| March 11, 2019 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | |  | John Lothian
Publisher
John Lothian News | |
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Hits & Takes
JLN Staff
Mike Dawley is going to be saluted at Breakthrough New York's annual Gala this year.
Breakthrough New York (www.btny.org) is a nonprofit ten-year college success program committed to getting selected high-potential, low-income New York City public school students to competitive four-year colleges. BTNY provides after-school tutoring and summer enrichment programs to these students, each of whom starts the program in the summer before 7th grade. BTNY and the students make a ten year commitment (7th grade through college). ~JJL
BTNY has a history of strong support from the futures and derivatives industry: Maria Chiodi, managing director in the General Counsel's office at Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, was a past honoree. This year's sponsors include the CME, NFA, FIA, and Eurex and more. This year's Gala will be held on Tuesday, April 30 at 583 Park Avenue. The Gala, which features its annual "Are You Smarter Than a Breakthrough New York Student?" quiz, is loads of fun.~JJL
A few of the winners of the U.S. Options Lifetime Contribution awards are: Tom Brady, who is retired from Cboe, Kim L. Koppien of NYSE Options, Tony Saliba from Matrix, and Jon Najarian. For more, see the press release below in Exchanges.~SR
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New York's New West Coast Digs; Options trading floor just a part of NYSE's new San Francisco facility
Spencer Doar - JLN
NYSE is set to have new digs in San Francisco when its NYSE West facility opens Monday, March 11.
Obviously, New York is the area most thought of when it comes to all things Buttonwood, but, through the Archipelago Holdings acquisition in 2006, which had purchased the Pacific Exchange, NYSE can trace its roots on the West Coast back to the formation of the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange in 1882.
/goo.gl/VeQ5Cc
****"There's gold in them thar hills." ~M. F. Stephenson
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BNP Paribas and Bank of the West Celebrate International Women's Day With UN Women's 'HeForShe' Movement at the BNP Paribas Open Other
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas, one of the leading sponsors of tennis globally, will mark this year's International Women's Day by changing the color of the back walls in Stadium 1 to Magenta at the BNP Paribas Open, with a dedicated message in support of UN Women's HeForShe movement, which seeks to engage men and boys as advocates for gender equality.
bit.ly/2EJsFDY
****Most of the JLN office is in sunny Boca now and probably playing tennis while they leave me here, chained to a desk in cold, cold Chicago. ~JB
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Decline in readers, ads leads hundreds of newspapers to fold
David Bauder, David A. Lieb - AP
Five minutes late, Darrell Todd Maurina sweeps into a meeting room and plugs in his laptop computer. He places a Wi-Fi hotspot on the table and turns on a digital recorder. The earplug in his left ear is attached to a police scanner in his pants pocket.
bit.ly/2Tuwk2N
****The JLN team is still here for you, though! ~JB
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Worst start to year for equity flows since 2008: BAML
Marc Jones - Reuters
A $10 billion wipeout over the last week has compounded the worst start to a year for equity flows since 2008, Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists said on Friday.
/reut.rs/2J2bFOA
****Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating a 10 year bull market. ~JB
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Brexit, Briefly: REVISITED! (VIDEO)
CGP Grey - YouTube
bit.ly/2GMjG7y
****A succinct rundown of the main problem Brexit faces. ~JB
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Bribing Is Wrong; Smarter Swaps APs Are Better; Commercially Reasonable Prices for EFRPs Are Best
Gary DeWaal - Bridging the Week
Unexpectedly, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a new initiative to encourage non-registrants to self-report foreign corrupt practices, which it claimed might also constitute violations of laws and rules it administers. Non-registrants who turn themselves in, cooperate with the CFTC and remediate their violations will benefit from a presumption that the CFTC's Division of Enforcement will ordinarily recommend no fine to the Commission - although it appears likely their situations will be referred to other law enforcement agencies for consideration. Separately, the National Futures Association formally proposed bylaw and rule amendments, as well as a new Interpretive Notice, aimed at making swaps associated persons smarter about swaps markets and applicable regulations.
bit.ly/2F3uCfI
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Friday's Top Three
Our top read story of the day on Friday was Alphacution's The Complete Case Study on Spot Trading. Second was Reuters' SEC scrutinizes fairness of stock exchange pricing. One wonders if the SEC people are wondering what they got themselves into. This could take years to figure out. Third went to the question, "You got paid what now?" in Bloomberg's Tradeweb Paid Top Two Executives $38 Million in 2018 Pre-IPO
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MarketsWiki Stats
146,444,939 pages viewed; 23,468 pages; 217,352 edits
MarketsWiki Statistics
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| Lead Stories | The Gazillion-Dollar Standoff Over Two High-Frequency Trading Towers; The hunt for a millionth-of-a-second advantage in the town best known for Wayne's World is getting heated.
Nick Baker, Bryan Gruley - Bloomberg
In a weedy field 35 miles west of Chicago squats a tidy red-brick building with a peaked roof, about the size of a one-car garage. Against the eastern wall, reaching just above the roofline, are poles equipped with small dish antennas that send microwave signals to and gather them from financial markets on the East Coast. At the same time, the site communicates via subterranean cable with an enormous steel-and-glass building across the street. That fortress is home to CME Group Inc., a $63 billion exchange where some of the world's most vital financial products trade, including derivatives on oil, gold, U.S. Treasuries, and the S&P 500. If you want to be a serious player in global markets, you have little choice but to stash your trading machines here.
