| April 13, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
I grew up using a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica my father bought as a resource for countless school papers. Today, rather than a shelf full of alphabetically aligned, beautifully bound look alike books, Britannica is online and has hired a former John Lothian News editor and John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. executive, Doug Ashburn. Doug has been hired by Brittanica as a personal finance editor. He will be leading the charge for the 250-year-old company, helping to build a financial footprint for a subsite of information on investing, trading, saving, budgeting, debt management, retirement planning and other financial oriented material.
I had the honor of serving as a reference for Doug for this job and told them there was no one that worked for me that would be better prepared to take on this role than Doug. Doug spent 20 years as an options trader on the floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange before earning an MBA from the Stewart School of Business at Illinois Tech. JLN hired Doug in 2011 as an intern to help us develop MarketsReformWiki. He did such a great job on the project, we moved him into other aspects of the operation, which he eventually would run as chief operating officer.
Doug has most recently been with content publisher T3 Custom as managing editor, director of strategy and business development and vice president of editor content. This is a major endeavor for Britannica and they are off to a good start by hiring Doug.
I write all of the above, while also disclosing that Doug's wife Nancy Ashburn is the JJLCO director of administration and finance. Also, Doug felt motivated by the good news of his new job to make a gift to the JLN MarketsWiki Education GoFundMe campaign. Now, it would be easy to be cynical about a donation like this, except that Doug was the person we interviewed first for the Open Outcry Traders History Project as an example of what the interviews would be like. And Doug is not the first person to have a job search be aided by new employers viewing a JLN video, so in that sense the donation makes plenty of sense. Congratulations to Doug on his new job and thank you for the gift to the GoFundMe campaign.
Also, JJ Kinahan has left TD Ameritrade and joined tastytrade as vice president and chief market strategist. Kinahan has been a popular media presence for TD Ameritrade, which recently merged with Schwab. Tastytrade, which is owned by the IG Group presently, is in the midst of being acquired by Crypto.com. Good luck, JJ. Now I know why your newsletter subscription was bouncing.
Today JLN published a video from our Industry Leader Series from FIA Boca 2022 of Citadel Securities' Troy Kane. Troy has an interesting story, as does Citadel Securities.
The latest edition of The Full FX Disruptor Series, Episode 3 by Colin Lambert features LMAX Group CEO David Mercer.
Our spotlight today for FIA 2022 Hall of Fame inductees is on Steve Sparke. Here is his Hall of Fame interview.
Banjo player and Former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo will be performing with the Crypto Kinds Band on Saturday night, April 20, 2022 at what he calls America's oldest tavern, the 76 House in Tappan, New York (20 minutes north of George Washington Bridge). https://www.76house.com.
Kelli Haywood, the community impact manager at Cboe Global Markets, has been selected as the 2022 Executive Service Corps (ESC) Nonprofit Civic Leader of the Year. The Executive Service Corps is one of the nation's leading nonprofit consultancy services, serving over 1.2 million people each year.
I bought some Eli's cheesecake for the daughter of a friend for her birthday and college graduation (masters degree) and now all my search pages are filled with pictures of deep dish pizza, cheesecake, thick steaks and Chicago hotdogs from Taste of Chicago. I am not sure how long I can last like this.
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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ICYMI: The FIA is holding a webinar on Thursday, April 21 called "Q1 2022 Trends in Futures and Options Trading." FIA senior vice president of publications, data & research Will Acworth will discuss the topic with two experts from the futures execution desk at Morgan Stanley. The webinar takes place from 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. ET. You can go here to register.~SR
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Citadel's Troy Kane discusses the growth of retail trading, Citadel's wade into Crypto, and its growth in Asian markets
JohnLothianNews.com
Troy Kane got his start when he was 14 years old working on the trading floors of the Chicago Board of Trade for his mother's company and clerking for locals. "My first job was to collect the trading cards every 15 minutes and tally up positions," Kane said. "So if you were wrong, you were usually fired that day, so you better not be wrong. I did that every summer in high school and learned the business from the ground up."
Watch the video »
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Almost 75% of financial advisors surveyed say a spot crypto ETF would make them likely to invest clients' money in digital assets
Carla Mozée - Business Insider
Exchange-traded funds tied to spot prices of cryptocurrencies would prompt a majority of financial advisors to put their clients' money to work in digital assets, a Nasdaq survey found. 72% of advisors would invest in crypto if a spot ETF product were available, according to the survey of 500 advisors who are currently or considering allocating to digital assets.
/jlne.ws/3EbkiPR
******Gary, oh, Gary? This poll is for you!~JJL
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Trading and Securities Veteran, JJ Kinahan, Joins tastytrade; Appointment to enhance tasty's implementation of product and expansion strategies
IG Group
IG Group (LON: IGG), a global fintech at the forefront of online trading, today announced that Joe (JJ) Kinahan has been appointed to the newly created roles of Vice President and Chief Market Strategist of tastytrade, which is a key leadership position focused on accelerating the growth of the business by using his significant trading experience and market knowledge to identify and exploit new opportunities. JJ's role is effective as of April 11 and he will be Chicago, IL based.
/jlne.ws/3O7XF3t
***** JJ goes from IG to a tastier venture to pitch investments and trading.~JJL
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Cryptocurrency Guru Sentenced to More Than Five Years in Prison Over North Korea Trip; Virgil Griffith previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate a U.S. law by giving a presentation in North Korea on using blockchain to evade sanctions
James Fanelli - Bloomberg
A cryptocurrency expert who gave a presentation in North Korea on how to use blockchain technology to evade U.S. sanctions was sentenced to 63 months in prison Tuesday. Virgil Griffith, 39 years old, pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from exporting goods, services or technology to sanctioned countries, including North Korea. Federal prosecutors accused the former Ethereum Foundation researcher of jeopardizing U.S. diplomacy and weakening economic sanctions intended to pressure a hostile foreign power.
/jlne.ws/3JEpM6A
****** Some people should read the small print on those export notices.~JJL
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Tuesday's Top Three
Our most clicked link on Tuesday was to an explanation of 'burying the lede,' "Why Do We 'Bury the Lede?'", from Merriam-Webster. The link was in a paragraph at the top about William Knottenbelt, CME Group senior managing director, head of international, who is retiring at the end of this year. Second was Patrick Young's IPO-VID on YouTube, A New Code for Market Structure, in which he interviews Taraneh Derayati, the CEO of Vermiculus Financial Technology. Third was DTCC Building Industry's First Prototype To Support Digital U.S. Currency In the Clearing & Settlement Process As Part Of Digital Dollar Project Effort, a press release from the DTCC.
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MarketsWiki Stats
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MarketsWiki Statistics
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
Publisher | | | Sarah Rudolph
Editor-in-Chief
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Editor
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| Lead Stories | Russian Tech Industry Faces 'Brain Drain' as Workers Flee; Since their country invaded Ukraine, Russian tech workers have left by the thousands. They appear intent on rebuilding their lives and businesses in other countries.
Cade Metz and Adam Satariano - NY Times
In early March, days after Russia invaded Ukraine and began cracking down on dissent at home, Konstantin Siniushin, a venture capitalist in Riga, Latvia, helped charter two planes out of Russia to help people flee. Both planes departed from Moscow, carrying tech workers from the Russian capital as well as St. Petersburg, Perm, Ekaterinburg and other cities. Together, the planes moved about 300 software developers, entrepreneurs and other technology specialists out of the country, including 30 Russian workers from start-ups backed by Mr. Siniushin.
/jlne.ws/38D6hi4
U.S. Cyber Firms Seek Tech Standards as Russian Hacking Fears Grow; Lobbying group said it will push for cybersecurity standards; Efforts come amid increased threats to U.S. energy sector
Jack Gillum - Bloomberg
A group of cybersecurity companies that specialize in securing critical infrastructure said Tuesday they've formed a lobbying group to push for technological standards among the private sector and government. The Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition said it will directly work with the U.S. government to share feedback on policy proposals and adopt uniform technological standards for securing places such as pipelines and industrial facilities. Founding members include Claroty Inc., Tenable Holdings Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Nozomi Networks Inc. and Forescout Technologies Inc.
