| February 09, 2023 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
The Financial Times is reporting this morning that "Credit Suisse slumps to biggest annual loss since financial crisis." That is hard to do - I know, having lived through the financial crisis and then lived it again by reading/listening to Scott Patterson's "The Quant."
There are other headlines about Credit Suisse from The Wall Street Journal, "Credit Suisse's Losses Deepen, Threatening Overhaul" and a couple from Bloomberg, "Credit Suisse Trading Collapses as Global Ambitions Fade; Fixed-income slumps 84%, equities revenue declines 96%" and "Credit Suisse Is Between Rock Bottom and a Hard Place."
There was a big OOPS at Alphabet when the new Google AI called Bard was being demonstrated and had a factual error, which caused Alphabet's stock to tumble 8%, the Financial Times reported.
The SEC Historical Society shared in LinkedIn that "This week in 1934, Franklin Roosevelt delivered a Presidential Message to Congress thanking the legislature for regulating securities issues but observing that 'destructive speculation' hurting average investors remained common on the exchanges. This call for new regulation resulted in the 1934 Securities Exchange Act."
FIS has been named to the Forbes Blockchain 50 2023, which recognizes the global enterprises that are investing in distributed-database technology to help businesses operate better, faster or cheaper.
The consultancy Brand Finance puts out a list of the most valuable exchange brands. Number one was the CME Group. Number two is HKEX. Number three is NYSE, which is ranked higher than its owner, number five ICE. Nasdaq is number four and Cboe is number six. The rest of the list are London Stock Exchange, SGX, SIX and Eurex
Bevon Joseph, who left the Greenwood Project last year for still unknown reasons, has launched a podcast called "The Social Capital Guy Podcast."
Clearstream is looking for a communications specialist to join its team. The position includes being a spokesperson based in Luxembourg to act as interface between the company and external media to advance its funds business.
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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The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) today published "A guide to 1.5°C-aligned hydrogen investments," which suggests practical steps to integrate 1.5°C criteria into investment decisions for hydrogen. The guide outlines the level of emissions of various hydrogen technologies and the best way to minimize them. You can learn more and download the free report here. ~SAED
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Russell 2000 Index Quarterly Chartbook January 2023
The Russell 2000 Index Quarterly Chartbook provides an overview of the performance of US small-cap equities in 12 data exhibits. Drill down to get the intel you value most. Explore now: http://ow.ly/5lBF50MFPhZ
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Deutsche Boerse enters 10-year partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate innovation; New partnership will help enhance Deutsche Boerse's cloud adoption and efficiency, develop its digital securities platform and innovate its digital asset market operations.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Deutsche Boerse has entered into a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to enhance, economise and concentrate its cloud adoption. As part of the agreement, Deutsche Boerse will utilise Google Cloud as its preferred partner for cloud consumption for the next 10 years, alongside receiving help from the platform to enhance its cloud adoption and efficiency.
/jlne.ws/3Xlp8C1
****** The U.S. Treasury has concerns about cloud computing. Treasury smeasury.~JJL
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Young Joins Liquidnet Europe
James Rundle - WatersTechnology
Lidquidnet Europe has announced the appointment of Patrick Young as a non-executive director. Young joins Adrian Fitzpatrick, Seth Merrin, John Barker and Simon Ormrod on the company's board. He will assist with strategic counsel for Liquidnet's expansion in Europe, as well as the extension of its global exchange partnership program.
/jlne.ws/3Iabey6
****** When you join Liquidnet it is called what? When you leave, you are liquidnetated.~JJL
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Twitter outage sees users told they are over daily tweet limit
James Clayton - BBC News
Some Twitter users were unable to tweet on Wednesday after the website experienced technical problems. Account holders received a message saying: "You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets."
/jlne.ws/40G5VxR
***** I did not know there was a limit to free speech, Mr. Musk.~JJL
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Age Is Just a Number-Except When You're Applying for a Mortgage; Though they can't discriminate, lenders take into account age-related factors for applicants 65 and older. Here's what you need to know
Robyn A. Friedman - The Wall Street Journal
The process of getting a mortgage can be a challenging one for applicants of any age. But for older borrowers, those who are no longer drawing a paycheck or are relying on passive income, proving to a lender that they have sufficient income and assets to qualify can be even more daunting. This issue affects more applicants than you would expect. According to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data provided to The Wall Street Journal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 13% of all mortgages originated in 2021 were by people 65 years of age and older. That is over 1.9 million mortgages.
/jlne.ws/40CPKkZ
****** But I am going to work until I am 90, Mr. Banker, I swear!~JJL
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Alphabet's $100 Billion Stock Swoon Shows AI Stakes Are Rising; AI frenzy has finally made its way to Alphabet and Microsoft; Alphabet's stumble sent the stock down more than earnings miss
Jeran Wittenstein - Bloomberg
The stakes in the race for generative AI are rising. The fervor in the stock market bubbling around artificial intelligence spread this week to Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc., which despite investing heavily in the technology had so far been ignored by traders in favor of smaller, more speculative companies. Google parent Alphabet's shares tumbled 7.7% on Wednesday after concerns surfaced about the competency of Bard, the ChatGPT rival it unveiled on Feb. 6. The rout was the worst for the stock in more than three months and erased more than $100 billion in market value.
/jlne.ws/3DUs55v
****** Maybe it is not as smart as we want it to be yet, or as Google needs it to be today.~JJL
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Wednesday's Top Three
Our most read story Wednesday was Bloomberg's 'Flash Boys' Improve $7.5 Trillion Currency Trading, Watchdog Says. Second was The Wall Street Journal's Treasury Says Cloud Computing Poses Risks to Financial Sector. Third was FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried heads to court after judge rejects bail request, from MarketWatch.
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MarketsWiki Stats
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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
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| Lead Stories | 'Sam? Are you there?!' The bizarre and brutal final hours of FTX; How Sam Bankman-Fried and his band of millennial millionaires lost a $40bn crypto empire
Joshua Oliver - Financial Times
In January, I walked up the front steps of a single-storey, grey-shingled house in a neighbourhood on the fringe of Stanford University. The moment I pressed the video doorbell, I heard Sam Bankman-Fried's voice calling from inside. "I'll get it!" His father got to the door first. Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, both professors, welcomed me with the courtesy and mild indifference of parents greeting a teenager coming over to hang out with their son after school.
/jlne.ws/3RKJ682
How a Big Short Cost India's Adani Empire $100 Billion; The billionaire's companies have a hand in everything from coal to airports to data centers.
Anders Melin and P R Sanjai - Bloomberg
An hour past sunrise in India on Feb. 2, the billionaire Gautam Adani appeared in a video posted online to reassure his investors: Everything will be fine. For days the shares of companies in his mighty Adani Group conglomerate had been in a tailspin. The selloff was triggered by a damning report published by a US activist short seller-an investor that bets on the prices of assets falling, then tries to make that happen by taking its case to the public. Hindenburg Research accused Adani of running nothing less than "the largest con in corporate history," with a barrage of allegations about artificially inflated share prices and accounting games. Adani Group issued a strong denial, but investors weren't waiting to decide who was right. In just a week, the total market value of a group of Adani-related companies, in industries including energy and construction, had fallen more than $90 billion.
/jlne.ws/3YgVEq1
NYC Wealth Exodus Drives Billionaire's Bet on South Florida Boom; Related's Ross is looking beyond Miami and West Palm Beach to meet the growing demand for offices in the region.
Natalie Wong and Felipe Marques - Bloomberg
Billionaire Stephen Ross, founder of the firm that developed Manhattan's Hudson Yards, is pushing deeper into South Florida in a bet that wealth will continue migrating from the Northeast. Related Cos. is seeking opportunities for real estate projects outside of West Palm Beach and Miami, where the firm has already established a presence, Ross said in an interview. "People are looking from the Northeast and relocating for jobs - not retirement - and companies are looking" for offices, Ross said. "It's tax issues, and there's the security issues. There's just the ease of living."