/bloom.bg/2J3jvrq
Chicago chases the pot o' crypto; Trading mogul Wilson, rivals race to make city a hub for digital currency trading.
Lynne Marek - Crain's Chicago Business
Trading heavyweight Don Wilson is backing one of three nascent cryptocurrency exchanges vying to lure big institutions and their big money to digital currency markets. Wilson's DRW Holdings invested in the Chicago-based ErisX crypto exchange last year, just as Seed CX, also in Chicago, and Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange's Bakkt launched competing venues.
bit.ly/2J34c1D
Trading slips away from London ahead of Brexit
Huw Jones - Reuters
A quiet, permanent shift in trading from London to the European Union ahead of Brexit is picking up speed as stock and bond platforms in Amsterdam and Paris crank into action.
/reut.rs/2J7HoOq
SEC Chief Wants Smaller Investors to Have Better, Faster Stock Data; Official lays out improvements for lower-cost public feed, more transparent fee structure
Gabriel T. Rubin and Alexander Osipovich - WSJ
The government wants smaller investors to have better access to real-time information about stock prices as part of an effort to reduce the advantage big firms have in paying for faster stock-data feeds, a top securities official said Friday.
/on.wsj.com/2J49z0I
U.S. calls 'OneCoin' huge pyramid scheme, charges leaders
Jonathan Stempel - Reuters
U.S. authorities on Friday announced criminal charges against the alleged leaders of an multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme involving the sale of a fraudulent cryptocurrency, OneCoin.
/reut.rs/2J5BA8e
Money to Launder? Here's How (Hint: Find a Bank)
Alexander Weber, Boris Groendahl, and Nicholas Comfort - Bloomberg
You're a Russian criminal with millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains but one big problem: Transferring slugs of money or carrying suitcases of cash will raise eyebrows. You need to "launder" the dough  make the dirty money appear to be the proceeds of legitimate enterprise. Then it can be spent anywhere in the world  say, on real estate or luxury yachts  no questions asked. Most countries and all the world's major banks have controls in place to flag suspicious funds coming into the financial system. But as shown by the so-called Troika Laundromat scandal and the probes roiling European banks, bad actors come up with innovative ways to skirt the rules.
/bloom.bg/2Tv1CX1
Deutsche Bank's woes force boss to explore Commerzbank merger; Persistently low interest rates add to pressure on Christian Sewing to seek other options
Olaf Storbeck - FT
Deutsche Bank's chief executive Christian Sewing has dropped his opposition to exploring a multibillion euro merger with German rival Commerzbank after persistently low interest rates and investor pressure over its grim performance forced him to consider other options.
/on.ft.com/2Tv2Bqb
Bitcoin Miners Are Investing Again, Expecting a Cheap Power Boom Soon
Wolfie Zhao - Coindesk
Bitcoin miners in China are buying used equipment and making deals with mining farms and hydroelectric plants, betting abundant water this summer will make their businesses profitable again.
bit.ly/2TudXuL
Higher Estate Taxes Can Prevent a Nation of Dynasties; Wealth concentration might not be as problematic if so much of it wasn't passed from generation to generation.
Noah Smith - Bloomberg
It makes sense that President Donald Trump would change tax law to favor inherited wealth. The real-estate-entrepreneur-turned-television-host got his own start thanks to a super-wealthy father, and ended up inheriting hundreds of millions of dollars (much of it sheltered from taxes). Trump's tax reform, passed in late 2017, makes it easier for people to follow in his footsteps. It increases the amount of money a married couple can pass to their heirs free of tax, to $22.36 million. It also raises the amount that rich people can leave directly to later family generations without paying the generation-skipping tax. Though the higher limits are set to expire in 2025, it leaves a window for rich people to avoid taxes permanently by placing their assets in dynasty trusts.
/bloom.bg/2TyzR05
Danske Laundering Contagion Feeds a New Fear in Borderless EU
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
First it was subprime mortgages, then European debt. Now, it's money laundering. In Denmark, where the latest crisis first grabbed the public's attention thanks to Danske Bank A/S, the government has some worrying observations on what went wrong and what the scandal might mean for European ambitions to build a single market for financial services.
/bloom.bg/2TsY6wh
Japanese Banks Will Finally Stop Using a Piece of 1800s Technology; Personal stamps, or hanko, will no longer be required to open accounts or withdraw money at some of the country's biggest lenders.
Yuki Hagiwara - Bloomberg
It has taken more than a century, but Japanese banks are finally parting ways with a piece of technology that hasn't felt cutting edge since the shogun reigned.
/bloom.bg/2J7kvur
Global Economy Hits Its Weakest Spell Since Financial Crisis
Fergal O'Brien - Bloomberg
The global economy's sharp loss of speed through 2018 has left the pace of expansion the weakest since the global financial crisis a decade ago, according to Bloomberg Economics. Its new GDP tracker puts world growth at 2.1 percent on a quarter-on-quarter annualized basis, down from about 4 percent in the middle of last year. While there's a chance that the economy may find a foothold and arrest the slowdown, "the risk is that downward momentum will be self-sustaining," say economists Dan Hanson and Tom Orlik.
