prompting the Chinese-owned company to kickstart its search for a new boss.
/jlne.ws/4gWqkpK
Nvidia Closes Acquisition of Israeli Software Startup Run:ai; Software works on Nvidia-based systems, to be open-sourced; Value of deal pegged at $700 million by Calcalist in April
Ian King - Bloomberg
Nvidia Corp. has completed the acquisition of Israeli startup Run:ai, gaining software that helps owners of intelligence computing gear get the best out of their hardware. The software - which currently works on only Nvidia-based systems - will be open-sourced, meaning that others will be able to take the code and use it to tune computers that use hardware from Nvidia's rivals, Run:ai said in a posting on its website.
/jlne.ws/3VYbM0C
How BlackRock and Trump might revitalize tokenization in 2025
Sabrina Toppa - TheStreet
/jlne.ws/40d3NiG
Finland Finds Anchor Drag Marks Left by Tanker That Broke Cables
Kati Pohjanpalo - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3DMb4x9
Goodman Group shines among Australian property firms on data-centre push
Aaditya GovindRao and Roushni Nair - Reuters
/jlne.ws/49X2qYM
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | AT&T, Verizon targeted by Salt Typhoon cyberespionage operation, but networks secure
Surbhi Misra and David Shepardson - Reuters
The Chinese-linked Salt Typhoon cyberespionage operation targeted AT&T (T.N), opens new tab and Verizon's (VZ.N), opens new tab systems, but the wireless carriers' U.S. networks are now secure as they work with law enforcement and government officials, the companies said on Saturday in their first acknowledgment of the attacks. "We detect no activity by nation-state actors in our networks at this time. Based on our current investigation of this attack, the People's Republic of China targeted a small number of individuals of foreign intelligence interest," an AT&T spokesperson said.
/jlne.ws/3ZZc3BC
Atos Says Ransomware Group Claims It Compromised a Database
Jim Silver - Bloomberg
Atos SE said a ransomware group called Space Bears claimed on Saturday to have compromised an Atos database. The French technology company, whose activities include cybersecurity as well as cloud and high-performance computing, said there's no evidence so far that its systems were affected, and no ransom demand has been received.
/jlne.ws/3ZWhwJF
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Crypto industry groups sue IRS over broker reporting rule
Anthony Ha - TechCrunch
Three crypto industry groups - the DeFi Education Fund, the Blockchain Association, and the Texas Blockchain Council - are suing the Internal Revenue Service to block new regulations that require decentralized finance (DeFi) entities to report customer information. The IRS has been finalizing crypto tax regulations as part of the Biden Administration's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The IRS says these new rules should help "close the information gap with respect to digital assets."
/jlne.ws/41Wddkc
Crypto Mogul Do Kwon to Be Extradited to US, Montenegro Says
Misha Savic and Jasmina Kuzmanovic - Bloomberg
Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon will be handed over to the US for prosecution, the government of Montenegro said, potentially ending a standoff over competing extradition demands by the US and Kwon's native South Korea. "Most criteria envisaged by the law are in favor of the extradition demands from the institutions of the United States of America," the Montenegro's Justice Ministry said in statement posted on its website. It said Minister Bojan Bozovic made the decision on Friday, without specifying when the handover may take place.
/jlne.ws/4fJuyzL
Bitcoin's 'Kimchi Premium' Jumps Amid South Korean Political Turmoil; Premium paid on Korean exchanges surges to a four-month high; More retail investors in South Korea are buying Bitcoin
Muyao Shen - Bloomberg
A key metric to gauge the interest in Bitcoin from investors in South Korea has risen this week to a four-month high, as the political turmoil in the East Asian country deepens. "Kimchi Premium," which refers to the price gap between Bitcoin on South Korean exchange Upbit compared to Coinbase, has surged to the range of 3-5% this week, according to data compiled by blockchain data platform CryptoQuant. An increase in the metric usually indicates an elevated demand from South Korea-based investors in Bitcoin. The same metric for stablecoin Tether also has surged to the similar range.