/jlne.ws/3HNwZmf
The SEC Wants to Revamp Stock Trading. Who Wins and Loses.
Bill Alpert - Barron's
After a decadelong struggle for trading volume, stock exchanges have mostly lost the trades of individual investors to a half-dozen off-exchange market makers like Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial. These wholesale market makers now process a quarter of all stock trades, which they get from retail brokers like Charles Schwab and Robinhood Markets. Now, new rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of December would shift those trades back to the exchanges. The most controversial of the new proposals would revamp how stocks trade, with the SEC projecting that changes could save small investors over $1 billion in annual costs. Close examination of the agency's math by Barron's and others, however, suggests that those savings may be overstated and highly uncertain.
/jlne.ws/3RLoXi5
The Little Research Firm That Took On India's Richest Man; Nate Anderson's Hindenburg, named for the exploding airship, is locked in a battle with Gautam Adani, whose conglomerate is a pillar of the nation's economy.
Edward Ludlow and Amanda Cantrell - Bloomberg
To the companies he attacks, what Nathan Anderson does for a living is unethical, even immoral. But to most Wall Street professionals, he provides a necessary service by highlighting potentially overhyped companies and ensuring that markets do their job. Whether they consider him a vulture or a savior, they all agree that Anderson and his firm, Hindenburg Research, are good at what they do: taking companies down and making money from it.
/jlne.ws/3YFgI9t
Coinbase's CEO Cites 'Rumors' the SEC May Ban Crypto Staking for Retail Customers
Nick Baker, Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says he's heard rumors the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would like to ban retail investors from engaging in cryptocurrency staking, the income-generating technique at the core of running blockchains including Ethereum. "I hope that's not the case as I believe it would be a terrible path for the U.S. if that was allowed to happen," he tweeted Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3x7IG2f
Credit Suisse slumps to biggest annual loss since financial crisis; Revenues at investment bank and wealth management fall in bruising fourth quarter
Owen Walker - Financial Times
Credit Suisse has reported its biggest annual loss since the 2008 financial crisis, laying bare the scale of the challenge the bank faces in restoring its fortunes. The lender on Thursday reported a SFr1.4bn ($1.5bn) loss for the fourth quarter, as investment banking revenues slumped and clients pulled money from the group's wealth management business. The bruising quarter took the bank's annual loss to SFr7.3bn.
/jlne.ws/3x7lHEr
Credit Suisse's Losses Deepen, Threatening Overhaul; Swiss bank is buying the Klein Group while posting another quarterly loss and more customer outflows
Margot Patrick - The Wall Street Journal
Credit Suisse Group reported a fifth consecutive quarterly loss and said rich customers withdrew around $100 billion in the fourth quarter, signs that the beleaguered lender has yet to turn the corner. The Swiss bank is trying to recover from scandals and financial losses with a sweeping overhaul. It wants to focus on wealth management and is breaking up its investment bank.
/jlne.ws/3JQ8gAh
***** Here is The New York Times version of this story.~JJL
Credit Suisse Trading Collapses as Global Ambitions Fade; Fixed-income slumps 84%, equities revenue declines 96%; Advisory business keeps pace with industry before spinout
Myriam Balezou - Bloomberg
When Credit Suisse Group AG's Archegos disaster hit, its traders were in the midst of racking up a $2.65 billion quarter. Less than two years later, they produced a $96 million quarter. That 96% plunge underscores the end of the Swiss firm's ambitions as a global investment bank. Ever since the near-simultaneous implosions of Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital pushed the lender into chaos, it has sought to reduce risk in the volatile trading business and pivot further to wealth management.
/jlne.ws/3xbTqwi
Credit Suisse Is Between Rock Bottom and a Hard Place; A lack of key details means investors and clients can't yet truly judge where the Swiss bank is heading
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
Everyone wants to know if Credit Suisse Group AG has hit rock bottom. Unfortunately, the Swiss bank is still holding back the information that could provide the answer. Mostly this is about the shape, costs and revenue of the future CS First Boston investment bank and Credit Suisse's remaining markets businesses. But it's also about the bank's ability to reverse asset outflows. Investors, analysts, rich clients and staff are still unable to judge how and when Credit Suisse's recovery might begin, which is a problem because the confidence of all these people is critical to progress. While working through a difficult restructuring, Chairman Axel Lehmann and Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Koerner must win back client money and ensure its best bankers remain on board and motivated.
/jlne.ws/3RNUMXR
StanChart Is Still in Play as Abu Dhabi's FAB Explores $35 Billion Offer; FAB is said to have completed due diligence on British lender; Regulatory approvals, compliance are seen as biggest obstacles
Ambereen Choudhury, Nicolas Parasie, Archana Narayanan and Dinesh Nair - Bloomberg
First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC is pressing ahead with a potential offer for Standard Chartered Plc, after a move to put earlier takeover plans on hold didn't halt its ambitions to become a global financial powerhouse. Under the code name Silver-Foxtrot, officials at the Abu Dhabi bank are working under the radar on a possible bid once a cooling off period required by UK takeover rules elapses, according to people familiar with the matter. FAB, as the bank is known, recently completed due diligence on the London-based lender, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Any deal would be dependent on market conditions and the performance of Standard Chartered's share price, they said.
/jlne.ws/3jI8ejj
Billionaire Michael Spencer Taps Ex-AIG Boss to Run His Fortune; The NEX founder hired Ion Bogdaneris as CEO for his family office. The executive also worked at investment firms for Lord Jacob Rothschild and Lululemon founder Chip Wilson.
Benjamin Stupples - Bloomberg
Michael Spencer, the billionaire behind one of the world's biggest financial brokerage fortunes, has hired a former American International Group Inc. executive to lead his personal investment firm. Ion Bogdaneris this month became chief executive officer of IPGL, the NEX Group Plc founder's family office, according to UK registry filings. He replaces Samantha Wren, a former NEX executive who led the investment firm since 2019.
/jlne.ws/3JWO0No
Sorry crypto world, but SEC isn't backing down on 'regulation by enforcement'
Alison Frankel - Reuters
For as long as I've been covering U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission litigation against crypto targets, the industry has harshly criticized the commission for bringing one-at-a-time enforcement actions as a way to set crypto regulatory policy, instead of engaging in formal rulemaking or waiting for Congress to pass legislation that clarifies when U.S. securities laws apply to digital assets. In the latest example, a onetime Coinbase Global Inc manager who was accused last year of insider trading by both the U.S. Justice Department and the SEC moved this week to dismiss the SEC's complaint, arguing, among other things, that he didn't know the Ethereum-based crypto tokens he traded would be defined as securities by the SEC. The ex-Coinbase employee, Ishan Wahi, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to commit wire fraud, but even at the plea hearing in his criminal case, Wahi insisted that the relevant tokens were not securities.
/jlne.ws/3YgLDsV
Crypto Exchange Kraken Faces SEC Probe Over Unregistered Securities
Allyson Versprille - Bloomberg
Kraken, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is embroiled in a probe by a top US financial regulator over whether it broke securities rules related to certain offerings to American clients, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
/jlne.ws/3llTrLy
Binance.US CFO Says Customer Funds Are Safe; 'We do not touch, we do not trade, we do not lend out customer assets,' says Jasmine Lee, contrasting her company with crypto exchange FTX
Patricia Kowsmann - The Wall Street Journal
The U.S.-based arm of crypto exchange Binance doesn't lend out customer assets and doesn't commingle deposits with the larger platform, its financial chief said Wednesday. "If all our customers show up tomorrow and demand their money...we will still have corporate assets left on our balance sheet," Jasmine Lee said at The Wall Street Journal's CFO Network Summit. "The whole concept of a bank run is actually impossible."