/bloom.bg/2O0jvY4
Wall Street's oldest-ever bull market turns 10 years old
Noel Randewich - Reuters
A savvy investor who managed to time the start of Wall Street's bull market a decade ago - and hold on since then - would now be sitting on a handsome windfall. Born in the ashes of the financial crisis, Wall Street's oldest-ever bull market turns 10 years old on Saturday, with the S&P 500 tripling in value and amply rewarding investors who have owned funds tracking the index for that period.
/reut.rs/2C8vxK0
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | U.S. Options Industry Options Industry Conference Lifetime Contribution Award Recipients Announced!
The 2019 Lifetime Contribution Award recipients will be honored at this year's Options Industry Conference, to be held May 1-3, 2019 in Miami, Florida. The award and the Crowd of Fame were created by the U.S. options exchanges and the Options Industry Council (OIC), an industry resource managed by OCC, to recognize a more expansive group of leaders and establish a place for the industry to honor their contributions. The recipients of the Lifetime Contribution Award will be inducted into the Options Industry Conference's 2019's newly-formed "Crowd of Fame", along with all previous Sullivan Award winners.
/goo.gl/6kW26G
HKEX to launch MSCI A-share futures for China's stock market
Hudson Lockett - FT
Hong Kong's stock exchange has signed an agreement with MSCI to offer futures contracts on the A-share portion of the index provider's flagship Emerging Markets index in November, laying the groundwork for investors to hedge risk from their exposure to China's stock market.
/on.ft.com/2TrjySx
LME launches seven new contracts to try to boost volumes, profit
Eric Onstad - Reuters
The London Metal Exchange (LME) is launching seven new cash-settled futures contracts on Monday, including hot-rolled coil (HRC) steel, alumina and cobalt, aiming to attract more business after profits fell last year.
/goo.gl/SxjsWV
Cboe Europe gains approval for Dutch trading venue
Hayley McDowell - The Trade
Cboe Europe has received approval from authorities in the Netherlands to operate a trading venue in Amsterdam in preparation for Brexit.
The approval means that Cboe is now permitted to run a multilateral trading facility (MTF) and approved publication arrangement (APA), which will be regulated by the Dutch Authority or the Financial Markets (AFM).
/goo.gl/mFJAPk
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | KRM22 launches Enterprise Risk Cockpit
KRM22
KRM22 plc, the technology and software investment company with a particular focus on risk management in capital markets, has announced the launch of the Enterprise Risk Cockpit, its real-time enterprise risk management application for capital markets firms.
bit.ly/2NYjK5J
The Small Exchange To Deploy Eventus Systems Technology For Real-Time Market Surveillance
Eventus
Eventus Systems, Inc., a leading global trade surveillance and market risk platform provider, and the Small Exchange, a new futures exchange (pending regulatory approval) backed by award-winning innovators focused on retail customers, announced today that Eventus will provide the exchange with its mission-critical real-time market surveillance system. The marketplace is deploying the cloud-based version of the Validus platform for its comprehensive surveillance activities.
bit.ly/2NX7mD4
How Data Scientists Turned Against Statistics
Kalev Leetaru - Forbes
One of the most remarkable stories of the rise of "big data" is the way in which it has coincided with the decline of the denominator and our shift towards using algorithms and workflows into which we have no visibility. Our great leap into the world of data has come with a giant leap of faith that the core tenets of statistics no longer apply when one works with sufficiently large datasets. As Twitter demonstrates, this assumption could not be further from the truth.
bit.ly/2EKdPNv
The Gazillion-Dollar Standoff Over Two High-Frequency Trading Towers
Nick Baker and Bryan Gruley - Bloomberg
In a weedy field 35 miles west of Chicago squats a tidy red-brick building with a peaked roof, about the size of a one-car garage. Against the eastern wall, reaching just above the roofline, are poles equipped with small dish antennas that send microwave signals to and gather them from financial markets on the East Coast. At the same time, the site communicates via subterranean cable with an enormous steel-and-glass building across the street. That fortress is home to CME Group Inc., a $63 billion exchange where some of the world's most vital financial products trade, including derivatives on oil, gold, U.S. Treasuries, and the S&P 500.
/bloom.bg/2UqF1rh
The Small Exchange to Deploy Eventus Systems Technology for Real - Time Market Surveillance
Eventus Systems
Eventus Systems, Inc., a leading global trade surveillance and market risk platform provider, and the Small Exchange, a new futures exchange (pending regulatory approval) backed by award-winning innovators focused on retail customers, announced today that Eventus will provide the exchange with its mission-critical real-time market surveillance system. The marketplace is deploying the cloud-based version of the Validus platform for its comprehensive
surveillance activities.
bit.ly/2F4k9AH
Itiviti introduces unified offering following merger with Ullink
Press Release
Stockholm, Sweden, March 11, 2019 - Itiviti, a leading technology and service provider to financial institutions worldwide, today announced a unified products and solutions portfolio - the industry's broadest range of solutions and services spanning asset classes and trading applications across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.
/goo.gl/dPx2PT
Dash Names Venu Palaparthi Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Regulatory Affairs
Dash Financial
Dash Financial Technologies, the industry's leading capital markets technology and execution provider, today announced the addition of Venu Palaparthi as Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Regulatory Affairs. In this role, Mr. Palaparthi will be responsible for Dash's compliance strategy, including the direction of internal regulatory policies and compliance with government regulations.