/jlne.ws/4gze12O
MicroStrategy Buys $209 Million of Bitcoin as Purchases Lessen
Monique Mulima - Bloomberg
MicroStrategy Inc. said it bought $209 million of Bitcoin, marking the eighth consecutive week of purchases for the dot-com-era software maker turned leveraged proxy for the original cryptocurrency. MicroStrategy purchased 2,138 Bitcoin tokens at an average price of approximately $97,837 from Dec. 23 through Dec. 29, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Bitcoin prices have dropped back from highs above $100,000 earlier in December, yet MicroStrategy has still reduced the amount of Bitcoin it purchases weekly.
/jlne.ws/3VZSc3Y
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Elon Musk Is a National Security Risk
Russel L. Honore - The New York Times
It is now fair to ask the question: Is Elon Musk a national security risk? According to numerous interviews and remarks, Mr. Musk's Department of Government Efficiency co-leader, Vivek Ramaswamy, once appeared to believe he was. In May 2023, Mr. Ramaswamy went so far as to publicly state, "I have no reason to think Elon won't jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need," a reference to China's leader. In a separate X post targeting Mr. Musk, he wrote, "the U.S. needs leaders who aren't in China's pocket." Mr. Ramaswamy has since walked back his numerous public criticisms of Mr. Musk, but he was right to raise concerns. According to news reports, Mr. Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, face federal reviews from the Air Force, the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General and the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security for failing to provide details of Mr. Musk's meetings with foreign leaders and other potential violations of national-security rules.
/jlne.ws/3VZMWh7
Elon Musk's Political Influence Wears Down Global Resistance to Starlink; The billionaire SpaceX CEO has the US President-elect's ear. Governments worldwide are waking up to that power.
Bruce Einhorn and Loni Prinsloo - Bloomberg
Elon Musk left South Africa aged 18 to seek his fortune in North America. Thirty-five years and $468 billion in net-worth later, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has come knocking for investments from Musk's array of companies. The two share a country of birth, but that's not all. Musk has crossed into the political sphere as a leading adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, and he wants something from Ramaphosa: dilution of a local Black ownership requirement for his Starlink satellite network.
/jlne.ws/4iYkF4o
Canadian Ministers Take Border Pitch to Lutnick at Mar-a-Lago
Brian Platt - Bloomberg
Two senior Canadian cabinet ministers flew to Florida to make the case to US President-elect Donald Trump's team that the northern border is secure and tariffs won't be necessary. Canada's Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly met with Howard Lutnick, Trump's pick for commerce secretary, and Doug Burgum, his proposed interior secretary. It's the second high-level Canadian mission to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in the past month, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met the incoming leader at the end of November.
/jlne.ws/4gvKUNK
Russia will abandon its unilateral missile moratorium, Lavrov says
Anton Kolodyazhnyy and Guy Faulconbridge - Reuters
Russia will scrap a moratorium on the deployment of intermediate and shorter range nuclear-capable missiles because the United States has deployed such weapons in various regions around the world, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday. Russia's move, long signalled, will kill off all that remains from one of the most significant arms control treaties of the Cold War, amid fears that the world's two biggest nuclear powers could be entering a new arms race together with China. Russia and the United States, who both admit their relations are worse than at any time since the depths of the Cold War, have both expressed regret about the disintegration of the tangle of arms control treaties which sought to slow the arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war.
/jlne.ws/3ZXEUpT
Russian tanker tugged to shore for suspected Baltic Sea sabotage was 'loaded with spy equipment'
Samuel Montgomery - The Telegraph
A Russia-linked tanker suspected of cutting Baltic Sea cables has been tugged to port amid reports it was loaded with "spy equipment". Finnish authorities boarded the Eagle S tanker at sea after suspecting the vessel of sabotaging undersea power and internet lines on Christmas Day. The Cook Islands-registered ship was carrying Russian oil when it allegedly slowed down and dragged its anchor along the seabed to damage the Estlink 2 undersea cable, which provides power to Estonia.