/jlne.ws/40VgaP5
Hong Kong Vies for Blockbuster Aramco Listing as Saudi Ties Deepen; A deal could be valued at tens of billions of dollars, according to some bankers' estimates
Dave Sebastian - The Wall Street Journal
Hong Kong officials are making a renewed push to convince Saudi Arabia's national oil company to list its shares in the city, two months after a visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the Middle Eastern country. John Lee, Hong Kong's chief executive, led a large delegation of government officials, bankers and other executives to Saudi Arabia this week, part of a wider tour of the Middle East. Mr. Lee told Amin Nasser, chief executive of oil giant Aramco, that Hong Kong's stock exchange would welcome a secondary listing by the company. A deal could be valued at tens of billions of dollars, according to some bankers' estimates.
/jlne.ws/3jKVB72
U.S. Treasury urges financial firms to examine cloud services
Pete Schroeder and Susan Heavey - Reuters
U.S. Treasury Department officials highlighted several challenges facing financial firms that are increasingly turning to cloud computing services to support a range of their activities, warning in a report on Wednesday that failure to address them could leave lingering vulnerabilities. The risk was particularly acute for small and medium-sized financial institutions, the department said.
/jlne.ws/3HNo3xd
Robinhood Plans Buyback of Sam Bankman-Fried's Contested Stock; Sam Bankman-Fried acquired more than 7% of the firm last year; Founders Tenev, Bhatt nix almost $500 million of stock awards
Annie Massa - Bloomberg
Robinhood Markets Inc. said it's looking to repurchase shares previously controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried and canceled almost $500 million of stock-based compensation for its co-founders. The online brokerage also reported a wider-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter as customers cut back on trading, according to a statement Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3XcIV6t
Robinhood cleared to buy FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's stock, sending shares higher; Robinhood stock misses on fourth-quarter losses and revenue, co-founders cancel a half-billion in their stock compensation
Bill Peters - MarketWatch
Stock- and crypto-trading platform Robinhood Markets Inc. on Wednesday said its board had cleared the company to pursue buying shares owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX that collapsed last year. Bankman-Fried has a stake of more than 7% in Robinhood HOOD, -0.76%, or more than 50 million shares, through Emergent Fidelity Technologies. Analysts have raised questions about the timing of the liquidation of that stake, as Bankman-Fried contends with a variety of fraud charges following FTX's implosion.
/jlne.ws/3JPlJbA
Big Short in Stocks Is Almost Over After $300 Billion Unwind; Funds at neutral positioning, erasing pent-up equity demand; Big names return even as skepticism among hedge funds abounds
Denitsa Tsekova - Bloomberg
Money managers have cut $300 billion of bearish bets and are now positioned more in line with historic norms - robbing the market of pent-up demand just as the Federal Reserve warns its inflation-fighting battle is far from over. The shift in positioning has taken a broad array of investors from underweight to holding equities closer to the average of the past decade.
/jlne.ws/3xbKSps
FTX Bankruptcy Judge Allows Company to Subpoena Founder Bankman-Fried, Other 'Insiders'
Nikhilesh De - CoinDesk
U.S Judge John Dorsey ordered that FTX's new leadership and its official creditor committee can subpoena the crypto exchange's founders and former executives, including Sam Bankman-Fried. Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, Constance Wang and Bankman-Fried's family - mother Barbara Fried, father Joseph Bankman and brother Gabriel Bankman-Fried - can also be subpoenaed, the order said. FTX's Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and its leadership moved to subpoena the individuals last month.
/jlne.ws/3YE3euY
India's Adani faced margin call on $1.1 billion loan before repaying in full - FT
Reuters
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani faced a margin call of more than $500 million on a $1.1 billion share-backed loan, prompting him to repay the whole debt, the Financial Times reported, citing four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The repayment was meant to avoid any further damage to investor confidence, which has been rocked by allegations of fraud by short-selling firm Hindenburg, according to the report on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3lm1doH
'Street fighter' Harvey Schwartz takes the helm at rudderless Carlyle; Former Goldman Sachs executive must restore investor confidence after protracted turmoil
Antoine Gara, Joshua Franklin and James Fontanella-Khan - Financial Times
During his two-decade tenure at Goldman Sachs, Harvey Schwartz was known as an exacting and intimidating leader. After concluding that a colleague was not up to the task, he would remind them they were in the "major leagues" and there was no room on the team for underperformers, according to people who recall those conversations.
/jlne.ws/3xakoEA
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Putin Likely Armed Rebels Who Downed MH17 Jetliner, Probe Finds
Diederik Baazil and April Roach - Bloomberg
There are "strong indications" that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light to provide Russian separatists in Ukraine with the missiles used to down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, according to international investigators, who nevertheless decided to suspend their probe into the incident. Using phone taps, it was possible to prove that Putin was personally involved in the decision to supply the Donetsk People's Republic separatists with anti-aircraft weaponry, the investigators said during a press conference in The Hague on Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3HPNJZS
U.K. Considers Sending British Jet Fighters to Ukraine; Zelensky visits U.K. as Britain steps up training and military aid for Ukrainian troops
Max Colchester and Laurence Norman - The Wall Street Journal
The U.K. is considering sending advanced jets to Ukraine and will begin training Ukrainian pilots in coming months, a major victory for President Volodymyr Zelensky, who made a surprise visit to European allies Wednesday to lobby Western governments to provide more air power to counter a growing Russian offensive.
/jlne.ws/3YjvbZ3
Russia Throws Soldiers Into Ukraine Firing Line to Gain Inches
James Marson - The Wall Street Journal
Ukrainian artillery fire mangled the platoon of Russian soldiers advancing on this besieged city. Guided by a live video feed from an aerial drone, the guns cut down the first group of 20, a reconnaissance officer recalled. Then a further group of 20 were knocked out, followed by 10 more. Later that same day in January, another 20 Russian soldiers trudged forward along the same path and managed to dig in at a new position in a wood a little closer to Bakhmut.
/jlne.ws/3x5EUGy
Kremlin says those behind Nord Stream blasts must be punished
Guy Faulconbridge and Vladimir Soldatkin - Reuters
The Kremlin said on Thursday the world should know the truth about who sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines and that those responsible should be punished after an investigative journalist said U.S. divers blew them up at the behest of the White House.
/jlne.ws/3xt5sBT
Russia's Wagner Group Says It No Longer Recruits Prisoners to Fight in Ukraine; Private military group's move could mark a shift in tactics after it used convicts to reshape the fight in Ukraine in recent months
Ian Lovett - The Wall Street Journal
Russia's Wagner Group is no longer recruiting convicts from prisons, its founder said, marking a possible tactical shift by a private military group that has played a key role in Russia's efforts to regain momentum in the battlefield in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Brussels as part of a whirlwind tour of Europe aimed at pressing Western allies for more weapons.
/jlne.ws/3YmafAI
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | Deutsche Boerse Group and Google Cloud announce strategic innovation partnership
Deutsche Boerse Group
Google Cloud will be Deutsche Boerse Group's preferred partner for cloud usage for the next ten years. Deutsche Boerse will accelerate the development of its digital securities platform D7 with the secure infrastructure of Google Cloud and its leading data and analytics capabilities. Google Cloud will support a Digital Assets Business Platform of Deutsche Boerse. The platform aims to create an ecosystem for institutional investors to trade digital assets. The companies will jointly set up a data mesh to improve data distribution and usage in the cloud. Deutsche Boerse and Google Cloud today announced a new strategic partnership designed to enhance, unify and focus Deutsche Boerse's cloud adoption.
/jlne.ws/40KgShW
Euronext announces volumes for January 2023
Euronext
Euronext, the leading pan-European market infrastructure, today announced trading volumes for January 2023. Monthly and historical volume tables are available at this address.