/goo.gl/MmDpbM
Cybersecurity Awareness Training 2019
Exchange Analytics
Our new Cybersecurity 19.1 course features updated content, added interactivity, recent regulatory cases, a new case study, a new quiz, new audio and entirely new graphics.
When the stakes are this high, training has to be best in class.
This course is just in time to meet the demands of the National Futures Association's Notice to Members (NTM) I-19-0, which goes into effect April 1 and requires Cybersecurity training of employees upon hiring, at least annually thereafter, and more frequently if circumstances warrant (such as in the event of an attempted or successful cyber attack).
bit.ly/2F4rpg7
'World's Biggest' Blockchain-Focused ETF to Start Trading on London Stock Exchange
Francisco Memoria - Cryptoglobe
While most in the cryptocurrency community are looking forward to a Bitcoin ETF, independent investment management company Invesco, which has over $800 billion in assets under management, has announced the launch of the 'world's biggest blockchain-focused ETF. According to ZeroHedge, the blockchain-focused exchange-traded fund will include upon launch a portfolio of 48 different companies with exposer to blockchain technology.
/bit.ly/2F0I18w
Technology ETF Celebrates Milestone Birthday; The Invesco QQQ Trust is now the sixth-largest ETF with $68 billion in assets
Asjylyn Loder - The Wall Street Journal
The Invesco QQQ Trust, the exchange-traded fund that was once practically synonymous with the dot-com boom and bust, turns 20 years old this week. Nicknamed "the Qs," the fund made its debut just one year before the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index hit what was then an all-time high.
/on.wsj.com/2J68Yf5
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | OneCoin Leaders Charged in Multibillion-Dollar Pyramid Scam
Chris Dolmetsch - Bloomberg
The leaders of an alleged multibillion-dollar international pyramid scheme that involved the marketing of the cryptocurrency OneCoin were charged by U.S. prosecutors with fraud and money laundering.
/goo.gl/ppNSMA
Fidelity's bitcoin custody business is live: a conversation with Fidelity Digital Assets head Tom Jessop
Frank Chaparro - The Block
Last October Tom Jessop stepped on stage at an industry conference in New York to debut to the world Fidelity's ambitions to launch a new crypto trading and custody business, Fidelity Digital Assets. "We built a lot of the capabilities underlying this platform months and years ago," Jessop, who leads the business, said at the time. Now, part of the platform is live  with five clients. To start, the firm is offering bitcoin custody for crypto native firms, Jessop told The Block in an interview at the Chamber of Digital Commerce's DC Blockchain Summit in the nation's capital.
bit.ly/2H9xOJb
Kakao's Crypto Unit Raises $90 Million in Private Coin Offering
Min Jeong Lee - Bloomberg
Ground X plans to raise similar sum starting on Tuesday; Kakao mulling launching services on unit's blockchain platform
Kakao Corp.'s crypto unit raised $90 million through a private coin offering and is planning another round targeting a similar sum starting March 12, as it gears up to launch its blockchain platform in June.
/bloom.bg/2TtGSip
Winklevoss Twins Preach Trust, More Regulation for Crypto Market
Olga Kharif - Bloomberg
Machines will be an even bigger market than people in future; Investor confidence suffers after Quadriga, Mt. Gox fiascos
Building trust is key to regaining confidence among cryptocurrency traders after the death of a prominent exchange executive prevented thousands of people from accessing their accounts, according to Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.
/bloom.bg/2TvWXUK
Invesco blockchain ETF to launch on London Stock Exchange; Move is a fresh sign of growing interest in the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies
Chris Flood - FT
Invesco is to launch an exchange traded fund targeting companies with potential to generate earnings from blockchain in a fresh sign of the growing interest among asset managers in the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies.
/on.ft.com/2TudeK3
JP Morgan's Stablecoin: A Feat of Engineering or Marketing?
Ben Jessel - Coindesk
The world of blockchain and banking was set alight last month by the announcement that JP Morgan has created its own stablecoin. It was a rare move that has simultaneously excited the banking and enterprise blockchain community as well those in the cryptocurrency world. But is this excitement justified?
bit.ly/2TzTN2E
New Crypto Hardware Wallet Fits Your Phone's SIM Card Slot
Yogita Khatri - Coindesk
The firm announced Tuesday that the wallet solution combines an app and the VaultTel Intellichip card to store cryptocurrency private keys on mobile devices, using biometric authentication and "military grade" encryption to keep the funds safe.
bit.ly/2TwvUZJ
Social Trading Giant eToro Adds Crypto Buying and Selling in 32 US States
Yogita Khatri - Coindesk
Israel-based social investing platform eToro has launched a cryptocurrency trading platform and wallet service in the U.S.
bit.ly/2TtI31j
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce: Crypto Markets Should Self-Regulate When Possible
Marie Huillet - Cointelegraph
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester M. Peirce has argued in favor of self-regulation for cryptocurrency markets when possible. The commissioner made her remarks during a public talk together with former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler at the MIT Bitcoin Expo 2019 on March 9.