/jlne.ws/4iYGsss
Germany calls for new sanctions on Russia's dark fleet that is 'damaging major undersea cables' nearly every month
Huileng Tan - Business Insider
Germany's foreign minister has called for further sanctions against Russia's dark fleet of oil tankers following damage to an underwater cable linking Finland and Estonia last week. "Ships are damaging major undersea cables in the Baltic Sea almost every month," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Funke media group.
/jlne.ws/4iXXmHS
Russia's Gazprom says it will halt gas supplies to Moldova starting Jan. 1
The Associated Press
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Two Agencies That Should Become One; Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy should encourage Congress to merge the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lee Reiners - The Wall Street Journal
Members of President-elect Trump's Department of Government Efficiency have been brainstorming ideas to cut spending and reduce regulation. Among the targets are America's financial regulatory agencies. Elon Musk has posted on X that there "are too many duplicative regulatory agencies," that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should be eliminated, and that the Federal Reserve is "absurdly overstaffed." According to the Journal, the Trump transition team has also floated the idea of abolishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But Mr. Musk and his DOGE co-chairman, Vivek Ramaswamy, have yet to endorse a reform that has long had bipartisan support-merging the Securities and Exchange Commission with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
/jlne.ws/3DxGnvR
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Why Coffee Prices Are Soaring (Again); Wholesale coffee prices are trading near a 50-year high because of shortages related to extreme weather and increased global demand.
Santul Nerkar - The New York Times
When it comes to coffee, Thaleon Tremain has always tried to ignore what the market is telling him. As the chief executive and a co-founder of Pachamama Coffee in California, Mr. Tremain sells his specialty beans for more than what the global commodity price might dictate. He wants his customers to think of coffee as a luxury product and pay for it accordingly, so that farmers who grow his beans in countries like Peru, Nicaragua and Ethiopia can cover their costs.
/jlne.ws/40bnMyu
A Hidden Crisis in US Housing; In places most prone to wildfires and hurricanes, state "insurers of last resort" are absorbing trillions of dollars in risk.
Leslie Kaufman, Saijel Kishan and Nadia Lopez - Bloomberg
It is so easy to start a wildfire. A smoldering campfire, a lightning strike, an errant firework or a spark from a power line or a hot muffler: However California's next monumental blaze begins, the toll will be vast. People will be injured, some will die. Thousands of homes will be destroyed. When the smoke clears, the most populous US state, home to Hollywood, Silicon Valley and a real estate market worth more than $9 trillion, will be ground zero for a sweeping financial crisis.
/jlne.ws/3W1cw5b
Record Year for Momentum Trade Is Ending With Widening Cracks; The strategy of buying stock winners was dominant in 2024; Yet Friday reversal shows trade may have become too stretched
Justina Lee - Bloomberg
For all the Trump Trade triumphalism and hysteria for AI, it's been a tough year to make money across markets. Now even the trade that powered US stocks is starting to show signs of wavering. A fickle Federal Reserve and inflation's refusal to go quietly has been a recipe for cross-asset malaise. The biggest exchange-traded fund tracking long-dated Treasuries swung violently in 2024 before finishing deeply in the red. Commodities rode the hopes and dreams of Chinese stimulus, up and down. Gains were even squeezed in the safest credits, where spiking yields pushed BlackRock's $30 billion investment-grade ETF to its worst fourth quarter in eight years.
/jlne.ws/4gY51nL
The Financial Regrets and Wisdom of Americans Over 80; There is a lot of life to live after the traditional retirement age that many wish they had prepared for
Veronica Dagher and Oyin Adedoyin - The Wall Street Journal
Sue Jones thought she had more than enough money to live on when she was in her 50s. She wasn't counting on living to her 90s. The 91-year-old resident of Lewisburg, Tenn., and her late husband, Ewell Jones, saved about $50,000 in a retirement account in addition to his roughly $2,900-a-month pension and Social Security. Her income no longer covers her rising bills. She was in and out of the hospital several times this year, racking up medical bills and prescription-drug copays. Her children are helping with expenses. "I planned to die at a more normal age, but that's not what God had in store," she said.