/jlne.ws/3uAVmOC
A new world order for the stock market is coming, explains BlackRock CIO
Brian Sozzi - Yahoo Finance
Making money in the stock market will likely look different over the next few years compared to the low interest rate era seen from the end of the Great Financial Crisis, says BlackRock's CIO of U.S. fundamental equities Tony DeSpirito. "It's a really big deal," says DeSpirito on Yahoo Finance Live. DeSpirito explains that since the end of the financial crisis, the economy has experienced very low growth, very low inflation and very low rates. But those factors largely ended during the pandemic, with that regime being one with high inflation and a love for stay-at-home stocks. Now things are changing once more as home prices have shot higher at this point in the pandemic, stock prices are still elevated, the unemployment rate is sub 4% and interest rates are headed upward.
/jlne.ws/3uCTftF
Deutsche Bank Preps for World's Shortest Stock Settlement System; India's T+1 settlement for foreign investors due later in 2022; Clients worry about higher transaction costs, Deutsche says
Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
India is rolling out the world's shortest equity trade-settlement cycle. A pain-free transition for foreign investors would spur others to follow, according to Deutsche Bank AG, the largest custodian bank in the country. Higher currency transaction costs and the risk of operational delays are among concerns that have been flagged as the nation's exchanges leapfrog peers in New York and London with a next-day settlement system, compared with the two-day practice of most markets. The rules for foreign investors take effect around October.
/jlne.ws/3KFmWQl
SEC Chair Gensler Defends Climate Disclosure Rule
Lauren Foster - Barron's
Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler on Tuesday defended the agency's legal authority to mandate that all publicly traded U.S. companies disclose their annual greenhouse-gas emissions and the climate risks their businesses face, saying the recent proposal follows a "long tradition of disclosures." "I believe the proposed rule would build on that long tradition," he said in prepared remarks during an investor briefing hosted by Ceres, the environmentally minded watchdog and shareholder advocacy group. "It would provide investors with consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information for their investment decisions and would provide consistent and clear reporting obligations for issuers. "
/jlne.ws/3O5P8xP
Ex-Swiss Bank Chief Faces Jail Over Embezzlement Scandal; Former head of Raiffeisen Switzerland gets 3 years, 9 months; Consultant Beat Stocker gets four-year prison sentence
Karin Matussek, Hugo Miller, and Stephanie Bodoni - Bloomberg
The former boss of one of Switzerland's top banks was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail after being found guilty of multiple charges including embezzlement, fraud and forgery of documents. Pierin Vincenz, ex-chief executive officer of Raiffeisen Switzerland, and bank consultant Beat Stocker were convicted for making unlawful gains during Vincenz's 15-year tenure as CEO, a Zurich court ruled on Wednesday. Stocker was handed a four-year prison sentence, after being found guilty on a number of counts, including fraud, dishonest business management and documents forgery.
/jlne.ws/3Okyzyv
Institutional Investors Are Flexing Their ESG Muscles; Big pension, endowment and sovereign wealth funds are intensifying their activism on diversity and climate change.
Nir Kaissar - Bloomberg
People tend to associate environmental, social and governance investing with stock-picking, a way to sort through companies based on their ESG practices. But not every investor can be choosy about the companies they own. Big pension, endowment and sovereign wealth funds oversee tens of billions and even trillions of dollars, which means they have to own practically everything. If they avoid companies that fall short of their ESG standards, they quickly run out of places to park their money.
/jlne.ws/3O6ENlb
'Crazy' US sanctions against China, Russia 'weaponise' financial markets, threaten to undermine dollar, former HKMA chief Joseph Yam says
South China Morning Post
The eminence grise of Hong Kong's banking circles has come out swinging against the United States in an unusual webinar that set a strident tone against the economy with which the city's currency and monetary policy are linked. The US government, under Donald Trump and his successor Joe Biden, has "weaponised" the financial markets, a "stupid and crazy" strategy that would undermine the US dollar's status as the world's reserve currency, said Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, the former chief executive of Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the de facto central bank.
/jlne.ws/3E7rMmY
ACER to decide on the implementation frameworks for the European balancing platforms
ACER
On 31 March 2022, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) received the proposals submitted by all Transmission System Operators (TSOs) amending the implementation frameworks for the European balancing platforms for the automatic and manual frequency restoration reserve (aFRR, mFRR) and the imbalance netting. The amendment proposals detail the designation of entities performing the relevant functions of these platforms. The proposal on the implementation framework of the mFRR platform also includes technical amendments.
/jlne.ws/38Phcp5
JPMorgan profits fall as Ukraine crisis hits dealmaking; Bank put aside almost $1bn in loan-loss reserves amid rising inflation
Joshua Franklin - FT
JPMorgan Chase profits were dragged down in the first quarter by slowing dealmaking, a rise in loan-loss reserves and a $524mn loss suffered amid market turbulence unleashed by the war in Ukraine. The largest US bank by assets kicked off bank earnings season on Wednesday by reporting $8.28bn in net income for the first three months of 2022, down 42 per cent compared with the same period last year.
/jlne.ws/38HmfI1
***** Here is the WSJ version of this story~JJL
'Living in a fantasy': euro's founding father rebukes ECB over inflation response; Otmar Issing sees a risk of stagflation if central bank policymakers continue to misjudge factors driving up prices
Martin Arnold - FT
Like many Germans, Otmar Issing is alarmed by the surge in inflation to 40-year highs in his country and worried by the "misguided" response of the European Central Bank. But, as one of the founding fathers of the euro, Issing's complaints carry more weight than most of his countrymen.
/jlne.ws/38SmOPz
"We f****** blitzed it boys"; The inconvenient chat transcripts of the UK traders alleged to have gamed sub-zero oil.
Bryce Elder - FT
Please don't tell anyone what happened today lads x. That's among the standout lines in chat logs released on Tuesday as part of litigation against UK traders accused of engineering an oil futures crash. A class-action lawsuit filed by rare coin shop Mish International Monetary alleges that traders associated with Vega Capital London made out like bandits when crude oil futures dropped $56 a barrel into negative territory ahead of expiry on April 20, 2020. Bloomberg's regular coverage has dubbed them the Essex Boys.
/jlne.ws/3KRtgUI
Central bankers cannot afford to ignore the pain in commodities; Bailouts are a last resort but action will be inevitable if market stress becomes systemic
Karen Petrou - FT
Karen Petrou is managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics and the author of 'Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America' In the midst of chaos there is always volatility, and the commodities sector is very much feeling the pain. This has led to growing speculation that central banks will step in if unprecedented price swings show signs of systemic impact. I do not know any central banker who wants to bail out commodities, but if market stress turns systemic, they will act. Indeed, even if the stress seems manageable, they may intervene if they believe public welfare is at risk when core commodities go from pricey to prohibitive.
/jlne.ws/3M7n2Rb
EXCLUSIVE: MiFID II has made research market less competitive, finds new survey; The research found that competition for the provision of investment research has decreased due to MiFID II, with bulge-bracket providers dominating.
Laurie McAughtry - The Trade
A new survey of the asset management community on researching pricing trends has revealed a number of notable challenges in the wake of MiFID II, The TRADE can exclusively reveal. Substantive Research, a comparison site that monitors and curates investment research and provides data-driven analytics on research spend to the buy-side, surveyed 40 asset managers across Europe and the US with AUM of between $2 billion - $800 billion. The findings show that regulatory changes designed to unbundle research to make the market more competitive have in fact done little to alleviate the massive concentration in research spend going to the core bulge-bracket banks.
