| July 22, 2024 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Nothing like a nice quiet weekend...and then President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 Presidential election with this tweet on Twitter/X, announcing it is time for him to "stand down" as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President. Biden's first act was to endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, for the nomination. Bill and Hillary Clinton quickly followed with their endorsements of Harris, though former President Barack Obama held off offering an endorsement, something he did not give Joe Biden until Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 nomination race.
The CEO of CrowdStrike, who was criticized for his tardy apology for crippling the world's economy on Friday, would like to send a message of personal thanks to Biden for taking him off of the front page of newspapers around the world.
Cboe Global Markets announced the launch of its redesigned S&P 500 Variance Futures (Ticker: VA), expected to begin trading on September 23, 2024, pending regulatory review. This new product aims to transition OTC variance swaps trading to an exchange-listed format, simplifying trading and settlement while providing the benefits of price discovery, central clearing, and increased liquidity. The VA futures will settle based on the annualized realized variance of the S&P 500 Index, calculated daily from the first trading day to the final settlement date. Addressing customer feedback, the redesigned futures improve upon Cboe's previous offerings with a straightforward methodology, quoting and trading in variance units with a $12 contract size. They align with standard S&P 500 Index (SPX) options expiration dates, enhancing flexibility for managing variance exposure and hedging. In the press release, Rob Hocking, Cboe's head of product innovation, highlighted the product's accessibility, capital efficiency, and user-friendliness, while Tim Brennan, head of capital markets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, emphasized the tool's utility in managing variance and risk within the highly liquid S&P 500 ecosystem.
When I was a broker at Gerald Commodities, there were brokers whose customers would call them and ask them whether they were bullish or bearish on a market, and then do the opposite of their recommendation. A recent disciplinary action by the CME Group has a completely different take on this, with a brokerage deploying an automated trading system to enter trades taking the opposite side of customers it identified as frequently unprofitable.
A Panel of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Business Conduct Committee ("Panel") found that between July 22, 2020, and July 7, 2022, Wing Fung Futures Limited deployed an automated trading system ("ATS") in the Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro FX, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollar, E-mini NASDAQ, Micro E-mini NASDAQ, and E-mini S&P 500 futures markets wherein the ATS's strategy was to submit orders based upon trades executed by its clients who were regularly unprofitable. 'Specifically, upon a target client establishing a short/long position, the ATS generated a trading signal to enter an order in the same market for the same price and quantity as the client, though to establish the opposite short/long position. The Panel found that by employing this strategy, Wing Fung attempted to profit from its knowledge of its clients' record of losses, which was not available to others in the marketplace." The firm was fined $100,000 and forced to disgorge $4,011.33 in profits.
Matthew Leising, the editor in chief of Decential Media, is working on a weekly newsletter, The Web3 Rewind, billed as "A weekly recap of the most insightful news, analysis, and capital flows in the wild west we call crypto." The latest edition is titled "Crypto's Trump problem." Leising is a former Bloomberg reporter who dove deep into the crypto world to write a book, Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All, and has teamed with some crypto colleagues for Decential Media.
We missed including the latest whitepaper from the FIA, titled, "Best Practices for Automated Trading Risk Controls and System Safeguards." This paper consolidates previous work and covers pre-trade risk management, exchange volatility control mechanisms, post-trade analysis, and exchange-based conformance testing. These best practices aim to ensure market safety across various technologies. The tools developed through collaboration between market participants and exchanges have effectively limited market disruptions and protected markets.
I was scrolling through news on the Financial Times website when I came across this story, "How I learnt to stop scrolling." The subheadline is "It took a silent retreat to reboot my relationship with smartphones and social media." I think I need to go on a silent retreat, but then I can't shut up and I only know how to March Fourth.
Rob Hegarty, senior policy advisor at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rode in his first Pan-Mass Challenge in April, and when he did he checked the box asking if he had undergone cancer treatment. In 2021, he was diagnosed with perineural Basosquamous Cell Carcinoma. After a 15 month treatment regimen of immunotherapy, multiple surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy, he was declared cancer free last year. He was designated as a "Living Proof" rider and on PMC Night at Fenway Park he was selected to ride his bike around Fenway Park with other PMC "Living Proof" riders prior to the Boston Red Sox game. Needless to say, he was elated, he posted to LinkedIn. You can support his fundraising for the Pan-Mass Challenge HERE.
Euronext shared on LinkedIn that it has successfully migrated Euronext Clearing to cover all its commodity derivatives markets, a key milestone in its "Growth for Impact 2024" strategic plan. This achievement, completed in July 2024, Euronext said reinforces its position as Europe's leading market infrastructure. It also sets the stage for migrating financial derivatives clearing to Euronext Clearing by Q3 2024, marking the final step in integrating the Borsa Italiana Group into Euronext.
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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A (very) short version of what happened on Friday with CrowdStrike: While other news has claimed the spotlight this weekend, Friday's IT failure still looms large. CrowdStrike is, simply put, anti-virus/anti-malware software. In order to work well it needs to work at the most fundamental level of your computer, usually called the kernel. When you start your computer the kernel is the first bit that loads and all the rest is built on top of that. Software like CrowdStrike needs to run at this base level since many threats to computers target this level; if they can get control of the kernel they are in a good place to control everything else. So, when CrowdStrike broke that bit via an update, nothing else would work. The foundation was broken and nothing more could be built on it. That made fixing it very difficult. If you cannot start the computer, you cannot fix the computer. The interesting thing here, I think, is this shows the interconnectedness of our modern world. Maybe your local Starbucks was fine but when processing your payment it went to Starbucks central and then to a payment processor and then to your bank and all the bits in-between. If one was down it all stopped. Which is what we saw last Friday. Of interest to financial markets participants, some are saying CrowdStrike has almost no legal liability here. Their shrinkwrap agreement says they only have to refund the cost of the software. It'll be interesting to see how that works out after they crashed the planet. ~JB
Our most read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:
- OSTTRA adds SpectrAxe's FX options offering to network from FOW.
- Cboe participates in latest European digital currency trial from FOW.
- European markets trading normally through Microsoft outage from FOW. ~JB
Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it's free).
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Immigrants Are Risk Takers and I Like Risk Takers
JohnLothianNews.com
Last week during the GOP convention in Milwaukee we heard a lot of bad things about immigrants. This is actually a very old story in American politics. A bill passed by the very first Congress of the United States, the Naturalization Act of 1790, limited naturalization to "free white person(s) ... of good character," explicitly excluding Native Americans, indentured servants, enslaved people, free Africans, and Asians from citizenship.
Read MORE »
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LODAS Six-Month Trading Volumes Rose 73%; Transfer-Agent Business Continues Momentum
LODAS Markets
LODAS Markets, the only fully automated online marketplace to buy and sell alternative investments, reported 366 trading transactions for the first half of 2024, a 73% increase from a year ago. The period also included the launch of the LODAS transfer-agent (TA) business as the firm supports investors throughout the alternative-investing lifecycle, from client onboarding through an investment's secondary sale on LODAS. Multiple TA clients are partnering with LODAS and others are joining this quarter.
Https://jlne.ws/3WtQzME
***** There is a nice video on the About page of LODAS' website featuring Brian King explaining the value proposition of being able to trade alternative investments and real estate more efficiently via LODAS. ~JJL
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A Stock-Market Rotation of Historic Proportions Is Taking Shape; Few investors saw the shift coming, and many are puzzled by what is behind it
Karen Langley - The Wall Street Journal
The stock market has suddenly turned upside down. The market's laggards have sprung to life in recent days, while the seemingly impervious "Magnificent Seven" group of technology stocks has stumbled. Investors are even more focused than usual on corporate earnings as they try to anticipate what comes next. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks beat the S&P 500 over the seven days through Wednesday by the largest margin during a period of that length in data going back to 1986, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The Russell 1000 Value index, meanwhile, notched its biggest lead over its growth-stock counterpart since April 2001, after the dot-com bubble burst.