/bit.ly/2F4fhvp
Samsung Unveils Cryptocurrency Wallet, Dapps for Galaxy S10 Phone
Yogita Khatri - Coindesk
Samsung Electronics has just revealed the cryptocurrency wallet for its just launched flagship phone, the Galaxy S10. According to a report from CoinDesk Korea published Sunday, the Samsung Blockchain Wallet is currently compatible only with ether (ETH) and ethereum-based ERC20 tokens. Bitcoin is not yet supported, despite the logo appearing on earlier pre-release presentation images. The wallet also supports four decentralized apps (dapps) at launch: crypto gaming platform Enjin, beauty community Cosmee, crypto collectibles platform CryptoKitties and merchant payments service CoinDuck.
/bit.ly/2F3pAzK
Bitcoin Coders Send International Lightning Payment Over Ham Radio
Alyssa Hertig - Coindesk
In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind transaction, two developers working in separate countries have successfully sent a bitcoin lightning payment over radio waves. Organized over Twitter this past weekend, the transaction was sent by Rodolfo Novak, co-founder of bitcoin hardware startup CoinKite, to developer and Bloomberg columnist Elaine Ou. The completed payment effectively moved real bitcoin from Toronto, Canada, to San Francisco, California.
/bit.ly/2tZQ2nA
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | Russian Trolls Shift Strategy to Disrupt U.S. Election in 2020
Alyza Sebenius - Bloomberg
Hackers infiltrate computers to create fake social media users; Fake accounts are used to amplify divisive messages by others
Russian internet trolls appear to be shifting strategy in their efforts to disrupt the 2020 U.S. elections, promoting politically divisive messages through phony social media accounts instead of creating propaganda themselves, cybersecurity experts say.
/bloom.bg/2J11qdd
Wall Street critic Warren sets sights on Big Tech; Carpooling Lyft founders, Kylie's social media empire, Skype for Web
Shannon Bond - FT
Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic champion who made her name arguing for stricter regulation of Wall Street, has turned her eyes to Silicon Valley. On Friday she promised to break up Amazon, Google and Facebook if she is elected president in 2020.
/on.ft.com/2TuKj8s
Opinion: Medicare for All isn't 'radical,' it's popular
Paul Brandus - MarketWatch
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is so fascinated with the Green New Deal that he's moving it to the top of his to-do list.
/on.mktw.net/2TuxPOt
Will the Issue of Character Be Trump's Undoing?; The best way to unseat him may be to focus on restoring simple decency to the Oval Office
Gerard Baker - WSJ
We are supposedly days away from the conclusion of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. No one knows whether Mr. Mueller will allege criminal conduct by the president or any (more) of his close associates. Yet we can be reasonably confident that the report will not present a flattering portrait of the 45th president. But if there's no crime, his supporters will say, "Who cares?"
/on.wsj.com/2TsZkHT
China Deal Would Mean 'Very Big Spike' for Markets, Trump Says
Margaret Talev and Andrew Mayeda - Bloomberg
At same time, Kudlow says U.S. won't want to rush trade talks; U.S. stocks fell on Friday after disappointing jobs numbers
President Donald Trump said that the U.S. will enjoy a "very big spike" in stock markets if he closes a trade deal with China.
/bloom.bg/2TtpLgM
Mueller's Report Must Be Made Public; Michael Cohen's testimony shows why Americans need a full, transparent accounting of what happened in 2016.
Editorial Board - Bloomberg
Michael Cohen's appearance last week before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform was surely a spectacle. The former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, who had spent a decade lunging at anyone who threatened Trump's image or interests, marshaled his own attack on the president's character and behavior.
/bloom.bg/2CfAl0h
Will the Issue of Character Be Trump's Undoing?
Gerard Baker - The Wall Street Journal
We are supposedly days away from the conclusion of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. No one knows whether Mr. Mueller will allege criminal conduct by the president or any (more) of his close associates. Yet we can be reasonably confident that the report will not present a flattering portrait of the 45th president. But if there's no crime, his supporters will say, "Who cares?"
/on.wsj.com/2NVAgU2
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | For more regulatory, visit MarketsReformWiki, our website focused on current market reform efforts. | Easing financial controls is cause for wariness; The peak of the market is just the time when defences should be raised
The editorial board - FT
US regulators took three steps last week that either loosened or failed to tighten financial safeguards put in place after the 2008 global crisis. Big financial companies and the Trump administration, which have pushed to ease Obama-era controls, will celebrate. The decisions reflect officials' confidence that banks are healthier than before the crisis. But there are reasons to be wary. The changes raise concerns that regulation is, once again, being eased just at the moment when it ought to be tightened. They also appear in part to be inconsistent, as new risks grow elsewhere in the financial system.
/on.ft.com/2Tsbt00
Musk Twitter Fight Goes to Court Again on SEC Contempt Charge
Bob Van Voris - Bloomberg
Tesla founder must file his response to agency claim on Monday; Punishment likely, but not loss of Tesla control, experts say
Elon Musk is about to urge a judge to go easy on him for tweets that U.S. regulators contend violated a court order, though legal experts say the pugnacious billionaire will have a hard time avoiding some kind of punishment.
/bloom.bg/2TxOL6v
Not Just Spoofing, Not Just CME Group Exchanges and ICE Futures U.S.