/jlne.ws/3fwIEva
SGX Group reports market statistics for January 2023
Singapore Exchange
Derivatives activity climbs amid hopes that China's reopening will catalyse growth; Securities turnover outpaces gains in most Southeast Asian markets. Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) today released its market statistics for January 2023. Trading activity increased amid optimism that China's reopening will catalyse growth. SGX Group's open and accessible platform enabled institutional investors to manage their portfolio risks efficiently across multiple asset classes, even with underlying cash markets closed for the Lunar New Year.
/jlne.ws/3DQyAWX
SGX Group reports 1H FY2023 net profit of S$237 million
Singapore Exchange
Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) today reported 1H FY2023 adjusted net profit of S$236.8 million (S$221.8 million). Total revenue increased 10% to S$571.4 million (S$521.6 million). Adjusted EBITDA rose to S$334.1 million (S$309.6 million), while adjusted earnings per share climbed to 22.2 cents (20.7 cents). The Board of Directors has declared an interim quarterly dividend of 8.0 cents (8.0 cents) per share, payable on 24 February 2023. This brings total dividends in 1H FY2023 to 16.0 cents (16.0 cents) per share.
/jlne.ws/3xaI8s9
Disciplinary Decision - Offer Of Settlement Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
The Montreal Exchange
On May 27, 2022, Bourse de Montreal Inc. (the "Bourse") filed a complaint against Citigroup Global Markets Inc. ("CGMI"), a foreign approved participant of the Bourse. This complaint stated the following: 1. During the period from September 2, 2015 to August 23, 2021, CGMI contravened article 6366A (article 3.4 from January 1, 2019) - "Access to Electronic Trading" and article 7403 (article 3.400 from January 1, 2019) - "Application for Approval as an Approved Person" of the Rules of the Bourse (the "Rules"), by providing access to 25 of its employees, for various periods varying from 146 to 1819 days, to the electronic trading system of the Bourse without having obtained the prior approval of the Bourse;
/jlne.ws/3XdN5uR
TMX Group CEO John McKenzie to present at the Credit Suisse 24th Annual Financial Services Forum
TMX Group
TMX Group CEO John McKenzie will present at the Credit Suisse 24th Annual Financial Services Forum in Miami on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 8:35a.m. - 9:15 a.m. ET. A link to the webcast will be available and archived in TMX's shareholder events section.
/jlne.ws/3lpH6pO
MARF admits a new Commercial Paper Programme from Visalia Energía
BME-X
BME's Fixed Income Market, MARF, has admitted to trading today Visalia Energía's new Green Commercial Paper Program for 33.9 million euros. With this program, the company initiates its issuance in the fixed income markets through the MARF in order to diversify its sources of financing and access new investors. The notes included in the program have a nominal amount of 100,000 euros per unit and a maximum term of two years.
/jlne.ws/40G4qQ9
LME Asia Week: 16 May 2023 Hong Kong Sar
Summary 1.The purpose of this notice is to inform members and other stakeholders of thedate for LME Asia Week 2023. LME Asia Week 2023. 2.As part of LME Asia Week 2023, the London Metal Exchange (LME) and HongKong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) are hosting the LME Asia MetalsSeminar and LME Asia Dinner on Tuesday 16 May 2023 in Hong Kong SAR.
/jlne.ws/3vimcfa
NSE Indices launches Sub-Category level Nifty AIF Benchmarks
NSE
NSE's index services subsidiary, NSE Indices Limited today published its third Nifty Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) Benchmark Report at a category level for the period ended 31st March 2022. In addition to the category level benchmark report, NSE Indices also launched its first ever sub-category level report which features a host of finely curated subcategory indices to enable a more nuanced benchmarking of AIF performances.
/jlne.ws/3IbIKEj
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | A robot's $100 billion error: Alphabet shares tank after its ChatGPT rival makes a mistake in its very first ad
Tristan Bove - Fortune
The artificial intelligence wars are heating up, with tech companies large and small racing to outdo one another and get their A.I.-powered product to market. But the mistakes by the nascent technology are starting to pile up, and Google's up-and-coming A.I.-powered chatbot has already cost the company $100 billion in market value.
/jlne.ws/3IaKgq7
The history and evolution of the fintech history
CoinTelegraph
The financial technology (fintech) industry has its roots in the late 20th century, with the advent of electronic banking and online stock trading. Since then, fintech has expanded and changed over time as a result of technological and internet advances. As a result, new financial services and products have been created with the intention of enhancing accessibility, simplicity and effectiveness in the financial services industry.
/jlne.ws/3HPP8Q8
Alibaba and Baidu Want to Go Big in AI. China Might Not Let Them.
Jack Denton - Barron's
A tough word from Chinese state media on the investor frenzy over artificial intelligence stocks seems a bad sign for Alibaba BABA -0.37% , Baidu BIDU -4.92% , and other China tech darlings. But it doesn't look like the AI party is over just yet.
/jlne.ws/3YCqyJj
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Maybe: The Great AI Chatbot Race; Microsoft's Bing and Google's Bard will certainly make mistakes, and publishers will not be happy.
Parmy Olson - Bloomberg
Here's something you don't see everyday: Microsoft Corp. is serving up a snazzy web search tool. And Google, whose search page has barely changed in 24 years, is also racing to launch a just-as-cool revamped tool in the next few weeks. It seems that officially, the new chat-engine wars are underway, with Microsoft on Tuesday announcing its long-awaited integration of OpenAI's ChatGPT bot into Bing and calling it a "copilot for the web." Google published a blog post hours earlier about its own chatbot for search, called Bard. For Google in particular, it could be the riskiest strategic move it has made in years, a metaphorical leap off the couch that the company has been relaxing on for far too long.
/jlne.ws/3jNXIqL
BMLL adds Johannesburg Stock Exchange to exchange clients list; New addition will increase BMLL's data coverage, while providing JSE with Level 3 data for venue and liquidity analytics.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Historical Level 3 data and analytics provider BMLL has added the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) as a new client. JSE data across equities and ETFs will now be included in BMLL's data coverage, with the exchange using BMLL's Level 3 data and analytics for cross-venue analysis, offering participants market structure and performance metrics insights.
/jlne.ws/3DWzMrX
MarketAxess appoints ICE alumnus as head of data product; New head brings considerable experience in data services to the firm, having previously served at ICE and Bloomberg.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Electronic trading platform for fixed income securities, MarketAxess, has appointed Pierce Lord as head of data product, a newly created role for the business. Lord joins the firm from ICE, where he spent the last three years, responsible for the business development and commercialisation of fixed income analytics and indices.
/jlne.ws/3Xdr3bT
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Ransomware campaign stirs worry despite uncertain impact
Tim Starks - The Washington Post
The phrase "global ransomware attack" has a legacy of havoc, with the twin 2017 NotPetya and WannaCry cyberattacks collectively infecting hundreds of thousands of machines and doing billions of dollars worth of damage.
/jlne.ws/3lmxz2C
Why the cybersecurity talent gap exists and how to solve it
Dr. Andrew Reifers - Security Magazine
This year has been one of significant growth for the cybersecurity industry. According to the 2022 (ICS)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, the cyber workforce reached an all-time high of 4.7 million workers and added 464,000 new workers globally. Despite this, there is still a widely perceived talent shortage in the cybersecurity industry, both domestically and internationally, and companies feel like they can't fill the positions they need.
/jlne.ws/40G8yQf
Insurers Say Cyberattack That Hit Merck Was Warlike Act, Not Covered; The company lost $1.4 billion in 2017's NotPetya attack, which has been linked to Russia, but insurers are fighting in court to avoid paying
Richard Vanderford - The Wall Street Journal
The costly NotPetya cyberattack, which the U.S. blamed on Russia, should be considered a "cyber nuclear attack," insurers argued as they urged judges to overturn a legal win by Merck & Co. in a dispute that could have broad ramifications for business insurance.