/jlne.ws/4fcdeEI
******* Do you remember the disclosure in the sponsored content for the Russell reconstitution? Welcome to the churn.~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday was The Wall Street Journal's Global Finance Contends With IT Outage: These Are the Companies Affected. Second was How Concentrated Is the Clearing Ecosystem and How Has It Changed Since 2007? from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Third was From ATMs to Flights, Epic IT Crash Leaves Trail of Chaos, from Bloomberg.
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| Lead Stories | Joe Biden drops out of US election and endorses Kamala Harris; President's historic decision upends White House contest against Donald Trump
Lauren Fedor and James Fontanella-Khan - Financial Times
US President Joe Biden has abandoned his re-election bid following overwhelming pressure from fellow Democrats and endorsed his vice-president Kamala Harris to succeed him, saying it was "in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down". The president announced his decision to quit the race in a letter published to social media on Sunday, throwing this year's White House contest into turmoil with less than four months to go until voters in the world's biggest economy elect their new leader on November 5.
/jlne.ws/4devxHH
Crypto Industry Wants Trump to Win and Call Off the SEC; Trump's crypto embrace sparks visions of softer enforcement; Fate of outstanding SEC cases against crypto remains uncertain
Muyao Shen - Bloomberg
The cryptocurrency industry is hoping the upcoming US presidential election will put someone in the White House who has a softer approach on enforcement, thereby ending prolonged battles with Wall Street's top cop. Former President Donald Trump has lately cozied up to the $2.5 trillion crypto industry, even inviting supporters to a Bitcoin-focused fundraiser on July 27. Although the Republican nominee criticized cryptocurrencies while in office, his recent comments have been more favorable - and lawyers expect that, if he wins, the US Securities and Exchange Commission will stop pursuing the digital-asset space so aggressively.
/jlne.ws/4fab0pn
Cboe to Offer Traders Another Way to Hedge S&P 500 Swings
David Marino - Bloomberg
Cboe Global Markets Inc. wants to give traders another way to hedge against volatility in the US stock markets. The exchange, which already has options and futures on its closely-watched volatility index (VIX), expects revamped Cboe S&P 500 Variance Futures to begin trading on Sept. 23, subject to regulatory review. The contracts will allow traders to hedge against realized volatility - calculated from the trading range each day - in the S&P 500 index, Cboe said Monday in a statement. That differs from the existing VIX contracts that reflect expected swings in the future.
/jlne.ws/3SgE4Sa
Top financial watchdog says shadow bank vulnerabilities yet to be fixed; FSB's Klaas Knot warns global tensions and rising debt levels increase risk of new financial crisis
Martin Arnold - Financial Times
The world's financial stability watchdog has urged regulators to maintain their clampdown on the "underlying vulnerabilities" building up outside the formal banking system in fast-growing and often heavily indebted areas such as private equity and hedge funds. Klaas Knot, chair of the Financial Stability Board, told the world's top finance ministers and central bank governors in a letter on Monday that geopolitical tensions, rising debt levels and elevated asset prices heightened the risk of a potential financial crisis.
/jlne.ws/4bSDzof
Trump 2.0 would not play out like Trump 1.0 in markets; Both the domestic and global contexts have changed materially since 2016
Bhanu Baweja - Financial Times
"Trump trades" have been stirring this year and have recently picked up pace. For example, amid strong gains in equities overall financials, seen as beneficiaries of deregulation under a Republican president, have outperformed renewables, a sector that a Democrat in the White House would favour. The market seems to be using the template of Donald Trump's first term to position for a potential second. This would be a mistake. The context today could scarcely be more different to 2016's "red wave".
/jlne.ws/4faeAjh
Number of Aim-quoted groups drops to 22-year low in blow to London; Tally falls amid dearth of IPOs and as costs of being quoted drive some companies to delist
Emma Dunkley - Financial Times
The number of small companies quoted on London's junior stock market has plunged to its lowest level in more than 20 years due to a dearth of flotations and a number of delistings, in the latest blow to the UK's capital markets. About 80 companies on Aim have come off the exchange in the past year, shrinking the total number of groups there to 722, according to accountancy group UHY Hacker Young.
/jlne.ws/4c9SniN
How to tax private equity properly; A protracted game of chicken is under way over the 'carried interest' loophole
Patrick Jenkins - Financial Times
It is a politically smart bit of heartstring-tugging. Labour's manifesto pledged that it would pay for 8,500 new mental health workers and other good causes by tightening the tax rules for wealthy private equity executives. Uncontroversial for most voters. But within this vast industry, huge efforts are being made to persuade the UK's new chancellor Rachel Reeves to water down her plans to generate an extra £565mn from closing the "carried interest tax loophole".
/jlne.ws/4cPmJbn
Digital paralysis shows the dangers of e-globalisation; Rather than anything more malicious, the trigger for the cyber failure seems to have been a prosaic software update
John Thornhill - Financial Times
The warp-speed digitalisation of our economies and societies has brought immense benefits. But it has also created huge vulnerabilities as today's global outage demonstrated. For too long, governments and companies have acted on the assumption that cyber resilience is important but not urgent. The scale of this most recent digital failure - "the largest IT outage in history", according to one security analyst - may help shift those considerations into the urgent bucket.
/jlne.ws/4f8TIJ7
Global IT outage could take weeks to resolve, experts warn; Botched update by security software maker CrowdStrike has left companies struggling to recover
Stephanie Stacey and Camilla Hodgson - Financial Times
Many businesses will probably take days or even weeks to recover fully from Friday's unprecedented computing outage, IT experts have warned, after a faulty software update from the company they trusted to secure their systems caused massive global disruption. CrowdStrike, one of the world's largest security vendors, blamed an update to its Falcon software for a bug that broke 8.5mn Windows PCs and servers, grounding planes, postponing hospital appointments and taking broadcasters off air around the world. "We currently estimate that CrowdStrike's update affected 8.5mn Windows devices, or less than 1 per cent of all Windows machines," Microsoft said on Saturday in a blogpost. "While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services."
/jlne.ws/3YiLPLr
CrowdStrike's Global Outage Doesn't Have to Be a Recurring Nightmare; Widespread catastrophic failure is inevitable when companies are so reliant on just a few dominant cloud vendors.
Parmy Olson - Financial Times
One of the most disturbing things about Friday's devastating global outage of IT systems is how routine such ruinous events have become. In the last few years, similar glitches from companies like Amazon.com Inc. have temporarily shut down systems across the globe, and this latest issue comes as a result of a botched software update from cyber security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., whose link to mega customer Microsoft Corp. has led to worldwide problems - including chaos in airports, stock exchanges and hospitals, though a fix has now been deployed.
/jlne.ws/3zRVcr6
FIA Releases Best Practices for Automated Trading Risk Controls and System Safeguards
FIA
FIA, a leader for over 14 years in the development of best practices for mitigating the risks of electronic trading, has released its latest paper - Best Practices for Automated Trading Risk Controls and System Safeguards. This paper consolidates our previous work and covers best practices in pre-trade risk management, exchange volatility control mechanisms, post-trade analysis and exchange-based conformance testing, among other areas. These practices are designed to help ensure that markets operate safely, regardless of the technology used. The tools developed through the collaboration of market participants and exchanges to manage the risks related to automated trading have proven highly effective in limiting market disruptions and protecting markets. "As we reviewed our previous work in connection with the production of this paper, we were pleased to find that, as trading technologies have evolved over time, the risk mitigation tools used by market participants and exchanges continue to keep our markets operating effectively. Although the paper builds on more than a decade of work in this area, the practices it outlines are well suited to both existing technologies and evolving ones, such as Artificial Intelligence," said Walt Lukken, President and CEO of FIA.