Gary DeWaal - Lexology
Two Weeks ago in the Compliance Weeds section addendum to the article, "Government Argues New Trial for Convicted Spoofer Not Justified by Data Available Before Trial End" (click here to access) I noted that, "...market participants must pay equal attention to exchanges' prohibition against persons entering or causing the entry of order messages with the intent to disrupt or with reckless disregard for the consequences of such messages on the orderly trading of a market" and not just on prohibitions against spoofing.
bit.ly/2F4hHtZ
MMT Has Been Around for Decades. Here's Why It Just Caught Fire
Ben Holland and Matthew Boesler - Bloomberg
Over a lifespan of about three decades, Modern Monetary Theory has often been badmouthed -- by obscure bloggers. Not by the likes of Jerome Powell and Larry Fink. The economists who developed it mostly operated on the periphery of academia and the internet. Now their ideas have broken into the mainstream. Hardly a day passes without some Wall Street titan or policy heavyweight weighing in - - usually to dismiss the doctrine, though there's been support too.
/bloom.bg/2J6mlf1
The First Line of Investing Defense? You
Jason Zweig - The Wall Street Journal
The push to require stockbrokers to act in their clients' best interest is turning into a turf war. The Securities and Exchange Commission, after years of study, should complete new regulations later this year. But several states, no longer willing to wait and see what those rules will look like, are already moving on their own.
/on.wsj.com/2F4X8Oi
Contagion From Danske Case Feeds a New Fear in Borderless EU
Frances Schwartzkopff - Bloomberg
First it was subprime mortgages, then European debt. Now, it's money laundering. In Denmark, where the latest crisis first grabbed the public's attention thanks to Danske Bank A/S, the government has some worrying observations on what went wrong and what the scandal might mean for European ambitions to build a single market for financial services.
/bloom.bg/2EPf128
Warren Says Breaking Up Tech Giants Will Keep Market Competitive
Susan Warren - Bloomberg
Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren said breaking up giant tech companies would "keep the marketplace competitive," during an appearance at one of the biggest technology events in the U.S. The Massachusetts senator spoke Saturday at the annual South by Southwest cultural festival in Austin, Texas, a day after proposing to take steps to break up companies like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Co.'s Google if she's elected.
/bloom.bg/2HpWrR7
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Bill Gross gets retirement gift from Bloomberg: free terminals; Retired bond trader receives lifetime subscription from former New York mayor
Robin Wigglesworth - FT
Bill Gross once donated his old Bloomberg terminal keyboard to the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, so it is fitting that former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has given the erstwhile "bond king" a free, lifetime subscription to his flagship product as a retirement gift.
/on.ft.com/2TqMmut
How a Day Trader Cashed In on the Trump-Kim Summit Collapse
Heejin Kim - Bloomberg
Volatility, volume surges for peace stocks on North Korea news; Retail investors lapped up Hyundai Rotem shares in past year
For Jung Jae-hoon, a 37-year-old day trader in South Korea, the botched Trump-Kim summit was a success: The volatility that rattled the market helped him earn a nice profit.
/bloom.bg/2Ttj7Hl
How worried should we be about the stock market wobble?'; The key concerns for the week ahead
FT
Major stock markets last week suffered their worst spell since the December carnage, as investors grew nervous about the health of the global economy. Was this just a slight wobble in the recovery or a sign of renewed trouble?
/on.ft.com/2Ttp47a
Private Investors Encroach on Fannie and Freddie's Domain; Growing number of mortgages that meet agencies' standards flow into private market
Ben Eisen - WSJ
Private investors are directly buying a small but growing share of loans that have long been the domain of Fannie Mae FNMA -2.20% and Freddie Mac , FMCC -1.92% a sign of the changing dynamics in the $11 trillion mortgage industry.
/on.wsj.com/2TxO6lx
Want to Understand the Shale Boom? Try a Microscope; All crude oil is not created equal. Once you know why, you'll understand how OPEC cuts and the U.S. oil boom are upending markets.
Julian Lee - Bloomberg
Look at much of what is written about the oil market and it may be tempting to conclude that crude oil is a homogeneous commodity, the same the world over and seamlessly interchangeable. It's not.
/bloom.bg/2Tue6yj
Visualizing U.S. Budget Gap That Scares Everyone Except Markets
Katia Dmitrieva and Alexandre Tanzi - Bloomberg
The expanding U.S. budget deficit is putting federal debt on course for levels last seen during the World War II era, a shift that may test the bond market's willingness to keep funding the government at relatively low costs.
/bloom.bg/2Tuz5Bb
The Perfect Bull Market Portfolio Might Have Blown Up Your Firm
Sarah Ponczek - Bloomberg
Even best stocks suffered long periods of underperformance; 'God portfolio' not immune to stretches of 'abysmal' returns
Would you do it all over, knowing what you know now? For a professional money manager looking back on the bull market at its 10th anniversary, it's a hard question to answer.
/bloom.bg/2J0S6WS
Wall Street's Got It All Wrong When It Comes to the U.S. Bond Market
Liz McCormick - Bloomberg
What, exactly, is the bond market telling us? It's an age-old question on Wall Street, but one that's gained newfound urgency as the topsy-turvy markets leave everyone wondering where the U.S. economy is headed. Yet to a small but growing number of analysts, academics and former policy makers, the standard answers may not apply.