/jlne.ws/3LWcFiI
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia has yet to slow a Western arms express into Ukraine
AP
Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia's initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching, potentially decisive, battle for Ukraine's contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express.
/jlne.ws/3jx7OZg
A bright, talented Ukrainian journalist signed up to help Fox News cover the war. Two months later she was dead.
Mia Jankowicz - Business Insider
The Ukrainian news producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova — Sasha to all who knew her — always surprised her parents with her quiet independence. In February 2014, she disappeared from home in Kyiv as it was gripped by the Euromaidan revolution which ousted the government and changed Ukraine forever. It almost got her killed, her father, Andrey Kuvshinov told Insider.
/jlne.ws/37gP6CH
For Putin, It's All About the Money—And I Learned That the Hard Way
Bill Browder - Time
As we watch the murderous carnage that Putin has unleashed against innocent Ukrainians, we are all trying to understand Putin's motivations. Some say he's reacting to NATO expansion, others contend that Putin can't abide a Western-leaning Ukraine. Still others offer that Putin so laments the break-up of the Soviet Union that he wants to reassemble it. From my perspective, it's not due to any of these reasons. It's simply about money. Unlike most other governments, Russia's is not there to serve the people, but to enrich senior officials through endemic corruption. The more senior you are, the richer you get. And the most senior person, Vladimir Putin, has become the richest. I estimate his wealth to be well north of $200 billion.
/jlne.ws/3M2AS74
Russian central bank suspends monthly foreign trade data for first time since 1997
Reuters
The Russian central bank said on Monday it had temporarily suspended publishing data on foreign trade on a monthly basis in the first such suspension since 1997. The central bank was due to release a foreign trade balance for January-February on Monday, as initially planned, according to its data release schedule.
/jlne.ws/3O99Soh
Russia's Oil Industry, Linchpin of Economy, Feels Sting of Ukraine War Disruptions; Storage facilites are filling up, refineries are cutting output and crude-oil wells are throttling back production—a blow for the country's economy as Moscow wages war on Ukraine
Joe Wallace, Anna Hirtenstein - WSJ
Oil is backing up through Russia's energy supply chain and leading to a drop in crude-oil production, a blow to Moscow's main economic engine as the war in Ukraine rages. Refiners are trimming output and in some cases closing down because of falling demand at home and abroad. Storage space is running low in pipelines and tanks. Wells, which pump from some of the world's biggest crude reserves, are dialing down production.
/jlne.ws/3vfFPmj
U.S. Prepares Massive New Surge of Military Aid to Ukraine; About $750 million in assistance will be sent from U.S. stocks; Biden administration has provided $2.4 billion in aid so far
Anthony Capaccio and Jordan Fabian - Bloomberg
The Biden administration is preparing a military assistance package of roughly $750 million for Ukraine in its battles against Russian invaders, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday night. The weapons and other equipment are expected to be sent under presidential drawdown authority, which allows President Joe Biden to transfer equipment from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in order to speed up delivery during an emergency.
/jlne.ws/3xoRGRD
Kremlin-connected children grew up in the very countries whose societies their parents claim to reject
Majlie de Puy Kamp, Yahya Abou-Ghazala and Isabelle Chapman - CNN
Russia turned a school into a military base. Clarissa Ward shows what they left behind
Theirs is a world of private jets, posh Parisian apartments, Austrian ski vacations and schooling at elite universities in London and New York. Their parents own prime real estate on the most exclusive avenues of Europe's capitals. Their social media profiles are filled with designer dresses and red-carpet events. One young woman posted photos of her 22nd birthday, poolside at the Adriatic Sea villa of one of Putin's oligarchs.
/jlne.ws/3xpHFE0
Roman Abramovich Has $7 Billion of Assets Frozen in Jersey
Jonathan Browning - Bloomberg
More than $7 billion of assets belonging to Roman Abramovich were frozen by authorities in the English Channel tax haven of Jersey, in the latest crackdown on offshore wealth held by sanctioned Russian billionaires. The Jersey Royal Court imposed a freezing order on the assets, the local government said in a statement Wednesday. At the same time, police executed a search warrant on premises "suspected to be connected" to him.
/jlne.ws/369SVsX
Gazprom Trading Unit Says It Won't Return to Russian Control; Russian gas giant has asked units to stop using its trademarks; Company will continue talks with Germany, U.K. governments
Todd Gillespie - Bloomberg
A group of Gazprom PJSC companies temporarily under the control of the German government will not return to the ownership of the Russian gas giant, according to the group's trading unit. Gazprom views the separation as permanent and has already asked the companies to stop using its branding and trademarks, London-based Gazprom Marketing & Trading said in an email to employees seen by Bloomberg News. The companies still need to resolve the ownership structure and intend to keep talking to the German and U.K. governments about it, according to the email.
/jlne.ws/3Oc7NIf
Ukraine Update: U.K. Adds Russian Billionaires to Sanctions List
Richard Bravo - Bloomberg
The U.K. added 206 people, including several tycoons, to its sanctions list. The presidents of Poland and the three Baltic states are heading to Kyiv in a show of support. U.S. President Joe Biden ramped up his condemnation of Vladimir Putin by accusing the Russian president's forces of committing genocide in Ukraine, as Washington prepares a new military aid package for Kyiv. An Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe report found a pattern of human-rights violations by Russia.
/jlne.ws/3jAiy9e
Russia to sell oil, gas at 'any price point' to 'friendly countries': officials
Thomas Barrabi - NY Post
Russia is ready to sell its oil and gas to certain nations at "any price point" as the Kremlin looks to prop up the main source of its revenue despite sweeping Western sanctions during the Ukraine war, the country's energy minister said Tuesday. Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said the offer applies to so-called "friendly countries" - meaning nations that haven't imposed sanctions since the Kremlin began its brutal invasion of Ukraine
/jlne.ws/3M0RhsL
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | BrokerTec to Launch Next-Generation BrokerTec Stream Platform
CME Group
BrokerTec, a leading provider of electronic trading platforms and technology services in fixed income markets, today announced that it will launch a next-generation trading platform for BrokerTec Stream, its relationship-based, streaming service for U.S. Treasuries.
/bit.ly/3Ob2p8s
Cboe to Add Tuesday and Thursday Expirations for SPX Weeklys Options
Additional offerings build on success of Cboe's existing SPX Weeklys options; will now provide expirations every trading day of the week
Cboe Global Markets
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading provider of global market infrastructure and tradable products, today announced it will list S&P 500 Index (SPX) Weeklys optionsSM with Tuesday expirations beginning Monday, April 18, and Thursday expirations beginning Wednesday, May 11. These new listings build on the success of Cboe's popular SPX Weeklys options, which currently include Monday, Wednesday and Friday-expiries, and will expand the product suite to provide expirations every trading day of the week.
/bit.ly/3O9mjjX
Disable Cabinet Trades of Four (4) Metals Options Contracts
CME Group
Effective Sunday, May 8, 2022, for trade date Monday, May 9, 2022, and pending all relevant CFTC regulatory review periods, Commodity Exchange, Inc. ("COMEX" or "Exchange") will amend Rules XXX101.C. ("Price Increments") of the four (4) metals option contracts noted in the table below ("the Contracts") to disable cabinet transactions of the Contracts (collectively, the "Rule Amendments")
/bit.ly/3xwWe8y
Increase of Maximum Order Quantity ("MOQ") of the Options on Micro Bitcoin Futures, Options on Micro Ether Futures, and Micro Ether Futures Contracts
CME Group
Effective Sunday, May 8, 2022, for trade date Monday, May 9, 2022 Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. ("CME" or "Exchange") will increase the maximum order quantity ("MOQ") of the Options on Micro Bitcoin Futures, Options on Micro Ether Futures, and Micro Ether Futures contracts (the "Contracts") for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform ("CME Globex") as more specifically described in the table below. Contract Title Rulebook
/bit.ly/37HWhUj
FNZ and Clearstream agree strategic partnership and unveil leading business intelligence solution
Deutsche Börse Group
- New partnership will significantly increase transparency for the UK & European asset management industry
- Leading-edge business intelligence solution will transform asset managers' decision making
- Integrated, end-to-end fund dealing and custody solution will deliver significant efficiency gains for UK & European fund distribution
FNZ, the global wealth management platform, and Clearstream, Deutsche Börse Group's post-trade services provider, have entered a strategic partnership that will significantly increase transparency for the UK & European asset management industry through the launch of a new leading-edge business intelligence solution.