/jlne.ws/3WtJJXr
American Farmers' Next Hot Commodity Is Canola for Biofuels; The seed's oil, more familiar in healthy cooking, has the potential to play a bigger role in low-emitting fuel markets. November's election poses some risks.
Kim Chipman - Bloomberg
Canola oil - invented in Canada 50 years ago as a healthier, shelf-stable cooking fat - may soon venture beyond the world's kitchen cupboards to a spot in the airways. A growing number of energy and agriculture firms in the US have been boosting spending in an effort to plant and crush more canola, an oilseed that could play a big role in the nascent renewable fuel markets - so long as a contentious election doesn't derail President Joe Biden's biofuel push before Americans can finally crack the crop.
/jlne.ws/3Lw9ArA
Global Efforts to Curb Financial Risks Outside Banks Are Losing Momentum, FSB Warns; FSB chair warns push on NBFI risks may be "losing momentum"; Private equity, funds and hidden leverage key priority in 2024
Laura Noonan and Nicholas Comfort - Bloomberg
Global efforts to tame ballooning risks outside the banking system are losing steam, the Financial Stability Board said on Monday, with a top official warning it will take longer than expected to get a full picture of vulnerabilities at hedge funds, private credit firms and other investors. The FSB, which convenes the most powerful central bankers, regulators and finance ministries, swept into 2024 on a mission to deal with risks at financial institutions whose scrutiny fell further behind that of traditional banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The rhetoric was backed up by an ambitious work program, including gathering data on the institutions' use of leverage, as well as their capacity to meet margin calls in times of stress, and separate work on open-ended funds.
/jlne.ws/4cRRSL8
The TRADE celebrates ten years of the Rising Stars of Trading and Execution; To celebrate 10 years of the initiative, this year The TRADE will be holding a special celebratory evening at Plaisterers' Hall on 15 October.
Editors - The Trade
The Rising Stars of Trading and Execution, in partnership with Instinet, returns for its tenth year recognising promising buy-side talents within the institutional trading space. Over the past 10 years, the initiative has recognised key buy-side talents, several of whom have gone on to head up some of the largest and most successful desks across leading asset managers and hedge funds.
/jlne.ws/3YkFUFk
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Blinken points to wider pledges to support Ukraine in case US backs away under Trump
Ellen Knickmeyer - Associated Press
Ukraine is on its way to being able to "stand on its own feet" militarily, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday, noting that more than 20 other countries have pledged to maintain their own military and financial aid to the country even if the U.S. were to withdraw its support under a different president. Blinken for the first time directly addressed the possibility that former President Donald Trump could win the November election and back away from commitments to Ukraine. The U.S., under President Joe Biden, has been the most important supporter of Ukraine's more than two-year battle against invading Russian forces.
/jlne.ws/3Sfgbu8
Ukrainian Drone Attack Set Russia's Tuapse Refinery on Fire
Bloomberg
Rosneft PJSC's major Tuapse refinery in southern Russia caught fire after a Ukrainian drone attack early Monday, regional authorities said. "Infrastructure of the oil refinery in Tuapse was damaged as a result of falling drone debris," the authorities said in a Telegram statement. The fire, which broke out on a territory of 50 square meters, was extinguished by 8:01 am local time, according to a separate statement.
/jlne.ws/3LA1VIU
Mysterious Russia-linked buyers amass LNG 'dark fleet'; Acquisition spree has driven up prices of older vessels as Moscow prepares for tighter trade restrictions
Shotaro Tani and Oliver Telling - Financial Times
Mysterious buyers with suspected links to Russia have begun amassing dozens of vessels capable of carrying liquefied natural gas, in moves that suggest Moscow is expanding its "dark fleet" of energy tankers. Shipping industry insiders say a clutch of previously unknown companies, largely registered in the United Arab Emirates, have rapidly acquired LNG vessels over the past year, driving up market prices, especially for the oldest ships.
/jlne.ws/4daGIkn
Russia's Tuapse oil refinery damaged in Ukraine drone attack, Russian officials say
Reuters
Russia's Tuapse oil refinery, its biggest on the Black Sea, was damaged in a major Ukrainian drone attack overnight which sparked a fire, Russian officials said on Monday, though the extent of the damage was not immediately clear. Debris from the drone, which was shot down, caused a fire at the refinery, which is owned by oil major Rosneft, the officials said. The fire has since been contained, the regional administration said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia's SHOT and Mash Telegram news channels reported that a series of blasts were heard near the refinery early on Monday.
/jlne.ws/3zTECXZ
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| Israel/Hamas Conflict | | News about the recent (October, 2023) conflict between Israel and Hamas | Israel kills dozens as it steps up Gaza bombardment
Nidal Al-Mughrabi - Reuters
Israeli forces pounded several areas across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 39 Palestinians, according to health officials, as tanks advanced deeper into western and northern Rafah. Among those killed on Saturday were local journalist Mohammad Abu Jasser, his wife and two children in an Israeli strike on their home in the northern Gaza Strip, a medic said.
/jlne.ws/3Sc6mgv
Israeli jets hit Houthi targets in Yemen in response to drone attack; Energy infrastructure in port city of Hodeida targeted in retaliation against fatal strike in Tel Aviv
James Shotter in Jerusalem - Financial Times
Israeli jets struck several targets including energy infrastructure in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida on Saturday in response to a drone attack by Houthi militants that killed one person in Tel Aviv the day before. The Israel Defense Forces said it hit "military targets" in the port, in retaliation for repeated attacks against Israel by Iran-backed Houthi militants since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza erupted last year.
/jlne.ws/4d9y1XM
'A Rubik's Cube in the Sky': Israel Struggles to Defend Against Drones; An attack on Tel Aviv attributed to Yemen's Houthis exposes a hole in Israel's high-tech air defenses
Anat Peled and Dov Lieber - The Wall Street Journal
On Friday, Israel's vaunted aerial-defense system tracked 65 rockets fired across its northern border by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, intercepting some and letting the rest fall harmlessly into open areas. That same day, Israel missed a single drone it believes flew more than 1,000 miles from Yemen to explode in the commercial capital Tel Aviv.
/jlne.ws/4bSTCT6
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Vivendi Picks LSE for Canal+, Amsterdam for Havas Post-Split; Vincent Bolloré's media group is advancing its plan to split; Potential listings away from France show international push
Benoit Berthelot - Bloomberg
Vivendi SE said that its Canal+ broadcasting business should be listed on the London Stock Exchange and that the Havas advertising agency is likely to trade in Amsterdam, as French billionaire Vincent Bolloré moves ahead with plans to break up his sprawling media and entertainment empire. Louis Hachette Group, a new company that brings together Vivendi's publishing and distribution assets, would be listed in Paris, the company said in a statement on Monday. Following the split, the Bolloré Group would hold about 30.6% of the shares of Canal+, Louis Hachette Group and Havas respectively. Because of the voting rights structure in Havas, Bolloré Group will have more than 40% of the voting rights.
/jlne.ws/3Whwo3c
Cboe Announces Planned Launch of New Cboe S&P 500 Variance Futures
Cboe
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced plans to launch a newly redesigned Cboe S&P 500 Variance Futures contract (Ticker: VA), which is expected to begin trading on September 23, 2024, subject to regulatory review. The Cboe S&P 500 Variance Futures contracts will settle based on a calculation1 of the annualized realized variance of the S&P 500 Index. The realized variance will be calculated once each day from a series of values of the S&P 500 Index beginning with the closing index value on the first day a VA futures contract is listed for trading and ending with the special opening quotation (SOQ) of the S&P 500 Index on the final settlement date of that contract.
/jlne.ws/3Wdfumy
ICE First Look at Mortgage Performance: June Sees Calendar-Driven Spike in Delinquencies; Foreclosures Remain Historically Low
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.