/jlne.ws/3PgPaET
Even Rich Retirees Fear Outliving Their Money; Spending makes retirees happier. Many are afraid to do it.
Anne Tergesen - The Wall Street Journal
Retirees worry they will live too long to enjoy their money. Studies show those who spend more report greater satisfaction in retirement, yet older Americans often live below their means. The prospect of a life of 95 or 100 years turns many into penny-pinchers, reluctant to spend their hard-earned savings now with so many years of bills remaining. Researchers call it the retirement consumption puzzle. Married 65-year-olds with at least $100,000 in financial assets withdrew an average of 2.1% of their savings annually, according to a forthcoming study that analyzed data from a long-running survey of approximately 20,000 people over age 50.
/jlne.ws/4iZvweq
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | EU plans hot weather 'stress test' on railways and power grids; Bloc seeks to respond to growing number of disasters expected as a result of climate change
Alice Hancock - Financial Times
Railways and electricity grids across Europe may be "stress tested" for hot weather under plans being drawn up by the EU to prepare critical infrastructure for the demands of a warming planet. The stress testing would be part of a broader policy, due to be presented next year, to respond to the growing number of disasters expected as a result of climate change, said three EU officials with knowledge of the proposal. Brussels is weighing whether to require EU governments "to do stress testing across energy, health [etc] for a four-degree warmer scenario", a senior EU official said. "It's something we believe would be a sensible effort from member states."
/jlne.ws/3VYBcLN
China's EV sales set to overtake traditional cars years ahead of west; Volumes forecast to rise 20% next year, smashing international projections and Beijing's official targets
Edward White and Kana Inagaki - Financial Times
Electric vehicles are expected to outsell cars with internal combustion engines in China for the first time next year, in a historic inflection point that puts the world's biggest car market years ahead of western rivals. China is set to smash international forecasts and Beijing's official targets with domestic EV sales - including pure battery and plug-in hybrids - growing about 20 per cent year on year to more than 12mn cars in 2025, according to the latest estimates supplied to the Financial Times by four investment banks and research groups. The figure would be more than double the 5.9mn sold in 2022.
/jlne.ws/41PHXTO
Bleak outlook for US farmers - and Trump tariffs could make it worse; Bumper grain crop set to weigh heavily as farmers count costs of seed, fertilizer - and effects of possible trade war
Debbie Carlson - The Guardian
Many US midwestern grain farmers will lose money this year after reaping a bumper crop, and the outlook for their future income is bleak. US farmers harvested some of the largest corn and soybean crops in history this year. Big harvests traditionally weigh on crop prices because of plentiful supply. And those price pressures comes at a time when costs remain persistently high to grow corn and soybeans, the US's most valuable crops.
/jlne.ws/4gwuViH
China Plans Dam Near India That Could Be World's Biggest
Bloomberg News
China is pressing ahead with plans to construct a mega-dam near its contested border with India, a colossal undertaking that could generate three times as much power as the Three Gorges Dam. The Chinese government approved the construction of "a hydropower project" in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, without elaborating.
/jlne.ws/40bM4bB
Taiwan Aims for Deeper Emissions Reduction Cuts of 30% by 2030
Stephen Stapczynski and Cindy Wang - Bloomberg
Taiwan seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 30% by 2030, upgrading a previous target despite challenges expanding renewable generation. The government is targeting a 26% to 30% reduction by the end of the decade from 2005 levels, the Environment Ministry said in a statement on Monday. An earlier goal was to cut emissions by 23% to 25%.
/jlne.ws/3ZYrRED
The Year in Climate: Record Heat, an Election, a Push for Justice and Reasons for Hope; 2024 was a year that might as well have been a decade. Here's what happened, as documented by Inside Climate News reporters.
Dan Gearino and ICN Staff - Inside Climate News
A Native American Community Regains Its Rights to Land in a New Mexico National Preserve
In a year of record-setting heat, intensifying extreme weather and a bitterly partisan presidential election in which climate change was almost never mentioned, the transition away from fossil fuels made significant progress that was still not nearly enough. It was that kind of year.