/bit.ly/3rmZ38i
EEX Group continued to provide security and certainty to customers against the backdrop of unprecedented uncertainty and sustained volatility.
EEX Group
EEX Group has today published its 2021 financial results, reporting another record year. Throughout 2021, EEX Group continued to expand its position in the global commodity exchange space, posting significant increases in its power, natural gas, environmental and dry freight markets.
/bit.ly/37dMPrO
Money Market Futures: Cancellation of the contracts already admitted to trading EUR Secured Funding Futures (FLIC)
Eurex
The Management Board of Eurex Deutschland took the following decisions with effect from 9 May 2022:
-Cancellation of the contracts already admitted for trading EUR Secured Funding Futures (FLIC)
This circular contains all information on the products that will be delisted and the updated sections of the relevant Rules and Regulations of Eurex Deutschland.
/bit.ly/3xr2hfa
Equity index derivatives: Introduction of Futures on STOXX® Global Thematic Indices
Eurex
The Management Board of Eurex Deutschland took the following decisions with effect from 16 May 2022:
Introduction of four futures on the following STOXX® Global Thematic Indices:
-STOXX Global Automation & Robotics Index
-STOXX Global Breakthrough Healthcare Index
-STOXX Global Digitalization Index
-STOXX Global Digital Security Index
Introduction of a Liquidity Provider Scheme for the new products (as of 16 May 2022)
/bit.ly/3JH2eOy
Daily Price Limits to be Broadened : 1 issue
JPX
The following issue has fallen under the following (1) or (2) for two consecutive business days. As such, TSE wishes to bring to your attention that it will broaden only the upper (or lower) daily price limit on the next business day (April 14) as follows.
/bit.ly/3ObFny0
Bermuda Stock Exchange Announces Appointment of Ailish Byrne as Chief Compliance Officer Designate
MIAX
Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSXTM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Miami International Holdings, Inc., today announced the appointment of Ailish Byrne as Chief Compliance Officer Designate.
/bit.ly/3MwLht1
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Exchanges, vendors reinvent inventory management platforms to enable sales; Data sources are realizing they can leverage end-user inventory management tools to streamline their side of the data sales and licensing process.
Max Bowie - Waters Technology
Every penny spent on market data in the capital markets can be seen in two ways: For the end users, it's a cost, a fee, the price of doing business; for the exchanges, brokers or vendors selling the data, it's their revenue, their raison d'être. Same coin, different view. But just as different audiences view the same coin differently, they are now also taking a fresh look at the systems that others use to manage those costs.
/jlne.ws/37KQNs7
Fireblocks and Fintech Major FIS Bring DeFi to Capital Markets
Ian Allison - Coindesk
Crypto custody firm Fireblocks has teamed up with FIS, the Fortune 500 technology provider to banks and capital markets firms. The partnership, announced Wednesday, will enable FIS's 6,400 clients to access large crypto trading venues, liquidity providers, lending desks and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Those clients include a buy-side assortment of asset managers and hedge funds, as well as banks and brokers.
/jlne.ws/3JB4HtV
DTCC Launches Digital Currency Project
Pymnts.com
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced the launch of a new central bank digital currency (CBDC) project Tuesday (April 12). According to a DTCC news release, the company is developing the first prototype to examine how a CBDC "might operate in the U.S. clearing and settlement infrastructure using distributed ledger technology (DLT)."
/jlne.ws/37MHSpN
ABN AMRO Bank Signs to Extend Partnership on the Temenos Banking Cloud; Dutch bank accelerates the pace of innovation and speed of software delivery with Continuous Deployment on the Temenos Banking Cloud
Business Wire
Dutch banking giant ABN AMRO Bank has signed a multi-year subscription extension with Temenos (SIX: TEMN) to support customer growth and business expansion on the Temenos Banking Cloud. The extended agreement includes access to Temenos Continuous Deployment as-a-service for the bank's 22 DevOps teams.
/jlne.ws/3Jy3dk1
Apple Wants To Bring Satellite Connectivity To Your Watch
Gabriel Moss - Slashgear.com
According to a footnote in a Bloomberg report published on April 12, one of the upcoming Apple Watch features is long-awaited satellite connectivity, otherwise known as LEO. This will reportedly allow Apple Watch owners to contact emergency services and report crises such as vehicle collisions or send SOS messages. It's been rumored for some time that the iPhone would eventually get a satellite connectivity feature of its own, but it could be highly useful to implement the feature into the Apple Watch as well, especially since the wearable is even more versatile and portable than any iPhone.
/jlne.ws/3vdCV1q
How Jack Dorsey Quit Twitter to Become Bitcoin's Spiritual Leader; The Twitter founder, Block CEO, and Elon Musk buddy is gazing into the future with laser eyes, and he wants you to follow him.
Kurt Wagner - Bloomberg
As he walked onstage at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Jack Dorsey was still technically the chief executive officer of two publicly traded companies, but he looked more like a beachside bartender. He wore a sunburst tie-dye shirt, with his head shaved and his long, graying beard untrimmed. He'd flown to South Florida, even though the official policy at one of his companies, Twitter, was that employees weren't supposed to travel for work, and even though a group of activist investors had spent the better part of the previous 18 months trying to oust him for being unfocused.
/jlne.ws/3OaCuxJ
Walmart Hires PayPal's John Rainey as CFO to Succeed Biggs; New finance chief will start work at retail giant on June 6; Walmart had previously announced current CFO's plans to exit
Brendan Case and Jennifer Surane - Bloomberg
Walmart Inc. named PayPal Holdings Inc. Chief Financial Officer John Rainey as its new finance chief, turning to a company outsider as it seeks to build a financial-technology venture and a membership program.
/jlne.ws/3vfN5i7
Google Plans to Invest $9.5 Billion in U.S. Offices, Data Centers; Search-engine giant said investment will create at least 12,000 new full-time jobs by end of the year
Ben Otto - WSJ
Google plans to invest about $9.5 billion in U.S. offices and data centers this year, up from $7 billion in 2021, as it opens new branches and expands existing facilities. Alphabet Google said Wednesday that the investment in more than a dozen states will create at least 12,000 new full-time jobs by the end of the year. The search-engine giant plans to open a new office in Atlanta, boost its presence in New York, build out its campus in Boulder, Colo., and invest in data centers across the country, it said.
/jlne.ws/37gJoki
Societe Generale integrates Saphyre platform for buy-side fund onboarding; Integration follows a Series A funding round for Saphyre that took place earlier this year and saw it raise $18.7 million from the likes of JP Morgan and BNP Paribas.
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Societe Generale's Global Markets division has integrated the artificial intelligence platform, Saphyre, to manage its onboarding and maintenance of buy-side funds. The New Jersey-based outfit digitises all pre-trade data and documents, eliminating redundant manual processes and allowing for secure, expedited access to data throughout the trade lifecycle. It claims to reduce the time to set-up a new fund while also providing any updated data related to it.
/jlne.ws/3M0HQK2
AxeTrading supports new phase of growth with appointment of new CEO; New CEO replaces Ralph M Henke, who stepped down from the role in January this year.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Fixed income trading software provider AxeTrading has appointed Greville Lucking as its new chief executive officer. Lucking has been promoted to the role after originally joining AxeTrading in 2018, serving as head of customer support & integration.