/jlne.ws/3jKNIhX
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | FTX, Celsius Bankruptcies With Billions on Line Push Judges Into Legal Void
Steven Church - Bloomberg
As the cryptocurrency mania raged, Congress took a hands-off approach, keeping the fast-growing industry in legal limbo as it spawned startups and drew billions of dollars from investors. That's left it to the courts to deal with the wreckage. The bankruptcies of FTX Group, Celsius Network and Genesis Global are promising to turn judges into after-the-fact rulemakers for an anarchic industry whose pioneers saw it as a way to keep money beyond government reach.
/jlne.ws/3DRwgis
Binance says full audit of balance sheet to be delayed, cites 'limitations' of accounting industry
Ben Weiss - Fortune
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, still hasn't committed to a timeline for a complete accounting of its assets and liabilities. "It'll take a longer time," Leon Foong, Binance's Asia-Pacific head, told Bloomberg. He said that, while the exchange plans to hire an auditor to fully leaf through the company's balance sheet, the world's largest accounting firms are still learning about the crypto industry, which has delayed the process.
/jlne.ws/3XhS9hY
Bitcoin ATM Operator Coin Cloud Files for Bankruptcy With Liabilities of $100M-$500M
Jamie Crawley - CoinDesk
Coin Cloud, which operates more than 4,000 bitcoin ATMs across the U.S. and Brazil, has filed for bankruptcy protection with estimated liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million. The Las Vegas-based firm has assets of between $50 million and $100 million and as many as 10,000 creditors, according to a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada dated Feb. 7.
/jlne.ws/3jRn6f4
Robinhood's crypto business continues to decline during Crypto Winter as customers steer clear of trading
Ben Weiss - Fortune
Online brokerage Robinhood reported a sharp decline in crypto trading revenue over the last three months of 2022 compared with 2021 as its customers shied away from the platform's crypto offerings amid the industry's implosion.
/jlne.ws/3DTL2FJ
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says SEC has 'terrible' idea to ban crypto staking for U.S. retail customers
Lachlan Keller - Forkast
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a ban on cryptocurrency staking for retail customers in the country, said Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of Coinbase Global Inc. the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. Armstrong didn't clarify the source of the information, citing "rumors," but called it a "terrible" idea.
/jlne.ws/3Xhk3uC
You Still Owe the IRS Even if Your Crypto Lender Collapsed
Joe Light - Barron's
Customers of failed crypto lenders such as Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, and BlockFi might have an unwelcome surprise this tax season. Even though their earnings might be locked up in bankruptcy proceedings, the investors likely still owe taxes on much of what their accounts received last year.
/jlne.ws/3YgMt97
BNY Mellon says investors 'absolutely interested' in digital assets
Samuel Indyk - Reuters
Bank of New York Mellon's head of advanced solutions Michael Demissie said on Wednesday that digital assets were "here to stay", citing a 2022 study of the custodian bank's clients. "What we see is clients are absolutely interested in digital assets, broadly," BNY Mellon's Demissie said, speaking on a panel on cryptocurrency at Afore Consulting's 7th Annual FinTech and Regulation Conference.
/jlne.ws/3HNa6iH
Deutsche Bank in Talks to Invest in 2 German Crypto Firms: Bloomberg
Helene Braun - CoinDesk
The asset management group of German banking giant Deutsche Bank AG is in talks to invest in two German crypto companies as part of its growth strategy, according to a Bloomberg report.
/jlne.ws/3HNaZYv
ChatGPT Mania Spurs Crypto Fans' Stampede to 'Faddish' AI Tokens; Could be a recipe for disaster for those speculating: O'Rourke; AI-linked coins surge; some post double-digit gains in a week
Vildana Hajric and Muyao Shen - Bloomberg
Count on crypto fans to jump on any burgeoning trend as fast as they can. Digital assets focused on artificial intelligence have been skyrocketing since OpenAI's chatbot known as ChatGPT became an internet phenomenon and spurred buzz about its future potential. Nearly all the tokens classified under the AI category by CoinGecko have posted at least double-digit moves over the past week. SingularityDAO jumped 138% over a seven-day period. SingularityNET was 126% higher over that stretch while Artificial Liquid Intelligence rose 87%.
/jlne.ws/3RKsHjS
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Republicans Are Going After the Biden Administration. Now White House Is Fighting Back
Jordan Fabian - Bloomberg
The White House attacked a House panel investigating the alleged "weaponization" of the federal government against Republicans, likening it to Senator Joseph McCarthy's campaign in the 1950s against suspected communists in the government.
/jlne.ws/3RPfQNG
TikTok Reveals Russian Disinformation Network Targeting European Users; Accounts spread anti-Ukrainian messages in local languages; Disclosure was part of a report to the EU released on Thursday
Alex Barinka, Margi Murphy and Jillian Deutsch - Bloomberg
TikTok Inc. identified a Russian disinformation network spreading war propaganda about Ukraine to more than a hundred thousand European users over the summer, the company disclosed on Thursday. The network operated in Russia, but targeted mostly people in Germany, Italy and the UK in their respective languages. About 1,700 accounts belonging to the network were able to spread anti-Ukrainian messages by masquerading as accounts created by local users. Between July and September 2022 the accounts attracted 133,564 followers, it added.
/jlne.ws/3XjAExF
China Calls Biden 'Highly Irresponsible' for His Remarks About Xi Jinping
Bloomberg
Beijing lashed out at President Joe Biden for saying Chinese leader Xi Jinping faces "enormous problems," underscoring the renewed tensions between the two nations since the US downing of a balloon in its airspace.
/jlne.ws/40KgArm
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Apocalypse now: Man accused of giant tire Ponzi scheme
Lukas I. Alpert - MarketWatch
John Eckerd is facing another legal apocalypse. The Texas man, who was previously jailed for laundering drug money through a doomsday-themed condo development aimed at people preparing for the apocalypse, has been hit with new charges of allegedly stealing $50 million in a Ponzi scheme built around giant tires. Eckerd, 58, of Dallas, was indicted this week along with Afif Baltagi, 45, of Houston, on charges of running a scam in which investors believed they were financing the purchase of enormous tires used on mining and earth-moving vehicles.
/jlne.ws/40JEV0w
CFTC to Hold an Open Commission Meeting on February 15
CFTC
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam today announced the Commission will hold an open meeting on Wednesday, February 15 at 9:00 a.m. (ET). The meeting will be held virtually.
/jlne.ws/3JUA070
The Clock is Ticking on Equity Market Reform; JR breaks down the SEC's recent market structure proposals. First up, tick sizes.
Investors' Exchange
A major element of the market structure changes the SEC proposed last month (December 2022) involve amendments to Regulation NMS (for National Market System), the comprehensive set of rules governing equities trading in the U.S.1 If enacted, these proposals would represent the first significant set of changes to Regulation NMS since it was adopted in 2005.2 For context, in that same year, George W. Bush started his second term as President, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and something called "YouTube" was introduced. The iPhone was still two years away from seeing the light of day.
/jlne.ws/3RKmfJI
Societe Generale Gets Pulled Into SEC's Widening Messaging Probe
Steven Arons - Bloomberg
Societe Generale SA has been drawn into the industry-wide investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission whether banks' staff have made use of unauthorized communication channels. The French lender's US unit received an information request from the SEC "focused on compliance with record-keeping requirements in connection with business-related communications on messaging platforms that were not approved by the firm," it said Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/40IgkZH
SEC Division of Examinations Announces 2023 Priorities
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Examinations today announced its 2023 examination priorities. The Division publishes its examination priorities annually to provide insights into its risk-based approach, including the areas it believes present potential risks to investors and the integrity of the U.S. capital markets.