/jlne.ws/3PfsHIb
'A snapshot of climate devastation': Study claims 2024's biggest climate disasters cost $200bn
Stuart Stone - Business Green
/jlne.ws/4fEnbcQ
Carlos Slim invested $1 billion in 2024 to supercharge oil bets
Daniel Cancel - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3PgILJT
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Bank Bull Run Seen Thundering Onward With Hedge Funds Loaded Up; Mike Mayo sees earnings growth topping S&P 500 average in 2025; Uncertainty over Trump policies and rate cut path draw concern
Eleanor Harmsworth - Bloomberg
It's been a banner year for US bank stocks by almost any measure. For many of the sector's most respected observers, the best is yet to come. Wells Fargo & Co. analyst Mike Mayo says net interest income could climb to a record in 2025. Barclays Plc's Jason Goldberg says earnings-per-share growth will rise at an almost double-digit rate over the next two years. and they're hardly the only ones that are bullish.
/jlne.ws/4gEIfla
Vanguard strikes deal with FDIC over huge holdings in US banks; $10tn money manager agrees to curbs on influencing decisions of mid-sized and regional lenders
Stephen Gandel and Brooke Masters - Financial Times
Vanguard has bowed to regulatory pressure and agreed to new oversight of its investments in some US lenders, a decision that could have sweeping implications for money managers and banks. The deal, which the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp disclosed on Friday, will allow Vanguard's funds to continue to be huge shareholders in a wide swath of the country's banks while also increasing the watchdog's supervisory power over the $10tn money manager. Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street have amassed large stakes in US banks as investors have poured into "passive" funds that buy up shares in a vast number of stocks. Some regulators and politicians have grown concerned that the scale of these holdings could allow big passive fund managers to influence companies that are vital to the economy.
/jlne.ws/4gEIuN6
He Lost 35% Ignoring 2024's Biggest Trades: 'I Am Not Good at What I Am Doing'; Richard Toh's raw mea culpa details how he ignored Nvidia and bitcoin and misread tariffs
Kevin T. Dugan - The Wall Street Journal
In early December, Richard Toh, the chief executive and investment officer for the Singapore-based hedge-fund firm Kenrich Partners, sent a four-page letter to investors. The news was bad. Kenrich's Ocular Asia fund, which managed around $50 million, lost 7.9% in November. The bigger picture was worse-it had lost 35.4% so far in 2024. By comparison, its benchmark of Asian stocks outside of Japan was up 8.6% for the year.
/jlne.ws/3DAJqDr
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | Where Have All the Managers Gone?; Companies' quest to purge bosses is seizing up job and promotion opportunities. Workers have had to adjust.
Vanessa Fuhrmans - The Wall Street Journal
Corporate America is on a mission to thin its management ranks in pursuit of greater efficiency. The purge is pushing workers on all levels to rethink their career paths and the traditional way to better pay and status. United Parcel Service and Citigroup C -0.49%decrease; red down pointing triangle say they have cut thousands of supervisor jobs since last year. Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy is aiming to increase the ratio of workers to managers. Google CEO Sundar Pichai told staff this month that the company had culled managerial roles by 10% in its cost-cutting drive. In all, U.S. public companies have cut their middle-manager head counts by about 6% since the peak of their pandemic hiring sprees, according to a new analysis of more than 20 million white-collar workers by employment-data provider Live Data Technologies. Senior executives, whose ranks have shrunk nearly 5% since the end of 2021, haven't fared much better.
/jlne.ws/3Pllvdy
Will AI Help or Hurt Workers? One 26-Year-Old Found an Unexpected Answer; New research shows AI made some workers more productive-but less happy.
Justin Lahart - The Wall Street Journal
Daron Acemoglu, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who recently won the Nobel Prize in economics, worries that artificial intelligence will worsen income inequality and not do all that much for productivity. His friend and colleague David Autor is more hopeful, believing that AI could do just the opposite. New research from Aidan Toner-Rodgers, an MIT doctoral student, challenges both Acemoglu's pessimism and Autor's optimism. Both professors are raving about it. "It's fantastic," said Acemoglu. "I was floored," said Autor.