/jlne.ws/3JykREh
BNP Paribas strengthens FinTech focus with Anthemis investment; The move aligns with the banks' strategy to improve its value chain and services through partnerships with technology companies.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
BNP Paribas has made its first investment into global investment platform, Anthemis, as it looks to strengthen its focus on FinTechs. The Global Markets Strategic Investments unit, which invests in high-growth FinTech companies, is being used to make the investment.
/jlne.ws/3uAZLkA
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Neurodiverse Candidates Find Niche in Remote Cybersecurity Jobs; The Covid-19 pandemic forced many employees to work from home, leveling the playing field for people with conditions such as autism, who might not fare as well in office settings
Nicolle Liu - WSJ
Cat Contillo remembers how uncomfortable she felt during an office internship a few years ago because of colleagues' reactions to her masculine outfits and her inability to understand sarcasm. Ms. Contillo, who was diagnosed as autistic at 18 years old, was no fan of the office setting. Now 33, she is thriving in a cybersecurity job, working from home in upstate New York for Huntress Labs Inc., a threat-detection software business that is based in Ellicott City, Md., and has a fully remote workforce.
/jlne.ws/3uBApmw
Law Enforcement Seizes RaidForums, One of the Most Important Hacking Sites - VICE
VICE
A coalition of international law enforcement agencies led by the U.S. Department of Justice have seized RaidForums, a nexus for a wealth of stolen data and hacks, and arrested the site's administrator, the DOJ announced on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3E9AH7i
T-Mobile Secretly Bought Its Customer Data from Hackers to Stop Leak. It Failed; After hackers targeted T-Mobile in August, T-Mobile hired a third-party firm that went undercover and bought exclusive access to the data.
Joseph Cox - Vice.com
Last year, T-Mobile confirmed it was breached after hackers offered to sell the personal data of 30 million of its customers for 6 bitcoin, worth around $270,000 at the time. According to court documents unsealed today and reviewed by Motherboard, a third-party hired by T-Mobile tried to pay the hackers for exclusive access to that data and limit it from leaking more widely.
/jlne.ws/3uEUb0G
Russia Gets Hit With A Cyberattack Using Its Own Ransomware
Stewart Perrie - Ladbible.com
Analysis of files stolen during a cyberattack on Russia's space agency has revealed a savage burn against the Kremlin. Hackers linked to Anonymous revealed last month they had stolen a bunch of files from the Roscosmos. The group is called Network Battalion 65 - or NB65 - and they said that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'no longer has control over spy satellites'.
/jlne.ws/37kKsn4
Storage: An essential part of a corporate cybersecurity strategy
Eric Herzog - Security Magazine
Cybersecurity continues to be a top concern in the C-suite of companies, but chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) aren't the only leaders who are concerned about cyber threats. The threat of cyberattacks has become so prevalent that in a Fortune 500 survey of CEOs in mid-2021, 66% of Fortune 500 CEOs said their #1 concern in the next three years is cybersecurity. Similarly, in a KPMG CEO survey in March 2021, CEOs also said cybersecurity is a top priority.
/jlne.ws/3uEsmVW
Thoma Bravo to buy SailPoint for $6.1 billion in cybersecurity push
Eva Mathews and Krystal Hu - Reuters
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo will acquire SailPoint Technologies (SAIL.N) for $6.12 billion, the cybersecurity firm said on Monday, in the latest deal that underscores the heightened interest in the security software market.
In buying Austin, Texas-based SailPoint, Thoma Bravo will bolster its strength in the security-focused space, where it already has key investments in firms including Proofpoint Inc, Barracuda Networks and Sophos.
/jlne.ws/3KUCO1D
FCC Chair Claims Cybersecurity Role Congress Crafted for CISA
Mariam Baksh - NextGov
The Federal Communications Commission is claiming a space for itself in cybersecurity policymaking that Congress has already designated for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, for implementation of a new cyber incident reporting law, given various existing requirements at sector-specific agencies.
/jlne.ws/3jAIKAG
Developing an effective cybersecurity workforce
Madeline Lauver - Security Magazine
The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) appointed a panel of five experts to examine government-wide cybersecurity workforce development strategies, as well as the strategies and partnership models used by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
/jlne.ws/3EcDKeR
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | Cryptocurrency mining rig found in NUS UTown Residence in Singapore
Yahoo Finance
A cryptocurrency mining rig was discovered in a National University of Singapore (NUS) residence last week. The rig was found in the UTown Residence, a dormitory located in NUS' University Town, during a routine inspection, according to media reports citing an advisory from the UTown Residence Management Office on Monday (11 April).
/jlne.ws/3xnD6Kg
Cryptoverse: 10 billion reasons bitcoin could become a reserve currency
Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh - Reuters
A crypto platform's pledge to amass $10 billion worth of bitcoin to back its own "stablecoin" is firing up the market. It's part of a wider movement to crown bitcoin as the reserve currency of a new age.
/jlne.ws/3JB2U8b
Coinbase's Loss of Market Share Is Accelerating, Analysts Say. Competition Is Growing.
Jack Denton - Barron's
Coinbase Global appears to be losing market share at an accelerating pace, adding onto other pressures facing the cryptocurrency exchange, according to new research. Analysis shows that Coinbase's (ticker: COIN) share of volume traded among prominent crypto exchanges is rapidly falling, a team led by Dan Dolev at Mizuho Securities said in a report on Tuesday.
/jlne.ws/3LZXXY1
Ethereum just ran a major 'merge' test, bringing it one step closer to a game-changing upgrade
Taylor Locke - Fortune
For years, Ethereum developers have promised a huge upgrade that would, among other things, dramatically decrease the amount of energy used by the blockchain and make it eco-friendly. On Monday, developers began a test for that upgrade, reporting that it went well, although it had some "minor issues."
/jlne.ws/3uDlhFg
BlackRock Invests in Stablecoin Issuer
MarketsMedia
Circle Internet Financial, a global internet finance firm and the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), today announced it has entered into an agreement for a $400M funding round with investments from BlackRock, Inc., Fidelity Management and Research, Marshall Wace LLP and Fin Capital. The funding round is expected to close in the second quarter.
/jlne.ws/3M1CgHf
Vitatoken Introduces Their Cryptocurrency Fund Exchange; Vitatoken offers crypto trading and cryptocurrency funds. They target to raise users' probability of returns and lower the risk of cryptocurrency investment.
Vitatoken
Vitatoken is the world's first-ever cryptocurrency fund trading platform. It is licensed in CAGAYAN ECONOMIC ZONE AUTHORITY (CEZA) under the legal entity of Dragon Empire Developments Limited on 6th September 2021, for fintech solutions and cryptocurrency exchange regulations. In order to facilitate the demand of the cryptocurrency market, more and more cryptocurrency trading platforms are being introduced to the market. Vitatoken aims to provide a platform with low passing standards, and extremely low handling fees, and make sure to optimize the probability of returns for our users.
/jlne.ws/3E8ubhb
Football clubs are influencers and need to cut their crypto ties; Clubs have a different social role from other companies and should not encourage fans to take financial risks
Chris Cook - FT
In November, Manchester City FC signed up to an odd marketing partnership: with 3Key, a crypto company. There were, understandably, questions. First, of course: "why?" Second, shortly after: "who?" City's rationale was gazetted in dead-eyed prose: Stephan Cieplik, one of the club's sales executives, said they were "excited to partner with 3Key in their journey to simplify the decentralised finance (DeFi) trading analysis user experience through the power of football". Hardly vintage Roy of the Rovers stuff.
/jlne.ws/3vdLnxG
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Gas Prices Force Biden Into an Unlikely Embrace of Fossil Fuels
Michael D. Shear and Lisa Friedman - NY Times
President Biden came into office promising to tackle the planet's climate crisis. But rising gas prices, driven in part by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have pushed the environmental-minded president to do something unlikely: embrace oil.