Coming off a near-record low in May and with June ending on a Sunday, the national delinquency rate jumped +14.5% (+45 basis points) to 3.49%, its second highest level in 18 months; Sunday month-ends often lead to sharp, but typically temporary, spikes in delinquent mortgages, as payments made on the last day of a given month are not processed until the following month; As such, June saw a +19.6% increase in the number of borrowers a single payment past due - the highest inflow since May 2020 - while 60-day delinquencies rose 11.8% to a five-month high.
/jlne.ws/3Wye6ML
Press release of Corporate Actions Committee - Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX)
ATHEX
The Athens Stock Exchange, following today's session of its Corporate Actions Committee, announces that the following will be implemented:
/jlne.ws/3P5pLgX
Product Modification Summary: Amendments to the Termination of Trading for Existing Crude Oil Weekly Option Contracts - Effective July 22, 2024
CME Clearing
Notice Date: 10 May 2024
Effective Date: 22 July 2024
Amendments to the Termination of Trading for Existing Crude Oil Weekly Option Contracts.
/jlne.ws/3W0eHVR
Analysis of Disclosure in "Basic Policy Regarding Selection of Accounting Standards" [Companies whose FYs ended by Mar. 31, 2024]
JPX
Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. has released its analysis of disclosure in "Basic Policy Regarding Selection of Accounting Standards" for companies whose fiscal years ended by March 31, 2024.
/jlne.ws/3y3YNSv
Joint Press Release by All Exchanges
NSE
On July 19, 2024, there was a global outage of Microsoft Systems. This outage has been reported to have caused disruptions across various sectors globally. In India, all Exchanges and Clearing Corporations functioned without any impact. Out of the 1400+ trading members ecosystem, there were 11 trading members who reported disruptions to their operations, which were either resolved during the day, or are being resolved.
/jlne.ws/4cVqvjp
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | What is CrowdStrike? The $80bn IT giant behind Friday's global meltdown
Matthew Field - The Telegraph
Someone, somewhere within IT cyber security giant CrowdStrike is having the worst day at work in their life. Early on Friday morning, people awoke to find TV news channels silent, trains cancelled and websites crashing in a massive IT outage impacting tens of millions of computers. It seemed almost any business running Microsoft's Windows 10 software experienced a sudden, dramatic failure. Computers appeared to automatically shut themselves down and display the so-called "blue screen of death".
/jlne.ws/3WtJQlS
A Windows version from 1992 is saving Southwest's butt right now
Jacob Roach - Digital Trends
Nearly every flight in the U.S. is grounded right now following a CrowdStrike system update error that's affecting everything from travel to mobile ordering at Starbucks - but not Southwest Airlines flights. Southwest is still flying high, unaffected by the outage that's plaguing the world today, and that's apparently because it's using Windows 3.1. Yes, Windows 3.1 - an operating system that is 32 years old. Southwest, along with UPS and FedEx, haven't had any issues with the CrowdStrike outage. In responses to CNN, Delta, American, Spirit, Frontier, United, and Allegiant all said they were having issues, but Southwest told the outlet that its operations are going off without a hitch.
/jlne.ws/3zN2Zqa
The Software Patch That Shook the World; A CrowdStrike security update rendered computers unusable and underscored the fragility of modern global technology
Asa Fitch, Sam Schechner and Sarah E. Needleman - The Wall Street Journal
Hemant Rathod, an Indian executive, was sipping tea in a conference room Friday morning in Delhi, about to send a long email to his team, when his computer went haywire. The HP laptop suddenly said it needed to restart. Then the screen turned blue. He tried in vain to reboot. Within 10 minutes, the screens of three other colleagues in the room turned blue too.
/jlne.ws/4d74KwL
Blue Screens Everywhere Are Latest Tech Woe for Microsoft; Global outage on Windows machines caused by CrowdStrike highlights Microsoft's security challenges
Tom Dotan and Robert McMillan - The Wall Street Journal
The blue screen of death has been a dreaded symbol of technological failure since Microsoft's Windows became the world's dominant operating system in the 1990s. On Friday, it showed up on millions of computers around the world at once, highlighting both Microsoft's continued ubiquity in workplaces and decades-old design choices that allowed the actions of a little-known software company to disable millions of Windows machines. Some security professionals also say Microsoft hasn't taken the vulnerability of its software seriously enough.
/jlne.ws/4dbtcgA
CrowdStrike update that caused global outage likely skipped checks, experts say
Zeba Siddiqui - Reuters
Security experts said CrowdStrike's routine update of its widely used cybersecurity software, which caused clients' computer systems to crash globally on Friday, apparently did not undergo adequate quality checks before it was deployed. The latest version of its Falcon sensor software was meant to make CrowdStrike clients' systems more secure against hacking by updating the threats it defends against. But faulty code in the update files resulted in one of the most widespread tech outages in recent years for companies using Microsoft's Windows operating system.
/jlne.ws/4cVyKw4
CrowdStrike Crash Affected 8.5 Million Microsoft Windows Devices
Lynn Doan and Matt Day - Bloomberg
A faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. affected 8.5 million devices globally that rely on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Microsoft Corp. gave the full scope of the worldwide IT outage for the first time in a blog post on Saturday, saying those affected represented fewer than 1% of all devices that use Windows. "While the percentage was small," the Redmond, Washington-based company said, there were "broad economic and societal impacts." In what will go down as the most catastrophic IT failure the world has ever seen, the CrowdStrike update crashed the systems of businesses and governments globally, paralyzing their operations for hours. Emergency response lines went down. Thousands of flights were delayed and canceled. Hospitals were forced to delay procedures, and trading across markets slowed.
/jlne.ws/3YaW18w
Exclusive-Illicit chip flows to Russia seen slowing, but China, Hong Kong remain transshipment hubs
James Pomfret and Michael Martina - Reuters
/jlne.ws/4bTaRDN
Exclusive-Nvidia preparing version of new flagship AI chip for Chinese market, sources say
Fanny Potkin - Reuters
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How Wall Street needs to adapt to AI;New technology should incorporate some element of the human touch to be trusted
Juan Luis Perez - Financial Times
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Iress Adds AI Advice Assistant PlannerPal To The List Of Xplan Integrations
Mondovisione
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Fintech Ebury taps Goldman for £2bn UK IPO; A listing in early 2025 would be a boon to London's otherwise lacklustre capital markets
Ivan Levingston, Akila Quinio and Ortenca Aliaj - Financial Times
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | How to Guard Against Scams Tied to the CrowdStrike Crash; People posing as airline customer service representatives may be making fraudulent attempts to access your money or private data, experts warn.
Hank Sanders and Emmett Lindner - The New York Times
In the hours after the American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike deployed a flawed software update that crippled critical businesses and services around the world, scammers pounced. Government agencies and businesses have warned that the panic caused by the CrowdStrike crash on Friday has given criminals an opening to take advantage of customers who are looking to reschedule flights, access banking information or fix their technology.
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Cyber watchdogs warn on phishing scams as IT outage fallout lingers; Airlines and healthcare services are among the hardest hit by the faulty CrowdStrike update
Harry Dempsey and Jim Pickard and Amanda Chu - Financial Times
Global cyber security watchdogs have raised the alarm over malicious websites claiming to fix glitches in the wake of one of the world's biggest IT outages that was still causing disruption over the weekend. US, UK and Australian cyberdefence agencies all issued separate warnings over the weekend against increased phishing activity exploiting the incident, as aftershocks continued to be felt from an unprecedented IT outage triggered by a faulty CrowdStrike software update.
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Germany Dumping $2.8B Bitcoin Is 'Market Intervention,' Despite Murky Legal Justifications
Amitoj Singh - Coin Desk
Germany may have finally come out with a legal reason why they offloaded nearly $3 billion worth of bitcoin {{BTC}} into the open market, but industry experts aren't sold on the reasoning. Germany seized about 50,000 bitcoin in January from the operator of Movie2k.to, a website the state of Saxony found guilty of money laundering and other illegal activities. The state, with the help of Frankfurt-based German securities trading bank Bankhaus Scheich Wertpapierspezialist AG, and the Federal Criminal Police Office, sold about 49,858 bitcoin between June 19 and July 12, securing 2.6 billion euros ($2.8 billion), according to a statement on Wednesday.