/bloom.bg/2VSJbIJ
Private Investors Encroach on Fannie and Freddie's Domain
Ben Eisen - The Wall Street Journal
Private investors are directly buying a small but growing share of loans that have long been the domain of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a sign of the changing dynamics in the $11 trillion mortgage industry.
/on.wsj.com/2XR9YqL
Norway's investment cull leaves oil majors spared but shaken; By divesting stakes in smaller oil and gas producers, Oslo's $1tn fund sent message to majors
David Sheppard, Richard Milne - Financial Times
Norway's sovereign wealth fund may have spared the majors when announcing it was pulling investments from a host of oil and gas producers, but the move will still reverberate in the boardrooms of energy heavyweights like BP and ExxonMobil.
/on.ft.com/2u17bxh
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Deutsche Bank Executives Agree to Informal Merger Talks With Commerzbank
Talks involving the CEOs reflect deepening willingness to engage in a possible tie-up
Jenny Strasburg, Bojan Pancevski and Patricia Kowsmann - The Wall Street Journal
Deutsche Bank AG's top executives have agreed to hold discussions with rival Commerzbank AG about a potential merger, as Germany's two biggest banks explore strategic options after suffering prolonged performance and share-price declines, people close to the banks said.
/goo.gl/wDoyqx
Hedge Funds Used This Data Guru to Make Millions on Nintendo
Yuji Nakamura and Shintaro Inkyo - Bloomberg
Media Create supplied funds with early sign of Switch weakness; 'Our data doesn't fail,' founder says of 25-year-old firm
Hedge funds will look almost anywhere for an edge. When it comes to trading shares of Nintendo Co., they're turning to a tiny research shop in a corner of Tokyo better known for used booksellers and guitar stores.
/bloom.bg/2TqN5fb
China Traders Who Loved Leverage Left Reeling by Friday's Plunge
Jeanny Yu - Bloomberg
Leveraged wagers jumped 89% among top stocks on CSI 300 Index; Reckless margin trading risks deep correction: JPMorgan Asset
Margin traders who drove a clutch of stocks to the forefront of a dramatic upswing in Chinese equities now have a tough decision to make.
/bloom.bg/2TpO5Qy
Bank of America names new co-heads of UK investment banking
Pamela Barbaglia - Reuters
Bank of America has appointed James Robertson and Peter Luck as co-heads of UK investment banking as part of its push to win business from large corporate clients in Britain.
/goo.gl/2PzSCG
Goldman's 'Flexible' Dress Code Takes a Cue From Silicon Valley; Bankers, too, are expected to be innovators and disruptors. Now they can look the part.
Stephen Mihm - Bloomberg
Are these the end times? David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, announced this week that the bank would institute a "firmwide flexible dress code" for all of its employees, becoming the latest iconic company to reject strict regulations on workplace attire.
/bloom.bg/2J7jMtd
Swedbank under shareholder scrutiny over money-laundering report
Johan Ahlander, Esha Vaish - Reuters
Swedbank is facing pressure from some of its biggest shareholders to reveal more about what it knew about allegations of money-laundering linked to Danske Bank.
/reut.rs/2J3dyKR
Japanese Banks Will Finally Stop Using a Piece of 1800s Technology
Yuki Hagiwara - Bloomberg
It has taken more than a century, but Japanese banks are finally parting ways with a piece of technology that hasn't felt cutting edge since the shogun reigned. Hanko, the personal stamps required for even simple transactions in Japan since the 1800s, are getting phased out at some of the country's biggest financial institutions.
/bloom.bg/2SSkqur
Bank of America names new co-heads of UK investment banking
Pamela Barbaglia - Retuers
Bank of America has appointed James Robertson and Peter Luck as co-heads of UK investment banking as part of its push to win business from large corporate clients in Britain.
/reut.rs/2J67RvV
Hedge Funds Used This Data Guru to Make Millions on Nintendo
Yuji Nakamura and Shintaro Inkyo - Bloomberg
Hedge funds will look almost anywhere for an edge. When it comes to trading shares of Nintendo Co., they're turning to a tiny research shop in a corner of Tokyo better known for used booksellers and guitar stores. Media Create Co. is the brainchild of Atsushi Hosokawa, a 63-year-old who got his start cold-calling video-game stores for information. His firm now tracks sales in Japan and other Asian countries, estimating shipments ahead of official company releases with enough precision that he's drawn more than two dozen hedge funds as clients.
/bloom.bg/2J68jKD
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | U.S., China Near Currency Deal; Beijing Vows Not to Devalue Yuan to Help Exports; The yuan's plunge last year raised concerns that Beijing was pushing down its value to offset U.S. tariffs on Chinese products
Lingling Wei and Chao Deng - WSJ
China's top central banker signaled that Beijing and Washington are getting close to reaching a currency deal as part of their continuing negotiations to settle a yearlong trade battle.
/on.wsj.com/2Ts0ELg
New York City is edging toward financial disaster, experts warn
John Aidan Byrne - NY post
New York City is careening closer to all-out financial bankruptcy for the first time since Mayor Abraham Beame ran the city more than 40 years ago, experts say.
/nyp.st/2TtGuQZ
China says hopes countries don't abuse rules to limit investment
Reuters
China hopes other countries do not abuse national security rules to impede normal investment, Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said on Saturday.