/jlne.ws/3O8LrHK
A British government squanders its legitimacy; Partygate fines make Prime Minister Boris Johnson's position untenable
The editorial board - FT
Can a government retain its legitimacy or its moral authority to govern if it imposes laws upon its citizens that it does not follow itself? Surely the answer is no. Boris Johnson appears to think otherwise. A prime minister who asked citizens to refrain from social contact for the best part of a year, who placed sharp limitations on people's ability to gather even to mourn the dead, has been issued a fixed penalty notice for breaching lockdown rules. He is the first serving British premier to be penalised for breaking the law. His chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and his wife, Carrie Johnson, have also been fined in relation to a party held at Downing Street.
/jlne.ws/3O6GUW9
Polish panel: Russia behind Polish leader's plane crash
AP
A Polish government special commission has reinforced its earlier allegations that the 2010 plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in Russia was the result of Moscow's assassination plan. The latest of the commission's reports, released Monday, alleges that an intentional detonation of planted explosives caused the April 10, 2010 crash of Soviet-made Tu-154M plane that killed Kaczynski, the first lady and 94 other government and armed forces figures as well as many prominent Poles.
/jlne.ws/3E6LLSN
Twitter users are exposing pro-Russian sentiment in China, and Beijing is not happy
Simone McCarthy - CNN
Anonymous Twitter users are exposing the extreme nationalism and pro-Russian sentiment circulating online in China -- and Beijing is not happy about it. Scores of screen-grabbed posts from China's most popular social media platforms have been translated and shared on Twitter in recent weeks, offering Western audiences a rare glimpse into the Chinese internet.
/jlne.ws/37gQs0j
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Ripple Lawyer Claims "A Very Big Win" against SEC in Court; The judge criticized SEC for flip-flopping on its decision; The SEC filed a court case against Ripple in December 2020.
Arnab Shome - Finance Magnates
The legal battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues, but the blockchain company claimed a major win against the financial regulator.
/jlne.ws/3rmDwgg
The federal consumer bureau sued TransUnion and a former executive over deceptive sales tactics; The company repeatedly flouted a ban on luring consumers seeking free credit reports into paid products, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.
Stacy Cowley - NY Times
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the credit-reporting firm TransUnion and a former senior executive — John Danaher, who led the company's consumer sales unit — for violating a 2017 order to stop using deceptive tactics to lure customers into recurring subscription payments. "TransUnion is an out-of-control repeat offender that believes it is above the law," said Rohit Chopra, the bureau's director.
/jlne.ws/3KFlIoa
ISDA Market Practice Guidance for Rebasing of the Indice de Precios de Consumo (SPIPC)
ISDA
/jlne.ws/3O8CMVF
ISDA-Clarus RFR Adoption Indicator: March 2022
ISDA
The ISDA-Clarus RFR Adoption Indicator increased to an all-time high of 40.5% in March 2022 compared to 36.4% the prior month. The indicator tracks how much global trading activity (as measured by DV01) is conducted in cleared over-the-counter and exchange-traded interest rate derivatives (IRD) that reference the identified risk-free rates (RFRs) in six major currencies. On a traded notional basis, the percentage of RFR-linked IRD comprised 31.9% of total IRD in March compared to 27.0% the prior month.
/jlne.ws/3vcS1UZ
Lawyer Shot in March Standoff Is Sued by SEC Over Alleged Ponzi Scheme; Authorities say Nevada attorney confessed to running operation that raised around $450 million from investors
Ben Foldy - WSJ
The Securities and Exchange Commission accused a Las Vegas lawyer and six other men of violating federal securities law for their involvement in an alleged Ponzi scheme that raised around $450 million from investors. Authorities said the alleged scheme unraveled last month when attorney Matthew Beasley confessed to running a Ponzi scheme after he was shot by federal agents who had come to his house March 3. In a Ponzi scheme, early investors are paid with funds raised from later investors while the money raised is generally not invested
/jlne.ws/3E8tKn3
Billion-Dollar Ponzi DC Solar's CFO Gets Six-Year Prison Term
Robert Burnson - Bloomberg
A defunct California-based solar company's chief financial officer was ordered to prison for six years for his part in a $1 billion Ponzi scheme that attracted big-name investors, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Robert A. Karmann started as DC Solar's accountant and went on to become its controller and CFO before the company went bust in the wake of an FBI raid in 2018.
/jlne.ws/38Pl5ub
Statement in the Matter of David Hansen
Hester M. Peirce - SEC
Exchange Act Rule 21F-17(a), adopted in 2011 as part of the whistleblower program mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, prohibits taking "any action to impede an individual from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation, including enforcing, or threatening to enforce, a confidentiality agreement . . . with respect to such communications." The Commission's Order concludes that David Hansen, a co-founder of NS8, Inc. who held various positions in the company, including Chief Information Officer, violated Rule 21F-17(a). The alleged violation related to Mr. Hansen's response to concerns raised with him by an NS8 Employee that the company was overstating the number of paying customers. The Order does not explain what, precisely, Mr. Hansen did to hinder or obstruct[1] direct communication between the NS8 Employee and the Commission. Accordingly, I dissent from instituting the action and accepting the settlement.
/jlne.ws/3jA1MXP
"Building Upon a Long Tradition" - Remarks before the Ceres Investor Briefing
Gary Gensler - SEC
Thank you. It's good to be with Ceres for today's investor briefing. As is customary, I'd like to note that my views are my own, and I'm not speaking on behalf of the Commission or SEC staff.
As you all likely know by now, in March, the Commission voted on a proposal to mandate climate-risk disclosures by public companies.
/jlne.ws/3uFafzy
Australia and Singapore to deepen collaboration in FinTech
Monetary Authority of Singapore
Singapore, 13 April 2022... Australia Treasury and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have signed the Australia-Singapore FinTech Bridge Agreement to strengthen cooperation between the FinTech ecosystems of both countries.
/jlne.ws/3rnV4si
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | IMF Set to Decide on Resilience Trust With $50 Billion Loan Goal
Eric Martin - Bloomberg
The International Monetary Fund will consider finalizing a proposed new lending trust on Wednesday, with the climate change and sustainability-focused initiative eventually providing $50 billion for vulnerable countries. The board is set to discuss the Resilience and Sustainability Trust, or RST, and staff are optimistic that approval will be granted, IMF economist Vimal Thakoor said in an online event on Monday. Fund officials in January had said that they hoped for approval before the institution's spring meetings, which start next week.
/jlne.ws/3v7PDPi
U.S. and Chinese Bond Yields Converge, Reversing a Decadelong Pattern; China's formerly large yield advantage has disappeared
Rebecca Feng and Clarence Leong - WSJ
For more than a decade, government bonds in China yielded substantially more than their U.S. counterparts, making the yuan-denominated debt securities a big draw for global investors wanting exposure to the world's second-largest economy. That yield advantage vanished on Monday this week—at least in nominal terms. The yield on benchmark 10-year Chinese government bonds closed at 2.767% that day, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note ended at 2.779%.
/jlne.ws/368qhbu
Stagflation Risk Has Investors Sinking Billions Into Hedges; Likes of Amundi, abrdn and Vanguard prep for bad economic news; Europe seen facing a regime of high inflation, negative growth
Greg Ritchie, Liz McCormick, and Ruth Carson - Bloomberg
It's the next big market call that could enrich traders across Wall Street: The raging global energy crisis and ever-more hawkish central banks knock key economies into 1970s-style stagflation. It's a long shot for now, but anxiety is building among money managers that this market scenario -- out-of-control inflation just as growth slumps -- will eventually come to pass, especially in Europe.
/jlne.ws/3O8wF3S
The Fertilizer Shock Might Change Agriculture—for the Better; Can record prices spur efficiencies that would benefit the environment, as happened with the oil shock of the 1970s?