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Argentina looks to tame crypto market as money-laundering fears draw scrutiny
Noelle Harff - Reuters
A new law could help Argentina regulate its booming cryptocurrency market as the country aims to reduce risks such as money-laundering associated with the digital assets, experts say. In the last year, Argentina saw $85.4 billion worth of crypto transactions, making it one of the largest crypto havens in the world, according to data platform Chainalysis, as Argentines seek to battle triple-digit inflation and a struggling currency. On Wednesday, the Argentine government signed a fiscal package that includes tax amnesty for individuals who declare up to $100,000, including registered crypto assets.
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CSOP to Launch Asia's First Inverse Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong; CSOP targets $50 million to $100 million AUM over two years; Inverse Bitcoin ETFs bet on negative moves in token's price
Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
Hong Kong will play host to a new type of Bitcoin exchange-traded fund allowing investors to bet against the original cryptocurrency even as it rallies on US President Joe Biden's decision to abandon his reelection bid. CSOP Asset Management Ltd. will launch the Asia-Pacific region's first crypto-linked inverse ETF - the CSOP Bitcoin Futures Daily (-1x) Inverse Product - in Hong Kong on Tuesday morning, according to the firm's Chief Executive Officer Ding Chen. Investors in the largest cryptocurrency have had a bumpy ride over the summer. Bitcoin sank to below $54,000 in early July before optimism around pro-crypto Donald Trump's chances of reassuming office fueled a recovery. The token was trading at $67,234 as of 3:12 p.m. in Hong Kong on Monday.
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The 'halving' happened. Why isn't Bitcoin soaring higher?
Rachel Christian - Bankrate
Bitcoin enthusiasts around the world were abuzz with anticipation in April. Why? The much-awaited Bitcoin halving, an event predicted to send the price of the world's most famous cryptocurrency skyrocketing. But three months later, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has yet to soar. While the cryptocurrency hit $65,481 on April 19 - the date of the most recent halving - the price of Bitcoin has stagnated since then, and is even down slightly as of July 16. The halving happened, but the price surge many expected failed to materialize.
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Cboe Confirms Spot Ethereum ETFs Will Start Trading on July 23
Hope C - CoinMarketCap
Cboe Confirms Spot Ethereum ETFs Will Start Trading on July 23
Cboe Confirms Spot Ethereum ETFs Will Start Trading on July 23
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) has confirmed that several spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will commence trading on Tuesday, July 23. Notices posted on Cboe's website on Friday announced the listing of multiple spot Ethereum ETFs. The ETFs set to begin trading include the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF (CETH), Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH), Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET), Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF (QETH), and VanEck Ethereum ETF (ETHV).
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | 'Almost' Everyone in Crypto's a Winner in a Second Trump Administration; Delayed crypto IPOs may finally make progress under Trump; Overseas firms will see less market share as US peers thrive
David Pan - Bloomberg
Bitcoin miners and crypto companies that have been stonewalled in efforts to go public in the US may ultimately be the biggest winners in the digital-asset world under a second Donald Trump presidency. Foreign companies at risk of losing market share may end up being the biggest losers. That's the view taking hold among market participants and observers in the wake the former president's growing embrace of crypto while the odds of his election rise. While a poll released Thursday by CBS News showed Trump with a majority - 52% - of likely voters in a probable rematch with President Joe Biden, it is unclear who will be on the ballot in November. On Sunday, Biden said he will not seek reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee.
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Wall Street Takes a Back Seat With Trump's Elevation of Vance; Influence of financiers might wane after Silicon Valley favorite lands VP slot
Gregory Zuckerman - The Wall Street Journal
Former President Donald Trump's choice of JD Vance as his running mate is a bet on an inexperienced politician from a battleground state. It is also a sign of Wall Street's waning power. The choice of Vance could mean tech executives will exert more influence on a Trump administration than financial titans. Some in the finance set see the first-term senator from Ohio's selection as a sign Trump doesn't care as much about appeasing them. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley's deep-pocketed Trump supporters including Elon Musk are cheering the choice.
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Wall Street's Masters of the Universe Are Masters of None in 2024 Race; The financial world's heavy hitters fear being marginalized in Washington after former President Trump chose a running mate openly hostile to Wall Street.
Maureen Farrell and Rob Copeland - The New York Times
It's a bad time to be a finance billionaire. Well, in Washington, D.C., anyway. Republicans on Wall Street, who had been largely coalescing around former President Donald J. Trump's efforts to return to office, suffered outright repudiation this week with his pick of Senator JD Vance of Ohio as a running mate. Mr. Vance, a harsh critic of corporate interests and a former venture capitalist, solidified a feeling in the world of high finance that the balance of power in the party had suddenly shifted westward to Silicon Valley.
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The US debt is about to hit $35 trillion. It didn't come up at the GOP convention.
Ben Werschkul - Yahoo Finance
The national debt is on the cusp of a grim milestone, but it's one of the least discussed topics at the Republican National Convention this week. President Joe Biden hasn't mentioned it much either as he has campaigned across the country. Outstanding government debt stood at $34.9 trillion ($34,940,154,000,000 to be somewhat more precise) as of Tuesday, according to the latest data from the Treasury Department.
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Trump's Disdain for Digital Dollar Risks 'Cold War Era' in Money; Trump vows CBDCs will be banned if he returns to White House; US risks 'falling behind' as global money goes digital
María Paula Mijares Torres - Bloomberg
Central bank digital currencies were once looked upon as nothing short of the future of money around the world. Yet at least in the US, that sunny outlook for CBDCs is in serious doubt for one simple reason: Donald Trump and his Republican allies hate them. Along with Trump's newfound support for cryptocurrencies comes a disdain for the idea of creating a digital dollar, a sentiment prominent among executives in the industry who rage against CBDCs as dangerous surveillance tools of the state because their usage can be tracked by authorities. Of course, digital forms of fiat currencies also present major competition for the industry since they undermine major use cases for crypto by allowing for the elimination of financial intermediaries and faster, simpler transmission of money.
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Treasury warns that anti-woke banking laws such as those in Florida are national security risk
Josh Boak - Associated Press
The Treasury Department is warning that state laws that restrict banks from considering environmental, social and governance factors could harm efforts to address money laundering and terrorism financing. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter sent Thursday to lawmakers. The letter singled out a law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May that says it would be an "unsafe and unsound practice" for banks to consider non-financial factors when doing business. The letter concludes that "such laws create uncertainty and may inhibit" national security efforts.
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Crypto CEO resigns after posting about 'literal war' against Trump opponents
Rob Wile - NBC News
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Big Tech's phony Trumpism; Marc Andreessen 2024 is backing Trump. Marc Andreessen 2007 thinks that's stupid.
Adam Rogers - Business Insider
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Trudeau's Tax Hikes Risk Worsening Canada's Struggle for Capital; Bank of Canada business survey shows firms worried about taxes; Investment in machinery, intellectual property lags US
Erik Hertzberg - Bloomberg
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Taiwan's military drills turn serious as China threat escalates; Annual Han Kuang exercise pivots from scripted performances to realistic battlefield scenarios
Kathrin Hille - Financial Times
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Beijing and Manila strike deal to reduce tensions in South China Sea; 'Provisional' agreement reached to allow Philippines to resupply military outpost on contested reef
Kathrin Hille - Financial Times
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India to Ease Borrowing, Investment Rules For State Firms
Siddhartha Singh - Bloomberg
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | IRS Finalizes 10-Year Rule For Retirement Withdrawals, Making Things 'Even More Insanely Complicated'
Benzinga Advisor
The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department have released final regulations updating required minimum distribution (RMD) rules for beneficiaries under the 10-year rule. These regulations, stemming from the SECURE and SECURE 2.0 Acts, confirm that most IRA beneficiaries must take distributions annually over the 10-year period following the account holder's death, according to thinkadvisor.