/jlne.ws/3x2VuH7
Crypto exchange Kraken faces US SEC probe over unregistered securities
The Business Times
KRAKEN, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is embroiled in a probe by a top US financial regulator over whether it broke securities rules related to certain offerings to American clients, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe into whether Kraken offered unregistered securities is at an advanced stage and could lead to a settlement in the coming days, said the person, who asked not to be identified as discussing a case that hasn't been made public. It wasn't immediately clear which tokens or offerings are drawing scrutiny.
/jlne.ws/3DTwRk2
Regulatory Framework for Sustainability-linked Derivatives: Singapore Analysis
International Swaps and Derivatives Association
Singapore is taking a number of steps to achieve its ambition of net-zero carbon emissions by approximately 2050, including the progressive raising of carbon taxes from 2024 and the launch of the Singapore Green Plan 2030, which sets sustainability targets to be achieved over the next 10 years. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has complemented these initiatives by setting out a strategy to strengthen the resilience of the financial sector to environmental risks, and to position Singapore as a leading center for sustainable finance.
/jlne.ws/3YyGBrE
Forestlands' director, Rowan Kearns, pleads guilty to making false statements and charges related to financial reporting
Financial Markets Authority
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) - Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko - today confirmed that Rowan Kearns, the founder and sole director of the Forestlands group of companies, last week pled guilty to the following charges in criminal proceedings for disclosure and financial record keeping breaches:
/jlne.ws/3Yac0Rr
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Corporate Bond Issuers Drive Surge in New CUSIP Issuance; Municipal Volumes Continue to Trend Lower
CUSIP Global Services - Globe Newswire
CUSIP Global Services (CGS) today announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report for January 2023. The report, which tracks the issuance of new security identifiers as an early indicator of debt and capital markets activity over the next quarter, found a significant increase in request volume for new corporate identifiers and a slowdown in request volume for new municipal identifiers.
/jlne.ws/3XjTy7w
Traders Are Starting to Put Big Money on the Fed Going to 6%; $18 million bet nets $135 million if Fed hits 6% by September; Wagers on higher peak rate dominate flow in options Wednesday
Edward Bolingbroke - Bloomberg
A shift in sentiment on Federal Reserve policy is emerging in interest-rate options, where several big wagers on the central bank's benchmark rate reaching 6% - nearly a percentage point higher than the current consensus - have popped up this week. The thinking behind them flies in the face of what has been an article of faith over the past two months: that the Fed, after raising rates eight times in the past year, is near the end of its tightening cycle.
/jlne.ws/3DVs3KN
FX Turnover Drops from April: Up Year-on-Year
The Full FX
With all but the Japanese data published, the latest regional FX committee FX turnover surveys indicate that activity in markets dropped from last April, when the Bank for International Settlements took its triennial measure, but was largely up compared to October 2021. Overall activity was higher year-on-year in every centre with the exception of the US, which drifted 1.3%.
/jlne.ws/3Xkj3Wt
Crypto AI Needs a Showcase to Know What's Real
Daniel Kuhn - CoinDesk
JPMorgan seems to have confirmed what everyone already knows: The emergent world of artificial intelligence (AI) is the top trend of 2023. In a recently released survey of 835 institutional traders, some 53% cited AI and machine learning when discussing the technologies most likely to reshape finance over the next three years. The tech behind Web3 - namely blockchain and distributed ledgers - ranked third, down a peg from last year when JPMorgan had AI and crypto tied for second in its annual "The e-Trading Edit" report.
/jlne.ws/3DWnH65
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | Billionaire Friedland Weighs Strategic Partner for Congo Copper; BHP held early stage talks with Ivanhoe, 2021 reports said; Ivanhoe founder says outright sale of copper assets unlikely
Felix Njini and Antony Sguazzin - Bloomberg
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. founder Robert Friedland said he may bring in a minority partner to help develop Congolese copper assets that are key to the green energy transition. The Vancouver-based company is in discussions with potential partners, including sovereign investors, as countries seek stable supplies of the metal, Friedland said. But Ivanhoe will only enter partnerships that bolster the growth plans of its flagship Kamoa-Kakula mine in the copper-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, the billionaire said.
/jlne.ws/3IcPFxd
Debt Swaps Called Out by Barclays Analysts Ignite ESG Debate; Market split as to use-of-proceeds rules around blue bonds; Belize debt-for-nature swap sets precedent in growing market
Natasha White - Bloomberg
At the outer edge of the ESG debt market, an unregulated but growing form of finance has some industry experts sounding the alarm. Their concern centers on market practice evolving around blue bonds when they're used in debt relief programs. Conceptually similar to green bonds, the blue variant is supposed to direct its proceeds toward marine protection. The biggest case to date is a deal for Belize, where Credit Suisse Group AG issued blue bonds to finance the country's debt-for-nature swap set up by the Nature Conservancy in late 2021.
/jlne.ws/3jM9py0
BP to Stick to Investment Plan Regardless of Oil Price, CEO Says; Any surplus cash flow will go to buybacks, dividends; Annual capex will range from $14 billion to $18 billion
Alix Steel and James Herron - Bloomberg
BP Plc will stick to its "disciplined" investment plan regardless of what happens to oil prices, said Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney. If the London-based company finds itself with any surplus cash because oil and gas prices rise, it will be used to pay off debt or boost returns to investors through higher dividends or share buybacks, Looney said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in New York.
/jlne.ws/3jKh0gI
Shell directors personally sued over 'flawed' climate strategy; Claimants ClientEarth say the oil company's plan puts the company at financial risk as the world transitions to clean energy
Damian Carrington - The Guardian
The directors of oil major Shell are being personally sued over their climate strategy, which the claimants say is inadequate to meet climate targets and puts the company at risk as the world switches to clean energy. Environmental lawyers ClientEarth have filed the lawsuit against the 11 directors at the high court in England. It is the first case in the world seeking to hold corporate directors liable for failing to properly prepare their company for the net zero transition, ClientEarth said.
/jlne.ws/3HM8iGz
Navigating the Wild West of PFAS Labeling on Clothing; The transition away from forever chemicals in clothing is underway, but it's surprisingly difficult for consumers to figure out what they're buying.
Zahra Hirji - Bloomberg
There's a chance that some of the clothes hanging in your closet were made using toxic chemicals. There's also a chance that this fact isn't communicated clearly, or perhaps at all, on your clothing labels. Welcome to PFAS limbo. For decades, apparel companies have turned to per- or polyfluorinated chemicals - also called PFAS, fluorochemicals, PFC chemicals or forever chemicals - to make raincoats, boots, backpacks and other items resistant to water and stains. But a growing body of research suggests that this entire class of thousands of chemicals are harmful to human health and the environment.
/jlne.ws/3JYhQB5
How teaching kids energy efficiency in schools can benefit families at home; Students' enthusiasm for energy efficiency can ripple outward, making an impact beyond the classroom.
Yale Climate Connections
What kids learn at school doesn't stay at school. So by teaching students about energy efficiency in the classroom, a nonprofit hopes to help families save energy - and money - at home. "If I'm learning at school, 'We need to turn off all the classroom lights when we walk out the door,' I'm certainly, when I go home, going to say to my mom, 'How come the lights in the kitchen or the hallway or the bathroom are on if we're leaving the house?'" says Paula Glover, president of the Alliance to Save Energy. The Alliance runs a K-to-12 energy education program used in hundreds of schools across 10 states.
/jlne.ws/3RNRIut
SI Dilemma: How Important are SI Badges?
Rachel Whittaker - Robeco via TabbForum
The financial sector is completely awash with such labels. There are dozens of SI collaborations, membership organizations, initiatives and product tags by which an investor can apparently prove their seriousness or success with sustainability. Getting one is like a badge of honor that few will want to do without. Yet it's not clear that all of them are worth having, or even if they continue to do what they claim. The problem now is that many investors fear that not joining one would make them look bad, creating a kind of self-imposed greenwashing.