Elizabeth Elkin, Samuel Gebre, and Matthew Boesler - Bloomberg
James Cox counts himself lucky. The owner of a 687-acre farm in Gloucestershire, a bucolic county in the southwest of England known for its quaint villages and rolling landscape, bought all his fertilizer for the 2022 planting year well before the recent surge in prices—meaning he had enough to feed his wheat and oats, as well as the barley that's just sprouting. And he doesn't intend to use it all.
/jlne.ws/3jxSvPU
Valuation Bloat in Stocks and Bonds Is Catching Up With the Bull Market; Asset yields trailing inflation for first time in six decades; Stretched valuations follow years of easy central bank policy
Lu Wang - Bloomberg
The economic cycle is advancing to a point where valuations may finally matter again for stock and bond investors. Fortress-like in their refusal to bend for the better part of a decade, both asset classes have come under pressure thanks to the ever-stiffening resolve of central banks to restore order to the global economy. The S&P 500 has dropped in five of the last six days while yields on 10-year Treasury notes is set to break a streak of seven straight increases.
/jlne.ws/3xpWx51
Metal stockpiles shrink as energy prices hit production; War in Ukraine threatens Russian output while traders and major consumers tap warehouses
Neil Hume - FT
Stockpiles of some of the world's most important industrial metals have dropped to critically low levels as record power prices in Europe hit production and the war in Ukraine threatens output from Russia. Inventories of aluminium, copper, nickel and zinc — four of the main contracts traded on the London Metal Exchange — have plunged by as much as 70 per cent over the past year, as traders and big consumers have tapped warehouses for material.
/jlne.ws/3rqXeaz
Losses multiply for wealthy investors in first quarter; Market turbulence hits those with riskier portfolios
Joshua Oliver - FT
Wealthier UK investors have suffered greater losses than smaller traders since the beginning of the year, as market turbulence struck down the riskier portfolios typically favoured by those with higher levels of investment. Interactive Investor, which has roughly a one-fifth share of the UK's self-directed investment market, said on Monday that customers with more than £1mn invested lost 4.2 per cent in the first three months of 2022, more than the 3.6 per cent loss for the average account holder.
/jlne.ws/368lirg
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Meet a climate scientist who just risked arrest to save the planet
Adele Peters - Fast Company
On a typical day, Peter Kalmus goes to work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles, where he studies biological systems and climate change. But last Wednesday, he instead went to JP Morgan Chase's building in downtown L.A., along with three other scientists, and chained himself to the front doors in order to bring more attention to the current state of the climate crisis and JP Morgan Chase's role as the bank providing the most funding to fossil fuel firms. He's one of more than 1,200 scientists in 26 countries who demonstrated last week—and one of many who were arrested—after the IPCC released its latest report, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres described as saying that the world is on "a fast track to climate disaster."
/jlne.ws/3rk5xor
How Ethanol and E15 Gas Fit Into Biden's Plans to Fight Inflation
Jennifer A Dlouhy - Bloomberg
Ethanol, the intoxicating alcohol found in beer, wine and liquor, has been powering automobiles in the U.S. since the era of the Model T more than a century ago. Since the 1970s, when oil became more expensive and subject to international disputes -- and as worries rose about the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels -- the U.S. government has used tax policy and regulations to encourage use of ethanol and other environmentally friendly alternatives to gasoline. U.S. President Joe Biden, as part of his efforts to combat rising prices, is making it easier to sell more ethanol in the coming summer months, even as critics raise concerns about the corn-based fuel.
/jlne.ws/3roieP7
Biden Allows Sale of Higher-Ethanol Gas in Bid to Tame Costs; Analysts say policy shift could spur 'slight' gasoline savings; Trump-era rule allowing year-round E15 sales rejected by court
Jennifer A Dlouhy and Nancy Cook - Bloomberg
President Joe Biden will allow expanded sales of higher-ethanol gasoline this summer in an effort to lower fuel prices and counter the political blowback from them. Biden is set to unveil his plan during a Tuesday visit to a Poet LLC ethanol mill in Iowa -- the top U.S. corn state. Under an emergency fuel waiver, the Environmental Protection Agency will temporarily exempt E15 gasoline from anti-pollution restrictions that effectively block warm-weather sales of the fuel in areas where smog is a problem.
/jlne.ws/3JEzlm0
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | HSBC Is on a Hiring Spree as It Courts Asia's Wealthy; Bank will also consider further deals to scale up in wealth management, senior executive says
Quentin Webb - WSJ
HSBC Holdings PLC will hire rapidly in its Asian wealth business in 2022, building on last year's brisk expansion, and remains open to growing in this area through deals, according to the executive overseeing the bank's dealings with individual customers. The London-based bank is jockeying with rivals to win more business from the region's growing ranks of affluent customers, and is investing billions of dollars to strengthen its position.
/jlne.ws/3rpLtkR
JPMorgan Results Marred by $524 Million Loss Tied to Ukraine; Fixed-income trading revenue crushes estimates by $1 billion; Dimon sees inflation, war creating 'significant' challenges
Hannah Levitt - Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s first-quarter results were marred by a $524 million loss tied to market fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The loss was driven by "funding spread widening as well as credit-valuation adjustments relating to both increases in commodities exposures and markdowns of derivatives receivables from Russia-associated counterparties," the company said Wednesday in a statement.
/jlne.ws/3O7WaSC
Vanguard's special ETF patent expires next year. Does it matter? Rivals could copy their structure, but the question is whether any will bother
Adrian D. Garcia, - FT
More than two decades ago — before fund companies began converting mutual funds into ETFs and US regulators streamlined the ETF approval process — Vanguard executives had an idea. Rather than launch ETFs as a standalone vehicle, they decided to work on packaging them within a mutual fund. The idea led the firm in 2001 to debut the first ETF share class of a mutual fund.
/jlne.ws/3LWaOdK
BlackRock Profit Increases 20%; The firm's assets under management dipped from over $10 trillion to $9.6 trillion
Angel Au-Yeung - WSJ
BlackRock Inc. BLK 0.65% reported higher quarterly profit even as market volatility lowered the investment firm's assets under management to $9.6 trillion. The world's largest asset manager reported net income of $1.4 billion, or $9.35 a share, in the first quarter of 2022 ending March 31, up 20% from $1.2 billion in the same period a year earlier.
/jlne.ws/3xtRMrg
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | China's 'Zero-Covid' Mess Proves Autocracy Hurts Everyone; The fear in China is that the strict coronavirus policy has become another Mao-style political campaign with devastating effects.
Li Yuan - NY Times
Long before the "zero Covid" policy, China had a "zero sparrow" policy
In the spring of 1958, the Chinese government mobilized the entire nation to exterminate sparrows, which Mao declared pests that destroyed crops. All over China, people banged on pots and pans, lit firecrackers and waved flags to prevent the birds from landing so they would fall and die from exhaustion. By one estimation, nearly two billion sparrows were killed nationwide within months.
/jlne.ws/3LVZRZG
China to Allow Eight Cities to Shorten Quarantine Times in Trial; Quarantine for overseas travelers cut to 10 days from 14 days; Adjustment part of one-month trial conducted in eight cities
Bloomberg News
China is allowing Shanghai, Guangzhou and six other cities to shorten quarantines for overseas travelers and those who've had close contact with infected individuals as authorities test potential tweaks to the country's rigorous Covid measures, according to people familiar with the matter. The cities are reducing the period to 10 days from 14 days as part of a trial that began on Monday this week and will run for a month, the people said, asking not to be identified as they weren't authorized to discuss the issue publicly. Apartment complexes, retail outlets, office buildings and other locations locked down because of infections will also be allowed to open after 10 consecutive days without a positive test result, shortened from the 14 days previously required, they said.
/jlne.ws/3O7TxjI
How Much Longer Will We Wear Masks on Airplanes
Drew Armstrong - Bloomberg
How much longer for masks on airplanes?