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Billionaire Gerko Loses Tax Fight Over Quant Trader Payouts; Gerko says he's previously paid billions of pounds in tax; Gerko "fundamentally disagrees" with the Court of Appeal
Jonathan Browning - Bloomberg
One of the UK's largest taxpayers, billionaire quant trader Alex Gerko lost a legal dispute with British authorities over the tax treatment of a deferred payment plan. Appeal judges ruled that Gerko and other traders, while they were still running high-frequency trading strategies at GSA Capital Partners between 2010 and 2015, should pay income tax on their share of the trading profits from the fund. The total size of the tax bill is some £22.5 million ($29.1 million).
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New York Financial Regulator Hires New Crypto Unit Leaders; The New York State Department of Financial Services has brought on Kenneth Coghill, who joins the recently hired John Melican to lead its virtual currency unit
Mengqi Sun - The Wall Street Journal
New York's financial regulator has appointed a former official from Dubai's financial regulator to help oversee its virtual currency unit that regulates cryptocurrency businesses in the state. Kenneth Coghill, who most recently was the director and head of innovation and technology risk supervision at Dubai Financial Services Authority, started Thursday at the New York State Department of Financial Services as its deputy superintendent of virtual currency.
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SEC Launches Interagency Securities Council to Coordinate Enforcement Efforts Across Federal, State, and Local Agencies
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement this month launched the Interagency Securities Council (ISC), which invites federal, state, and local regulatory and law enforcement professionals to meet quarterly to discuss the latest in scams, trends, frauds, and mitigation strategies. The ISC's objective is to strengthen the cohesion between federal, state, and local agencies, enhance opportunities to collaborate on cases to protect investors, provide insight and guidance across the ecosystem to those who may not frequently operate in this space, and create a forum for unified efforts in combatting financial fraud.
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SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against a Los Angeles Individual for Perpetrating a $47 Million Affinity Fraud Targeting Members of the Orthodox Jewish Community
SEC
On July 15, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a final judgment against Yossi Engel, whom the SEC charged for perpetrating a $47 million affinity fraud from December 2018 to January 2020, targeting at least 29 members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
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SEC Charges Two Sales Agents for Role in $112 Million Ponzi Scheme that Targeted Haitian-American Community
SEC
Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Broward County, Florida residents Ricardi Celicourt and Brisly Guillaume with violations of the securities registration and broker-dealer registration provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with their participation in an unregistered securities offering by Royal Bengal Logistics Inc., which fraudulently raised approximately $112 million from 1,500 investors and targeted Haitian-Americans.
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SEC Charges Former SPAC CEO with Fraud
SEC
On July 17, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in federal court in the District of Columbia alleging that Patrick Orlando, the former CEO and Chairman of Digital World Acquisition Corporation ("DWAC"), a special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC"), made materially false and misleading statements in forms filed with the SEC as part of DWAC's initial public offering ("IPO") in September 2021 and its proposed merger with Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. ("TMTG"), which was announced in October 2021.
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ASIC secures travel restraint orders against financial advisor Barry King
ASIC
ASIC has secured travel restraint orders against Melbourne-based financial advisor Barry David King. The orders, which prevent Mr King from leaving or attempting to leave Australia until 1 April 2025, were made by the Supreme Court of NSW after an application by ASIC and were consented to by Mr King, without admission.
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ASIC protects small business Quarterly Update 1 April - 30 June 2024
ASIC
ASIC continues to take enforcement action against company directors whose actions unfairly impact small businesses with the disqualification of seven directors in the 1 April to 30 June 2024 quarter. Some of the directors who received the maximum allowable disqualification of five years had also engaged in illegal phoenix activity and used company funds to make payments to related parties for no commercial reason. The failure of company directors to pay the ATO, employee entitlements or other creditors puts them at an unfair competitive advantage over other small proprietary companies.
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Three jailed between 52 and 80 months in landmark market manipulation case
SFC
The Court of First Instance today sentenced Ms Sit Yi Ki and Mr Tam Cheuk Hang to imprisonment of six years and eight months, and Ms Lam Wing Ki to imprisonment of four years and four months after they were found guilty in a jury trial of conspiracy to carry out false trading in the shares of Ching Lee Holdings Limited following extensive investigations by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the prosecution by the Department of Justice (Note 1). This is the heaviest jail sentence imposed on market manipulation cases since the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) came into effect in 2003.
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Foreign US Treasury holdings rise, Japan's stockpile shrinks
Alden Bentley - Reuters
Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries hit a record in May, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday, while a decline in Japan's huge stockpile closely coincided with what appeared to be the start of intervention to support its currency. Holdings of U.S. Treasuries rose to $8.129 trillion in May from a revised $8.04 trillion in April.
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Directors' Deals: Elixirr bosses free up shares for staff incentive scheme; One of few listed management consultancies
Jemma Slingo and Michael Fahy - Financial Times
Elixirr International is one of very few management consultancies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Such companies typically avoid the public market because it is difficult to balance shareholder demands with those of partners, who are hungry for big pay packets and a say over how things are run.
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One Scientist's 96-Year-Old Wheat Goldmine Is About to Transform Agriculture
Darren Orf - Popular Science
The John Innes Center, located in Norwich in the U.K., specializes in the genetics and microbiology of all sorts of plant species, but it has the unique distinction of containing the largest collection of wheat samples from around the world. Nearly a century ago, British plant scientist Arthur Watkins, described as a "quiet and shy" botanist who was a pioneer in the world of plant genetics, slowly gathered wheat samples from 32 countries from both within and outside the British Empire. But in the 21st century, as the human population continues to climb and crops face unprecedented pressure from rising temperatures, Watkins' dogged determination to collect these bread wheat samples could very well feed humanity far into the future.
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Investors Remember 'Stocks Can Go Down Too' in Return to Hedging; VIX futures swing after Biden drops out of presidential race; The index hit its highest level since April on Friday
David Marino - Bloomberg
Hedging is back as investors fret over concerns about everything from the US presidential election to second-quarter earnings, economic growth and interest rates. The Cboe Volatility Index, a gauge of options prices, surged the most in more than a year last week as stocks sank with growing calls for Joseph Biden to quit the presidential race. Now that he's done so and thrown US politics into uncharted territory, futures on the gauge have slipped after earlier climbing as much as 1.8% in Asian trading. October contracts, which measure swings around the vote, rose even more and were still up by 1:19 p.m. in Hong Kong.
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'Greatest Bubble' Nearing Its Peak, Says Black Swan Manager; Universa's Mark Spitznagel, who has made billions from past crashes, sees last hurrah for stocks before severe reckoning
Spencer Jakab - The Wall Street Journal
Talk is cheap when it comes to where stocks are headed, but investors' ears perk up when Mark Spitznagel speaks. One reason is that he has made some spectacular scores, including earning $1 billion in a single day, since setting up tail risk hedge fund Universa Investments in 2008. The other is that he steadfastly hasn't relied on any sort of short-term view to do so.
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The 401(k) Rollover Mistake That Costs Retirement Savers Billions; Much of the money moved into IRAs misses out on market returns
Anne Tergesen - The Wall Street Journal
Workers miss out on billions in investment gains by pulling retirement savings out of the stock market after switching jobs-often without meaning to. When people roll 401(k) balances from their old company's plan into an individual retirement account, the money is frequently held as cash until they select new investments. Many never do, according to new research from Vanguard Group. Nearly a third who rolled savings into IRAs at Vanguard in 2015 still had the balance sitting in cash seven years later.