/jlne.ws/4fzeX60
Women shouldn't face a penalty for promoting themselves; Fear of criticism can make female leaders feel squeamish about building a public profile
Anjli Raval - Financial Times
Ruth Handcock, chief executive of Octopus Money, can find herself in an awkward situation when running into old acquaintances. "Since I started growing a new business, I can't count the number of times I see an old friend or colleague and they say with a wink, 'Yes, I know what you're doing; I've seen it on LinkedIn,'" she says.
/jlne.ws/4fzifGo
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | How extreme car dependency is driving Americans to unhappiness; A car is often essential in the US but while owning a vehicle is better than not for life satisfaction, a study has found, having to drive too much sends happiness plummeting
Oliver Milman - The Guardian
The United States, with its enormous highways, sprawling suburbs and neglected public transport systems, is one of the most car-dependent countries in the world. But this arrangement of obligatory driving is making many Americans actively unhappy, new research has found. The car is firmly entrenched as the default, and often only, mode of transport for the vast majority of Americans, with more than nine in 10 households having at least one vehicle and 87% of people using their cars daily. Last year, a record 290m vehicles were operated on US streets and highways.
/jlne.ws/3Dztfq5
Norovirus cases are surging in parts of the US, CDC data shows
Anita Snow - Associated Press
Cases of a wretched stomach bug are surging in parts of the United States this winter, according to government data. The most recent numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show there were 91 outbreaks of norovirus reported during the week of Dec. 5, up from 69 outbreaks the last week of November. Numbers from the past few years show a maximum of 65 outbreaks reported during that first week of December.
/jlne.ws/3DKWlm8
Money Can Buy a Longer Life-to a Point; Saving makes your nest egg last longer. Spending might make you last longer.
Joe Pinsker - The Wall Street Journal
The rich get richer-and older. People with high salaries and net worth tend to live longer lives, research shows. Once Americans make it to their late 50s, the wealthiest 10% live to a median age of around 86 years, roughly 14 years longer than the least wealthy 10%, according to a study published earlier this year in JAMA Internal Medicine.
/jlne.ws/4fD7B1l
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Singapore Oil Mogul Declared Bankrupt After Empire Collapsed
Weilun Soon - Bloomberg
Former tycoon Lim Oon Kuin has been declared bankrupt in Singapore, following the collapse of his oil trading empire. The name of the founder of Hin Leong Trading Pte. and his children Lim Huey Ching and Lim Chee Meng were listed as having been issued a bankruptcy order on Dec. 19, the government gazette showed. The younger Lims were both directors at the company.
/jlne.ws/41TbKe8
China's Stock Fund Issuance Drops as Fixed Income Back in Favor
Bloomberg News
Chinese investors' appetite for stock-focused mutual funds waned in December as the autumn equity rally sputtered and bonds once again gained attraction. While the total amount raised by equity products still exceeded that of fixed income products this month, bond funds grew rapidly, notching their largest monthly figure for the year so far. That's come as relatively safe bond-focused funds regain favor with investors, in a sign that animal spirits are still rather tame.
/jlne.ws/4fyEsV7
Pakistan-Dutch Egg Firm Eyes IPO to Raise Output 71%; The funds will be used to develop the new plant at Faisalabad; Pakistan shares are expected to extend gains in 2025
Ismail Dilawar and Faseeh Mangi - Bloomberg
Pakistan's largest egg products manufacturer Barkat Frisian Agro Ltd. is planning an initial public offering next month, a merchant banker said, amid a stock market rally that has made the South Asian nation the best performer in Asia for 2024. The company, a joint venture between an arm of the homegrown Buksh Group and the Netherlands-based Frisian Egg Group, is looking to raise as much as 1.2 billion rupees ($4.3 million) through the offer, said Shahid Ali Habib, chief executive officer at Arif Habib Ltd., lead manager and book runner for the transaction.