/jlne.ws/3YUTxIL
ESG 401(k) Rule 'Misunderstood' By Foes, Top Labor Officials Say; Department under threat of GOP litigation, investigations; Rule's intent is retirement investing neutrality, DOL says
Austin R. Ramsey - Bloomberg
A new US Labor Department rule permitting consideration of socially and environmentally conscious factors in retirement funds has been misconstrued as a green investment mandate, according to a top agency official. The department's ESG rule is intended to strike a neutral tone on environmental, social, and corporate governance investment factors, Lisa Gomez, assistant secretary in charge of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, said during a Monday webinar.
/jlne.ws/3loobvu
Activists to Fed: Don't use climate to perpetuate inequity; Nearly two dozen progressive organizations are calling on the Federal Reserve to ensure major banks are managing climate-related risks in a fair and equitable manner.
Avery Ellfeldt - Politico Energy and Environment News
Regulators have a responsibility to ensure their efforts to address the financial threats of climate change do not come at the expense of underserved populations. That's according to nearly two dozen progressive organizations who are calling on the Federal Reserve and other financial watchdogs to ensure major banks are managing climate-related risks in a fair and equitable manner. It's an approach that would mean accounting for the financial dangers of lending in flood-prone communities - without discriminating against at-risk households.
/jlne.ws/3RIWSYV
Founding Partners of the Investor Agenda highlight 2022's key climate policy moments from across the Country Policy Groups
Investor Agenda
At the end of 2021, policymakers around the world emerged from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) full of hope. Countries promised enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which signalled a watershed moment for private sector action on climate change. In the finance sector, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) brought together more than 550 financial institutions committing to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. However, a tumultuous 2022 has seen economies emerge from a global pandemic, only to be confronted with the economic fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, triggering a worldwide energy and commodity price crunch.
/jlne.ws/3HN8BRB
Principles for Responsible Banking to strengthen Climate Ambition to meet Increased Expectations
United Nations Environment - Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)
As the global framework and gold standard for Sustainable Banking, the Principles for Responsible Banking continuously evolve in line with increasing ambition and new goals humanity defines - such as the new Global Agreement on Biodiversity. At the last Principles for Responsible Banking Board Meeting in 2022, Signatories made the important decision to strengthen the definition of the Principles' climate ambition to specify that Signatory Banks, in accordance with the Paris Agreement, are expected to align their portfolios with a 1.5 degrees pathway. For banks operating in developed countries, this includes achieving net-zero emissions by at least 2050.
/jlne.ws/40KlJPU
Duke Takes $1.3 Billion Charge on Renewable Unit for Sale; Writedown comes because tax credits have been collected; Unit includes wind and solar farms in Texas, Wyoming and Utah
Josh Saul - Bloomberg
Duke Energy Corp. will take a $1.3 billion impairment loss on the sale of its commercial renewable business, which it now expects to close later this year, according to its earnings release Thursday. The utility previously said it would sell the unit, which would be one of the biggest US clean-power deals ever. The company said last year that the unit had a book value of about $3 billion.
/jlne.ws/3XkAEh5
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Deutsche Bank's Asset Management Arm Eyes Crypto Investments
Eyk Henning and Steven Arons - Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG's asset management arm is in talks to invest in two German cryptocurrency firms as part of efforts to revive growth, according to people familiar with the matter. DWS Group, led by Chief Executive Officer Stefan Hoops, has held talks about buying a minority stake in Deutsche Digital Assets, a Frankfurt-based provider of crypto exchange-traded products, the people said, declining to be named discussing private information. Another potential target is Tradias, the market-making firm owned by Bankhaus Scheich, they said.
/jlne.ws/3XiBcnt
Hedge Fund SPX Spearheads Group of Americanas Local Bondholders; XP Asset, Prada, Moneda, Riza also among members of committee; Bondholders approved hiring law firm E.Munhoz as legal adviser
Vinicius Andrade - Bloomberg
Brazilian hedge fund manager SPX Capital is among asset management firms taking the lead in a group of local bondholders of troubled retailer Americanas SA organizing for restructuring negotiations. SPX, XP Asset Management, Riza, Icatu Vanguarda, Prada, Moneda and Exes were appointed as members of the committee that will represent a group of holders of the firm's domestic debt, according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3HMgLcT
A Gas-Trading Firm Spurned by Goldman Made Over $1 Billion Last Year; Danske Commodities had 'very good year,' says owner Equinor; Goldman backed out of deal in 2018 amid doubts on commodities
Will Mathis, Jack Farchy and Sridhar Natarajan - Bloomberg
A Danish gas and power trading company, bought by Equinor ASA for less than $500 million in 2018 after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. backed out of the bidding, made profits of more than $1 billion last year. The earnings at Danske Commodities are the latest indication of how Europe's energy crisis has been a boon for commodity traders.
/jlne.ws/3Xehlpv
MSCI review puts India's Adani shares back in the red
Gautam Adani - AFP
Global stock index compiler MSCI said it was reviewing the status of equities in India's Adani Group on Thursday, ending a brief rally for the troubled conglomerate, as it fends off allegations of market manipulation.
/jlne.ws/40JFck4
Fresh risk for Adani as MSCI probes free float of group stocks
Scott Murdoch and Shivam Patel - Reuters
India's Adani Group faced fresh concerns on Thursday after financial index provider MSCI said it was reviewing the free float designation of some group company securities. Billionaire Gautam Adani has seen some $110 billion wiped off the value of seven firms in the group he founded after U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation.
/jlne.ws/3Yknpy5
The Atlanta Billionaire Behind Goldman's Latest Consumer-Lending Push; David Zalik sold GreenSky to Goldman last year for about $1.7 billion. The deal has its doubters.
AnnaMaria Andriotis and Peter Rudegeair - The Wall Street Journal
A billionaire entrepreneur who owns more of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. than Chief Executive David Solomon is leading an effort to refresh the Wall Street stalwart's Main Street lending ambitions. Goldman is shrinking Marcus, its homegrown consumer-banking business. But it is doubling down on GreenSky, a home-improvement lender it bought last year over the objection of some senior executives.
/jlne.ws/3JTaUoQ
Norway Wealth Fund Unloads Rest of Its Adani Group Holding
Kari Lundgren - Bloomberg
Norway's $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund sold its remaining stake in the Adani Group companies after they became embroiled in a scandal and slumped in value. The fund had shed the bulk of its stake in the Indian conglomerate already before the allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud from New York-based investor Hindenburg Research emerged Jan. 24. That divestment by the Norwegian fund had taken place over the past years.
/jlne.ws/3lq84O9
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| Work & Management | | Stories impacting work and more about management ideas, practices and trends. | JPMorgan Cuts Hundreds More Mortgage Workers Amid Housing Woes
Hannah Levitt - Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut hundreds of mortgage employees this week, adding to job losses across the industry as home-lending businesses continue to be hurt by elevated interest rates. The reductions are tied to lower industry volumes and included some managers, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing personnel decisions. JPMorgan's mortgage-origination volume slumped 60% last year as Federal Reserve rate hikes cooled a pandemic-era boom.
/jlne.ws/3jJRmbT
Big Tech Is Moving Fast and Breaking Your Job; Google's new ChatGPT competitor Bard is a sign of a future workforce with fewer humans and more AI.
Jessica Karl - Bloomberg
Google product names usually stick to a predictable convention. There's Google Search, Google Alerts, Google Books, Google Meet. You get the picture. So the Shakespeare-invoking name of its ChatGPT rival - "Bard" - is quite the deviation. It makes you wonder whether "Bard" will eventually replace "Google" altogether. I can picture it: Bard News, Bard Assistant, Bard Ad Manager, BardMail. Will we just be "Barding" in a few years?