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Where Harris and Her Potential Running Mates Stand on Climate Change; If Kamala Harris clinches the Democratic nomination, Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro are among those who could be her vice president choice.
Matthew Griffin, Alexander Battle Abdelal, and Leslie Kaufman - Bloomberg
Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race - bowing to weeks of pressure after a disastrous June debate and polls that showed worsening odds against his Republican rival, Donald Trump - upends the contest only weeks before Democrats meet in Chicago to confirm their nominee. Biden, 81, is the first sitting US president not to seek reelection for decades.
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Supreme Court Gives Trump 'Sword' to Slash Biden's Climate Rules; The court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine will help Trump roll back environmental regulations if he wins in November.
Kendra Pierre-Louis and Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
The US Supreme Court just overturned a longstanding legal principle of deferring to federal agencies' power to interpret and implement laws. The ruling Friday will weaken the government's hand in setting environmental policy and could erode existing protections for the climate, air and water.
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Kamala Harris Seen as Tougher Oil Industry Opponent Than Biden; As California attorney general, Harris has sued oil companies; She's been more critical of fracking, offshore oil than Biden
Jennifer A Dlouhy and Ari Natter - Bloomberg
As California attorney general, Kamala Harris brought lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, prosecuted a pipeline company over an oil leak and investigated Exxon Mobil Corp. for misleading the public about climate change.
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Vance's Scorn for Clean Energy Grew as Ohio Embraced It; His views on climate, energy shifted as political profile rose; Vance expected to be staunch oil, gas ally if elected VP
Jennifer A Dlouhy and Ari Natter - Bloomberg
Donald Trump's newly picked running mate, Senator JD Vance, has grown more critical of renewable electricity and climate change even as his home state of Ohio embraced solar power and clean-tech manufacturing.
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Companies drop DEI targets from bonus plans on pressure from conservatives; Criticism from asset managers is increasingly leading big employers to walk back diversity and environmental measures
Patrick Temple-West - Financial Times
Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola and Regions Financial are among a dozen companies that have removed diversity criteria from executive bonus plans this year after pressure from conservatives, as the political backlash to the initiatives continue to divide US boardrooms. The 12 companies were among 60 that dropped environmental, social and governance incentives from their executive pay plans after pressure from Strive, the anti-ESG asset manager founded by Donald Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy. Launched in 2022, Strive has more than $1.6bn of assets under management.
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Nuclear wildcard reignites Australia's climate wars
Peter Hobson - Reuters
A plan by Australia's federal opposition that would slow the roll-out of renewable power and build a network of nuclear reactors has set the scene for a divisive confrontation on climate policy ahead of an election expected next year. The opposition policy, unveiled last month, would replace the current government's emphasis on accelerating construction of solar, wind and batteries with one that envisages a greater role for fossil fuels while seven state-owned nuclear plants are built.
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Oil-Field Service Companies Ask: Where Did All the Wildcatters Go?; Drilling activity is weak in the U.S., but service companies' margins remain strong Jinjoo Lee - The Wall Street Journal
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Can the solar industry keep the lights on? Global supply glut of panels is hurting producers but also helping installations
Rachel Millard and Amanda Chu - Financial Times
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Over 30% of Japan's zero-energy homes fall short of requirements; An increase in below-standard houses could hamper its decarbonization efforts
Kunihiro Iwasaki - Nikkei
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EU seals 'historic' pact on Serbia's lithium deposits
Guy Delauney - BBC
Serbia has only just scrapped a ban on lithium mining
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Nigeria's Dangote Refinery Targets Output of 550,000 Barrels a Day
Anthony Osae-Brown - Bloomberg
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Azerbaijan May Export Gas Via Ukraine After Russia Deal Ends; Azerbaijan was approached by EU, Ukraine for help, Aliyev says; Output from new and existing Caspian Sea fields set to rise
Zulfugar Agayev - Bloomberg
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Dalio's Exit Terms at Bridgewater Said to Delay Abu Dhabi Plans; Billionaire had signed non-compete upon departing Bridgewater; Dalio's partnership with Sheikh Tahnoon is said to be delayed
Ben Bartenstein - Bloomberg
An investment partnership between Ray Dalio's family office and Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been delayed as Bridgewater Associates grapples with the legal terms of its billionaire founder's exit from the firm. One of the questions is whether Dalio, who built Bridgewater into a $160 billion behemoth, might use the company's intellectual property if he proceeds with the tie-up, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
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Global Funds Pile Up Nearly a Trillion Yuan of China Bank Bonds; Heavy investor positions may slow inflows going forward: OCBC; Foreign investors cut China sovereign bond holdings in June
Iris Ouyang and Jiayan Lou - Bloomberg
Foreign investors ramped up holdings of short-term bonds issued by Chinese banks to a fresh record, as attractive rates for swapping dollars continue to juice the returns available on such debt. Overseas institutions' outstanding holdings of Chinese negotiable certificates of deposits reached 972.6 billion yuan ($133.7 billion) in June, according to Shanghai Clearing House data. That made up 22.5% of their overall China bond holdings in the month, according to central bank data Friday.
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | World Economic Forum Opens Board Probe of Workplace Culture; Independent trustees conducting review as corporate partners ask about Journal's investigation into allegations of discrimination and harassment
Shalini Ramachandran, Jenny Strasburg and Suzanne Vranica - The Wall Street Journal
The World Economic Forum's board is working with a global law firm to investigate its workplace culture, weeks after The Wall Street Journal revealed allegations of harassment and discrimination at the organization behind the elite Davos gatherings. The board of trustees has formed a special committee and tapped Thomas Buberl, the chief executive of French insurer AXA, to oversee the investigation, people familiar with the discussions said. The trustees are being supported by Covington & Burling, a law firm that has handled other high-profile workplace reviews.
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The White-Collar Hiring Rut Is Here. That's Bad News for Young College Grads; After a pandemic boom, hiring is down for jobs that require a bachelor's degree. 'These companies just got way, way too bloated.'
Vanessa Fuhrmans and Ray A. Smith - The Wall Street Journal
The great white-collar job market chill is now targeting one group of applicants with particular force: college educated workers, especially new grads starting out in the job market. The white-collar labor market is entering a more uncertain phase after cooling for more than a year. Job insecurity is climbing and fewer professionals feel emboldened to change their employment. The lack of turnover is stalling hiring even more as companies rethink their talent needs after pandemic-hiring sprees.
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When it comes to work, age isn't just a number; Changing demographics are set to keep older people employed despite risks highlighted by Biden
Emma Jacobs - Financial Times
At 91, Alf Dubs has two measures guiding his decision to continue as a Labour peer in the UK's House of Lords. The first is personal: can he make a contribution, particularly on refugee issues, an area he has some expertise on, not least because in 1939 he fled Czechoslovakia on Kindertransport to arrive in Britain. The second is whether family and colleagues think he has the mental fitness. If there's any sign he "is losing it," they are to "please, please tell me", he says. The former MP does not want the same fate as elderly peers he has seen "wandering around the Lords looking totally lost".
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The golden age of overemployment is over. Job jugglers are preparing for life with only one income.
Jacob Zinkula - Business Insider
Over the past three years, Charles has earned between $100,000 and $300,000 annually by secretly working a mix of remote full-time and contract jobs. But he knows his "overemployment" might not last forever. The extra income has enabled him to make home improvements, buy a rental property, invest in a personal business venture, and purchase a new car, he told Business Insider via email. However, in recent months, Charles said return-to-office mandates and hiring slowdowns have reduced the number of fully remote roles in his industry - he works as a consumer product professional in the tri-state area. This has left him clinging to his two remaining remote jobs and dreading a future where he must commute to work.