The U.S. rule that requires passengers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and other forms of mass transit expires in less than a week. Even as cities and states have dropped their requirements and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eased recommendations elsewhere, the rules for travel have stayed in place. Transit locations have been one of the final places where mask-wearing is still required across the country and is strictly enforced.
/jlne.ws/3rmRbEa
Supply Chain Worries Are Finally Going Viral; A new Covid wave in China has made the world once again wake up to the risks of a concentrated manufacturing base.
Tim Culpan - bloomberg
There's a trite expression that perfectly encapsulates how corporate leaders should now be viewing their intense dependence on Chinese production: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. After Covid-19 first struck in China, shuttering factories there before disruptions spread around the world, executives kind of knew it was a bad idea to have their supply chains concentrated in just a few key geographies in one nation. However, within a year China was all but up and running and the rest of the globe was struggling. At that point, it was reasonable to believe that maybe this centrally planned, authoritarian and efficient system of government was the perfect regime under which to place your manufacturing and logistics systems after all.
/jlne.ws/3jxYlkD
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Exclusive: China's oil champion prepares Western retreat over sanctions fear
Ron Bousso and Chen Aizhu - Reuters
China's top offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd. (0883.HK) is preparing to exit its operations in Britain, Canada and the United States, because of concerns in Beijing the assets could become subject to Western sanctions, industry sources said.
/jlne.ws/3JxkOZu
BOJ Says Won't Issue Digital Currency to Achieve Negative Rates
Toru Fujioka - Bloomberg
The Bank of Japan won't issue any digital currency with the aim of achieving negative interest rates, a senior BOJ official said on Wednesday, the clearest denial yet of an idea often floated by analysts and academics. "The bank will not introduce CBDC on this ground," BOJ Executive Director Shinichi Uchida, in charge of the central bank's experiments for digital money, said in a speech to a committee on Wednesday. "It is unlikely that such a motivation would be supported by the general public. Furthermore, such a remuneration functionality would be operationally unrealistic while cash still exists."
/jlne.ws/3xq58oG
Why Europeans Are Suddenly Snapping Up Cheap American Cheese; The Netherlands has emerged as a major buyer of processed U.S. cheese that comes in slices and is used in burgers.
Elizabeth Elkin and Eamon Akil Farhat - Bloomberg
Europe, famed for its delicious gouda, brie and mozzarella, is facing shortfalls of milk. As a result, it's buying up more U.S. cheese — the cheap, processed kind. Take the Netherlands, for example, whose imports of U.S. cheese skyrocketed according to the latest government data. They mostly bought commodity cheese, the kind used as slices atop burgers.
/jlne.ws/3v8rM1K
Uganda fights crop-devouring armyworm, blaming climate change
Reuters
Uganda's government said on Tuesday it was deploying pesticides to fight an outbreak of African armyworm, which devastates cereal crops and has been discovered in 35 districts of the country.
/jlne.ws/3O8UZT1
Germany Faces $240 Billion Hit If Russian Energy Cut Off; Sudden halt in Russian gas would trigger 'sharp recession'; Experts see economy expanding 2.7% in 2022, 3.1% in 2023
Carolynn Look - Bloomberg
Germany was warned it could face a 220 billion-euro ($240 billion) hit to output over the next two years in the event of an immediate interruption in Russian energy supplies over the war in Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/368BPvl
Yes, Russians Know What Their Military Is Doing in Ukraine; They are finding out for themselves through unofficial news sources or from other citizens — even if they are too cautious to admit it in a police state.
Leonid Bershidsky - Bloomberg
The atrocities that Russian troops have committed in Ukraine raise two questions about Russians at home: Do they know their military is doing these things? And if they do, are they OK with it? The answers are almost certainly "Yes" and "They're working on it."
/jlne.ws/3uBHLq8
Russia's War Is Heightening Africa's Debt Risk, World Bank Says; High risk of debt distress seen in sub-Saharan African states; Economic growth rate for 2022 to drop to 3.6% from 4% in 2021
Prinesha Naidoo and Katarina Hoije - Bloomberg
Russia's war with Ukraine has escalated sovereign-debt risks in sub-Saharan Africa, increasing the need for better relief measures to avert a "large wave" of crises among the region's developing countries, the World Bank said. The share of countries in the region at high risk of debt distress has grown to 60.5% from 52.6% in October, the Washington-based lender said Wednesday in the April edition of its Africa's Pulse report. Fears about debt sustainability are reflected in the widening of sovereign spreads for several sub-Saharan African nations, driven by rising interest rates in developed economies and the war in Ukraine, it said.
/jlne.ws/3EaaPZ2
Brazil Hedge Funds Cash In Big on Mistake by U.S. Bond Traders
Vinícius Andrade and Felipe Marques - Bloomberg
Brazilian traders know inflation. After decades of dealing with wild bouts of it, they consider themselves experts on the topic. Their American counterparts, they say, got complacent. Years of subdued inflation in the U.S. have lulled them into a false sense of security, as the Brazilians see it. This in turn, the argument goes, led bond trading desks to misread the price spike that began last year and buy the Federal Reserve's line that the episode would prove little more than a brief blip.
/jlne.ws/3vedXz4
Investors Own Nearly a Third of Homes in Major Canadian Markets; Buyers of second homes are creating more competition: StatsCan; Canada recently started collecting data on multi-home owners
Ari Altstedter - Bloomberg
People who own more than one home account for about a third of the housing stock in some of Canada's biggest markets, new government data show, highlighting how the nation's real estate boom may also be heightening inequality.
/jlne.ws/3M0NlIv
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Welcome Back to the Office. Isn't This Fun? Tech companies really want their employees to be happy — or at least less annoyed — about returning. So they're providing concerts, food trucks and other perks.
Daisuke Wakabayashi, Erin Griffith and Kate Conger - NY Times
When Google employees returned to their mostly empty offices this month, they were told to relax. Office time should be "not only productive but also fun." Explore the place a little. Don't book back-to-back meetings. Also, don't forget to attend the private show by Lizzo, one of the hottest pop stars in the country. If that's not enough, the company is also planning "pop-up events" that will feature "every Googler's favorite duo: food and swag."
/jlne.ws/3xpVAKm
New Research Confirms Young Employees Hate Remote Work. 5 Ways Leaders Can Make It Less BadNew Glassdoor research reveals just how much the youngest workers dislike remote work.
Jessica Stillman - Inc.com
Both a mountain of surveys and employee resistance to employers who are trying to herd them back to the office makes it crystal clear that most employees deeply value the flexibility offered by remote work. But even from the very beginning of the pandemic it was clear there was going to be one massive exception to this rule: young workers.
/jlne.ws/37MOLHF
Return to the Office? Managers Shouldn't Overstate the Benefits; Employers can keep insisting that offices are Valhallas replete with opportunities for career development, or they can work harder to make the workplace live up to the hype.
Sarah Green Carmichael - Bloomberg
Managers who would like remote workers to return to the office are frustrated. The winter Covid-19 pandemic surge is over, yet nine out of 10 people working remotely would like to continue to do so at least some of the time. Workers in the major U.S. cities say they plan to cut their time in the office by half from prepandemic levels and office occupancy rates remain low.
/jlne.ws/3rnoRS5
Substack's Growth Spurt Brings Growing Pains; The publishing platform's founders want Substack to be an "alternate universe on the internet." But it faces copycat rivals, an exodus by writers and a need to move beyond newsletters.
Tiffany Hsu - NY Times
There are things that the newsletter writer Kirsten Han misses about Substack. They just aren't enough to outweigh the downsides. She disliked how the platform portrayed itself as a haven for independent writers with fewer resources while offering six-figure advances to several prominent white men. The hands-off content moderation policy, which allowed transphobic and anti-vaccine language, did not sit well with her. She also didn't like earning $20,000 in subscription revenue, and then giving up $2,600 in fees to Substack and its payment processor.
/jlne.ws/3JCopWf
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