/reut.rs/2J6S67K
What Broke Venezuela's Economy and What Could Fix It
Eric Martin, Patricia Laya - Bloomberg
Venezuela's economic situation is unthinkably bad, especially for what was once South America's richest nation. Hyperinflation, plunging oil production and unpayable debts will confront whoever wins the current struggle for control between Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaido, both of whom claim to be president. But recovery plans are already being drafted inside and outside the country. Here's a look at how Venezuela fell and at some of the ideas for getting it back on its feet.
/bloom.bg/2J4cjuQ
China Traders Who Loved Leverage Left Reeling by Friday Rout
Jeanny Yu - Bloomberg
Margin traders who drove a clutch of stocks to the forefront of a dramatic upswing in Chinese equities now have a tough decision to make. Friday's 4 percent plunge in the CSI 300 Index was by far the steepest decline since the rally accelerated just over a month ago, and some of the bull run's biggest winners were in the crosshairs.
/bloom.bg/2UwW8rg
China has made a clear effort to keep yuan exchange rate stable, says central bank
Cissy Zhou, Jane Cai - South China Morning Post
China has made a clear effort over the last four years to maintain a stable exchange rate in the face of sustained downward pressure on the yuan, People's Bank of China governor Yi Gang said on Sunday. Yi also said there remains room to cut banks' reserve requirement ratio, though that room is smaller than it was in the past.
/bit.ly/2HrUgMI
Ghost workers sap Tunisia's phosphate wealth
Tarek Amara - Reuters
METLAOUI, Tunisia - Tunisia's state phosphate firm CPG pays Abdel-Basset Klifhi a salary of $280 a month, even though he spends most days in his favorite cafe in the southern town of Metlaoui. He is one of 21,000 people taken on by the Companie des Phosphates de Gafsa (CPG) since Tunisia's autocrat president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in 2011. Since then, the economy has been in crisis and CPG has lost its spot as the country's top exporter. Unemployment, inflation and deficits have shot up and the value of the dinar currency has plummeted. Loans from the International Monetary Fund have kept the government afloat.
/reut.rs/2UuSCxD
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| Brexit | | Financials stories regarding the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union | Britain's Small Businesses Aren't Prepared for Brexit; As the big divorce looms, they have no idea what the rules will be or what they'll have to do to adapt.
Stefania Spezzati, Charlie Devereux - Bloomberg
Julianne Ponan doesn't run a gigantic corporation, but she hasn't been doing badly. When she bought Creative Nature, based in Surrey, about seven years ago, it was a money-losing maker of candles, among other things. In 2018 the company, which now produces and exports snacks for the booming health-and-wellness market around the world, about doubled its revenue from the year before, to £1.3 million ($1.7 million).
/bloom.bg/2TriVZb
May Could Lose Tuesday's Brexit Vote by Huge Margin, Times Says
James Ludden - Bloomberg
Prime minister faces potential humiliation in vote on Tuesday; Sunday Times says Brexiteers are pushing for May to quit
Theresa May's aides are increasingly concerned that Tuesday's vote on her Brexit deal could result in an even worse humiliation than she endured in a similar vote in January, the Sunday Times reported. The majority against the government then was 230, the biggest defeat for a prime minister in more than a century.
/bloom.bg/2TuKW1O
Trading slips away from London ahead of Brexit
Huw Jones - Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - A quiet, permanent shift in trading from London to the European Union ahead of Brexit is picking up speed as stock and bond platforms in Amsterdam and Paris crank into action. Few expect London to lose its position as Europe's biggest financial hub, but Britain's departure from the EU is turning into a multibillion-euro boost for the bloc's protracted efforts to build a deeper capital market to rival the UK capital.
/reut.rs/2TzMh75
May Said to Be Weighing Options for Tuesday Vote: Brexit Update
Jess Shankleman, Kitty Donaldson, and Tim Ross - Bloomberg
Brexit talks in Brussels are deadlocked with just a day to go until Theresa May is meant to put her deal to Parliament. If she goes ahead and fails, her premiership and the Brexit process would be thrown into chaos. She's said to be considering a vote on a vaguer motion instead.
/bloom.bg/2HcajPx
Britain's Small Businesses Aren't Prepared for Brexit; As the big divorce looms, they have no idea what the rules will be or what they'll have to do to adapt.
Stefania Spezzati and Charlie Devereux - Bloomberg
Julianne Ponan doesn't run a gigantic corporation, but she hasn't been doing badly. When she bought Creative Nature, based in Surrey, about seven years ago, it was a money-losing maker of candles, among other things. In 2018 the company, which now produces and exports snacks for the booming health-and-wellness market around the world, about doubled its revenue from the year before, to £1.3 million ($1.7 million).
/bloom.bg/2XZlGj8
Labour Won't Force U.K. Second Referendum Vote: Brexit Update
Kitty Donaldson - Bloomberg
The U.K. Parliament is headed for a key vote Tuesday on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, with expectations the proposal -- similar to the measure overwhelmingly defeated in January -- will lose again.
/bloom.bg/2TzxWIF
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Mindfulness at work is not quite what it's cracked up to be; Mindfulness proponents rail against US study showing meditation to be demotivating
Pilita Clark - FT
Not that long ago, an almost unknown American academic named Andrew Hafenbrack was sitting in a Berlin hotel room, idly scrolling through his emails after a day at a leadership conference, when he got a horrible shock.
/on.ft.com/2Ttnjae
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