/jlne.ws/40fotXE
SSGA launches Saudi Arabia sovereign bond ETF in Europe; Asset manager says growth of kingdom's bond market has accelerated, driven in part by Vision 2030
Sandra Heistruvers - Financial Times
State Street Global Advisors has launched an exchange traded fund that will offer European investors access to Saudi Arabian government bonds. The Ireland-domiciled SPDR JPMorgan Saudi Arabia Aggregate Bond Ucits ETF invests in liquid, dollar-denominated and Saudi riyal-denominated government and quasi-government debt, including sukuk bonds.
/jlne.ws/40eNkL2
Russian smugglers import luxury cars from Europe despite sanctions; Wealthy customers hit with hefty charges as importers forced to take longer routes
Laura Dubois, Anastasia Stognei and Chris Cook - Financial Times
Russian smugglers are charging tens of thousands of euros to import luxury cars from Europe, as EU sanctions in response to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine hit the country's wealthy. The Financial Times has identified five Russian companies offering to smuggle cars from Europe with engine sizes sufficient to come under EU sanctions, which were imposed in 2022 as part of a ban on the export of luxury goods to the country.
/jlne.ws/3VXUfWt
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| Auditions | | Explore a space for creative trading stories where you can find and share unique works like screenplays, television scripts, poetry, and more, all inspired by the world of finance and trading. | INT. A FRESHLY PAINTED STUDIO APARTMENT. CHICAGO
The door opens, and an old lady walks in, followed by Mike Harris. The studio apartment is small, with a kitchenette and curtained windows. A mildewed fold-out couch is against one wall. Mike drags his suitcase to the closet, ignoring the woman's chatter. He counts out a few hundred-dollar bills, hands them to her, and gestures for her to leave. Once she's gone, Mike lays his suitcase flat and unzips a travel wardrobe, revealing four new suits that he proudly hangs up. He places two pairs of expensive shoes beneath the suits in the closet and dumps the suitcase on the couch, spilling wrinkled t-shirts, jeans, and socks. Opening the curtains, he sees the Chicago River and his own determined reflection in the window. Sitting on the couch, he grabs his backpack and pulls out "How to Make Money in Commodities, and starts reading.
INT. J.SULLIVANS IRISH PUB ACROSS FROM THE BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING A HALF HOUR AFTER THE MARKET CLOSE
The walls are plastered with Cubs, Bears and Blackhawk paraphernalia. Mike is in one of his new suits nursing a beer. There's a group of five guys down the bar from him. A few are wearing bright colored trading jackets. The others casually dressed. They're loud and animated. Still coming down from a day of trading. Mike looks over at them seeing they're all dressed casually. He removes his tie and folds it neatly and places it in his pocket, takes a sip from his beer and walks over to them.
To be continued...
See today's complete entry of Auditions HERE and the complete script to date [[https://johnlothiannews.com/the-front-runner/|HERE.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Page-Turners for the Newly Retired: Books to Inspire and Enjoy; Must-read books to inspire, guide and entertain as you embrace your next chapter.
Jacob Wolinsky - Kiplinger
When you're newly retired, you're stepping into a phase of life filled with freedom and possibilities. For the first time in decades, your schedule is entirely your own and you can explore interests and hobbies that may have taken a backseat during your working years. Whether it's diving into a novel you've always wanted to read, learning something new, or simply savoring quiet moments with a good book, retirement offers a unique chance to rediscover the joy of leisure.
/jlne.ws/3W0twIG
The 10 Top London Restaurants to Book in 2025; In the year's most anticipated new openings, Gordon Ramsay turns his gaze skyward and finance powerhouse Carbone lands in the UK.
Kate Krader - Bloomberg
Let's start with the bad news: This was a big year for the closure of storied London restaurants. First and foremost was the legendary French dining establishment Le Gavroche, the Sloane Square property the Roux family ran for 57 years before shutting its doors in January. Beyond that, MasterChef star Monica Galetti's Mere and the high-profile Galvin at Windows, on the top floor of the London Hilton on Park Lane, have been mourned. One of the UK's biggest chefs, Jason Atherton, closed three places in 2024, including his uber-popular Pollen Street Social.
/jlne.ws/49UEBkp
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