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Do you want to be happier? Here are 5 habits to adopt
Andrea Kane - CNN
If you look around at your friends and family - and even at yourself - it is apparent that some people perceive the glass to be half full, while others view it as half empty. "Some people are just happier than others. They don't have to work at it, right? They just are," social psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky recently told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on his podcast Chasing Life. "(They're) kind of like people who are thin naturally, and they don't have to work hard at it."
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Why Americans Aren't Having Babies; The costs and rising expectations of parenthood are making young people think hard about having any children at all
Rachel Wolfe - The Wall Street Journal
Americans aren't just waiting longer to have kids and having fewer once they start-they're less likely to have any at all. The shift means that childlessness may be emerging as the main driver of the country's record-low birthrate. Women without children, rather than those having fewer, are responsible for most of the decline in average births among 35- to 44-year-olds during their lifetimes so far, according to an analysis of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey data by University of Texas demographer Dean Spears for The Wall Street Journal. Childlessness accounted for over two-thirds of the 6.5% drop in average births between 2012 to 2022.
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Singles Apply for a Mate at City Hall's Dept. of Romance; Japan's falling birthrates have yielded a population crisis and local government matchmaking services; 'They need help'
Miho Inada - The Wall Street Journal
Yurika Adachi, a 39-year-old nurse, grew tired of swiping fruitlessly on dating apps and petitioned local government officials last year to help her find a husband. First, the bureaucrats had a few questions. Adachi filled out an online form and booked an in-person appointment at the Saitama Rendezvous Support Center. She presented her photo ID to an official to verify her identity and dug out her tax document as proof of income. Adachi went to another office, to obtain a document showing she was indeed single.
/jlne.ws/4d756DB
Is Bird Flu Spreading Widely to Farm Workers? A Small Study Offers Some Reassurance; Officials found no evidence of silent infections in 35 Michigan dairy workers, but experts noted that much more data was necessary.
Emily Anthes and Noah Weiland - The New York Times
Since an unusual bird flu outbreak was first detected in dairy cows in March, experts have warned that the virus could be infecting more farm workers than have been officially detected. Testing has been severely limited, constraining what health officials know about the ways that the virus is spreading from sick cows and contaminated equipment and how often it is spilling over into humans.
/jlne.ws/3SjvEcJ
I'm a French woman in my 40s. This is why I'm going to live longer than a woman in England; Yes, it's mostly to do with eating habits. And yes, it's cultural
Charlotte Kan - The Telegraph
Whether it's a café croissant watching the world go by from a Parisian terrace, or that glass of rosé with a long-time friend, or an apéritif with the neighbours that extends into an impromptu dinner party... People often misconstrue the French joie de vivre as simply hedonistic. But when you look at the consistent two-year gap between life expectancy of women in France and England, you wonder if there's something in it. As a French woman who has been living in London for nearly 25 years, I wanted to explore the reasons behind this life expectancy gap - and look at why it might be closing. Non-spoiler alert: Yes, it's mostly to do with eating habits. And yes, it's cultural.
/jlne.ws/3SfFTyR
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | China Quants Defend Sector Amid Calls to Ban Algorithmic Trades; Yanfu and High-Flyer dispute accusations against quant models; Criticism has surged in recent days as market keeps sliding
Bloomberg News
China's top quantitative hedge funds are defending the beleaguered industry against pundit calls to ban algorithm-driven trading following regulatory tightening. Yanfu Investments LLC and Zhejiang High-Flyer Asset Management, two of the largest quants managing more than 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) combined, published rare articles this week in response to "misconceptions" about quant investing. Quants are being blamed for any market fluctuation even when evidence suggests otherwise, High-Flyer wrote on its Wechat account Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/4bWKQUa
Copper miners predict industry overhaul as end users rush to secure supply; Executives see increasing signs of a shift to direct deals with cable manufacturers, car companies and other big buyers
Harry Dempsey and Rachel Millard - Financial Times
The world's largest copper miners predict closer collaboration with end users from carmakers to utilities, upending a hitherto fragmented supply chain as shortages of the metal crucial to green technologies are set to flare up in the years ahead. Executives at leading mining groups see increasing signs of a shift to direct deals with cable manufacturers and other big buyers to secure supply of the "metal of electrification" at an affordable price.
/jlne.ws/4ddXvDp
Mystery Bond Buyer Clears China Developer's Debt at 90% Discount
Jackie Cai - Bloomberg
The source of the money is shrouded in mystery. But a major Chinese real estate developer appears to be trying a novel approach to resolving its debt: it is working with a buyer to purchase bonds at deeply discounted prices, and then canceling the securities. The moves by China Fortune Land Development Co., whose default in 2021 marked the beginning of the country's property crisis, are the latest twist in a debt debacle that has left more than $140 billion of real estate bonds in default and become a massive drag on the world's second-largest economy.
/jlne.ws/4faywTd
Chinese money manager Noah expands Hong Kong office, eyes Japan to meet clients' demand
South China Morning Post
Noah Holdings, one of China's largest asset managers, is expanding its Asia-Pacific operations to meet the growing demand from its wealthy Chinese clients who want to invest globally. The move entails boosting its Hong Kong office and opening one in Japan, according to a top executive. The Shanghai-headquartered money manager recently renewed and expanded its Hong Kong office by a third to 30,000 sq feet in Times Square, Causeway Bay, a tourist hotspot.
/jlne.ws/46ejY0E
Sanctioned Russia emerges unscathed in global IT outage
Gleb Stolyarov - Reuters
Russian officials boasted on Friday that Moscow was spared the impact of the global IT systems outage because of its increased self-sufficiency after years of Western sanctions, though some experts said Russian systems could still be vulnerable. Microsoft and other IT firms have suspended sales of new products in Russia and have been scaling down their operations in line with sanctions imposed over Russia's war in Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a special military operation.
/jlne.ws/3SgDNi2
Lightning strikes kill cattle, start fires in Greece during heat wave
Associated Press
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Traders pour billions of dollars into Turkish lira trade; Hedge funds and investors lured by high interest rates, but flows could leave country vulnerable to a shift in sentiment
Adam Samson and Mary McDougall and Costas Mourselas - Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3A2Spv6
Saudi Wealth Fund Offers to Boost Stake in Selfridges to 50%; Wealth fund could buy rest of stake from co-owner Signa Prime; Selfridges properties include Oxford Street, Manchester stores
Libby Cherry - Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/3LwpORo
Rice sold in 7 states recalled due to possible contamination of 'rodent origin'
Christine Rousselle - Fox Business
/jlne.ws/4d8UJz8
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | From the Playing Field to Wall Street; For more than 200 pro athletes, the boutique investment firm Patricof Co is opening the door to the private equity market.
Ken Belson - The New York Times
In Orchard Park, N.Y., this past January, just as the tight end Travis Kelce caught a touchdown pass to help the Kansas City Chiefs take the lead in a playoff game against the Buffalo Bills, the real action for many fans watching at home was high above the field. There, in a crowded luxury box, Mr. Kelce's brother, the burly Philadelphia Eagle offensive lineman, Jason Kelce, was dancing shirtless and chugging from a beer, as Travis's girlfriend, Taylor Swift, looked on in a combination of amusement and astonishment.
/jlne.ws/3Wc7rXa
Opinion: Anti-immigrant hatred led Lou Dobbs into the conspiratorial abyss; In one career, a spiral from old-fashioned reporting to dangerous - and actionable - falsehoods.
Erik Wemple - The Washington Post
CNN and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has died at the age of 78, leaving behind a legacy that doubles as a warning to his former colleagues: Your words will catch up with you. In the summer of 2015, Dobbs took note of the backlash to Donald Trump's characterization of Mexicans in his campaign kickoff address. And he dissented from the opprobrium. "It's just mind-boggling that Donald Trump gets into such trouble because he says some of those crossing that border belong to MS-13 or are part of the cartels who are committing crimes," Dobbs said in a July 2015 edition of "Lou Dobbs Tonight," his Fox Business program.
/jlne.ws/3WgUqeG
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