/jlne.ws/3I8i9bi
We asked ChatGPT which jobs it thinks it will replace-and it's not good news for data entry professionals or reporters
Eleanor Pringle - Fortune
The ChatGPT fear is real. The A.I. is already outstripping human candidates on job applications and top economists have said it will take over half the jobs in the U.S., while lowering the wages of the roles remaining. And now OpenAI's bot has revealed which roles it thinks it is "likely" to take over. Fortune asked ChatGPT: "Which jobs do you think ChatGPT will replace?"
/jlne.ws/40KOfAY
Mass Layoffs or Hiring Boom? What's Actually Happening in the Jobs Market; Restaurants, hotels and hospitals are finally staffing up, more than making up for losses in tech and other sectors
Sarah Chaney Cambon and Ray A. Smith - The Wall Street Journal
Interest rates are rising, inflation is elevated and recession fears linger. Despite all that, employers keep hiring. The U.S. added 1.1 million jobs over the past three months and ramped up hiring in January. That appears puzzling, given last year's economic cool down, signs that consumers are pulling back on spending as their savings dwindle, and a stream of corporate layoff announcements, particularly in technology.
/jlne.ws/3YtPnHs
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | Bird Flu Got to the Minks. Are Humans Next?; Growing demand for meat and dairy products raises the risk of animal viruses.
Jessica Karl - Bloomberg
Seriously, what is it about minks? These animals are always causing trouble. Last October, a mink farm in northwestern Spain was infected with a deadly bird flu, H5N1. More than 50,000 minks were euthanized as a result. Then there was Denmark's Great Mink Disaster of 2020, when more than 15 million minks were culled to prevent the spread of coronavirus, only to rise from their graves shortly thereafter.
/jlne.ws/3HKzWnC
Bird Flu Outbreak Is a Wake-Up Call for Agriculture; The H5N1 virus has been rampaging through poultry farms and a Spanish mink facility.
Faye Flam - Bloomberg
Perhaps we can blame Covid fatigue for numbing us to the risks of other viruses. But it should be bigger news that a bird flu has mutated to spread through mammals and is ominously appearing among wild and domesticated animals around the globe. In the past, the inability to spread from one mammal to another was the barrier that prevented bird flu, H5N1 - which has a 50% fatality rate in humans - from becoming a human pandemic.
/jlne.ws/3xaVlRM
'No one really wants to talk about COVID anymore,' the WHO's pandemic lead laments. But the 'worst case' possibility of a new coronavirus exists
Erin Prater - Fortune
The pandemic is drawing to a close, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. But they refused to rule out a plot twist that could reverse some, if not all, progress made on the disease over the past three years. "The acute phase of the pandemic is ending," Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of the WHO's Epidemic and Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness program, told viewers of a global COVID webinar. She was referencing the first and often worst phase of a pandemic, during which a new virus presents a global emergency. The WHO late last month extended the COVID global health emergency status by another three months but noted that the pandemic "may be approaching an inflexion point."
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | First Australian Coal Shipment to China in Two Years to Dock; Shipment was just outside Zhanjiang harbor on Thursday morning; Trade relations between Australia and China have been strained
Ben Westcott - Bloomberg
The first Australian coal shipment to China in more than two years is on the verge of docking, providing hard evidence of a major thaw in trade relations between the two countries following months of diplomatic talks. Bulk carrier Magic Eclipse was anchored off the southern port city of Zhanjiang on Thursday morning, according to Bloomberg shipping data. It's carrying metallurgical coal mined in Australia and destined for the Chinese market. Zhanjiang is a center for steel production in China.
/jlne.ws/40EwIKS
China's State Refiners Buy More Russian Oil, Energy Aspects Says; Demand from Chinese oil majors to lift flows from OPEC+ seller; Imports may rise even more if nation replenishes stockpiles
Bloomberg News
China's state-owned oil majors have stepped up Russian imports in a sign that Beijing is ready to give the go-ahead for more purchases of the country's crude, according to industry consultants Energy Aspects. PetroChina Co. and CNOOC Ltd. recently resumed imports of waterborne Russian oil, with at least three supertankers of Urals-grade crude signaling China as a destination, EA analysts wrote in a note, without saying where they got the information. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, may also increase its intake of the flagship Urals in the coming months, the analysts said.
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Chinese tech group's Nasdaq IPO signals revival for offshore listings; Hesai Technology is largest China-based company to go public in US since 2021
Nicholas Megaw - Financial Times
A Shanghai-based maker of sensors for cars has become the largest Chinese group to go public in the US since 2021, in a deal that exchange executives hope will ease almost two years of tensions during which such listings ground to a halt. Hesai Technology, which supplies laser-based sensors to carmakers and autonomous driving companies, on Wednesday raised $190mn from investors - more than it had originally planned - in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange that valued it at around $2.4bn.
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Where Can Europe Get the Gas to Fill Its Reserves This Summer?
Anna Shiryaevskaya, Elena Mazneva and Rakteem Katakey - Bloomberg
Another cold weather snap in Europe is about to end, and gas stockpiles remain far above their normal levels. With energy supplies for this winter largely taken care of, the region is fast turning its attention to the next heating season. Gas reserves will need to be replenished over the summer and autumn to levels that will ensure a safety buffer for next winter, should it turn out to be colder than the current one. With inventories likely to end the heating season far fuller than usual, much less gas will be needed to replenish them. But there will also be lower volumes from Russia, the backbone of previous refilling campaigns.
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Polish Banks Change Tune as Once-Feared EU Court Case Nears; High rates help to ease franc mortgage pain for Polish lenders; Top EU court to publish non-binding opinion on Feb. 16
Konrad Krasuski - Bloomberg
Polish banks are sounding increasingly sanguine about a looming European Union court ruling that the country's financial regulator once warned may spell a full-blown crisis for the industry. In the latest chapter of the saga centered around $17 billion of mainly Swiss franc-denominated loans, EU judges are set to rule whether banks can sue clients, who got their mortgage contracts canceled in courts - a way for the industry to recover some losses and deter future litigation.
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Brazil's Richest Man Loses Billions as His M&A Machine Breaks Down; The collapse of retailer Americanas casts a harsh light on the cost-cutting business model that Jorge Lemann created at 3G Capital.
Daniel Cancel - Bloomberg
It wasn't too long ago that Jorge Paulo Lemann was arguably the most respected-and feared-corporate baron on Earth. The Brazilian billionaire and his two longtime business partners were scooping up multinational giants at a frenetic clip and folding them into the vast empire they built from Rio de Janeiro. In 2008 it was Anheuser-Busch InBev. In 2010, Burger King. Then came H.J. Heinz, Tim Hortons, Kraft Foods Group and, finally, in 2016, the biggest of them all: brewer SABMiller. With each new acquisition, Lemann, inspired by his idol, former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch, would order up deep cost cuts. Perks were eliminated, payrolls slashed, factories shuttered.
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | The Times Reports 11% Increase in Revenue as Digital Subscriptions Climb
Katie Robertson - The New York Times
The New York Times Company said on Wednesday that it gained more than one million digital-only subscribers last year, helping to lift revenue from the year before despite headwinds facing the media industry. The new subscribers, who do not include the roughly one million who came with the acquisition of the sports website The Athletic last February, bring The Times's total number of paying subscribers to 9.6 million. The company has set a goal of 15 million by the end of 2027.
/jlne.ws/3JTfnaY
Tech Bros and Finance Jerks Provide Ideal Fodder for West End Show; Playwright Joseph Charlton, also a writer on HBO's Industry, talks about his stage show, Brilliant Jerks.
Sarah Rappaport - Bloomberg
A multibillion-dollar startup with a "genius" founder has a very public fall from grace. The topic has spawned many a cover of Bloomberg Businessweek and more than enough specialty streaming series, from Hulu's The Dropout to Showtime's Super Pumped. Now it's the plot behind a stage play, Brilliant Jerks, coming to London's Southwark Playhouse this March.
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